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

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 I
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 Citolio. It was likewise at tended by
a considerable file of sacconi. All who have
lived in Rome are familiar with the sacconi —a

eonfraternity 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

portico where, day by day 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 Barnabii, 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 imunial 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
already been busy taking a view of the ruins
to repair it. A photographer has
for next week's Paris " Illustration."
Several dioceses of France kept, on Tues-
day, according to annual custom, the festival
of St. Charlemagne,
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 Si 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.

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 Tinder-
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-
gtiufya.ge held ti
fohis wardssu
ctchees s
or,Holy
M.
Sdeee
Fwaoru le , di, ji
euus -.
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 of undue pressure said to be put upon
the Pope by the Emperor, to induce him 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-
terrupted. lam informed that it is by the
same intermediary the Pall Mall Gazette has
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-
acgoeumn et nst
toofi
ht
ehregVhiae
of the house of Hohenlohe ; also Prince Iturbide,
snlnaateGlyovaerrrinmveden, atn.dAa sperielliccre
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 entered the dragoons.
There was a great concourse at the Church
ot the
e occasion Sa n
Holy PoFfi ea ttarhoe
specialrin tolinra li i cnwodlhiu
1, 0
gowen
ne
ncet Sunday,
tthere to
appointedt oo n
p rt
by
a y
forthhiseTy h
Those
ywho
,intention.up
have
n the
eonly
urs seeneotfh is
their
e
church
ir,, doing when
~
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-
ranza (when it was there), and have trod its
waste of marble in solitude and silence, would
have failed to recognize it this day, so trans-
formed was it by its festive aspect. Ido not
remember any occasion on which it could be
so seen, except its two great feasts in July
and August, when not many forestieri are
here
ch to
e, or
fewo
iliwto nwa eses
ds.
aby •
sermon
Benediction,i in the
the
which was performed by the Papal eveningChmoiurs.bicyThPaet.
building seems unusually well adapted for
rendering sound. The Chains of St. Peter,
to enshrine which the church was built by the
Empress Eudoxia, 442, were exposed in a side
chapel, and were, during the whole day, the
object of devout veneration ; at intervals they
were borne round to be kissed, and so many
persons pressed to avail themselves of the op-
portunity, that it was not easy to obtain access
to them. The church was elaborately illumi-
nated and decorated, and with great effect. It
was a sight for a picture, 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,
giving egress to the venerable cardinal who
had officiated at Benediction, and throwing a
a stream of light on his flowing scarlet robes,
against which were seen in relief the white
collars of the serving boys, among whom, it
was said, was young Mortara, each bearing a
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 triduo
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 contrade, 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

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