A correspondent of the Telegraph, who appears to be thoroughly
informed, declares that the reports as to the renewed health of the Pope are entirely unfounded. His Holiness is slowly fading away. He cannot regain strength. He did not take any part whatever in the "Coronation' Mass" in St. Peter's, and nearly fainted while giving the inaudible " benedicite." Rome, and indeed the whole Catholic world, is greatly agitated, and the chances of different Cardinals are freely discussed. According to the same correspondent, the most likely members of the Sacred College are Cardinal d'Oreglia, an irreconcilable, who looks in his. photographs like a Grand Inquisitor ; Cardinal Parocchi, also an irreconcilable, but a great diplomatist ; Cardinal Vanutelli, a moderate, and the reported nominee of the Triple Alliance : Cardinal Svarnpa, who would be a young Pope—he is only fifty-one— and Cardinal Gotti, a saintly person, whom Leo XIII. is said to have designated his successor.. He has a singularly beautiful face of the reflective . ascetic kind. All kinds of intrigues are expected the moment the vacancy occurs ; but, unless we are greatly mistaken, they will all be baffled, the Conclave acting with great rapidity, and ultimately electing by "acclaim," which, as it is supposed to proceed from inspiration, bars all external interference. There is no prospect of the election of any but an Italian, nor, though every baptised Christian is eligible, of any but a Cardinal.
