Unfortunately, I happened to walk out yesterday evening, and
observed that the lamps were very few and far between, while in the only
illuminated house I entered I found the proprietor grumbling at the
expense which the priests had insisted on his incurring. I have then a
whole column about the proceedings at the "Propaganda" on the festival of
the Epiphany, now some days ago. The Archbishop of Thebes, I rejoice to
learn, excited the pupils of the Academy to imitate the virtues
manifested in the "Magi," by an appropriate homily, drawing a striking
parallel between the simplicity, the faith and honesty of the three
kings, and the disbelief and hypocrisy of the wicked king Herod. I
wonder if I have ever heard of Herod under a more modern name, and pass
on to a passage, written in italics, in order to attract my special
attention. The "Propaganda" meeting is, I am informed, "a noble
spectacle, which Rome alone can offer to the world; that Rome, which God
has made the capital of His everlasting kingdom." This concludes the
whole of my domestic intelligence; all that I know, or am to know, about
the state of my own country.
Then follows the foreign intelligence, under the heading of "Varieties."
Seventy pro-papal works have, I read, been published in France; indeed,
the zeal in behalf of the Pontifical cause gains, day by day, so rapidly
in that country, that "every one," so some provincial paper says, "who
can hold a pen in hand uses it in favour of justice and religion, upon
the question of the Papacy.
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