I grange scandal, discreditable to all parties concerned, has been
repprted this week from Rome. A Roman soldier wounded a French one, and GeneralGoyon demanded his surrender, which Mgr. de Merode, Bishop and Minister at War, refused. Some correspondence fol- lowed, which grew every moment more bitter, and at last the Bishop visited the General, and with menacing finger and insulting gestures, poured out abuse upon the Emperor Napoleon. General Goyon re- plied by "inflicting two slaps on the cheek, morally," and offering, if the Bishop would strip off his robe, to lay aside his general's uniform, and meet him in single combat. The ecclesiastic declined, and the soldier was at last surrendered. The incident has been described at length in the Paris journals, provoking the comment that the with- drawal of the French army would terminate all these scandals. The French Government, however, contents itself with demanding the- dismissal of the pugnacious Minister. To Englishmen, the bishop who insulted the general and the officer who threatened the priest,. appear equally wanting in dignity and sense. With the Vicar of. Christ supporting his Minister at War in insulting the general of his. foreigngarrison, and then obliged to dismiss his fighting bishop at the mandate of the Eldest Son of the Church, Rome is true to its.. character as as city of unpleasant anomalies.
