The Mafia.--In Sicily the Mafia is the

spontaneous organization of those whose trade

is crime; not a sect or secret society, any more

than the highwaymen of Hounslow in former

days, or the pickpockets of St. Giles' and

Whitechapel in our own.  Every one of the 350

communes of Sicily has its own Mafia, of

which the character varies according to local

tendencies and interest.  In one place its

energies are devoted to the conduct of the

elections and the manipulation of the ballot-

box; in another to directing, by means of a

camorra, the sale of Church and Crown lands;

in a third to the apportionment of contracts

for the public works.