The English Press, so well served on certain questions, is
very badly served upon topics in which it has little interest. Something has occurred in Italy which has suddenly brought the standing quarrel between the National Government and the Papacy up to an acute stage. No new act on the part of the Ministry has been reported, though there is some rumour of a Bill to prevent the foundation of new conventual establishments in Rome ; but suddenly the Pope holds a Consistory (October 23rd), attended by the most eminent Cardinale, solely to con- sider his relations with the Italian Government, and in it a proposal to quit Rome was seriously discussed, and the debate on it adjourned. Moreover, two days after, the Municipal Council of Rome passed an Order of the Day thanking King
Humbert "for his recent reaffirmation of the inviolability of the conquest of Rome by the Italian nation." We shall believe in the departure of the Papaey from Rome—a step which would, teMpettirily at least, shatter the most elaborate organisation in the *Miff—when we see it ; but those telegrams are Renter's, and mean that very great persons think it expedient just to hint to the world that the tension is extreme. We have always admitted that the Papal demand for independence is reasonable, though independence may exist, as in an Ambassador's house, without territorial dominion ; but the present situation has lasted sixteen years. What is threatening it just now
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