The Express.
London, England, 1862-06-12 00:00:00

NIGH_ W 41112 4.T LOSDOS BLIDIII.

Tara lb. fiva.
Tu-atoasow—monung. 211. 20M••• • • Ana

LONDON, THURSDAY, JUNE 12.

THE natives of Brompton are probably
im-
pressed with the weight of their destiny at the
present moment. " The eyes of Europe " are
upon them, though in this respect Brompton is
only in the position of every Little Peddlington in
the land,which once a year at least is sublimelyper-
snaded that Europe has its eye upon the local fuss,
and the local favourite. How will this cosmopolitan
suburb, into which all nations are pouring at the
rate of sixty thousand a day, accept the fact:that a
Great International Exhibition is at this very
moment in full career at Rome ; and such an
Exhibition as, according to a French writer,
has not been seen in that city for the last six
hundred years ? Some evil prophets pretend that
it will be the last Exhibition of the kind in the
Eternal City, but our grumblers said the same
of the South Kensington Show the other day.
Undoubtedlythe Show at Rome is of a questionable
character; but, with some alterations and improve-
ments suggested by the present experiment, and
by "the future state of things," it will bear repeti-
tion ; and it seems a pity that the British pub) c,
who contribute so many pilgrims to the annual
migration to the Holy City, should miss an op-
portunity of seeing the capital of the Christian
world converted into a living catacomb in the
" dead season."

To lovers of contrasts, a run from Brompton to
Rome would repay the trouble and the heat
Some people have complained of the gaudiness
and glare of the decoration of Captain Fowxz's
temple of the Useful. They would find a
curious and interesting study of colour in
the spectacle of the five-and-forty Cardinals,
the three hundred bishops, and the three thou-
sand ecclesiastics of all shapes and hues, who
have fallen in a black and purple shower upon all
the palaces, churches, and convents in Rome.
The Holy City is in possession of a mob of
spiritual crusaders from all quarters of the
compass, who all day long are shouting and
gesticulating and foaming at the mouth in
behalf of the temporal power of the successor of
Sr. Para& "In June," say the Romans, " the
" malaria is always at our gates, but this year we
" have the eleventh plague." The avowed object
of this great International Exhibition, at which
that eminent English connoisseur Cardinal Wise-
xzzr holds a conspicuous place, is to canonize
Dome poor missionaries, who lost their lives in

preaching the gospel in Japan a couple of cen-
turies ago. It is Japan that the eyes of Europe
are really upon this year, whether at Epsom
or in St. Peter's. Many people who have read
of the canonization of " the Japanese Martyrs "

have imagined, no doubt, that it meant a royal
salute in honour of those distinguished visitors now
on the point of leaving us, whose consummate mit
admirari philosophy nothing but a moment's
glance at an Anglican bishop was able to disturb.
The true and humble servants of the Cron who
died on the field of their obscure and distant
labours are now, after a lapse of two hundred
years, recommended for promotion by the HoLv

leAniss. But it is common to infallible and
fallible potentates to do nothing without an ort3n-
sible as well as a real motive ; and it is conceivable
that the Japanese Martyrs might have waited some
time longer for their saintship if the temporal
power had been out of danger. At any rate
the ceremony of the canonization had about as

much to do with the Great International Show at
the V►tican as the ceremony of opening the build-
ing with the Great Exhibition at Brampton, and it
took less time. It was only when the " Japanese
" Marty!' " had been disposed of that the real
business of the meeting began, and this was nothing
more nor less than the martyrdom of the Roman
people for the greater gloii of the Catlio,;c
world. After the canonization came the allo-

cation of the HOLY Ferule to the Consistotf, dc-
ploring the oppression of the Church and the revo-
lutionary spirit of the age. Then, the address of 21
Cardinals and 244 Bishops in reply, approving the
defence of the rights of the Holy See, and exhor--
ing to resistance. So much for the final discharge
of ramrods; but the incessant reviews and evolu-
tions of the ecclesiastical forces in all the public
places of the city, the kneeling and shouting and
weeping army of foreign priests, the sermon on the
site of a new barrack of Papal Zouaves by that lover
of liberty in France, Bishop Dtrraittorre the Acade-
mician, the blessing of the Papal standards—all
these displays of militant zeal were intended to
strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of the
Temporal Power. Bishop DUPAIELOLIP, it is
known, is a bitter enemy of Imperialism, since the
EMPEROR took up the sword for Italy ; yet it was
only under the proto tion of " ChIBAR" that he
was able to consecrate the site of the Papal bar-
rack. Heretics cannot fail to note how
calmly Catholic Italy has awaited the sen-
tence of major excommunication, which, even with
an army of foreign ecclesiastics hounding him on,
Pius IX. has the worldly wisdom to reserve.
May we venture to suggest to the good Dr.
MANNING to explain, for the benefit of the English
people, of whose religions progress he is so hope-
ful, how it happens that the very Catholics, who of
all others live in closest contact with the Temporal
Power, prefer the major excommunication with
Italy to canonization with Cardinal Awroitzmi
Such anomalies cannot fail to strike lookers-on who
are undazzled by the three thousand wax-lights in
St. Peter's, and out of the reach of the dinners and
soirees of the Vatican. In sober truth, such a
scandal and insult to religion, unless religion
be a " rhapsody of words," a display of fire-
works, and a glorification of upholstery ;—autthan
outrage to reason and common sense has not been
witnessed in our time. If any public demonstra-
tion had been wanted to prove that incompatibility
of the Temporal Power with modern civilization,
which is the favourite doctrine of the HOLY