The business of the Papacy is carried on during the
inter- regnum by the Camerlengo, Cardinal Oreglia. The Conclave meets for the election on August 2nd, and it' is believed that all the ancient ceremonies, most of which are intended to prevent pressure upon the Cardinals, will be maintained with- out change. The managers of the Vatican wish not only to avoid pressure, but those rumours of it which Romans are so eager to believe and circulate. Nothing whatever is known of the probabilities, but the pivot of the contest, as we have explained elsewhere, is the comparative devotion of the parties in the Conclave to the temporal power. The election will not, it is believed, take many days, and it may be over in a very few hours, the ballot-box showing that some one Cardinal has behind him a party which it is hopeless to whittle away. This occurred when Cardinal Pecci was elected. There is no chance of the selection of any one but an Italian, but those best informed are most convinced that the lot will fall upon some one of whcm the external world has never thought. Influence is attributed to the prelate chosen to be Consistorial Secretary, Monsignor Mery del Val, who, being half' Spaniard, half Englishman, will, it is expected, be the next Archbishop of Westminster; but he cannot. of course, be Pope. The "Vetoes," it may be taken as certain, will not be exercised.
