Tue Conclave could hardly have made a better choice of a successor to H. H. Leo XIII that they ha done in electing Cardinal Sarto. a man who is stated tu have n from the ranks by merit, a very distinguished prelate who has always been on the best} terms with the Italian Royal Fiunily, no-one could better reconcile th Vatican and the Quirinal, if such long-sought, reconciliation is possible wall. As Patriarch of Venice, he has always made it ut to join welcoming the King and Queen Italy whenever they visited that city; he has been a great eurite of the Dowager Queen, universally beloved Queen gherita; and he assisted at the ecremany when the Count of Turin laid the first stone of the new campanile of St. Mark. Whether he able to break through the fiction that the Pope is a prisoner in the Vatican is doubtful, though there is no doubt that he has the will to do it; but the Jesuits, and the conservative element in the Roman Church that still clings to the phantom of temporal power, are very strong, and will probably spare no efforts to prevent a rapprochement between the Church and the Civil Power in Ttaly. But whether H. H. Pin 1 Suc ceed in this or not, it is a great thing that the new head of the Roman Church should be a man so broadminded and so capable in every sense as the late Patriarch of Venice; and it cannot but be gratifying to read that his election has been receive with great satisfaction by all Ital from the Throne down, and with general rejoicing in Rome.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.