Presidents
of the United States have been actually murdered by just such men. The
King of Italy, and the Emperor William the First, Napoleon the Third,
Queen Victoria and Alexander the Third have all been assailed by such
fanatics within our own recollection, and some of them have narrowly
escaped death. Not one of them, with the exception of Alexander the
Third, has been so hated by a small and desperate body of men as Leo the
Thirteenth is hated by the little band which undoubtedly exists in Italy
today. I will venture to say that it is a matter of continual
satisfaction to the royal family of Italy, and to the Italian
government, that the Pope should really continue to consider himself a
prisoner within the precincts of the Vatican, since it is quite certain
that if he were to appear openly in Rome the Italian authorities would
not, in the long run, be able to protect his life.

After all that has been said and preached upon the subject by the
friends of Italy, it would be a serious matter indeed if the Pope,
taking a practical advantage of his theoretic liberty, should be done to
death in the streets of Rome by a self-styled Italian patriot. No one
who thoroughly understands Rome at the present day is ignorant that such
danger really exists, though it will no doubt be promptly denied by
Italian ministers, newspaper correspondents or other intelligent but
enthusiastic persons. The hysterical anarchist is unfortunately to be
met with all over the world at the present day, side by side with the
scientific social democrat, and too often under his immediate
protection. Indeed, a great number of the acts of Leo the Thirteenth, if
not all of them, have been directed against the mass of social democracy
in all its forms, good, bad and indifferent; and to the zeal of his
partisans in endeavouring to carry out his suggestions must be
attributed some of the strong utterances of the Church's adherents upon
matters political.

The question of 'assent and obedience' to the Holy See in matters not
relating to dogma and faith is, perhaps, the most important of all those
in which the papacy is now involved. There appears to be a decided
tendency to believe that Catholics ascribe to the Holy See a certain
degree of infallibility in regard to national policy and local
elections. The Pope's own words do not inculcate a blind obedience as
necessary to the salvation of the voter, though it is expressly declared
a grave offence to favo