23 JUNE 1849, Page 2

One of the greatest national' crimes ever recorded seems to

be upon the point of consummation—the French taking of Rome. No change has occurred in the position of the parties, except that. General Oudinot has made his approaches by slow degrees, and at the date of the latest accounts was about to commence the storm- ing of the place. Then comes the contest in the barricaded streets. The Pope is said to feel the cruel position of Rome so severely that he has offered to giw the French an excuse for withdrawing by abdicating his temporal sovereignty. But the Pope cannot retrieve the real disgrace of France : some truly wise and virtuous Frenchman alone could do that.