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Show if not complete, must have very few limitations, and must be guaranteed by European powers." If any such negotiations nego-tiations are pending it is of the utmost importance that the present pontiff maintains his health sul'ieicnt to control con-trol them, for a more sagacious and judicious ju-dicious miud than his rarely wore tho tiara. Pope Leo is over eighty years old, and while it is denied that his present iiluess is at all serious, yet his span of I life is necessarily narrow. His prede- cessor, Pious IX, lived to be. more titan ninety years old, but his constitution was of iron mould. What makes the health of the present pontiff a source of the utmost concern is the attitude of the Italian government towards the sec. In the rccnut election in Italy tho Crispi cabinet was sustained by an unprecedented un-precedented majority, amounting to four-fifths in the chamber of deputies. On the other hand the vote showed an absence from tho polls of fully one-half of the registered electors consisting chiefly if not entirely of Catholics who resented in this silent way the government's policy towards tho pope. A contemporary says: "The renewal of the injunction against participation par-ticipation in elections, which was made by Leo XIII. during the late canvass, is explained in some quarters on the theo- ry that the Vatican had not yet matured a workable political programme. Since the election there have been some indications indi-cations that a change of front is under discussion. The Osservatore Homauo has invited the whole catholic press to join it in examining tho plan of substituting substi-tuting a catholic and Italian parliament parlia-ment for what it calls tho present free mason and foreign parli anient of Italy. Many catholic leaders are reported report-ed to believe that if reasonable terms of compromise could bo outlined, out-lined, and a campaign were now begun, be-gun, the supporters of the Vatican could return, if not a positive majority of the next chamber of deputies, at least a number of members sullicient to obtain concessions of great moment to the papacy. The programme, as thus far sketched, accepts the present parliamentary parli-amentary government, and agrees to a substantial unity of the Italian nation in all internal and international questions. ques-tions. It insists, however, upon a temporal tem-poral sovereignty for the pope, which, |