NEWS OF THE WEEK.
VICTOR EMANUEL, first King of Italy, died in Rome, at 2.30 on the 9th inst., from a brief but severe attack of fever, caught at his hunting palace of San Rossore, and complicated by pleurisy. Ile was in his fifty-eighth year, and died on the same day as the Em- peror Napoleon. The King belonged to an excommunicated class, those who had aided in the seizure of the States of the Church, though he was never excommunicated by name, but on his applica- tion, his private chaplain performed the last rites of the Church. The chaplain had previously received the authority of his eccle- siastical superiors and the Cardinal-Vicar, and on receiving the intelligence, the Pope expressed his regret that his infirmities prevented his visiting the Quirinal himself, and sent the King, by two Monsignors, the Papal benediction. The King remained in full possession of his faculties to the last, and died enjoining his son to follow in his footsteps. We have given our general impression of his character elsewhere, a character most remarkable for this,—that while it was in many serious respects far from elevated, or even average, its loyalty was not only perfect, but was perceptible to the masses of a great country; but we must add here that his death has created deep emotion in Italy, and deep regret in every country—except, per- haps, Ireland—in the world. The precise share of the deceased Xing in making Italy, will only be known when this generation has passed away, but it is already certain that without him, without his peculiar, gloomy uprightness in politics, his almost ferocious daring, and the confidence which, Savoyard hunter as he was, he attracted from all classes, Italy would never have been made.
