A curious controversy has sprung up between the pope and a newspaper—one of the organs of the Liberal party, published in Rome. The Holy Father, in his speeches, confesses that he reads the newspapers, and keeps the run of what is going on in politics. There has been no intermission during his illness, and as before, the journals have been read to him. The dispute referred to is of this sort—and the simplicity with which it is carried on makes one smile: “Is God on the side of Italy, or on that of the Pope?” Pius IX. insists that God is on his side, or that of the papacy, of which he is the head. The newspaper holds that God is on the side of Italy, and is able to cite a hundred proofs in the history of the past dozen years. The pope has been dropped out of hand, and can make no argument from existing facts. There is only the hypothetical one, founded on the hope that he may be once more taken up. Fair-minded observers of the debate more logically insist that God is on the side of both, so far as each is disposed to be governed by reason, justice, and common sense. For the rest, this recognition by the pope of the “power of the press” is a good sign, and we may live to see the successor of Pius IX., the proprietor of a newspaper, a more efficient agent of usefulness than all the briefs, bulls, and syllabuses, of the Vatican. —Rome Letter.