The Future of the Papacy.
ONE of the proofs that the pope is setting his house in order for the final event is found in the fact that his agents have been for sometime busy making an inventory of the articles of every name and nature contained in the vatican. In the law of guarantees to the papacy is found an article which declares that all the museums of objects of antiquity and art contained in the various edifices of the Vatican, together with the library, are the property of the Italian nation. There are signs which indicate that after the death of the present pontiff it is the intention of the government to enter the pope’s house and take possession of such kinds of property, the administration of which after this is to belong to the civil rather than to the ecclesiastical power. Much depends upon the position which will be assumed by the succeeding incumbent of the papal office. It seems that a door has been opened by the recent decision of the cardinals in council, by which any cardinal, no matter of what nationality, may enter and take possession of the supreme seat of the curia. It is an immense concession and step in advance. For the long period of 355 years, or since the year 1522, no other than an Italian has sat on the papal throne. We know well enough that the election of popes has often been influenced by political motives, with the divine guidance almost wholly ignored. As matters are tending, we cannot answer for what may happen after this. It is possible that the pontifical see may be in the next five years transferred to New York, Baltimore, Chicago, St. Louis, Westminster, the island of Malta, or Jerusalem, which last seems to be its proper place. It must not be forgotten that the pope in his present character of infallibility has the right, not to be disputed, of transferring the chair of Peter to such place as in his conscience he believes to be best suited to promote the welfare of the church. The conclave, when the time for it arrives, will be held in Rome, for that decision was sometime ago arrived at.—Correspondence N. Y. Times.