feast. Unfortunately, I happened to walk out yesterday evening, and
observed that the lamps were very few and far between, while in the only
illuminated house I entered I found the proprietor grumbling at the
expense which the priests had insisted on his incurring. I have then a
whole column about the proceedings at the "Propaganda" on the festival of
the Epiphany, now some days ago. The Archbishop of Thebes, I rejoice to
learn, excited the pupils of the Academy to imitate the virtues
manifested in the "Magi," by an appropriate homily, drawing a striking
parallel between the simplicity, the faith and honesty of the three
kings, and the disbelief and hypocrisy of the wicked king Herod. I
wonder if I have ever heard of Herod under a more modern name, and pass
on to a passage, written in italics, in order to attract my special
attention. The "Propaganda" meeting is, I am informed, "a noble
spectacle, which Rome alone can offer to the world; that Rome, which God
has made the capital of His everlasting kingdom." This concludes the
whole of my domestic intelligence; all that I know, or am to know, about
the state of my own country.

Then follows the foreign intelligence, under the heading of "Varieties."
Seventy pro-papal works have, I read, been published in France; indeed,
the zeal in behalf of the Pontifical cause gains, day by day, so rapidly
in that country, that "every one," so some provincial paper says, "who
can hold a pen in hand uses it in favour of justice and religion, upon
the question of the Papacy." So much for France. All I learn about
Italy is that all writings in defence of the Pope are eagerly sought
after and perused. Spanish affairs meet with more attention. An English
vessel has been captured, it seems, freighted with 14,000 bayonets for
Tangiers; and the shipwrecked crew of a French brig were all but
massacred by the Moors, or rather, if they were not massacred, it was
from no want of malignity on the part of the infidels. I have next an