The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 8, 1868.

ROMAN AFFAIRS.

(From the Correspondent of the Westminster Gazette.)
ROME, February 1.
We have been called to lament this week
the death of Mgr. de Witten, which occurred
by inflammation of the lungs, on Sunday
night. He was created Minister for Home
Affairs in October, 1863. He was much
esteemed both in family and public life, and
was only sixty-two, having been born in Rome
in June, 1805. Had he lived longer, there

is every probability he would have been raised
to the purple. The funeral service took place
on Tuesday at St. Maria, in Aquiro, his parish
church, and the burial next evening at Sar
Lorenzo, in Lucina, in the family vault. A long
procession of Capuchin frati, headed by the
clergy of the parish, came to fetch the body
from the official residence in the Palace, on
Monte Citorio. It was likewise at tended by

a considerable file of saccont. All who have
lived in Rome are familiar with the sacconi—a

confraternity of men chiefly of the best families
in Rome, who unite to a special devotion to
the Sacred Heart the practice of certain good
works. One of these, which consists in going
round to beg for the poor from house to house
every Friday and Saturday, clothed in a sack-
cloth habit entirely covering the face and per-
son, with only two small holes opposite the eyes,
and with bare feet, has made them familiar to

all who have lived in Rome. Four of them

carried the bier which was to receive the body
of the illustrious deceased. The procession
was scarcely out of sight when the gay traffic
of the Corso was stopped by another equally
imposing, composed of a similar number of
Capuchins and a large attendance of grey sacconi
—the Confraternity of the S. Stigmata of St.
Francis. This time it was the funeral of a
humble stiratrice (a woman who does ironing).
The death of Mgr. de Witten is likely to be
followed by other changes in the Ministry.
Barone Costantini-Baldini, Minister of Public
Works, who has been suffering from ill-health
for several months past, is likely to resign,
while the elevation of Mgr. Ferrari and Mgr.
Berardi to the Cardinalate may leave vacant the
Portfolio of Finance, and the post of Under-
Secretary of State. A change in the War
Office is also talked of.
The recall of General de Failly, and of
General de Proudhon, who has been assist-
ing in the direction of the fortification of
Rome, has been made a ground of much
animadversion against the Emperor Napoleon
this week. It is said to prove a better under-
standing with the Italian Court than the lan-
guage held towards the Holy See would jus-
tify. But if his successor, M. de Fare, Lieu-
tenant-Colonel of Artillery, is an officer of
lower grade,-he is second to none in Catholic
spirit, so the fitness of the appointment cannot
be impeached on that most important ground.
The Roman correspondent of certain French
journals, too, has been amusing himself with
giving circulation to an utterly unfounded re-
port
Pope by the Emper,
ofunduepressuresearid, to inducetobep hiutum
upon
the to
make various Governmental changes quite out
of proportion with the dimensions of his domi-
nions. He is said to be the tool of one who
would enjoy nothing more than to see the
harmony of the French and' Papal Courts in-
ts ea zupe
intermediarye d . la m
the informedpal thatl
ma l it
Gazetteis by t h
hasthe
lately been supplied with some unworthy at-
tacks, which, however, I have not seen, on
Papal Zouaves.
Apropos of the Zouaves, the corps seems
every day more and more popular. The elder
son of Prince Rospigliosi (brother of one who
lately entered the dragoons), one of the most
considerable of Roman titles, has just joined
them. From Austria we have several recruits
of good position, notwithstanding the discour-
agement of the Vienna Government. A second
Count Stolberg has lately arrived, and a prince
of the house of Hohenlohe ; also Prince Iturbide,
who lately refused a commission in the Aus-
trian army, signed his engagement this week
as private soldier in the army of the Pope.
Two young Counts Antonelli, nephews of the
Cardinal Secretary of State, have likewise
lately
Theree lsya ne en tpwe
iraeestdr
ao thein
greatvd dragoons.
ccooonolic,
osu'onrsesunat
dthaye,Cohnurthche
tohcecasHioonlyoFfatahsepretcoiaalllinwdhulo
pomt
ot e
pd r ba
pray
wentindulgence
thereap
for his intention.
Those who have only seen this church when
they drive up in the course of their " doing "
Rome, and have it opened at irregular hours
through the medium of their courrier in order
to see the famous Moses of Michael Angelo,
or Guercino's St. Margaret, or Raffael's Spe-
ranzawaste
e(fwmhearnhilte winassotlihetured)e,
aanndd
shilaevneeet,rwodonlitds
have failed to recognize it this day, so trans-
formed was it by its festive aspect. Ido not
remember
asendseAenu,guesxaten,eypwtohciecatsintonwooton which it could be
grineaantyfejeasortesstinirijuiarye
herTehteore waswitne ass.
sermon in the evening by P.
Curci, followed by Benediction, the music at
which was performed by the Papal Choir. The
building seems unusually well adapted for
rendering sound. The Chains of St. Peter,
Empresstoenshr enshrine which tuhe2,chwurercehewxpaossbeudilint by
sideythe
chapel, and were, during the whole day, the
object of devout veneration
t
veno be kissed, and so many
persons intervals they
were
persons pressed to avail themselves of the op-
portunity, iethurwaeshnwotaseaseylathoeraobttealiny
ilalcumicess.
Ptoorthiniemt.y,
nated and decorated, and with great effect. It
was a sight for apicture, as one stood in the
broad piazza at the close of the function, just
as the shades of evening were gathering round,
when the great west door was thrown open,
ffieiatedatßtehneedreetnieenra,balendcatral
throwing
nwghao
giallaycing egress to
stream of light on his flowing scarlet robes,
against
young
eseen in relief the white
w collarswas
ssa iodf7hiwt hcalsl serving e amongMboorytsa,ra,eah e bearingwh whom, ita
flambeau to light him to his carriage, while
the masses of outpouring worshippers moved
by in the shade framed in by the statue-
like guards.
On Thursday the Holy Father granted an
audience to a number of young persons enrolled
in the Sodality of the Children of Mary.
The same day was the first of a tridao
preceding the Feast of St. Ignatius, celebrated
with great splendour at the glorious old church
of St. Clemente, one of the most ancient in
Christendom, and occuping the site of the
dwelling-house of the saint. Among the trea-
sures it was known to contain were the relics
of SS. Clement, Ignatius and Cyril, but the
record of the precise spot where they lay had
been lost in the various vicissitudes the edifice
had undergone. They were recovered during
the late excavations ; an incident which
assisted in their recognition being that some
portion of the linen embalming cloths in which
the remains of St. Ignatius were known (from
a passage in St. Chrysostom) to have been sent
to his diocese, translated back to Rome
when Antioch was taken by the Saracens in
637.

,Before finally consigning the urn which
contains them to its shrine under the high
altar, it was borne solemnly in glad procession
round the adjoining canfrade, and thus, after
a lapse of just 1760 years, the bones of the holy
martyr, St. Ignatius, were brought back to
the very spot in the neighbouring amphitheatre
where the wild beasts, stayed in their sacrilegi-
ous repast, had been made to leave them to
serve as a witness and a consolation to the
generations yet to come. The fair blue sky
canopied just such a scene of struggling mul-
titudes, who may have surged onward to gain
a sight of the saint's martyrdom, as now were
there to honour his triumph ; and, instead of
cries of derision and contumely, there arose
the sacred hymns of the Church, intoned by
her bishops and princes. As the procession
made its way back through the western door
there might have been observed, like another
link in the chain of the Church's saints, a
crippled beggar asking 'alms under the very

portico where, day by clay of his whole weary
but patiently borne existence, St. Servolo, the
paralytic, was wont to beg the charity of the
faithful until he merited to hear the welcome
voice of the angel calling his spirit to its re-
ward, while his distorted form was laid to rest
in a chapel erected within the sacred precincts
in his honour, and subsequently signalized by
many acts of healing.
The cassa containing the relics of SS.
Clement and Ignatius was borne on a bier by
four principal Dominicans, of the Irish branch
of the order, to whom this church was assigned
by Urban VIII. ; foremost among them being
the Prior F. Malooly, to whose indefatigable
and enlightened labours is due the invaluable
discovery of the ancient fabric with its inte-
resting frescoes, and, above all, its priceless
relics. Four bishops walked at the four cor-
ners of the shrine, and after them came Car-
dinals Barnabo, Reisach, Guidi, di Pitra, and
others, while some Swiss guards and Irish
Zouaves formed a guard of honour. In front
marched a whole army of Dominicans, and then
the choir and the serving boys flinging in-
cense to mingle with the sweet scent of the bay
leaves with which the way was strewn. The
excavated church was thrown open to the piety
of the faithful, and its rough masonry and pri-
mitive decorations presenteda strangely-pic-
turesque aspect by the light of hundreds of
tapers.
The relics were deposited in sight of the
congregation, while the Te Deum was being
sung, in a receptacle prepared for them under
the high altar of the upper church, where an
inscription on a porphyry tablet announces
what are the contents; an open screen of stone
work was placed before them, and a perpetual
light set burning. .
While Vesuvius has been attracting a little
stream of visitors into the stagnant hotels of
poor Naples, and up to the present doing no
more mischief than alarm to the neighbour-
ing villages, serious and fatal damage has
occurred in the 'district of the town known
as Pizzofalcone, where the subterranean con-
vulsions occasioned a landslip and fall of a
house on the evening of Tuesday, burying
under the ruins an omnibus full of newly-
arrived visitors, a private carriage and a cart,
which were passing at the time, as well as
several persons occupying the ground floor.
The number of victims is believed to be about
sixty. The upper part was inhabited by a family
of forestieri, on a visit to Naples for the health
of a young boy of the party. They took warn-
ing from certain underground rumblings, and
made their escape scarcely an hour before the
catastrophe occurred. Great excitement has
been caused, not only by the alarming nature
of the calamity, but also because of the negli-
gence of the authorities as to attempts- to
recover those who might have been recovered
from the debris, and still more for their not
providing against it. Warning had already
been given by cracks which had declared them-
selves in the wall some days previously, as
well as by unusual difficulty in opening and
closing the doors and windows, and profes-
sional men had pointed out the danger, yet no
steps were taken to meet it, or even to stop
the street traffic ; and it is noted that twenty
years ago, when a similar accident threat-
ened, the then Government averted it by
securely shoring up the slope. This work
has been allowed to fall into decay within the
last two or three years, and even when warned
by competent persons the Municipality were
at no pains to repair it. A photographer has
already been busy taking a view of the ruins
for next week's Paris
Several dioceses of France kept, on Tues-
day, according to annual custom, the festival
of St. Charlemagne,"lllustration."
Emperor of the West—a
celebration which, though it has never been
condemned by the Church, she has yet always
refused to extend to the whole Church ; nor
could all the urgency of Napoleon I. obtain this
concession. The Christian museum of the
Vatican is thought to contain his authentic
portrait. Raffael copied it into one of his
Stanze, with this inscription :
Carolus Magnus Romance Ecclesim
ED& s Clypensque.
In the vestibule of St. Peter's, near the great
entrance, may still be read the epitaph written
by him on his friend Pope Adrian.

THE CAPTIVE 7RAIN.

(Flom the Round Table.)

Mr. George Francis Train has managed to ge
himself arrested at Queenstown, and is now, if we
may trust the cable despatches, a political prisoner
on the charge of being " an active member of the
American wing of the Fenian organization." Ho If
Mr. Train has contrived to bring this about we can
only guess. Possibly he caused information of his
dangtrous approach to be privately conveyed to the
British Home-office, so that on the arrival of the
Scotia the thing could be done in the most brilliant
and effective style. The coup in any case is cer-
tainly in the distinguished prisoner's best vein, and
he is no doubt quite enchanted with its successful
consummation. Imagine Train's delight on being
incarcerated, a martyr to liberty, in the Tower of
London ! the famous pile whereupon another effu-
sive young American lately threatened to plant the
starry banner of this country. Fancy the mareria
for future and interminable "yawps over the roofs
of mankind" that Train will collect from this, the
finest and most characteristic advertisement that
even his inventive genius has yet devised ! The
idea suggests to us the probable motive which lei
the English authorities to listen to the project for
arresting Train upon his arrival at Queenstown.
We believe that reason to have been that they didn't
want to-hear any more of his speeches. We must
remember that Train on his previous visits to
I England has been remarkably troublesome ; and
that his never-ending and nonsensical speeches,
letters, and pamphlets became a very seri-
ous nuisance. Englishmen had probably no
objection to the man's making himself—or, so far
as he could, his country—ridiculous ; but they de-
, cidedly objected to their being bored by him. To
prevent a repetition of this appalling business, they
have apparently thought it a good move to shunt
Train off by simply shutting him up. We think
they have committed a grave error, for more rea-
sons than one. In the first place, we fear that their
main object will be defeated. Tempting and facile
as was the line of defence that they have adopted,
it has a prime defect in being only temporary.
Sooner or later they must let Train out, and then
what Britisher or Yankee either shall ever stop
him, and when, and how ? His craze for notoriety,
greater than was even that of the aspiring youth
who fired the Ephesian dome, will burst forth with more
fury than ever ; his endless yawps of interjectional
spread-eagleism, bombast, and conceit will so stun
the universal ear that everybody everywhere—
Americans, Englishmen, Fenians, and all—will rue
the hour that ever Train was born, or that, being
born, any one was ever idiotic enough to be cajoled
into sowing the seeds of an independent future of
blathering folly by locking him up.
But, apart from this consideration, which is in
some respects of supreme practical importance, the
English Government is ill-advised in the mat' er,
for the reason that its course is totally unjustified
by international law. No possible act committed
by Mr. Train in this country and uo imputed inten-
tion makes him amenable to British law. The
officers of the Crown may
have ample evidence of
his complicity with the designs of the Fenians, and
such evidence may even have been furnished, as we
have suggested, on the best authority, but this
is not enough to warrant Mr. Train's trial,
and not even his arrest. Such justification could
be found alene in an overt act committed on Bri-
tish soil ; and if the authorities felt confident of
their captive's intentions, a detective or two would
soon have supplied a legal basis for the action thus
prematurely taken. As to Mr. Train's being a
Fenian, we really see no reason why he should not
be one. Indeed, we see several good reasons why
he should be one. We might differ with him, and
those who think with him, in sundry minutiae of
ways and means and probabilities ; but we main-
tain stoutly that Mr. Train has a right to be a
Fenian if he likes, and that the British Govern-
ment has no right to shut him up in the Tower of

London as a penalty, however atrocious they may
think his crime. Reflection, in truth, makes this
so clear that we are led to wonder that the British

Home-office failed to see it. And here the ques-
tion naturally arises, Did they, after all, fail to see
it ? In other words, is the Cable report trust-
worthy ? Perhaps we ought to be sorry to say that
we fear not. It is so much more likely that those
who would earnestly wish to embroil the two Go-
vernments on precisely such an issue should pro-
mulgate an easy misinterpretation of a common
occurrence, than the English Government should
just now provoke us by a flagrant breach of inter-
national law, that we really feel obliged to dis-
credit the current version or the whole affair. It
is probably true that Mr. Train was arrested at
Queenstown, as the Cable alleges ; but, as he has
been on British soil before, when he was not a
Fenian, imagination need not range to hit upon a
solution of the problem in which Feuianism, past
or prospective, has no share.
Should this latter explanation—which delicacy
forbids our more than hinting at—unhappily prove
an incorrect one, and the original assertion of the
wires be verified ; if, indeed, the British Lion has
dared to lay his sacrilegious paw upon that credit
to his country and to civilization, the patriot Train
—it should be understood at once that we, for one,
will not be held back. We shall insist upon the
fullest apologies and the most complete reparation
for a wrong whose memory should otherwise be
washed out in blood. We shall shriek in unison,
with the Stern Bird that symbolizes our aspiring
nationality for sacrificial expiation. The idea of
an American like the noble and disinterested Train
—an American who never harmed anybody or
thing save the Queen's (or the military dictator's)
English and his own reputation for sanity—being
thrust in durance vile for the (to haughty despots)
atrocious crime of daring to think for himself, we
refuse to tolerate for a single moment. Let two
special envoys—we suggest, passim, the names of
Brick Pomeroy and the Count Joannes—be at once
despatched to St. James's with instructions to de-
mand the instant enlargement of the captive Train!
An autocratic and irrevocable ukase. Let perfidious
Albion tremble and obey.