"The present population of the Ghetto is estimated at 3800, a number out of all proportion, considering the small size of the Ghetto, which covers less space than the fifth part of any small town of 3000 inhabitants. The Jews are under the chief congregation of the Inquisition, and their especial magistrate for all civil and criminal processes is the Cardinal Vicar. The tribunal which governs them consists of the Cardinal Vicar, the Prelato Vicegerente, the Prelato Luogo-tenente Civile, and the Criminal Lieutenant. In police matters, the President of the Region of S. Angelo and Campitelli exercises the local police magistracy. The Jewish community has itself the right of regulating its internal order by the so-called Fattori del Ghetto, chosen every half-year. The common tribute of the Ghetto to the state, and to various religious bodies, amounts to about 13,000 francs." Opposite the gate of the Ghetto near the Ponte Quattro Capi a converted Jew erected a church, which is still to be seen, with a painting of the Crucifixion on its outside wall (upon which every Jew must look as he comes out of the Ghetto), and underneath an inscription in large letters of Hebrew and Latin from Isaiah, lxv. 2:--"All day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people." The lower streets of the Ghetto, especially the Fiumara, which is nearest to the banks of the Tiber, are annually overflowed during the spring rains and melting of the mountain snows, which is productive of great misery and distress. Yet in spite of this, and of the teeming population crowded into its narrow alleys, the mortality was less here during the cholera than in any other part of Rome, and malaria is unknown here, a freedom from disease which may perhaps be attributed to the Jewish custom of whitewashing their dwellings at every festival. There is no Jewish hospital, and if the Jews go to an ordinary hospital, they must submit to a crucifix being hung over their beds. It is remarkable that the very centre of the Jewish settlement should be the Portico of Octavia, in which Vespasian and Titus celebrated their triumph after the fall of Jerusalem. Here and there in the narrow alleys the seven-branched candlestick may be seen carved on the house walls, a "yet living symbol of the Jewish religion."