mune. In many parts, as in the prov- there exists a practice of subletting ince of Messina, the metayer system which reminds one of what used to prevails, and in these districts the con- exist in Ireland. In these latifundia tadini are generally the best off. But, the proprietor usually lets the land in again, the metayer system itself varies large masses to a tenant, at a rent; the from place to place; sometimes it is tenant sublets to sub-tenants; and applied only to certain products, thus these, again, let it out on the metayer it is often applied to the fields of cereals, whilst the vineyards and oliveyards are exempted from it. But the metayer system, much as it is to be esteemed, is said to be open to certain abuses; in many cases the landlord asserts a right to dip out of the common sack before its division, in order to recoup himself for the seed he has provided, and to satisfy various other customary claims, including sometimes that of the Madonna, or of some local patron saint; and in the demand for the seed, it is said that even honorable landlords claim an addition of twenty per cent. for the use of the grain during the year. system, or cultivate it by day labor. Upon this complicated agricultural system has come a severe depression. The breaking off of the good commercial relations with France has depressed the price in Sicily both of corn and of wine, its two chief products; and other causes have added to it, such as the refusal of North America to allow the fruit ships from Sicily to enter her ports, from the fear of cholera. The result has been acute misery throughout the rural population of Sicily. Bread from one of the poorest communes of Sicily has been shown by analysis to contain sixty-five per cent. of inorganic matter. Much, no doubt, was hoped for when the island of Sicily came under the rule of the late king of Italy, and when the vast estates of the ecclesiastical corporations were withdrawn from them and sold to lay owners. But it appears that they were to a large extent purchased by great absentee proprietors, and that little or no change for the better has taken place in the management of the estates. One of the alleviations of the life of the peasant's wife was her pig. She tended it with loving care, and cherished it like an ewe lamb. But loved as it was in its life, it was loved still more in its death. The best parts of the body were sold to the butcher for a sum which was the chief source of payment for the clothes of the family; the head, the feet, the black puddings furnished the materials for the one real feast of the year; neighbors and friends were called in, and the day of the pork Another form of contract for the holding of land is known as the terzeria, because under it the produce of the land is divided into thirds, of which the landlord takes two and the tenant retains one. But in this case the landlord not only finds land which has lain fallow for a year, but has ploughed and prepared it for the crop by his oxen. Again, there is another form of contract known as terratico, which is a simple letting to hire of the farm-lands at a fixed rent, payable in produce or in money, according to the agreement of the parties. The inquilinaggio is a form of contract applied to vineyards. The contadino, under this, hires the land for a period varying from fifteen to twenty-nine years; he plants the vines, and gives yearly a stipulated portion of the produce to his landlord. Many of these holders of vineyards have been sorely stricken by the plague of the phylloxera, which has wroughter's death was the whitest day in all fearful havoc in the province of Syracuse, and threatens that of Catania. The peasantry who live and work under these various forms of contract on the small or middle-sized estates are the best off; the worst are those who live on the great estates, for on them the year. But the rural population of Sicily dwell in the towns, and are not distributed over the country, and lofty notions of sanitation have invaded the towns of Sicily, and the pig has been hunted down and driven away; and this has left an aching void, a sense of injury which is said to be a real property of the landlords. In most and important element of disturbance amongst the laboring population. Then there is the pastoral population, consisting of the men and boys who look after the herds of cattle and the flocks of sheep, who lead hard lives and receive little pay, who are little better than semi-barbarians, and are almost always the accomplices of the cattle-stealers and of the brigands. The lives of the herdsmen are especially hard. They scarcely ever sleep or live under a roof either in the heats of summer or the snows of winter, and they revisit their families only three or four times in every quarter of a year, a circumstance of great injury to the family morals. The municipal authorities of the Sicilian towns have the command of considerable funds, which are raised principally by an octroi (Dazio di consumo), a health-tax, and a tax upon animals; and the mode in which these taxes have been raised, and the manner in which they have been expended, have raised the bitterest hostility to the local authorities in the minds of the contadini; and so entirely is this hatred addressed to the local authorities that at Giardinello, at Santa Caterina, and other places, the mobs that have shouted "Down with the taxes ! Down with the syndic!" have carried in their processions the portraits of the king and the queen. "As to the way," says the present minister of finance, Signor Sonnino, "in which the class of the galantuomini have availed themselves of the communal administrations for their own benefit and to the injury of the contadini, it will be enough, in order to form some idea of it, to examine commune by commune the lists of taxation. In a general way we find the tax imposed in the heaviest way upon beasts of draught and burden, that is to say, principally on the mules and horses which are the chief property of the peasants. And conversely the tax is imposed rarely and in less proportion on the cattle, that is to say, on the cows and oxen, because these are the places the peasant pays as much as eight lire for a mule and five lire for an ass, and the landlord and the superior tenant pay nothing, or relatively a very small sum, for a hundred cows or oxen. The communal tax on beasts of draught and burden in Sicily amounted in 1874 to 589,557 lire, whilst the tax on cattle amounted to 146,493 lire." And not merely does the injustice exist in the mode in which the taxes are imposed, but the utmost laxity and even dishonesty is alleged to exist in the mode of their collection, — in truth, as to the general fact of the wretched character of the administration in the island, there seems to be neither doubt nor dispute. Certain lords, who have, for example, twenty mules, return only four, -- these are entered on the schedule, and no one takes the trouble to inquire into the truth of the return. An examination made at the instance of the prefect of the province of Palermo, showed that the syndic and councillors had not entered for taxation one-tenth of the animals which belonged to them, whilst certain poor wretches were entered for more than they possessed. If rumor is to be believed, Sicily is not the only part of Italy where this kind of thing is done. But if the mode of levying the local taxation is unjust, the method of its expenditure is said to be at least as bad. In the province of Caltanisetta a road has been constructed at the expense of the province for the sole benefit of a baron; at Agira, a road has been made at the expense of the commune, principally for the benefit of one rich lord; another commune ruined itself in the construction of an intercommunal road; and great expenses have been incurred in the construction of theatres, in festivals, in matters of luxury, and in various forms of display; whilst the most necessary sources of outlay, like the supply of water and the promotion of education, are absolutely neglected. In such a condition of society Socialism and Anarchy can easily find a foothold, and preachers of violence willing hearers. From All The Year Round. IDLING AT MONTE CARLO. THE baggage men at Genoa winked at each other when I bade them register my portmanteaux to Monte Carlo. Methought, too, their eyes sought the region of my pockets somewhat compassionately. But in truth they made a mistake, if they fancied I was going to the fair spot as a victim. I believe I have learned better than that. Besides, I had but three spare days at my disposal and money left only for their provision. I did not contemplate playing the fool with my few surviving napoleons, and bringing myself to the humiliating point which compels either a peremptory wire to England for funds, an appeal to an hotel-keeper, or a visit to a Hebrew with my watch and chain in hand to back my request for a loan at about one hundred per cent. per diem. No, the true way to catch the flavor of this most alluring nook is to go as a spectator of the folly of others. The Casino administration don't want such visitors. Their notices in the saloons observe that persons who do not play are not invited to take seats at the roulette tables. But, on the other hand, they cannot in decency ask every applicant for a ticket to the rooms: "Does monsieur propose to risk any money, and if so, how much?" Nor would such a course profit them. It would make too little allowance for the insidious fascination of the game. The administration wisely therefore inscribes in its ledgers the names of all decently dressed persons and some scarcely that who take off their hats to it in the official bureau and proffer their request. That was how I came to be standing with the rest at the middle table in the middle room of the suite of gaming apartments; this, too, only an hour after my arrival at the hotel. set rocks with their garniture of aloes and prickly pear. One walked gaily up and down the steep roads free of overcoat, charmed by the distant purple headlands; Monaco's bold fortress rock; the gay villas, white-faced, profuse in ornament, and red-roofed; and tickled in thoughts at least - perhaps in pocket to boot- by the two assuming pinnacles of the Casino, like the asses' ears of human imbecility set jeeringly towards the heavens. - The old set of people, of course. Over - dressed women, tinkling with jewellery and leaving behind them in the mild, still air an asphyxiating trail of lavender or poudre de riz; whitehaired men, spruce as generals, with the brightness of eye that appertains rather to sweet seventeen than hoary seventy; damsels fair to see, but not good to know; undergraduates from our English universities, exalted with hope or with ominously clouded faces ; colonists with pockets full of money, which they are prepared to empty in their enjoyment of what they call “a little flutter;" seedy, absorbed persons who are thinking still, as they thought years ago, how on earth they could have been mad encugh to play on the previous day against their luck, and so lose those precious forty or fifty francs; and amid these haunters of the tables, shrewd valetudinariaus, Germans of all kinds, from the student to the bridegroom—his bride is nearly sure to be pretty and a multitude of ladies of an uncertain age, who love the music and excitement of Monte Carlo in the season, though if you mentioned the tables they would shake their heads in sorrowful condemnation of the iniquity! I suppose while gambling continues to be licensed here, there will be little variation in the character of its patrous. "A bad season, monsieur!" the hotel porter had murmured to me, cap in hand, in the hotel hall. Never had the beautiful coast seemed to me more lovely. In England bitter, So much the better, thought I. A humid cold had held us shivering. bad season meant a front room looking Here the sunshine was like a caress. on the water, which I knew would anon The sea throbbed blue against the rus-be lit by a full moon and with the tiers of Monaco's lamps climbing the dark- | napoleons on the "middle dozen," or ness like like nothing except the the pair, trio, quartette, or transversal modern presentment of a rocky town including the number fourteen. This seen under civilized conditions after same number was also largely covered as a sole investment. sunset. It was even so; I could not have A millionaire or something of the been more snugly or picturesquely kind had just arrived at the table. He berthed. had a bundle of one-thousand franc This settled to my entire content-notes in his hand, two or three of ment, I strolled to the Casino. The which the table's cashier obligingly chief commissioner, or ticket distrib- changed for him. This gave him a utor to give him his more plebeian double handful of gold pieces; and but exact title - was in an unhallowed these gold pieces he dispersed about temper when I, too, demanded admis- the table with an indifference to sion. He pretended that my French method that evidently wrung the vitals accent was difficult for him - an absurd thing. And after that he seemed to think that he and his masters were doing me a favor in subscribing my ticket -a still more patently absurd thing. He and I, in fact, parted with bows as inimically genial as those of two diplomatists who have, metaphorically speaking, just been shaking the national fist in each other's faces. "Faites votre jeu, monsieur !" The old cry, here, there, and yonder; the old sounds and smells that it recalls; the chink of gold and silver; the rattle of the ball; the murmurs of mortals, and the suffocating sweetness of a hundred different perfumes on as many different skins; all mingled in the luxurious rooms that shun ventilation as they would a convocation of the world's clergy. "I say, what a nuisance no more with me!" of the habitués and habituées who trade on five-franc pieces alone. The numbers from twelve to sixteen he almost covered with his gold. As a final freak, he threw a five hundred franc note upon zero. This venture brought the gentleman about eight hundred francs, and cost him rather more than three thousand. "Serve him right!" said the looks of the five-franc people as plainly as could be. But the millionaire only smiled and prepared to be more lavish than ever. Though the number thirty-three had come up instead of fourteen or any of its neighbors, he did not mean to desert these likely "teens." Again he scattered his gold; and again his losses were several fold his gains. Yet a third time he ventured. Five thouI've got sand francs were spread about the cloth. A note for a thousand francs lay upon number fourteen. I heard the words close to me. A handsome woman spoke thus to a martial-looking gentleman with white moustache, waxed, and the air of half a Mephistopheles. The gentleman professed desolation, pleaded poverty the most dire, opened his palms, smiled, and sent his attention back to the table. The lady rustled softly elsewhere. The odds are about four to one that she tried a Briton next, and the younger the better for her chances. At this table the number fourteen had twice occurred in four spins of the ball. You may imagine the consequences. At each end of it the gamesters struggled to put their crowns and The good gentleman at any rate provided us with a little agreeable excitement. But number three came up, which had been by him totally neglected. Then he went his way elsewhere, no more concerned at having dropped about five hundred pounds in two minutes than you or I would be to lose a pin. So coy a dame is Fortune, and so irritating, that she must needs the next spin bring number fourteen once more to the front. The five-franc players looked at each other. The millionaire ought not to have been so impatient. If he had increased his stakes once | everwhere; and to yawn-until the more he would have made that table's famous band began to play. bank totter. I left the rooms to draw a full, pure breath outside. How big the trunks of the palms have grown! One may look about in the tropics a good deal and fail to find such superb specimens of tropical trees. The vigilant gendarmes, in their bright crimson and blue, are as numerous as ever in the gardens. It is a bore that they should spoil the vistas as they do. Even as the lackeys within the Casino are forever turning their eyes about the floor, searching for dropped pieces, so here in the gardens the soldiers have an uncomfortable air of practised psychologists. They seem to be straining to read what is in your mind as you wander in these glorious green avenues, steeped in solitude though within stone's throw of the Casino. I have seen an enthusiastic German botanist followed to and fro here for minutes by a suspicious man in crimson and blue. The botanist was seedy in his attire, and as absorbed as the genius is supposed to be. He looked like one meditating about the insufficiency of life unless cheered by the luck at the tables that had not been his portion. By the sea, on the semicircular green beneath the terrace, above which the Casino lifts high its meretricious face, they were pigeon-shooting. A hundred or two visitors were watching the sport so it is called chatting under parasols, laughing and jesting. When the shot was heard they looked to see if it was a kill or a miss. Perhaps the bird was hit, but not mortally. It fluttered round and round and settled on an adjacent roof. Or it was hit badly and the brisk retriever had no difficulty in fetching it to have its neck wrung as a finale. Under the stimulus of these scenes the visitors laughed, and talked, and jested, and the ladies congratulated themselves and their gowns on the regal weather. Thence to the concert-room, at half past two in the afternoon, to stare at the wealth of carved work and gilding About a thousand of us were present I write at a venture and nine hundred or so were yawning in the first five minutes. Not from weariness of the music. That were unlikely. One does not hear such instrumentalism elsewhere. But the polluted air oppressed the lungs. I, for my part, felt a hot desire to kick off the gilded dome, and take my chance of the falling chandelier a thing that looks tons in weight-all for the sake of a pure breath or two from outside, and a glimpse of the natural sky. Thence back to the saloons for the interval. He An English member of Parliament interested me for a few moments. was here with his daughter, a pretty and, I judge, excitable girl. "Will you have a coin?" he asked her, smiling, as they stood by a trenteet-quarante table. "Y-e-s," was the reply, with a blush, as if the thought occurred that it was not quite proper. The girl put the napoleon on the cloth nearest to her. She knew, of course, no more than Julius Cæsar what she was doing. "Oh it's gone!" she turned and exclaimed with a start, when the cards had settled its fate and the croupier took it to himself. "Will you have another?" asked papa, still smiling. “Oh, yes,” said the girl. This time there was a win. "Let it stay," said papa, with the confident face of one who knows things. It stayed and doubled itself twice. "I think that ought to do for you,” then observed papa, and he playfully touched the girl's chin. The latter took her gold pieces blushingly. There was an eagerness and yet wonder in her face that made one anxious. She did not seem at all to want to return to the concert-room. From the Casino I strolled into the town, which has stretched itself largely of late. |