Resistance was of short duration. The national flag was soon unfurled from the dome of the Pantheon and from that day Rome has been the home of the king, the capital of United Italy. The Rome of that period (1870) was described as a city of “sunless alleys,” and “a thousand evil smells mixed up with fragrance of rich incense, diffused from as many censers; everywhere a cross, and nastiness at the foot of it.” “The city is filled,” the writer continues, “with a gloom and languor that depress it beyond any depth of melancholic sentiment that can elsewhere be known.” One-seventh of the city was occupied by convents and monasteries. Rome at that time had a population of 216,000 souls, more than half of whom could neither read nor write! This, then, is Catholicism—ignorance clothed in rags, living in poverty, walking in filth, praying to saints and bowing to an ambitious Pope! If this be religion, the less I have of it the more I congratulate myself. For centuries the city belonged to the church, and it is natural to suppose that Popery created for itself an atmosphere that was most congenial to its own spirit. Ignorance is the handmaid of Popery. Indeed, a man to be a good Catholic must be ignorant. He may, perchance, be legally learned, he may be thoroughly versed in the laws of logic and language; but to be a devout Romanist he must at least be ignorant of the Bible. As civilization advances, as the light of God’s truth becomes more widely diffused and the warmth of His Spirit more generally felt, darkness will flee away, truth will be revealed in its purity, and Christ, Christ the Lord, will be elevated to the position which the Papal world of to-day assigns to Peter. Great changes have been wrought in Rome within the last seventeen years. A number of the streets have been broadened and straightened and others are being worked on. Most of them now, though still narrow, are well paved and clean. The population has increased to 350,000, sixty schools have been established with 550 teachers and 25,000 pupils. Most of the improvements and inventions of the age have been introduced into the city, a healthy trade with the outside world has been established, and last, and greatest, the gospel of Christ has again been brought to these people. The populace welcome these changes. Victor Emmanuel, who died ten years ago, is called the father of his country; and his son, the present king, is the idol of Italy. The Pope and the king are at enmity. Each is jealous of the other. The king is fast gaining favor. Papacy must go. Now, turning from the moral, I must tell you something about the physical appearance of the city at present. Of course every one knows that Rome is situated on seven hills, that it is divided into two parts by the river Tiber and that it is surrounded by a massive wall thirty feet high and sixteen miles long.