Of native and original productions there have been but few.
Literary talent does not flourish in Rome, and what little there is, is
all retained against the Government. The _Eye-glance at the Encyclical_,
the _Widow's Mite_, and the _Tears of St Peter_, are the titles of some
of the anonymous pro-Papal tracts published under Government patronage;
of these the _Independenza e Papa_, which is sold at the printing-office
of the _Giornale di Roma_, is decidedly the ablest and most respectable.
CHAPTER VIII. PAPAL LOTTERIES.
If ever anybody had cause to regret the suppression of lotteries, it is
the whole tribe of play-writers and authors. Never will there be found
again a "Deus ex Machina," so serviceable or so unfailing as the lottery.
If your plot wanted a solution, or your intrigue a _denoument_, or your
novel a termination, you could always cut through all your difficulties
by the medium of a lottery-ticket. The virtuous but impoverished hero
became at once a very Croesus, and the worldly-minded parent bestowed his
daughter and his blessing on the successful gambler, who, by the way,
never purchased his own ticket, but always had it bequeathed to him as a
legacy. Alas, lottery-tickets, like wealthy uncles and places under
government, have gone out of date. The fond glance of memory turns in
vain towards the good old times, when the lottery was in its glory.
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