Many of the towns have _Monts-de-piété_, which lend on pledges at 6 per cent., but under very rigorous rules. If the unhappy borrower cannot redeem the pledge before the fixed time, it is sold, whatever may be its value, for the amount of the debt. In spite of this, the number of people who have recourse to them is immense. I do not think I exaggerate in saying that there are very few poor housekeepers some of whose furniture or clothes is not thus in pawn. _Impotent through Age._ 1. _Are there hospitals for the reception of those who through age are incapable of earning their subsistence?_ There are none avowedly for this purpose, but there are several intended for incurables, into which those whose only infirmity is old age, manage to get received. 2. _Do they receive relief in kind and in money at their own homes?_ They receive none from the government or the municipal authorities, but such relief is afforded by many charitable institutions. In Turin, for example, the congregation of St. Paul has large revenues; and by law, there ought in every parish to be a charitable association. But, in fact, none are to be found excepting in some villages and towns; almost all the rural parishes are without them. The resources of those which exist arise from endowments, from donations, and from periodical collections made in churches, or from house to house. _These associations certainly do much good, but being subjected to no general rules or central control, their proceedings are neither uniform nor regular; a source of enormous abuse, which, in the present state of things, it is impossible to correct or even to verify._ Much charity is also given through the hands of the clergy. This is, without any doubt, the best distributed, and the most effectual; much of it is devoted to the aged and impotent. _The Sick._ In all the towns, and in many of the large villages, there are hospitals in which any individual suffering under acute sickness, or casualty, may be nursed until his perfect recovery. The principal acute complaint is fever. But there are few hospitals for chronic or incurable cases, and few such patients can obtain access to them: they are, therefore, in general left to private charity.