In the Revue de Paris, says the Literary Digest, Mr. Ernest Lavisse makes the condition of King Humbert's country a special study, and while he does not believe in a coming Italian republic, he does believe that, in the grave crisis through which Italy is passing, she will have to struggle to hold her own. Here is a telling excerpt:— "Italy's finances are drained by the theatrical desire to have a big army, and to parade an imposing fleet composed of vessels which cost a million pounds each; Italy's credit is undermined by unbounded corruption in her administration; Italy's prosperity is ruined by an insane tariff war with France. No wonder that the two principal enemies of the monarchy become bolder every day. These enemies are Radicalism and Papacy. "The Radicals have never given up the idea of an Italian republic, . . . and the pope has never forgiven, nor will he ever forgive, the sequestration of his secular power. Leo XIII. is a great pope. He essays to reëstablish the ecumenic pontificates. . . . Leo XIII. is not only a grand patriarch, he is also a great politician, who knows well how to distinguish between eternal and temporal affairs. He turns from the great, whose power is declining, and smiles upon the humble, who are being exalted. . . . Having been relegated to the Vatican by the king of Italy, it is quite natural that the pope should give the world to understand that kings are not at all a necessity." While Mr. Lavisse does not think that the monarchy will be overthrown, he admits its possibility. "But what if this enmity [between Radicalism and the Papacy] were to cease? The possibility of a union between these two exists, altho it would be difficult to arrange it. . . . If Radicalism were to unite with Papacy to establish a new Roman World Empire with the pope as its head, the dynasty would be in danger. What is an Italian king compared with an Italian pope who is master of the whole earth? The Romans can not forget that they once ruled the world, and that the pope succeeded Cæsar as representative of this rule." It may seem to statesmen who wish to have it so, that this power of the Papacy will never be realized; but the logic of events and the prophetic word declare differently. An emasculated Protestantism can not stand before a virile Papacy; and, as Cardinal Manning has said, "If rulers will not hear the pope's voice, the people will." And the word of God declares that that time will again come when the Papacy shall say: "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow."