In that decree the following articles occur: "All young men and women are strictly forbidden, under any pretext whatever, to give or receive presents from each other before marriage.
All persons who have received such presents before the publication of this decree, are required to make restitution of them within three months, or to become betrothed to the donor within the said period.
Any one who contravenes these regulations is to be punished by fifteen days imprisonment, during which he is to support himself at his own expense, and the presents will be devoted to some pious purpose to be determined on hereafter." I could multiply instances of this sort indefinitely, but I know of none more striking than the last.
So much for the mode in which the system is worked, and now as to its practical result.

To judge fully, it is necessary to get behind the scenes, a thing not easy for a stranger anywhere, least of all here.
There is too the further difficulty, that when you have got behind the scenes, it is not very easy to narrate your esoteric experiences to the public.

Even if there were no other objection, it would be useless to quote individual stories and facts which have come privately to my knowledge, and which would show Rome, in spite of its external propriety, to be one of the most corrupt, debauched, and demoralized of cities.

Each separate story can be disputed or explained away, but the weight of the general evidence is overpowering.

In these matters it is best to keep to the old Latin rule, "Experto crede." I have talked with many persons, Romans, Italians, and foreign residents, on the subject, and from one and all I have heard similar accounts.