It is the same at Rome. An English gentleman named
Spiers last week won a steeplechase there ; his colours were red and green, and he, without a thought of anything beyond making himself look as well as he could, threw over both a white scarf. The Romans assembled in thousands to see the race, recognized the Italian colours, and saluted the wondering jockey with volley after volley of cheers. The Papal Government, intensely annoyed at this evidence of popular hatred, ordered Mr. Spiers to leave Rome in twenty hours, and the remonstrances of the Charge d'Affaires might have proved unavailing but that Lord Vaux of Harrowden, a strict Catholic, declared he would call a meeting of his countrymen in Rome to consider what was to be done to resist such tyranny. Cardinal Antonelli, not anxious to quarrel with the English Catholics, then suggested that Mr. Spiers should banish himself for four days, to which Mr. Spiers responded that having done nothing at all, he would not be punished even for one day. There is nothing to be done with a people so stiffnecked that even when Catholics they object to be oppressed by a Pope, so Mr. Spiers was sentenced to exile, but allowed a week to prepare, with the understanding that he might define a week according to his convenience.
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