their bidding besides.

Was it--to come back to what I started with--was it in any spirit of
rivalry that the Papal Government drove Mr Home out of Home? Was it
that, assuming to have a monopoly in the wares he dealt in, they
would not stand a contraband trade? If so, their ground is at least
defensible; for what chance of attraction would there be for the winking
Virgin in competition with him who could "make a young lady ascend to
the ceiling, and come slowly down like a parachute!"--a spiritual fact
I have heard from witnesses who really, so far as character went, might
challenge any incredulity.

If the Cardinals were jealous of the Conjuror, the thing is intelligible
enough, and one must feel a certain degree of sympathy with the
old-established firm that had spent such enormous sums, and made such
stupendous preparations, when a pretender like this could come into
competition with them, without any other properties than could be
carried conveniently about him.

But let us be practical The Pope's Government demanded of Mr Home that
he should have no dealings with the Evil One during his stay at Rome.
Now, I ask, what should we say of the efficacy of our police system
if we were to hear that the Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard lived in
nightly terror of the pickpockets who frequented that quarter, and
came to Parliament with a petition to accord him some greater
security against their depredations? Would not the natural reply be an
exclamation of astonishment that he who could summon to his aid every
alphabetical blue-coat that ever handled a truncheon, should deem any
increased security necessary to his peace? And so, would I ask, of what
avail these crowds of cardinals--these regiments of monsignori--these
battalions of bishops, Arch and simple?--of what use all the incense
and these chanted litanies, these eternal processions, and these saintly
shin-bones borne in costly array--if one poor mortal, supposed to live
on visiting terms with the Evil One, can strike such terror into the
whole army led on by Infallibility?

If I had been possessed of any peculiar dread of coming unexpectedly
on the Devil--as the old ladies of New York used to feel long ago
about suddenly meeting with the British army--I should certainly have
comforted myself by the thought that I could always go and sit down on
the steps of the Vatican. It would immediately have occurred to me, that
as Holyrood offers its sanctuary against the sh