Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/67

 attention by a Pope when making regulations for the election of his successors. An explanation for the importance here attached to what would seem so irrelevant is to be found in the incidents that came habitually to attend these bets. At one time they grew to be in Rome what the odds given at Tattersall's are with us—a matter involving considerable interests,—occupying whole classes, and producing a standing excitement. The gambling propensities prevalent amongst Italians darted upon the conflicting elements offered by a Conclave to reduce them into a series of chances on which to pitch stakes. The shopkeepers and merchants of Rome entered into the game with a passion which resembled the habits of speculation in stock which have made the Funds a subject of palpitating interest, and the Bourse a capital institution for a great section of the society of our day, more particularly on the Continent. As soon as ever a Pope had breathed his last, the Banchi Vecchii, and Nuovi— streets still bearing these names, and running from the small square in front of the bridge of St. Angelo—became an improvised Ex- change, "here the rival chances of candidates were publicly quoted and eagerly discounted,