The Italians seem for once to have put themselves in
the wrong in a quarrel with the Pope. An International Commission is sit- ting in Paris to decide upon the best standard of measure. Each country sends members according to its population, but of course for physiological reasons no country can send less than one. The Pope, as a sovereign prince, sent his representative, Father Secchi, a savan of the first rank, but the Italians refused to sit with him. The Pope, they said, had no subjects, and no right to send a representative. The French members have protested, and a silent battle will, it is affirmed, be waged in all the Courts of Europe about the right of Father Secchi to talk at a big table about the best standard of measure, a subject upon which his opinion would in any meeting of the Royal Society be heard with the greatest respect. We must say we think the Italians in the wrong. They agreed that the Pope should be considered a sovereign prince, should receive embassies, and should be outside the law, and are bound by their own agree- ment to imagine that he has subjects. If not, they are cheating the Treasury every time they " pass " the baggage of an Envoy accredited to the Vatican.
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