art. There is not a wrinkle on his brow; no unpleasant thought
appears to shade the jovial light of his broad face. He sits down to
dinner with evidently a good appetite; he sleeps soundly at night, and
troubles not his poor head by brooding over misfortunes which he cannot
mend, or charging himself with the direction of plots which he is not
competent to manage. But, if not fitted to take the lead in cabinets,
nature has formed him to shine in a procession. He has a portly figure,
a face radiant with blandness, dissimulation, and vanity; and he looks
every inch the Pope, as he is carried shoulder-high in St Peter's, and
sits blazing in his jewelled tiara and purple robes, between two huge
fans of peacocks' feathers. To these accomplishments he adds that of a
fine voice; and when he gives his blessing from the balcony of St
Peter's, or assembles the Romans in the Forum, as he did on a late
occasion, when he lifted up hands dripping with his subjects' blood, to
call his hearers to repentance, his tones ring out, in the deep calm air
of Rome, clear and loud as those of a bell. Such is the man who is the
nominal head of the Papacy. We say the _nominal_ head; for such a system
as the Papacy, involving the consideration of so many interests, and
requiring such skilful steering to clear the rocks and quicksands amid
which the bark of Peter is now moving, demands the presence at the helm
of a steadier hand and a clearer eye than those of Pio Nono.

I come next to the College of Cardinals. In so large a body we find, as
might be expected, various grades of both intellectual and moral
character; and of course there are the corresponding indications on
their faces. An overbearing arrogance, which always communicates to the
countenance an air of vulgarity, more or less, is a very prevailing
trait. The average intellect in the sacred college is not so high as one
would expect in men who have risen to the top of their profession; and
for this reason, perhaps, that birth has fully more to do with their
elevation than talent or services. One scrutinises their faces curiously
when one remembers that these men are the living representatives of the
apostles. They profess to hold the rank, to be clothed with the
functions, and to inherit the supernatural endowments, of the first
inspired preachers. There you may look for the burning eloquence of a
Paul, the boldness of a Peter, the love of a John, the humility,
patience, zeal, of all. You