The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-28 00:00:00

R.O3IAN AFFAIRS.

1837. And the press at the cathedral to-day
could not well have been surpassed. I will
say honestly that the devotion of the Neapoli-
tans does not come up to the standard of per-
fection one has in one's English mind, but it
is necessary, in some measure, to rate people
by their own standard. Anyhow it was a most
remarkable scene, and entirely a thing of
Naples. I have not many minutes left before
we start for Castellamare, but I will tell you

(From the Correspondent of the Westminster Gazette.)
ROME, Sept. 17.
There was a rumour a little while ago that
the police had come upon the track of one of
the most frightful attempts the Revolution has
yet made, which was nothing less than to blow
up the ilitary wing of the Hospital of San
Spirito, as there was at the time a very large
number of soldiers laid up there, and it was

candidly just what I saw.
The cathedral is a very large, lofty church,
and the south transept, in which is the altar
of , the Saint, is a church in itself, having
besides, what may for distinction's sake be
termed its High Altar (where the ceremony
takes place), two other large and handsome
altars in its transepts, and four others, smaller.

expected to make a good haul. As it is it has
only served once more to show the Roman
people what manner of men are their would-
be liberators. The scheme was so altogether

inhuman and beyond all palliation that rcould
not bring myself to believe in it, and therefore
omitted mention of it till I had further con-
firmation. This has, however, come to me
now, and there can be no object in keeping
silence longer. The Pope's visit to the Hospi-
tal, mentioned in my last, was prompted by the
renewed interest their escape from so horrible a
fate had given him in his defenders. The tele-
grams will also have informed you of an im-
portant seizure of arms in a hut on the borders
of the Tiber, and they are arms which prove
the most butcherly intentions. There are 600
hatchets, 50 axes, and thirty cases of daggers.
The movements of troops to the frontier seem
to have afforded a useful warning that the Go-
vernment is on the alert, and we have conse-

We had places promised us and arrived duly
to our appointment at the sacristy, (not of
the Cathedral, but of this transept-church),

by 8 a.m., though the ceremony was not to
begin till 9. There were Masses going on in
another sacristy, which was as well, for S.
Gennaro is a day of obligation here.
Our privilege, however, did not bring us all
the ease I had hoped. First, we had a great
squeeze to get to this sacristy at all, for havinc,
forgotten we were to have gone to a private
entrance, we made our way through the cathe-
dral. lam not on the whole sorry, now it is
over, as it afforded me an acquaintance with
such a collection of physiognomies as could
not perhaps be studied on any other occasion.
Meantime, however, the inroad of persons, even
vwilhegenedthaedmorisdseironswas, given to proceed
was enormous, and
with
81. Zri,
to the High Altar (of the transept always
understood) the rush and the crush was some-
thing appalling, and this only among the scelti,
for when a reserved and draped passage,
guarded by soldiers, had been prepared, we
were allowed to make our way up to the very
altar from which the head of the saint, which
had previously been standing at the north end,
had been removed. (It is the custom in most
of the churches here to have a large head of
a saint—generally a bust of S. Gennaro him-
self—at the north end of the chief altar.)
Presently it was brought in and put in its
usual place, and soon after .the reliquary, con-
taining the two phials with the blood was
brought from behind the altar, accompanied
by six or eight priests bearing tapers. It was
given into the hands of one of the canons who,
with difficulty, found standing room close to
the altar, so hardly were we and those around
pressed upon from behind. Certainly the
closest access for inspection was allowed, and
only one ministrant remained with the officia-
ting priest, and he bore a lighted candle close
behind the reliquary, so that the most perfect
view of what was going on might be afforded
whilst the Canon held it aloft. It is a round
frame with a double glass, deep enough to hold
two phials, the larger about 3 inches in diameter,
with a neck and a seal, the other much smaller,
set in silver, with an ornament at the top. The
Canon kept turning it close to the light, and
one could plainly see that the substance inside
was solid, because when he held it topsy turvy,
the lower part of the bottle remained empty.
Masses were being said at the other altars, none
at this ; but some ten or twelve old women, I
must say of most unprepossessing appearance,
for whom a red curtain was prepared inside the
altar rail, were vociferating prayers, rosaries,
litanies, ejaculations of their own, making the
most deafening din imaginable. I tried to re-
concile myself to it by remembering that their
ways are not as our ways. A young English-
man near me whispered it was like an army
of frogs, and really, though I tried to keep
up all my respect for the old things' devo-
tion, I could not deny the force of the com-
parison.
By 9.20 I noticed a slope in the surface of
the contents of one phial, as the reliquary was
being turned over, and a minute after people
observed,_ above a whisper, that the liquefac-
tion had commenced. The vociferations to
St. Gennaro now became even louder, and
people within the privileged enclosure pressed
even more. In about five minutes a consider-
able quantity had become liquid. And then
everybody exclaimed so loudly, that it was
hardly necessary for the Canon to make the
usual movement with his hand, which is the
signal for the Te Deum to be struck up by
the organ. The sound of the instrument was
literally dunned by the 'singing of the people,
yet even above this you heard the naal screech-
ing (I can call it nothing else) of the old women,
the "relations" of St. Januarius, with their
fervent "ringraziamo la Santissima Pinitei !
Vi ring raziamo San Gennaro ! Gloria Patri,
etc," which never ceased after this. Many of
them added to the excitement of the scene by
bursting into sobs, and altogether one had to
pinch oneself to make sure that one was really
assisting at an actual scene in a nineteenth
century church.
The liquefaction, as I saw it, never seemed
to be entire. I mean there still was a nucleus
of solid matter left, which floated in the very
evident liquid. The matter in. the smaller phial
did not liquefy at all, which I believe the people
consider bodes evil, but it is seldom the lique-
faction is accomplished so soon as to-day—
namely, in thirty or thirty-five minutes.
After a while we all got near enough to kiss
and after we, within flu' sanc-
tuary,n so admitted, the Canon moved
the
down to the rail, and after the said "relations"
had venerated it, another priest went on hold-
in
git for the general public to come up and
kiss.
The ceremony is repeated every day in the
octave, and after it the Sacristy and Treasury
are opened for the visits of the public.

quently heard less of preparations for invasion,
though all who hold any rank in the Garibal-
dian hordes have received notice to be ready
for any orders at any moment. The opinion
most authoritatively rumoured this week is that
we shall have nothing till there is first a,revo-
lation in Florence, and an overthrow of the
Government there would be by a simultaneous
rising in other towns. Something certainly
seems to be occupying the Democratic world,
and calling their attention for the moment
off us. Even the Naples Parliamentino, so
boasted of a few days ago, is, it seems, not to
come off after all. The rumour of Garibaldi's
escape, which created so much excitement
among the Mediterranean fleets last week, is
explained now to have originated in an English
vessel having carried him a visitor, who it after-
wards took on to Malta, and that that visitor
was Mazzini. We shall soon know, of course,
what it is that is brewing, and there is no
doubt it is no relinquishment of their preten-
sions, but only preparation for a more acharne
attack.
That the Government is in great alarm
lam most credibly informed. Such constant
ill-luck follows whateverit attempts that really,
in spite'of all its errors and impiety, one cannot
help being almost sorry for it. The vigorous
move of sending a military governor to put
down the increase of crime, which has been
advancing with rapid strides since the expul-
sion of the Pontifical Government, has been
marked by a new assassination being perpe-
trated at Faenza on the person of one Count
Cattoli. What a trump card it would be if the
Ministry could meet the next Parliament with
the announcement that the French protection
should be removed from Rome. What a mul-
titude of evils it would cover and save enter-
ing into account for ! Constant and urgent
negotiations are going on for the purpose with
the Emperor, but with the same steady hand,
as all along, his troops are still establishing
themselves at Civita Vecchia, and it is impos-
sible that any proximate relinquishment of the
position can be contemplated. At the same
time there is a strong rumour that he is willing
to give up the province of Frosinone to the
Piedmontese—if they can take it.
The Papal army will be only too glad to
have the task of defending it. So earnest is
the desire for work, that I believe they would
not hesitate to throw themselves into it, even
if the whole army of Italy were opposed to
them. _ _

I am glad to see you have been working up
our people at home to remember their obliga-
tions to the cause of the Pope. Already your
efforts have borne fruit. I hear several Eng-
lish volunteers have arrived within the last few
days, and that others are on their way, among
them being represented the name of Petre and
other honourable patronymics.
The Consistory I announced for the 21st is
now put off till the 24th, when it will certainly
take place, and intimations are being sent out
to-day to members of the S. College and others
who have to attend it.
The report I gave you some time ago, that
the bishops of various schismatical Eastern
churches have boon. inyiLea to come to Rome
at the time of the Council,is confirmed. I have
been shown a copy of the epistle inviting them,
from which I will send you some extracts the
first moment I have time to translate them, as
it is a most interesting document. But at the
present moment I am busy preparing to go to
Naples, whither every one is already gone ; in
fact the streets are quite deserted, and for some
little time past there has not been such a thing
as a forestiere's carriage to be seen. Only the
Pope remains here, as trustful in Providence as
ever, inspiring all with confidence ; and some
of the Cardinals and the indefatigable labourers
in the sections for preparing the acts of the
Council. The canonization of Blessed Nicolas
de Finch, hermit of Saxeln, one of the patrons
of Switzerland, the process for which was com-
menced two years ago, will, it is expected, be
carried through in the course of this winter.
Cardinal Reisach has the caseunder his care.
I believe, too, Count Armand, who acts for
M. de Banneville till he comes in November,
remains in town.
You will probably have heard further parti-
culars than myself of a lamentable accident
which occurred on Tuesday, on the Mont Cenis
Railway, near Lansbourg. Some matches
in a goods waggon caught fire by some unex-
plained cause, and the fire spread with such
rapidity that 100,000 francs' worth of damage
was the result.

NAPLES, Sept. 19:

I posted a hasty letter to you before starting
from Rome, which I hope reached in due course.
As my stay here must be short, I tried to make
the most of it by starting on an excursion to
Bake early yesterday morning, though tired
enough with the journey from Rome, and in
spite of the threatening clouds. We had not
proceeded far when a most violent thunder-
storm came on, and as there was no promise
of clearing sufficiently to enjoy the scenery,
we were forced to turn back and compromise
with the vetturino, who, I must say, was very
good-humoured over the disappointment. They
had a severe thunderstorm here also on the
14th,. but in spite of this, it is better a good
deal than in Rome, and mosquitoes, of which
one is comparatively free there, arevery trouble-
some by day as well as by night. Vesuvius is
provokingly sluggish. We have a charming
look-ont upon it from our hotel on the Sta.
Lucia Quay. We shall move to Castellamare,
however, to-night, to see if that proves cooler.
The King had been expected here yesterday,
but has been advised not to trust himself here
on St. Gennaro's day, and no other day is yet
named for his visit.

I was told a story just now by a person whose
disgust at the present state of affairs here may
perhaps incline him to exaggerate a little the
efforts which are being made to destroy the
religious feeling of the people, It was an ac-
count of a piece going on at one of the theatres
—a pantomime, in which bishops are brought
on with asses' heads, and cardinals with mules' ;
a procession of clergy comes in and falls down
in adoration before the Chassepot rifle ; and
when public disgust has been sufficiently
ripened by this scene, a file of monks of gro-
tesque aspect passes across the stage to receive
the hisses and execrations of the excited popu-
lace. This was but a specimen, however, of the
revolting expedients to which, he assures me,
the most anti-religious section of the Italian-
issimi have recourse. All the while, however,
there is still a large proportion faithful to their
devout practices. The concourse of pilgrims,
not only from among the peasantry but of all
degrees, in due proportion from all parts of
Italy, to celebrate our Lady's Nativity at Loreto
this year, was greater than any year since

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 28, 1868

pleasant evidence of the spread of irreligion
among a class in which an appearance, at least,
of outward reverence was wont to be habitually
observed.—TVestininster Gazette.

RECEP2 10IV OF THE CHINESE EMBASSY

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
Some five years ago two gentlemen might often
have been seen in earnest conversation as they
strolled along the broad way which makes the top
of the Peking Wall appear like a road. On the
one side lay the Chinese city, on the other the
Tartar, and looking as they did over the vast as-
semblage of houses whose roofs were far beneath
them they must forcibly have felt the isolation among
'a strange people. They were accredited from the
most powerful family of mankind to the most
numerous. The one represented the Anglo-Saxon
in his island home of Britain ; the other the Anglo-
Saxon on the American Continent he had made his
own. Away from party squabbles, from all the mean
jealeousies and disturbing influences which affect
the two kindred peoples, these gentlemen took a
broad and generous view of the relations which
ought not only to exist between those they repre-
sented, but between them, aspiring, as they do,
to be masters of the world, and the swarming mil-
lions whose hum came up from below. It was natu-
ral that Sir FREDERICK BRUCE and Mr. ANSON Buit-
LINGAME should be filled with the philanthropic de-
sire to do a great good to a vast multitude, for even
men narrower in conception and inferior in in-
tellect could hardly fail under the circumstances to
be thus affected. Let any one imagine for himself a
position wherein he could guide the course, and ad-
vance the interest of a third of Gon's creatures, and
ask himself if he could refrain—throwing aside an
opportunity but rarely vouchsafed because it did not
involve a personal gain. Can we wonder that the
philanthropic feeling took strong hold of these
two minds—canny Scots though both were—for
the one was the direct dtscendaut of the BRUCE..
and the father of the other left his native heather
to settle in America. Every subject connected
with China's exterior relations was appropriately
discussed on the walls of Peking by the British and
American Ambassadors. That China must be
brought into the family of nations was their settled
conviction, but how best to do it was the question.
Before them was; the Palace of the EMPEROR and
the offices whence the edicts went forth obeyed by
the three hundred millions who occupied this large
and favoured portion of earth's soil, and to influence
these rulers was to influence the nation. This was uo
easy task, for there was a well-grounded suspicion
in the minds of those men. The Saxon with them
was associated with opium-smuggling and with
war—a nefarious trade and a gauntleted hand. In
success the Envoys knew that the Chinese would
mainly benefit, but in a lesser degree only would
be the benefit to the sections they represented of
the Anglo-Saxon people. They knew that hitherto
European nations had been but only scraping on
the coasts of China, that a trade with three hun-
dred industrious millions meant something even be-
yond the conception of the trading mind of Eng-
land, and as the Chinese produce luxuries which
they would readily barter for Manchester and
Sheffield goods that the gain at least in the first
instance would mainly accrue to the British, now
prepared to supply the demand. It is no wonder
that where everything fitted so nicely, where the
interests of all three nations, indeed of the world,
ran in the same groove, and they had only to
push, that the Ministers were quickly able to
dissipate preju lice and educate the Mandarins
up to the point. Sir FREDERICK was promoted to
Washington, and left the EMPEROR'S Government
unfeignedly sorrowing at his departure. But to
the day of his death he never lost his deep interest
in the strange people he knew so well, and his in-
fluence was never wanting to aid Mr. BURLINGAME
in forwarding the policy they had matured. In
process of time, and after a seven years' residence,
Mr. BURLINGAME also announced to the Chinese
Government that he was about to withdraw. Con-
fidence had long before this been established be-
tween him and the Chinese Ministers ; they were
shrewd, intelligent men, and the measures intro-
duced at the recommendation of Sir FREDERICK
and himself had been judged by their fruits, which
were in the highest degree favourable. They
marked the rigid abstinence from interference in
the domestic affairs of China, the honest and fair
decisions on disputed points, and the suppression
of English and American dictation elsewhere.
They saw their country visibly rising under the new
system; their exchequer was comparatively full,
money could be readily procured when required, and
the Government of the nation began to awaken from
its lethargy of centuries, if weak and exhausted, at
least free from Debt, with boundless undeveloped
resources, and a population of 300,000,000 hard-
working and frugal subjects. The natural conse-
quence followed the teachings, on the announced
departure of the last of the two men they most
trusted. The Chinese desired ANSON BURLINGA3IE
to employ his time in the countries to which he was
returning in their interest, and. in consummating
the foreign policy he in conjunction with Sir FRE-
DERICK had originated and recommended. For many
reasons he was the best man they could have se-
lected, though there was one drawback of which
they were not aware. Their connection of the future
will be with America—their connection of the pre-
sent is with England. It would have been manifestly
wrong to have chosen an Englishman to act for them
in questions in which the English are at the mo-
ment so deeply interested, and with the knowledge
that but a few years had elapsed since English
hands had fired the Palace of their EMPE-
ROR. With the United States they had had no
quarrel. The great emigration of China is to
the shores of California, and their rising_ trade
points to the East and not towards the Wes ;
in one word, these two great nationalities daily
grow in the intimacy of neighbourhood. They
were wise then to seize the opportunity of Mr.
BURLINGAME'S departure, though the occasion was
a mere accident. With him they associated an
English official as one Secretary of Legation, and
a French official as the other, thus represent-
ing the three principal Powers. To represent their
own nationality they sent as joint Envoys a Mant-
chou Tartar and a pure Chinese, both of high rank.
Mr. BUttLINGAME, filled with the enthusiasm of the
great good to the human race he was about to ac-
complish, sailed on his mission. Aware that the
only object was to open China to the world, and
to benefit alike every nation that sought the inter-
course, he anticipated little opposition except from
the opium smuggling interest, and from the close
and jealous monopolies which the false system of
trade with China had created. He knew he would
be well received in his own country, nor did the
result belie the anticipation, for he was met
in America with a confidence little less generous
than that reposed in him by the Chinese.
But the question was how his mission would be
received in this land, which at the moment
is, beyond comparison, the one most interested
in it. England is professedly a liberal country
—the advocate of free trade, of the rights of
the human race, of freedom of opinion and inter-
course. Englishmen are a keen trading commu-
nity, and might be expected quickly to see the ad-
vantage to them, above other people, of more
open communicationwith the most numerous family
of mankind. But a malignant influence remained
strong enough, in the first instance at least, to
overshadow with distrust these advantages. " A
full-blooded Yankee, a dexterous American politi-
cian," as the Standard calls Mr. BirehieweasiE, was
at the bead of the mission—and in this lies the
secret of the anti-China strength given to the oppos-
ing opium and monopoly interest. A dim idea rests
in the English mind that supremacy in the Chinese
Seas is passing from British into American hands --
that the march of events will be hurried beyond
calculation by the World's Highway almost con-
structed between New York and San Fran-
cisco, and that the centre of Eastern commerce
will shortly wing i:s flight from England,
and settle down on one of these two towns.
This prospect resembles that of a tradesman,
who finds that a grand new thoroughfare is about
to take away and transfer his custom to his rival,
and if Mr. BURLINGAME'S mission meets with the
cold ehoulder here, he and America should make