THE CONDITION OF ITALY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR...I SIR,—Having been away from Rome, I did not see the Spectator of July 23rd in time to send these few lines for last week's issue. For the sake of brevity, I will confine my Criticism of Mr. Stillman's letter to two points, which depend upon easily ascertainable facts, and which are not mere expressions of opinion as to the condition, past and present, of Italy and of the Italian people. Mr. Stillman said : "The property of the beneficent Orders has not been confiscated" by the Italian Government. I asked Mr. Still- man to mention these Orders. Mr. Stillman does not answer my question ; instead of doing so, he mentions the Trappists of the Tre Fontane (one house, of one Order), and says that their property was not confiscated. I have been to see the Procurator-General of the Trappists, and from him I learn that this is not true. On the contrary, all the funds and all the land of the Tre Fontane were confiscated by the Govern- ment; the reason why the Trappists are now at the Tre Fontane is because they bought back from the Government their confiscated property for the sum of a million
collected from their brethren in other countries.
I asked Mr. Stillman to quote aay single utterance of Pope Leo XIII, which would justify him in describing Pope Leo as the "Pretender by divine right to mis-govern (or say to govern) the late States of the Church." Daring the twenty years of his Pontificate Pope Leo has spoken frequently and written much ; but Mr. Stillman can find no answer to my
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