DEATH OF THE POPE

Evening Star, Issue 11944, 21 July 1903, Page 3

DEATH OF THE POPE

NEARING THE END. THE DOCTORS' VIEW. CANNOT SURVIVE THE DAY. Press Aa«odation—By Telegraph^Copyright. ROME, July 20. The extraordinary heat on Saturday night greatly tried the Pope, whose weakness and nervous agitation were extreme. He was almost in a continuous state of stupor all day. There was a fresh failure of strength in the evening, and the Vatican invited the prayers of the faithful, since the end was inevitable. The Pope kissed the sacred relics, making the sign of the Cross with difficulty. In a fit of delirium he spoke in three languages, apparently blessing the Bavarian pilgrims. The final struggle commenced at ten o'clock in the evening. The Pope lost con- i sciousness and lay in a profound coma. The i doctors think he can hardly live till dawn, and that he is certain not to survive the ■ day, i

pope leo xni. i [By F. Marion Crawford, in the New York ' Outlook.'] We often ask a man what impression a person has produced upon him, and we are too apt to forget that, although impact may be mutual, impression cannot; the weak cannot impress itself upon the strong, nor the soft upon the hard. Leo the Thirteenth is to be classed/among the hard and the strong ; among those who leave their mark upon others and upon their times, but who are not themselves easily affected by men or by circumstances.; whose principles are bred in them, not acquired; whose opinions proceed from within outwards, not from without inwards; whose actions are the resultant of principles, opinions, and thoughts, rather than the expression of instinct—persons, in short, whose minds belong most distinctly to the rigid and masculine type, rather than to the feminine, pliant, and artistic. It is _impossible not to* be imEressed by such a man; it must be very ard, on the other hand, to impress one's self upon him. j Leo the Thirteenth has been Pope a little ' more than twenty-five years, and his reign is counted among the long Pontificates; : he was a man of prodigious talent, of unchanging principle, and untir- i ing energy. The question that presents itself first in . connection with him is this: What has been the effect produced upon the world in the fifth of a century by such a power acting continually at one point? In the first place, it has not been creative, and we must therefore look ' for the result it has effected, not in any ' new fact, theory, or institution, but in the ! development of conditions and circumstances already existing, in which its influence has been exercised. In the liberal arts there is no such thing as genius without creation; the genius of the military conqueror creates a campaign beforehand, as a writer conceives a story, and then mates historv by converting fiction into fact. But there is undoubtedly a form of genius ordinative and not creative, which finds its field | of action in government rather than in con | quest, and in the reduction of confusion tt order, rather than in the evolution of fori* from chaos. I

It is to this latter class that the mind of his predecessor belonoed ; and the merest glance at his reign shows that it has btei one of wise selection and of logical de velopment, in which the questions thai proved fatal to the power of Pius the Nintl have been prudently left to themselves while the energy of the whole church ha* been constantly directed upon matter* Catholic, m that they concern mankind rather than in the more limited sense ol connection with the church. It has been a political Pontificate rather than a theo logical one, but it has been much mort human, in the widest sense, than it has been political. It has been a reign of law, but much more than that it. has been a reign of peace; and if at any one moment during tho last twenty-two years the precise influence exercised by the Pope in the balance of' European power could have been calculated, senarately and bv itself, it would have been found in everv case to be wholly in the direction of peace as against violence, and altogether in favor of a Conservative stability in all countries, as against the many and changing theories of instability whereby Socialism proposes to bring the world to perpetud peace and prosperity. By way of a rough demonstration of these assertions it may be enough to say that Leo the Thirteenth has promulgated no dogmas; that, while occasionally asserting the theory that at least a minimum of territorial sovereignty is necessary to ensure freedom of action to the Popes, yet he never allowed himself to be drawn into such jolitical intrigues for the recovery of the temporal power as Cardinal Antonelli forced upon. Pius the Ninth; and that, while maintaining the position of a prisoner iD the Vatican in his own person, he not only kept himself in constant relations with the men of his time, but has,been as real, as active, and as good a.facior in all the great questions of his day as if he had waived the question of the temporal sovereignty by crnsenting to be driven in a closed carriage, on tine days, from the Vatican to the Villa Borghese and back. On the whole, Leo the Thirteenth has never withdrawn himself I from affairs with the doubtful dignity of a j "non possumus." He has never said :" We cannot," but, on the contrary, has most distinctly said " we can," and has acted, to the best of his strength and genius, for the i cood of the world.

PASSED AWAY YESTERDAY. .»

I THE CARDINALS SUMMONED. ROME, July 20. (Received July 21, at 8.47 a.m.) The cardinals were hastily summoned to the Vatican at noon. Cardinal Vanutelli administered extreme unction to tho Pope. THE POPE' DEAD. Extraordinary Press Association. ROME, July 20. (Received July 21. at 9.20 a.m.) The Pope is dead. RUMORS AND CONJECTURES. LONDON, July 20. Surprise is expressed in Paris and Rome at the Pope's reported delegation of extensive spiritual powers to Cardinal Rampolla. It is alleged that it is unprecedented for a Pope to delegate powers when in articulo mortis.

In February, 1878, Pius the Ninth and King Victor Emanuel died within almost exactly a month of each other, and Joachim Vir.c< nt Pecci was elected to the Pontificate. Cardinal Pecci was at that time exactly sixtyeight years old, having been installed on the day succeeding his birthday. He was looked upon as an old man, and, notwithstanding a popular prophecy concerning the leigns of the Popes, which predicted that he -0.-.s to live at least twenty years after his election, it was not generally expected that he would have a long reign. People forgot the remarkable physical strength which had been his as a young man, and which was as much due to the vigorous stock from which he sprang as to the fact that he was born and bred in the healthy air of the Volscian Mountains, and had been both a sportsman and an athlete. Before he was seventy he was already unusually thin, and transparently, pale; but he was still perfectly erect. He had, I believe, never suffered any serious illness; he was still so active that younger men had difficulty in keeping pace with him when he walked, whilst he himself needed so little rest that he frequently ate his meals standing, by mouthfuls, rather than wholly interrupt the writing he was doing at another table ; and he rarely, if ever, slept more than five hours during the night. He would have been classed by ancient physicians under the Saturnine variety of man, for he possessed the very strong osseous structure, the solid nervous organisation, and the lean muscular development of melancholic temperaments. He had the excessively bright eyes which generally denote one of three sorts of talent —military, financial, or literarv. Possibly he possessed something of all three, but his superiority as a man of letters and a financier cannot be questioned. His speech was unhesitating rather than fluent, impressive rather than persuasive, and his manner was at once authoritative and very formal. He neither invited confidence nor gave it easily; and yet nothing in his conversation suggested the idea of a diplomatic choice of truths, for if he consented to speak on any subject at all he treated it with the frankness of one willing that all should know his opinions, but also with the dignity of one who claimed that all should respect them, whether agreeing with him or not. To the outward observer there is not much difference between the career of one ecclesiastic and another, of those who are neither monks nor missionaries, and who rise by slow degrees from the secular priesthood to the highest dignities of the church. Though there be nothing secret about their advancement, few inquire into its causes, or care to ask wherein the merit of any particular churchman has lain. Joachim Pecci entered the priesthood about the canonical age of twenty-four, with a reputation for letters and scholarship which clung to him through life. He did not beedfoe a parish pnest, but wa.s immediately attached to the offices of the Vatican, under Gregory the Sixteenth; and though lost sight of thero by the outer world during a number of years, it was undoubtedly in those subordinate positions that he first distinguished himself by superior learning and brilliancy. There is no organisation in existence that selects its officers with more unerring wisdom and foresight than the Roman Catholic Church. For this, even its enemies praise it, and in this particular its friends seek to become its imitators. The first distinction conferred upon the young Pecci, of which the world knew anything, was a diplomatic one; and it is as a diplomatist—or, to give him his due, as a statesman—that Leo the Thirteenth will be remembered in history He was sent as Nuncio to Brussels, being <at that time already consecrated bishop, though under, forty years of age; and though the times afforded him no opportunity of displaying his exceptional talents, it was in Brussels that he first saw something of European diplomacy, as it was practised in every city excepting Rome. For in the days of the temporal power, everything that was done in the ecclesiastical capital was done by ecclesiastical methods—very slow very sure, but in ueueral very cumbrous and complicated. That Monsignor Pecci, as he was then called, did all that was expected of him m Belgium, and did it well, v. as amplv proved by the fact of his early advancement to the Archbishopric of Perugia. In an almost prophetic way his arrival in Perugia loreshadowed his elevation to the Pontificate. Between the two events there was in any case a very remarkable resemblance. When the young prelate reached his archdiocese in Tuscany, Perugia had within a few years already Prime Minister, had put down the uprising with a relentless hand; mercenarytroops had been employed to inflict concur punishment upon the Perugians; a cruel massacre spared no suspected persons, nna even a party of American travellers barely

escaped with their lives by the courage and wit of a Swiss soldier, who had formerly seen thftn at the Yatican, who recognised them, forced the whole party into a closet, and, throwing himself down before the door, pretended to be dead drunk until the danger was passed. The new Archbishop found the popular feeling strongly against the church, and in favor of the unification of Italy; he found the city garrisoned by Italian troops, under the command of officers from whom he could expect but little sympathy; and he saw at once that he must' choose and follow a, definite course ol action. From the first he opened his house to all-comers, including the officers of the garrison, and invited the discussion of topics of the day rather than avoided it; he showed.his visitors that he was what he afterwards -was, not only a churchman, but an Italian and a man; and before he had been in Perugia a year he was universally respected and generally liked in the city, wUich Antonelli's troops* had reddened with Italian blood.

Few men who attain to the very highest distinctions in the world pass through many different phases of activity before finding tho career for which thuy are naturally fitted; and though adventurers have occasionally reached high places, they have rarely, il ever, attained and maintained the highest The Ufa of Leo Ihe Thirteenth has been one of intense concentration, leading by direct steps to the Pontificate In Perugia he was the light man in the right place ; he was in the heart of the difficulties between the Papacy and the Italian Kingdom, and he wan in his element in a perpetual opposition wherein he was continually gaining ground. There he remained, even after he had been made a cardinal, until the death of Pius the Ninth, when his own immediate election to the Holy See offered him the first eppor tunity of his life. Outside of Italy the new» th?t Cardinal Pecci was made Pope conseyei no idea nor special meaning to those wht heard it; among (tal'an laymen, except ii Perugia, it excited curiosity rather than com tnent; among churchmen it produced pro found and universal satisfaction, and the only anxiety that was felt for the futare was for the new Pope's physical ability t<. do the work imposed upon him. As when he entered upon his duties in Perugia he had met with opposition on nil sides, and with a doup-rooted hatred of tho Papacy as an earthly power, so, when at last crowned Pope, he found that the world was against him, and that he must climb th« political glasr mountain down which Pius the Ninth had glided «o smoothly and surely to political destruction. In 1878 England represented to the world the success of certain pseud«»-scumrific theories which never had any real bold upo.i the believing English people, but which Englishmen of science, of otherwise dewewd imputation, floated liku toy boats upon the hivh ride of British Imperialism. Mi- Ghidiionc, though never virulrtit in atta-cklig imy genuine form of Christianityr had piomoted the unification of Italy ou purely humanitarian grounds; at the same ninw, oy his character and hi? principle, he *ai, He must typical living representative of the f'rote-v.-.nt idea: In 1878 Paris, having but lately disgraced the French name ib the Commune of 1871. \ra» already boasting again thai she was France, that Franca wi«s rv-publican, and that what Paris called a Republic—namely, an antireligious mil often venal bnreaiiciacy— was the only possible g*,veruoieut for civilised man. In 1!57R the German Empire, bursting with health Hud spirits, like a boy fresh from aelnvul, vus loudly repeating its newly-learned icsmou (o an intimidated if not an adnming vnrlil There was no God but thfc god ,>f (.formal, battles, and Luthei and Calvin, *ho might ,>«;js<.nabiy hare been surprised at rinding thcuiS'-.lves classed to gefher, were his prophets, subject to the ndvice and uiiliw.iy eeinm-ship of Prince Bismaick Lj<tlj, in I»7R, Italian unity was a suciess, and ffiiy was just entering upon ,th;U brief potioJ of prosperity whuih she readily ascribed to her victory over Uie Pope, B-hiuh diizzlt.l herself and delighted her friends, but whiih, by the overstraining of her stiength iu futilt' speculations, soon ended in the nun whii-h we deplore tu-day To be brief, civilised Em ope was anti-Ca, holic where it was Protestant, and anti-Papal where it was Cath.ilic. The temporal power in its traditional form was irrevocably lost: the purely ecclesiastical rights of thft Pope in the management of the Catholic Church we.a openly resisted in some countries, while it was attempted to abolish them by law in others; and when the body of Pius the Ninth was temporarily laid to rest in Saint Peter's, grave men in Rome shook their heads, as many grave and not unwise persons did elsewhere, and solemnly declared that the Roman Catholic Church was an institution of the past. Such was the state of things when Leo the Thirteenth was crowned. He had the world against him ; there were battles which must be fought at once, if they were to be fought at all; and the organisation, which has been the wonder of the world since Gregory the Seventh conceived it and Urban the Second made it a fact, more than eight hundred years ago, was weak from long disuse and clogged by the accumulated refuse of antiquated procedure. Leo the Thirteenth declared war upon two evils as soon as he was Pope—social democracy in Europe at large, and inefficiency among the Relates and priests of the Roman Catholic Church. In other words, he took from the first the position of a censor and a restorer within his own immediate province; and, beyond that, he took his stand among the Conservative sovereigns of Europe. Those first step's ultimately decided the opinion of Europe in his favor; his determination to improve the internal conditions of the church commanded respect, and his conservative action disarmed suspicion. People remembered how, soon after his accession, Pius the Ninth had shown a dangerous sympathy for the Young Italian party, conveying the impression that he would have been willing to accept something like the honorary presidency of the Confederate States of Italy; and no one had forgotten the disastrous consequences that ensued when, being obliged to retire from the confusion he had produced, the young and enthusiastic Pope fell under the absolute dominion of Cardinal Antonelli's savage reactionism. Europe was proportionately grateful to Leo the Thirteenth for his uncompromising declarations in favor of stability of government; and where more than one nation had expected to find a dangerous adversary most of the European Governments saw at a glance that in one most important respect they had a firm and powerful ally. Leo the Thirteenth could tell the citizens of France that, since they had elected to be governed by what they believed to be a Republic, it was their duty to stand by it, to obey its laws, and to fight for its existence; he could tell the world, in one of his most brilliant Encyclicals, that man was before nations were, and that the rights of man go before the rights of any Government ; but, in the face of any movement even faintly resembling the anarchy that now calls itself Socialism, but which by the slightest accident to the machinery of modern history may become again, at any centro of action, the Commune of 1871—then Leo the Thirteenth was as conservative as the British Constitution, as energetic as the German Empire and as stubborn as his own inflexible will could make him.

It is generally easy to determine what the great personages of any age have done for themselves; it is quite another matter to calculate with any degree of precision what they have done for others. Leo the Thirteenth's enemies, who are relatively very few, would not go so far as to say that his reign had been a selfish one, nor even one in which he had bestowed the slightest con sideration upon his family. The integrity and wisdom with which he administered the church s finances for the church's benefit are beyond doubt or question; and apart from the legitimate use of the remarkable faculties with which he was endowed bv Nature, it cannot be said, that he labored for his own fame. In other words, his lone and active reign has been spent in a continuous effort for the good of other men of which it is exceedingly hard to nidge or reckon the results. Roughly, they may be said to have been twofold—within xnd with out immediate sphere of a churchman's action. It would be useless to enlarge here upon the successful management of internal details, the simplification of old-fashioned rules and methods, the careful selection of men for the work which they were to do The late Pope has done more to give the church strength and sincerity in those respects than a dozen of his predecessors. _ It is of more importance, if possible, to judge of the general political result of so much sustained energy. On the whole, it can hardly be denied by anyone who has foj.

tewed the course of modern events that Pope Leo's influence has been most distinctly in the direction of peace; and should it be the world s misfortune to see him succeeded bv a 1 unliff of more combative disposition, Europe will understand more clearly than now the character of the man whom she now mourns. Again and again, when a war has been impending between civilised n» tions, the whole weight of the' Vatican'* diplomacy has been thrown into the scale to bring about a peaceful solution of the difficulty. Without going further back than thp circumstances which immediately preceded the conflict in which the United States was lately engaged with Spain, it. is known to averyone that the Pope used every availahle means to oppose a declaration of war. Nor must it be imagined that he made the effort on behalf of Spain as a Catholic country. When he was called upon, some years ago. to act as arbitrator' between Spain and the German Empire, in the question of the Caroline Islands, he decided with little hesitation in favor of the Protestant Power, because the latter undoubtedly had right and justice on its side. So, on the more recent occasion, his voice was given, not for Spain, but for mankind; not for party, but for peace; not for human interests, but for humanity. _ The statement, so often repeated in our times, that war is impossible in an age of enlightenment ami civilisation, has been regularly answered and refuted bv the grimlv convincing argument of bloodshed. We have, nevertheless, so far advanced upon rougher times that religious warfare is a thing of the past; and it is safe to say that this state will continue until Atheism rises with Anarchy to attack belief. We may e\ en venture to hope that all extremes of virulence in feeling and speech are at an end between the different denominations of those who believe in one God. Leo the Thirteenth has a righi, to be judged, to be respected, and to be honored as a man who has done much good in his time, by men of all creeds and of every faith. Of few Popes can it be said that their political influence throughout a long reign had been so steadily and universally beneficent. The man who has set an example of toleration to his age may justly claim some breadth and fairness at the hands of his contemporaries; at a time when wise men consider that a universal war is by no means an impossibility, he who has so often been among the peacemakers deserves an honorable place among .the great; and in a century in which so many have striven for gain, he who labored long and well for other* uas earned the gratitude of his fellow-men INCIDENTS OP LEO'S CAREER HIS VISIT TO ENGLAND. " Choose not me, Eminence. You would not wish for Pope a man whose life will be sovery short!" exclaimed a cardinal at the Vatican twenty-five years ago. It was Cardinal Pecci, whoso life lias not been short; only one Pope in the long historv of the Papacy having reigned longer than he. Leo XIII. was elected Pope by fortv-four out of sixty-one votes, and it is told of him that just before the final scrutiny he shut himself up in his cell and gave way to a convulsion of emotion which alarmed his friends. "I have not the courage to drink so bitter a chalice," he said, speaking of the saddening conditions of the Church. "To elect me would be to give me, not the Tiara, but death!"

Beware, Eminence, of scandalising men by a refusal," said one of the conclave, and the name of Leo XIII. was declared as the new Pope from tho windows of the Vatican to the crowds be'ow. " The cardinals," one of them told his flock, " have fixed thdr choice upon an old man of sixty-seven, who has taken to himself the name of Leo XIH He js in very delicate health, and I fear that I shall soon be called upon to undertake another journey to Rome to attend another conclave." The cardinal has been called upon to take another journey, bdt it was the last journey of all, and the " delicate old man" lived for a, quarter of a century.

i/,P e ?- ope dl, nng his long reign created 140 cardinals—more than twice the number of members of the Sacred College, so that he had seen the college almost' entirely changed since his accession. entires chanced, that is, with one exception. Oi"? cardinal, .mi one only, still lives who owes his appointment to Pone Pius. In all 144 cardinals died during the Papacy of Leo XIII., and the oldest cardinal living is four years younger than the Pope who appointed him.

lor twenty rive years Leo XIII. never left the palace ho called his prison. He had not, for twenty-three yens, looked upon the *yld save from the window of his room Kings and emporers have been to see the o.d man at the Vatican, but Leo had seen nothing of the wonderful changes which the march of timo has wrought in the world since Cardinal Pecci was announced as Pope to the shouting crowds in the streets of Rome.

No man had ever sat down as a guest" at his table; only one gloved hand, it is said had ever clasped his. It was that of the German Emperor, who made so memorable a visit to the Vatican, when, soon after his accession, he paid a round of visits to the capitals of Europe and could not resist the temptation, when in Rome, of callino- uuon the Pope. ° r Leo had always had a friendly feeling f or England, although he is said to have exclaimed on hearing that no British mission wou.d be sent to the Vatican to announce King Edward's accession: " This I did not expect. Times indeed are changed in England '" °

He visited Queen Victoria in London before he had been elected to the Papacy and was present at more than one State ceremony. King Edward, too, visited the late Pope's predecessor. King Edward has visited- the two record-reigning Popes, and talked with them both as they sat in the chair of St. Peter.

Leo XIII. was the only Pope, it is said who ever walked down Piccadily. It was m 1846, when he was still Archbishop Pecci, that he went to London, spending a mouth in town, where he lived for a few days as an Ambassador's guest, but for the most of the time in rooms off PiccadiLy Lord Palmerston received him, on the introduction of the. Austrian Ambassador, and Dr Pecci was present in tht House of Commons when Daniel O'Connell spoke. While he was staying in London the then archbishop was present at two State functions, and saw the Queen a third time in private audience. Leo the Thirteenth's friendly feelings towards England are well known ; he has been more favorably impressed by Ltig ishmen than his predecessor, who onue offered an Englishman a cigar. "Thank your Holiness, but I have no vices," stupidly remarked the Englishman, and the Pope, equal to the occasion, said: " This isn't a vice; if it was you would have it." . HOW LEO Xm. WAS ELECTED. On the 20th of February, 1878, the Vatican was shut off from the outer world, and the Cardinals .chore Vincent Joachim Pecci to be the head of the greatest Church in the world, the first Pope without temporal power. No ballot was ever taken with more profound Fecrecy than that which made a once simple priest Pope of Rome. The Cardinal was all but an old man then, but his frame gave promise of the strength which enabled him to guide the earthly destinies of the Church of Rome till his ninetythird year. For two days in February, 1878, the Vatican was cut off, with great formality, from communication with the outside world, and the grave itself could hardly be more still. The huge halls of the Vatican were divided into a series of small rooms, enabling each Cardinal to have his "conclavist" servant at hand, and duririf the two days of the ballot the Palace of the Popes was literally a world to itself. Yet, in other respects, the election was democratic enough. It was probably tho cheapest on record. There have, been elections of Popes which have swallowed up fortv thousand pounds, but the ceremonial in 1878 only cost six thousand, half of which was spent in arranging the Vatican for the election cersmony. Another circumstance made the election notable—among the Cardinals prerent were twenty-five foreigners, a striking fact when one remembers that the previous Pope was elected only by Romans. At half-pa't four in the afternoon of February 18, 1878, the Sacred Colle_e assembled in the Pauline Chapel, and the signal "Extra Omnes," with the ringing of a small .bell, through the corridors. It was the signal that the election formalities were begun, and that all but the Cardinals must retire. AH tha outlfts had been waited nj^

but the. Vatican was searched from- end to end by torchlight lest iome unseen connection with the world outside should have been established. All doubt bieiDg at an: end, the Cardinals, having removed to the Sistiue .Chapel,; were. left to themselves. A Cardinal, stooping down in-his-violet woollen robe and his sleeveless cape, bolted the door, and then, with his brother Cardinals, took up his place at his stall. Each Cardinal's stall wan surmounted by a- canopy—to' be removed the moment the new Pope's name was announced—and in front was a table for filling up the form. One by one the Cardinals' names were called, and each Cardinal, on hearing it; approached the altar, knelt, rose again, and, holding Ids votingrpaper above his head, said: "I call upon Christ, our Lord, Who shall, judge me, to witness that I vote for him who I belive bafore God ought to be chosen, and that I will do the same at the accessory ballot." When all the Cardinals had placed their napers in the chalice, it was found that no Pope had been elected. Twenty-three papers bore the name of Cardinal Pecci, and the number was too low. In the second ballot, on the evening of the -next day, Cardinal Pecci had twenty-six votes, and at the third time of voting, on the morning of the 20th February, 1878, he received iorty-four votes. By four votes he was elected to the " Chair of St. Peter," " Infallible Head of the Infallible Church," the 257 th Pope of Rome. The canopies were then taken down from above the Cardinals' stalls—all but Cardinal Pecci's, and the sub-deaii prostrated himself before the chosen Cardinal. " Dost thou accept thy due and regular < election to the sovereign pontificate?" he asked, and Cardinal Pecci replied: "Such being God's will, I cannot gainsay it." A'ked under which name !he would be known, he answered: "As Leo the Thirteenth, in remembrance of Leo the Twelfth, whom I have always venerated." In a dressing room opauing from the chapel hung white vestments of all sizes, and here the Cardinals clad the new Pope in spotless white—dazed and barely conscious, a graphic writer says. At a quarter-past one the name of the new Pope was announced from the balcony of St. Peter's. " I announce to you," shouted Cardinal Caterini, "a great joy. We have as Pope the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Vincent Joachim Pecci, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, who has taken the name of Leo the Thirteenth." Ever* church bell in Rome rang with the news, and Vincent Joachim Pecci went back to his apartment Pope of Rome. POPE LEO'S LAST PRAYER. The Pope celebrated his ninety-third b'rthdav and the twenty-fifth anniversary of his el'ction by a poem, written in Latin, which he called 'Leo's Last Prayer.' The following is a metrical translation of the poem:— Leo, now sets thy sun; pale is its dying ray; Black night succeeds thy day. Black night for thee; wasted thy frame; life's flood sustains No more thy shrunken veins. Death casts his fatal dart; robed for the grave thy bones Lie under the cold stones. But my freed soul escapes her chains, and longs in flight To reach the realms of light. That is the goal she seeks; thither her journey fares; Grant, Lord, my anxious prayers, That with the citizens of Heaven, God's face and light May ever thrill my sight; That I may see thy face, Heaven's Queen, whose Mother love Has brought me home above. To thee, saved through the tangles of a perilous way, I lift my grateful lay.