The Times correspondent at Rome reports that the Papacy has
once more refused to allow faithful Catholics to vote at Parliamentary elections. The correspondent thinks that this restriction diminishes the strength of the Conservative party, though it is believed not to reduce the total vote at elections by more than 5 per cent., which, if true, gives a very curious estimate of the strength of the Vatican in Italy. It is quite possible, however, that it is a true one, and that the advisers of the Papacy, knowing this, do not care to enter into the political contest, and prefer to denounce the whole machinery of Government as h-religious. Their real reliance is not on any movement within Italy. but on the interference either of Austria or France in order to restore the temporal power. The prospect does not look very hopeful, but Rome reeks nothing of time, and the Papacy resided at Avignon for nearly seventy years. The difficulty is not to understand the patience of the Vatican, but to see in what the charm of temporal sovereignty cmsists. In dignity it is nothing compared with the head- ship of Catholicism throughout the world, and Protestants fail to see its special convenience to a spiritual power.
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