It seems that the Pope really did utter the speech
attributed to him by the Correspondent of the Daily News, on Mr. Gladatone's pamphlet, in which Mr. Gladstone was called " a viper," though we cannot assert that the viper was represented as doing so very un- usual a thing with vipers, as biting at "the bark of Peter." The Roman journal which denied the fact, and which appears to have convinced Reuter's agent that it was not a fact, was the Osservatore Romano, the organ of the Vatican ; but unfortunately for it, the Armonia had printed a report of the speech before the speech was suppressed. The Italie made a very good joke on the denial. It remarked that the only fitting commentary on the business would be to reprint the passage in " Lothair " in which Cardinal Grandison assures Lothair that the news of the battle of Montana must be true, "because it is recorded in the official organ of a power which is Truth itself." We do not, however, suppose that the Pope's view of Mr. Gladstone as a " viper " was pronounced ex cathedra with a view to teach the Church.
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