reforms. Add to all this, there is the recent mysterious attempt at
murder in the Minerva hotel, about which all kinds of strange rumours are
in circulation. Suppose too, which heaven forbid, that I was a Roman
citizen, and had no means of catching sight of foreign newspapers, which
is extremely probable, or understood no foreign language, which is more
probable still; what in this case should I learn from my sole source of
information, my _Giornale di Roma_, about my own city and my own country,
on this 19th of January, in the year of grace 1860?

The first fact brought before my eager gaze on taking up the paper, would
be that yesterday was the feast of St Peter's chair. Solemn mass was, I
learn, performed in the cathedral, in the presence of "our Lord's
Holiness," and a Latin oration pronounced in honour of the Sacred Chair.
After the ceremony was over, it seems that the Senator of Rome, Marquis
Mattei, presented an address to the Pope, with a copy of which I am
kindly favoured. The Senator, in his own name and in that of his
colleagues in the magistracy, declares, that "if at all times devotion to
the Pontiff and loyalty to the Sovereign was the intense desire of his
heart, it is more ardent to-day than ever, since he only re-echoes the
sentiment of the whole Catholic world, which with wonderful unanimity
proclaims its veneration for the august Father of the faithful, and
offers itself, as a shield, to the Sovereign of Rome." He adds, that
"his mind revolts from those fallacious maxims, which some persons try to
insinuate into the feeble minds of the people, throwing doubts on the
incontestable rights of the Church, and that he looks with contempt on
such intrigues." As however both the Senator and his colleagues are
nominees of the Pope, and as a brother of the Marquis is a Cardinal, I
feel sceptical as to the value of their opinion. The next paragraph
tells me, that in order to testify their devotion to the Papacy the
inhabitants of Rome illuminated their houses last night in honour of the