_ NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE event of the week has been the illness of Pope Leo XIII., the extreme seriousness of which was admitted on Monday at the Vatican, where it is a tradition that a Pope while he lives is never seriously ill. On that day, or just before, his Holiness developed symptoms of "hepatisation" of the lung, which, in a man ninety-three years of age—the Pope ,having been born on March 2nd, 1810, while Napoleon was still supreme in Italy—was obviously incurable. In spite, however, of repeated fainting fits, the marvellous constitution and im- movable fortitude of Leo XIII. have upheld him against the disease. He has been able to rise frequently irom his bed; and even to transact business, and up to Friday afternoon the fatal issue has been deferred. Indeed, the Pope's mind has remained so clear that he could compose Latin verses about his .own condition, and it is believed that he has selected a successor to Cardinal Vaughan. He has been a distinguished though not exactly a great Pope, and personally a most excellent man, full of human kindness, devoted to duty as he understood it, and with a dignity of nature which wonderfully impressed those around him. His obstinacy in remaining " a prisoner " in the Vatican has been the result of policy, and may possibly impose that form of Reclusion upon many future Popes.
