Roman Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVI, Issue 28, 2 November 1888, Page 5

Roman Notes.

The unhallowed work of sequestration still goes on. Tbe latest case is that of the capnehin nuna of tbe Quirinal, who quit their convent to make room for the horses of the Prince of Naples. His Hi^hnesss stables are to occupy the site of the building. The nuns go to die out, it ia hoped, in a house appropriated to the purpose by the Roman municipality, and where several religious committees treated in a similar manner are lodged. Qjeen Margaret, however, has lately receivod the thanks of certain pious and noble ladies of Poland for her successful mediation, on their behalf, in preventing the profanation of the rooms in which their young countryman. St. Stanislaus iiostka, lived and died. But the adjoining chapel of the Blessed Virgin, made additionally interesting as the place in which the reignm°Pope celebrated his first Mass, shares the common fate. Even the catacombs are not wholly inviolate. The cnapel of St. Felicitas underneath the Salarian way, has, for example, been considerably injured by the foundations of some ol the new houses— hideous erections run up by speculators. Nor are the memorials of art held much more sacred by the new civilisation than those of religion. Many of them also have been disfigured or destroyed. The latest instance is that of the house of the great painter Giuho Romano, a building of the 14th century, which has been removed to make way for the base of Victor Emanuel's monument on the Capitol. But when the Piedmontese evacuate Rome, p rhaps it is just as well that they should leave their marks behind them as a warning to future generations

A brave i«,cue of seven Sisters of Charity by some soldiers is reported from Vmadio, near Turin. The church of St. Anne, a famous and beautiful Sanctuary in the town referred to, has been unfortunately burned down, and tLe nuns in an upper part of the building were in imminent danger of perishing in the flames The soldiers hearing tbair cries made a gallant and successful effort though with great danger to their own lives, to save them. A lieutenant of the company further distinguished himself by penetrating into the burning pile and bringing out the Blessed Sacrament from the tabernacle, saving also a highly venerated picture of St. Anne Ihe incident is a hopeful one in connection wilh the Italiaa army.

_ Ihe Commeadatore de Rossi is busily engaged with excavations in the cat comb of S. Pnscilla, one of the most ancient existing and believed to date from the time of the Senator Pudens, who received bt. Peter when be came to Rome in the days of the Emperor Claudius The mother of Purtens, it is said, owned the ground. The circumstances connected with the discovery in this catacomb of a large and handsome chapel are taken by De Rossi to prove that the Consul Acilius Ulabrio, in the ruign of Domitiau. had been a Christian martyr Suetonius Bpealcs of the Consul as having been put to death among othera by the Emperor for having prepared what he caila " novelties " against nim.—which word novelties had already been interpreted as most probably meaning the Christian religion. The discovery of this chapel with the inscriptions winch prove it to have beloved to the family of the Acilu is an an a-ldition.il link iv the chain of evidence by which De Rossi has ovenhrown the assumption that Christianity had obtained hardly any hold on ihu higher ranks of the old Roman society.

Yet another great literary work is about to distinguish the reign ot Popo Leo XIII. Ihe work in question is the Codex Diplomatics Urbis, which will be published in some eighteen tolio volumes under the supervision of Professor Presutti, and which will be only second. in importance to the magnificent edition of the works of St. Thomas whose fifth volume is now nearly ready. Thus the reign of Leo XIII continues prominent by its promotion of learning.

Signor Crispi is understood to have displeased Princo Bismarck; by notcarrymg out the instructions given to him by the Chancellor as to provoking a war with France. The Chancellor, it is said, had determmed so to solve the long pending European difficulty. And diipi moreover, appeared to nim a Heaven-sent cat's-paw, for not °£L dld . fa . e P^ke mall the jealousy felt generally in Italy against France of late, but his own private feelings had been incensed against her, by the manner in which, some little time ago, his matrimonial alliances had been commented oq in some of the French papers This is a point on which Crispi is very sore, and which influences his actions a good deal. It is believed, for example, that the cause o the dismissal of the Duke of Torlonia from the Roman syndicate was not, as pretended, the homage paid by the Duke to the Holy Father on his Jubilee, but the cut direct given by the Duchess to Madame Crispi the Third at the Quirinal. Madame Orispi the First was a humble peasant woman whom her husband had married at Malts but whom he soon deserted to Form a second marriage with a lady of Garibaldi's following. Of this lady also he soon tired, and on the death of Madame the First, which conveniently occurred, virtuously esteeming himself a widower, he espoused Madame Crispi the lnird, Madame the Second, however, was not so easily disposed 01, but somewhat noisily put in her claims, to which the triple bridegroom responded that she had no call to him, as Madame the First had bean in the flesh, as indeed she probably knew, when he had married her. The plea, nevertheless, whatever it might have been in honour, held good in all other points, and Madame the Third was undoubtedly the lawful wife. The circumstances were so peculiar that they gave much cause for gossip at the time, and the French newspapers lately revived the theme. and discusEed it in a manner that Crispi took in very bad part. There were several reasons, therefore, why the Italian Premier should seem to Prince Bismarck just such a cat's-paw as was needed for his purpose. To explain why the Premier failed the man of blood and iron, would require an insight into his plans and intentions that it would not be easy to obtain. It may be that on hii visit to Berlin be had discerned what seemed to him tokens of a decline in Prince Bismarck's power. And Crispi is not the swallow to build his nest beneath the «ayes of a tottering edifice. Some sufficient reason b«, has undoubtedly seen for disregarding the Chancellor's wishes, and so far as his own interests are concerned, he certainly understands what he is about.

The Mmiteur dr Rome, which has made several suspicious utterances of late, and seemed as if it were yielding to the influence of the anti-Irish party, appears to have had its eyes opened by Mr. ftlandeville's case. A few weeks ago for instance, in referring to the laying of the foundation-stone of the O'Connell memorial church, it took occasion to lament the demeanour of the Irish National party, and to recommend that they should act more after the mind and traditions of the great agitator. Now it acknowledges that the law is reasonably a dead letter in Ireland, and naturally disregarded by the people. In no other country in Europe, it says, could such treatment be given to a man in Mr. Mandeville's position, What is lawful in England, it explains, is unlawful in Ireland. A man may do in Glasgow with impunity what he will be prosecuted for doin» in Dublin. It predicts that, thanks to Mr. Gladstone, the next general election must put an end to this anomalous state of things and secure the tnumphi of Mr. Parnell, and a revision of the Act of Union. Poor Mandeville, therefore, as we &cc, has not died in vain.

Times in Italy are sadly changed to the poor. The days no longer exist in which the charity of the religious houses made it impossible for anyone to know want in its last extreme. The religious houses have beea closed and confiscated, and their inhabitants driven away or themselves reduced to tbe utmost want and suffering. A typical case is consequently the following. It is that of a man of 80 years of age, who had served in the army for 25 years, and shared in all the glories of the campaign by which his country secured its much-boaat«d freedom and union. It is remarkable, besides, as illustrating the treatment given to those soldiers by whose means Italy aspires to become a great military power. Such an example may well inspire heroic deeds. This old man, reduced to starvation, in spite of freedom and union, and his long years of gallant service, ventured to beg a morsel ot bread in the street He was at once arrested and sentenced to a day "a imprisonment and as the officers took him away he fainted from exhaustion in their hands, and had to be carried on a stretcher to gaol. Such scenes which are frequent mark the improvement of the period,

Another sign of the times has been the free pardon accorded by King Humbert, at the instance of Signor Crispi, to tho murderer, Amilcare Cipria.i. Cipriani, who had formerly been the popular member of Parliament for the Romagna— that ie, popular among the party that returns the members of Parliament, for whom the Catholic people do not vote— had murdered three men in Egypt, for which he was condemned, not todeath, which the new penal code has abolished, but to twenty years' imprisonment. Cerberus, in the shape of the revolutionary Romagna, however, needing a sop, the pardon of Cipriani has been thrown to it, with the humble hope that it would be accepted. But the reply is not favourable. It has taken the form of a revolutionary address calling on the people to make a demonstration against the monarchy at the base of Mazzini's statue. Such is the gratitude of men — or at least of revolutionists,

Those who admire the action of Nemesis cannot fail to be interested in the new departure made by the less advanced members of the Liberal party. (Seeing the fate that awaits them and the rapid growth of extreme Radicalism, those paople are now calling on the Catholics of the country to exercise their right of voting in the Parlia mentary elections. The Pop*lo,\a, prominent organ of the party, goes so far as to declare openly that public morality in Italy has perished

?. Q l tl l at ltareßtit°tionl tareBtit °tion can only be brought about by the return of

iSjeSy* pact 0y ' t0 b 9 ackrnwled « ed b y hiß

tion Si .irnTJr 8 he u D ew] y -erected monument, rf the revolution that affront the eye m the Roman streets is the observatory that the lirrinn^ cVe V° mm t Pleted ° D the J *™^™- «!■ a monument to erec id to h£l «*ronomer 1 Father Secchi. 8.J., and has been Even tht .xfr P ry by hlB pUpil and brotber Jeauit - Fath <* Ferrari. bear teßtimonvT £ M reCo * mße the meiit of this 'great work, and SSsSS Srnr- *™ dcxiT u ot Fath « Ferrari's successful and de*™ Z h ? \, Perhaps, however, their liberality is in some well obS?n«v? 11l " F ° rrari ' 3 task has been one that might the benefit of Z SeeMS ™ ceM "^ration of enemies-and we may g!ve tne benent of the doubt to those who deserve it,

Se R lh^ re tha ? eVery Cathol ic is justified ia doing. To