19 JANUARY 1878, Page 2

The Pope refused to allow the priests serving in the

Basilicas to repeat prayers for Victor Emanuel under the form,— " Pro Rege nostro," alleging that to do so would be to sanction the extinction of the Temporal Power. The funeral services for the King were therefore performed on Thursday in the Pantheon, where, however, they were authorised by the Pope without conditions. The ceremonial was attended by immense crowds—it is said 150,000 persons—delegated from all parts of Italy. In Turin the grief for the great Piedmontese has been especially deep, and Mgr. Gastaldi, the Archbishop, pronounced a warm eulogium on him as the father of his people, —an eulogium, however, in which he made no allusion to his career, but spoke of him throughout as if still King of Piedmont. He, however, either by accident or on purpose, designated the new King "Humbert I.," which, except as King of Italy, he

certainly is not. The Pope's blessing appears to have re- moved any temptation the ecclesiastics may have felt to improve the occasion by denouncing the late King, and to have sanctioned religious mourning everywhere except in London, where Car- dinal Manning has prohibited commemorative services.