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A PAPAL PAGEANT.
The Papacy is too old and too feeble even to die with dignity.

Of itself the sight of a falling power, of a dynasy _in extremis_, commands something of respect if not of regret; but the conduct of the Papacy deprives it of the sympathy that is due to its misfortunes.

There is a kind of silliness, I know of no better word to use, about the whole Papal policy at the present day, which is really aggravating.

It is silly to rave about the martyr's crown and the cruel stake, when nobody has the slightest intention of hurting a hair of your head; silly to talk of your paternal love when your provinces are in arms against your "cruel mercies;" silly to boast of your independence when you are guarded in your own capital against your own subjects by foreign troops; silly, in fact, to bark when you cannot bite, to lie when you cannot deceive.