THE COMING PAPAL ELECTION.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1232, 14 February 1878, Page 3

THE COMING PAPAL ELECTION.

The Roman correspondent of the " London Times" had tho following in a recent letter respecting the probable candidates for the

papacy : Of the cardinals residing in Rome some are very old men, whose names also occur in a former letter, such as Amat, eighty-one years old, disabled by repeated apoplectic fits ; Asquini, seventy-five years old, a good hearted, scrupulous man; and Bizzari, of the same age, but a confirmed invalid, on none of whom the choice of a conclave would fall, unless the Sacred College were a prey to hopeless division, when, as it happened before, the expedient of naming a Pope with a foot in the grave (Papa di Tomba) — i.e., of provisionally filling the Papal chair for a few months or days with a view to a better organisation of the parties for a uew trial of strength —might suggest itself. The votes of these venerable gentlemen, if they live to give them, may be predicted. The amiable and moderate Amat would be in favor of conciliation. The two others would recommend extreme measures, and give their suffrages to a candidate bent or pledged to enforce them. The men now in Rome whose influence would be likely to some extent to sway the deliberations of the Conclave are Di Pietro, De Luca, Mertel and Nina. Di Pietro is a Roman noble, seventy-two yearn old, of high and gentlemanly feelings, lavish of his money to the utmost extreme of extravagance, not aspiring to the Papacy for himself, but well disposed to back any moderate candidate that would be at the pains of suing for his vote and support. De Luca is a Sicilian, an earnest man, deeply learned, moderate, a man of action, well versed in worldly affairs, highly honorable, who was Nuncio at Vienna, and did not give in to Austrian views. He keeps up a brisk intercourse with men of liberal opinions, seeing them, however, not at his own residence, but here and there at friends' houses, or, by preference at their villas. He is in his seventy-second yoar. Mertel, a great jurist, a native of Allumicre, seventy-one years old, is one of the wisest and most moderate men of the Sacred College. He was ono of the liberal friends of Pius IX. in 1848, willing to bow to the exigencies of tho times, desirous that the Upper Clergy should have seats in Parliament, aB they have in France and Austria,or, in other words, that the Church should have its share in the State as its ally and not as its adversary. Ho is a slow, deliberate man, firm on the principle that in great matters, cunetando regitur mundus, adjourning every question, putting off all resolutions, but never swerving from the ground of strict legality and equity. A more desirable Pope could certainly nowhere be fourd, but as surely he will never be Pope, for he is too modest and reserved, too mujh the reverse of an intriguing priest, either to put himself forward, or to occur to the minds of the intriguing priests who will want an intriguing Pope. Nina, a Roman, an intelligent reasonable man, of unblemished reputation, is one of tho rising men of tho moderato party; he is said to grievo at the estrangement of tho Church from the St'ite, and would wish the clergy to take as active a part in public affairs as may be compatible with the spirit pf the uge. Consolini of Sinigaglia, seventy years old, an upright man ? has also moderate instincts, but ip swayed by Franchi, who paralyses his goodwill and neutralises his « influences,