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£9600, the Odéon £4000, subject to certain conditions. In the provinces popular con certs are also subsidised. In Germany, the Royal Prussian Opera House and Play House in Berlin receive £54,000 from the revenue of the Crown. In Italy, La Scala at Milan receives £3900 a year (for fifty performances), and the theatre at Na ples £3200. Portugal has two theatres in Lisbon belonging to the State. Sweden has its Theatre Royal at Stockholm, receiving about £3330. and a Royal Academy of Mu sic; Norway its national theatre at Chris tiania, receiving £im a year. In Switzer land most of the cantons grant subsidies for music. Spain supports a "Conservatorio of Music and the Drama" at Madrid at a cost of about £7300 a year. In Belgium, most of the large municipalities subsidise one or more theatres, and in many cases own them, the management being subject to strict reg ulations. The Opera House at Vienna was built out of State funds at a cost of more than half a million, and receives a subsidy of £24,000 a year. Hungary has four subsi dised theatres. In Egypt, an annual subven tion of £5000 is given to the Société Ar tistique for sixty representations (thirty-six opera, twenty-four comedy) at Cairo and Alexandria. Athens keeps up the tradition of Pericles—intervallo—by a subsidy of £ 125 to £250 a year. Denmark and Russia are the two countries which take the subject . most seriously. In Denmark, the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen, is under the manage ment of the Ministry of Religion and Educa tion and the aim is to produce impartially the best dramatic works of ancient and modern authors and composers. Sad to relate, this elevation of aim results in an annual deficit of about £10,000. In Russia also the thea tre is looked upon as an educational institu tion which ought to be within the reach of all. It is possible to enjoy the opera for 5^., Russian plays for 3<i., and French and Ger man plays for gd. or lorf. To this end three Imperial theatres are supported by the Em peror at St. Petersburg, and three at Mos cow, at a cost of £300,000. A sort of Peo ple's Palace—"Nazodny Dom"—is also

maintained at St. Petersburg, Warsaw, and Kieff, under the direction of the temperance societies at a cost of £300,000 a year. IN the Law Times (London), Wyatt Paine says of "Justice of the Peace in the Olden Times'': The average wage of a skilled artificer or shop assistant in the year of grace 1703 was £4 per annum. A best manservant got £5, a best womanservant, £3, 'second sort not above' £2 ios., 'the other sort' (alas! how well the average mistress of the present day knows that 'other sort') npt above £2. A generous magistracy accorded a master car penter and plumber, working as a jobber, the princely wage of is. 6d. per day with out provisions, or 'with meat' gd. The second sort,' is. a day. or 'with meat' 6d. Nor was it possible for a gener ous employer to give higher wages, even if he felt, in the language of Mrs. Gamp, 'so dispoged,' the schedule ending: 'None shall give greater wages than these, so rated as aforesaid, on pain of £5, and ten days' im prisonment without bail. The servant con victed of taking more wages than so rated shall suffer twenty-one days' imprisonment without bail.' Multifarious and strange were the general duties of magistrates in the days when Queen Anne was not dead, and legislators had yet to learn that religion can not be regulated by an Act of Uniformity, or morals by the gentle persuasions of pillory and whipping at the cart's tail. Amongst other things, justices (perhaps be cause under an earlier dispensation some people had entertained angels unawares) were required to impress upon their neigh bors the sacred obligations of hospitality by Act of Parliament, it being provided by i Jac. 2, c. ID (under penalty of 405.), that none of the royal servants 'in their prog resses shall be compelled to pay above 6d per night for a bed for themselves, nor above 3d. for a bed for their servants; and where they pay for their diet, or provender for their horses, lodging shall be provided for them and their servants for nothing.'