contested, much special pleading is then resorted to. Both sides are paid by the Church, but he who opposes the nomination is termed the _devil's_ counsel. This title, however, is a legal or rather a theological fiction; the miracles alleged to have been performed by the defunct being only more triumphantly established and set off by the apparent disposition of the rival pleader to deny their reality; who, after a proper show of resistance and incredulity, allows himself to be foiled. This is indeed beating Satan with his own weapons; but the advocates of saints belong to that party who "E'en to the Devil himself will go, If they have motive thereunto; And think, as there is war between The Devil and them, it is no sin If they by subtle stratagem Make use of him as he does them." [K] It is singular to observe how the "_votiva paries_," in the churches of Papal Rome, are hung with similar offerings to those which formerly ornamented her temples in Pagan times. We possess several of these ancient offerings; _inter alia_--a _uterus_ and a _mamma_, in _terra cotta_, from the Temple of _Elvina Ceres_ at Aquinum, and an _abortion_, in lead, from the same source. We had never witnessed a Beatification: so, when the Pope, in his character of umpire, had pronounced his fiat in favour of "good sister Frances," and all that remained to be done was the church ceremonial necessary to admit her to piety's peerage, we procured one of the many thousand tickets printed for the occasion, and followed the crowd to St Peter's. Here all was prepared to give due effect to the scene: the interior was studiously darkened, that the rich upholstery might be set off by a grove of countless wax lights, thick and tall as young pine trees. The workmen, after a whole fortnight of bustle and activity, had done their part well. Curtains had been hung and carpets spread; organs wheeled up towards the throne of St Peter; and a whole gallery of villanously painted historical pictures, blasphemous and absurd, were suspended round, representing the miracles for which the new "beatified" was to receive her first degree towards sainthood; and showing amongst other wonders, how in one case her blood, in another her image, restored a blind man to sight, and so completely cured the palsy of one Salvator di Sales, that he is dancing a hornpipe on his recovery, while a priest is looking on approvingly. We were too early for the ceremony; and after curiously scanning these preparations, our attention was attracted to a group near, eagerly listening to the recital of a bare-footed Capuchin. On approaching, we found that he was discoursing on the virtues of a picture of the Virgin, known by the name of _Sta Maria del Pianto_, a fresco daub, painted in a very dirty back street. He was affirming that it had lately taken to _winking_, and had also been seen to shed tears over the body of a man recently found murdered under the lamp. "Who saw her