The Irish standard., 1902-04-19


golden heights even unto the visibl,
presence of the Most High God pic
tured nearly $50 feet above.
Within such framework the greaN
4 White Pope, and all his Cardinals. ant
all his sacred regiments, of whom the
Generals are the st. Francis's, and the
st. Dominicks, and St. Ingatius, an6
st. Benedicts and st. Philip Neris, and
many another world-renowned captain
of the Faith beside and all his sur,
rounding Court of Sovereigns, Ambas.
sailors, and ENJOYS Extraordinary, and
noble guards in their royal splendors,
and all his still nobler guard of seven
ty or eighty thousand passionately
faithful subjects, make just the ideal
picture-a picture of which Rome
alone, and even Rome only Il few times
in a lifetime, can assemble the ma
terials. If am to tell my whole mind,
the picture could have done very well
without the noble guards for all the
blaze of color they lent to it. 1t is, no
doubt. highly creditable to these young
princes and dukes to ornament the
Papal throne with their flashing
swords and patrician faces without re-
ceiving penny of the pay dear to the
heart of the Yeomanry of England.
But that superb old man, and his white
throne, with the aureole of twenty ven
cradle centuries around it. stand in no
need of such accessories as naked
swords or the dazzling uniforms of
their noble owners to augment their
glory. There was even certain i'm
pertinence amidst the sufficiently pic
turesque cohorts of the Cardinal and
clergy in the choir and the gravely
appropriate black coats and black wells
Of the laity, in the splendid accoutre-
ments and fa1lals of the ENJOYS Ex-
traordinary. This churlish reflection,
however, may have been suggested by
the crude scarlet coat of King Ed
wards Envoy-the ''cruel red" which
England's "envoys extraordinary" to
South Africa dread to wear within
range Of the Boer rifles. There was, 1
am free to own. something little gall
ing in the thought that the only official
representative at this world-festival of
Ireland (men Of whose blood form one
seventh of the Episcopate of the Uni
versal Church, and supply twenty mill
ions Of its sturdiest defenders) should
be an obscure English nobleman, COM
Ing from country which is the very
citadel of materialist revolt against the
Supernatural and King who only the
other day swore that the Mass Just
about to begin Mt st. Peters is an idol
atrous superstition. and who shrinks
from setting foot in the Catholic coun-
try for which his Envoy is supposed to
speak. The circumstance suggests
many reflections which are, there is
reason to hope, beginning to occupy at
tentiOn at Rome; the main one being
that the true interests of Catllolicity in
King Edwards realms were represent
ed, not by Lord Denbeigh's red coat
but by the hundreds Gf not thousands)
of Irish, Irish-American, Irish-Canadi-
an, Irish-Australian, Irish-African
priests and students scattered through
the congregation, among whom was a
Bishop of Uganda, in Darkest Africa,
of the Anglo-Saxon name of O'Hanlon.
The Pope, however, could not reject
King Edwards Envoy, any more than
President Loubet's present Of Gobelin
tapestry or the Emperor of Germany's
gold clock, no more than he could put
to the door any of the other brilliant
gentlemen in the rainbow uniforms
whom Russia, Austria, Bavaria, Bel
GUM, Holland, Montenegro, Brazil,
Peru, and the Argentine Republic dis
patched for the occasion to His Holi-
ness feet. King Edwards red coat
was, after all, only dot on the surface
Of that living sea; all minor thoughts
and distraction vanished Mt the first
note of the silver trumpet When the
Pope was borne in, ethereal as a spirit
floating on the clouds of the vast fcatll-
cry white fiabellie, the tense feeling
which for hours had been keeping
itself under control broke forth into
that deep intensifying murmur which
enables one to understand how the
Latins came to invent the word "sus-
surrus"; and the sussurrus again, after
rolling along in rising and falling
waves of excitement. crashed out into
cheering pure and simple, naked and
unashamed. The first rough note of
popular acclamatons in this holy place
comes with certain strangencss or
the unaccustomed ear; but like every
thing else in st. Peters, the applause
is not to be measured by any precedent
from the common world. Homage
must pcrforce speak aloud to make
itself heard in such placc-the SOUND
refines and ennobles itself as it roll.
alonge those golden-coffcrcd ceilings
into the echoing cupolas; the mass Of
sound assumes the solemnity of TIL,
vox humane Of some mighty organ
fifty thousand times reduplicatcd
But the true language of the place
y was ONLY heard when the echoes n
the acclamations died away and TIN
famous choir of the Cappellani Can