Connecticut western news., 1903-07-23

such wonderful impression as did the Individuality, which was heightened by his remarkable yigor and tenacity in old age. At ninety, when he gave Ben jamin Constant sitting for his DOT trait, the French painter was aston ished at the brilliancy of his intellect. Yet with serene boise and strength he passed on for three years more to his Jubilee, retaining for more than a quar- ter of century that papaI power which. 1t was supposed, was conferred for only a short time upon feeble old man in 1878. He proved one of the strongest in physical endurance as well as in mental qualities that had ever been elevated to the papal throne
 As the head of the Catholic church the achievements of Leo XIII. are memorable. Even those not in the Ro- man communion freely admitted his greatness, while to the devout Catholic he was the personification of goodness He was both statesman and priest. and his views, like his ambitions, were of the widest. His services as papal nun cto at Brussels gave him that stamp of the diplomat which never left him. In close touch with the affairs of many nations, his extraordinary memory, his fresh and earnest interest in the on-go- tngs of the world, made his contribu- tions to passing history of peculiar sig nifeance and value
 In America the late pope seemed to fob bo n;al lIxy was eylnced In wise counsels to his people In this country on many occa- sions. To the republican form of gov ernment he showed himself a good friend upon more than one occasion In his encyclicals on socialism is seen how his sympathy for the struggling and aspiring masses was balanced by his fine sense of the necessary order and stability of society. His refined in tellect, his simplicity of life, his unaf- fected piety, all exalted to eminence by his extraordinary career, made him an inspiring parsonage even to those who did not recognize him as spiritual ruler and teacher, and Protestants as well as Catholics mourn his death.
 The story of the pope is an exceeding iy simple and pretty one. He has been though the pontiff, as 1t Is called. of the most ancient ecclesiasticism in west ern European excellent citizen of our later world. He has been good mag istrate, superior pastor. a gentleman and. 1t may be added. prince. He was a prince in nature before he was either cardinal or pope.
 From the time he was elected pope the city of Rome has been in the occupa- tton of the king of Italy and has indeed been the political capital of Italy. the laws of that kingdom paying no atten- tion to. the previous laws and fOrmali- ties which the secular state supplanted. But the influence of the pope as spirit of education and of light has extended to the most remote portions of the world.
 Above all other popes, and somewhat beyond his own record in earlier life, Leo XIII. has been liberal politician. He has hailed the future rather than deplored the loss of the past. He has been one of the captains in the move ment for universal education and has striven to make education and morals scontlde in each other. Not a single scandal from Rome in his papacy has been conveyed to the world. He has shown d friendly disposition to the world and could himself take place in almost any learned faculty or congress and hold his own in general knowledge with scientists, belles-lettres men and doctors.
 Elected pope In February, 1878, he was then almost sixty-eight years of age, and he had been for thirty-two years the archbishop of one quiet city, Perugia, which once belonged to the papal states, but stood high among the old Italian republics or feudalities for Its painters and men of gifts. This re- zion, generally called Umbria, pro duced the highest triumphs of art in Raphael. Tn Perugia and its province the archbishop was as distinctly the foremost citizen or subject as the late Phillips Brooks undoubtedly was in Boston or Henry Ward Beecher fin BrookUn- -. ......- -. ..----