The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 26, 1869.

ROME AND THE COMING COUNCIL.

(PROlt OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

ROME, OCT. 21.

The Empress's voyage has given cause to groat discus-
sions in Rome, and but for the positive assurance that the
French troops will not leave Civita Vecchia during the
Council, and the fact that all the contracts for forage, &c.,
have been received for 1870, the studied slight implied in
her Majesty's avoidance of Rome, while she spends several
days at Naples for the relevailles of Princess Margherita,would
give considerable uneasiness. The fact is that, as usual,
the Emperor is playing fast and loose with the Pope and
Victor Emmanuel, and every act favourable to the tem-
poral power is balanced by one calculated to gain the good
will of the Liberal party.

The weather has at last broken, after one of the finest
autumns in the memory of the oldest residents ; and the
rain, sirocco, and damp warm days which have succeeded
are very unfavourable for the sight-seers with whom Rome
is already thronged.
The Minerva Hotel is as full as it usually is at Easter,
and so are the Cesari, the Angleterre, and the' many
hotels frequented by French and Belgian families. The
excursionists are still here, but most of them will
leave before November, as the lodgings are engaged• from
that date for the Council. Persons of other than ample
means will do well to avoid Rome this year, as the lodging-
house keepers' charges are more exorbitant than ever.
£2O a month asked for a bishop's apartment, i.e.,
accommodation for the bishop and his servant, and this
even in the most remote localities has been general. The
agencies receive an enormous percentage on all apartments
recommended by them, so that it is their interest to keep
up their prices as much as possible, and your readers cannot
too much avoid employing them.

Mgr. Gueara, Bishop of Carraccas (Venezuela), and
Mgr. Collina, Bishop of Puebla:de los Angeles (Mexico),
have arrived in Rome. The "Aula Conciliare"is still in the
hands of the decorators. The imitative mosaics have yet
to be placed, and till after All Saints the effect will not be
complete.
The first stone of the Column of the Council was laid on
the Janiculum last week, by Cardinal Berardi, Minister of
Public Works in the presence of and in the name of the
Pope. Bishops have already arrived from all quarters of
the world, Mgr. Huerta, one of the Peruvian prelates,
making the seventy-second now in Rome. The
Bishops unable to attend the meeting will not exceed
sixty-three, and many of these have sent ecclesiastical
rep/ esentatives. The total number of the fathers of the
Council are—Archbishops, 135 ; bishops, 631; total, 766.
Of these, Great Britain and her colonies send ten arch-
bishops and 59 bishops, while the Two Sicilies send 26
archbishops and 92 bishops. The numbers for the United
States are 7 and 48. France sends 18 and 75 ; Prussia and
Russia each only 2 archbishops, while their bishops num-
ber respectively 6 and 12.

The Pope received a great number of foreigners this
evening in private audiences. The lay receptions will be
very limited after the Ist of November. His Holinoss
drove to Santa Maria, in Trastevere, on Thursday last, to
inspect the restorations made, and the tobacco factory of
Santa Cecilia, and San Crysogono, where he received the
community of Redemptorist friars who are doing a noble
work of education among the poor children of Trastevere.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

ItEFOltli AT TIIE VAR OFFICE.

Noticing that the Reorganisation Committee of the
War Office have again commenced their sittings, a
gentleman who has had" many years' connection with
that department," directs special attention to the
necessity for reducing the number of officials. This
writer endorses the principle laid down by the Arch-
duke Albert of Austria, that " the more nume-
rous the staff of an office the more complicated
is the business and the slower. It actually
becomes the aim of employed people to make work,
lest . they should be caught doing nothing, and
abolished." Precisely this evil exists to a formidable
extent at the War Office, and there gives rise to an
inegienncy of which the public can have little idea.
/
No
. reform ca. be effective which does not begin in
this directica. "It will perhaps be hardly credited
that the- e is no regular code defining ~the
duties nd responsibilities of each department
of the office ; that the Secretary of State himself
often does not know which department to call upon
to fcirnish information he requires, or to execute his
orders ; and that for several branches there are two
distinct and independent authorities, both equally
responsible (or irresponsible)."