The Times correspondent at Vienna states, upon what he considers
sufficient authority, that the real object for which Signor Giolitti, the Italian Premier, was invited to Homburg by Count von Billow was to arrange for a rapprochement between Italy and the Pope. The German Emperor thinks that if this could be secured, the Pope would become virtually, if not formally, a member of the Triple Alliance, which would thus be strengthened by the great weight of the Roman Church. The Pope is not disinclined to the rapprochement, but the Italian Court is cold, the Papacy asking as a condition for a certain amount of _control over the primary schools, which the Italian Parliament would not grant. The statement is curious, as one more evidence of the German Emperor's endless activities, but it is not of much importance. The only Court which the Papacy could seriously influence during a war is already within the Triple Alliance, and nothing the Pope can do can diminish the strong attraction of France for Italy. If, again, a reactionary Government were established in Paris, Italy would seek protection in the Alliance, while the Pope, hoping for his own restoration to power, would be necessarily anti-Italian.
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