The selection of Monsignor Merry ,del Val as Secretary of
State at the Vatican has created unusual interest, 'and even excitement. It is supposed that he will completely guide Pius X., who is no diplomatist, and the older 'members of the Curia are dismayed, first, by his youth—he'ii only thirty"- eight—and secondly, by the fear that, as a Spaniard; he will not completely understand the great Italian ecclesiaatics who under the Pope guide, and to some extent control, the Romp Catholic world. It is believed that the Austrian Court .pro- tested privately against the appointinent, and that Cardinal Gibbons expressed to his Holiness some fear leet a Spanish Secretary should raise difficulties in the way of the settlement of the Philippines. The Pope says, truly enough, that 'objec- tions on the grOund of nationality are futile,. the Churqh being international ; but its international character -dOes net prevent its constant choice of an Italian for its :cbiet paftor, though scarcely a seventh of its'devcitees speak Italian. This is due, of course, in part to the fact that the Pope: was _till recently an Italian Sovereign ; but it is also due to the other fact that Italian ecclesiastics are usually of all men the least fanatic and unmanageable. Rome prefers pilots With good eyes.
