eriff, the Quirinal would
be the sure retreat against Old Nick; and I have even pictured to myself
the rage of his disappointed malice as he saw me sheltering safely
beneath a protection he dared not invade. And now I am told to
relinquish all the blessed enjoyment of this immunity; that the Pope and
the Cardinals and Antonelli himself are not a whit better off than the
rest of us; that if Mr Home gets into Rome, there is nothing to prevent
his having the Devil at his tea-parties. What an ignoble confession
is this! Who will step forward any longer and contend that this costly
system is to be maintained, and all these saintly intercessors to be
kept on the most expensive of all pension-lists, if a poor creature like
Home can overthrow it all?

Can any one conceive such a spectacle as these gorgeous men of scarlet
and purple cringing before this poor pretender, and openly avowing
before Europe that there is no peace for them till he consents to cross
the Tiber?

Why--I speak, of course, in the ignorance of a laic--but, I ask, why not
fumigate him and cleanse him? When I saw him last, the process would not
have been so supererogatory. Why not exorcise and defy him? Why not say,
Come, and bring your friend if you dare; you shall see how we will treat
you. Only try it It is what we have been asking for nigh two thousand
years. Let the great culprit step forward and plead to his indictment.

I can fancy the Pope saying this--I can picture to myself the proud
attitude of the Pontiff declaring, "I have had enough of these small
devilries, like Louis Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel--I am sick of Mazzini
and his petty followers. Let us deal with the chief of the gang at once;
if we cannot convict him, he will be at least open to a compromise."
This, I say, I can comprehend; but it is clear and clean beyond me that
he should shirk the interview, and own he was afraid of it. It would not
surprise me to-morrow to hear that Lord Derby dreaded the Radicals, and
actually feared the debating powers of "Mr Potter of the Strikes."

GAMBLING FOR THE MILLION.

Nothing shows what a practical people we are more than our establishment
of insurances against railroad accidents. The spirit of commercial
enterprise, by which a man charters himself for a railroad voyage with
an insured cargo of his bones, ligaments, cartilage, and adipose tissue,
abundantly proves that we are nature's own traders and shopkeepers.

Any ordinary people less