eligion a powerful auxiliary in maintaining
the stability of your Empire.

For all dominion is founded on justice, and of justice there is not a
principle which is not laid down in the precepts of Christianity. And
thus, all they who bear the name of Christian, are above all
enjoined,--not through fear of punishments, but by the voice of
religion,--to reverence the kingly sway, to obey the laws, and not to
seek for ought in public affairs save that which is peaceful and
upright. We most earnestly beseech you, therefore, to grant the utmost
freedom in your power to all Christians, and to deign, as heretofore, to
protect their institutions with your patronage and favor. We, on our
part, shall suppliantly beseech God, the author of all good, that he may
grant your beneficial undertakings their wished-for outcome, and may
bestow upon Your Majesty, and the whole realm of Japan, blessings and
favors increasing day by day.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on the twelfth day of May, 1885, in the
eighth year of Our Pontificate.

Order of the Buried Alive.

The order of the Buried Alive in Rome, the Convent of the Sepolte Vivo,
is a remnant of the Middle Ages in the life of to-day. _The London
Queen's_ correspondent had the privilege of an entrance within, one
after another, of the five iron doors, and talking with the Mother
Superior through the thick swathing of a woollen veil, but ordinary
communication with the convent is carried on through the "barrel," which
fills an opening in the wall. Over the barrel is written: "Who will live
contented within these walls, let her leave at the gate every earthly
care." You knock at the barrel, which turns slowly around till it shows
a section like that of an orange from which one of the quarters has been
cut.

You speak to the invisible sister, who asks your will; and she answers
you in good Italian and cultivated intonation. You hear the voice quite
distinctly, but as if it was far, far away. She is really separated from
you by a slender slice of wood, but she is absolutely invisible. Not the
smallest ray of light, nor the smallest chink is visible between you and
her. Sound travels through the barrel, but sight is absolutely excluded.
These nuns live on charity, keeping two Lents in the year--one from
November to Christmas, the other the ordinary Lent of Catholic
Christendom. Living, therefore, on charity, they may eat whatever is
given to them, saving always "flesh meat"