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New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 248, 1 February 1878, Page 7

The Journal of the French Statistical Society publishes some curious statistics concerning the Popes which may not be without interest at the present time. Pius IX. is the 252 d Pope. Of these, 15 were French, 13 Greeks, 8 Syrians, C Germans, 5 Spaniards, 2 Africans, 2 Savoisiens, 2 Dalmatians,; England, Portugal, Holland, bwitzerland, and Candia furnishing one each ; Italy provided the rest. Since 1523 all the Popes have been selected from Italian Carclmals. Seventy Bishops of Home, belonging with very few exceptions to the Epoch preceding the establishment of the Temporal Power, have been proclaimed Saints. The ten Jast centuries have seen only nine Popes judged worthy by the Popes themselves of being sanctined Of the 202 Pontiffs, not including St. Peter, eight died within a month of their elevation to the Popcdom, 40 within a year, 22 were seated between one and two years, 54 from two to five years, 57 from five to ten years, 51 from 10 to 15. 18 from 15 to 20 years, and nine more than twenty years. Pins IX. m the years of his Pontificate surpassedin 1874 all the lioman Pontiffs, except the Spanish anti-Pope, Benedict XIII. of Luna, who, elected at Avignon in 1394, died at Pensicola, near Valencia, in 1424. In respect of age, he has been surpassed as yet by a very great number of his predecesniN 6re ? iw L at the a S e of ovei> 82 years Alexander VIII.. J}???-JS &n& n Plus JF- -(1775-99); at 83 years, Paul IV. (1550-59) Gregory XIII. (1572-85), Innocent X. (1644-55), Benedict XIV (1740-58), Pius VII. (1800-23); between 84 and 86 L ( 153i - 49 >> Boniface VIII. (121)4-1303), Clement t% (16 i?; 70^ Inn ocent XII. (1691-1700) : between 90 and 92 years, John XII., Pope of Avignon (131G-3-4), Clement XII. (1730-40); at the age of 100 years, Gregory IX. (1237-41), nephew of Innocent 111., the most violent adversary of Frederick 11., forcscl on several-occa-sions to flee tram Rome. Up to the present, during the distinctly historical epoch, no Pope has died between 86 and 90 years of a«»c : the only one who surpassed 92 died a centenarian. After 300 years of absence, shoals of herring appeared this year on the coast of Denmark. The fish was for many centuries the chief source of revenue of the country, and the 'Danes naturally hope that lt^aay not soon^again disappear, as it did suddenly one autumn over