A proposition to transplant the Papal See from its ancient anchorage in the Italian [It Startles One's Nerves.] peninsula into the new world would have been scouted in 1899 with scorn and derision as the wild phantasy of a babbling maniac. People living in 1899 might perhaps have seriously entertained a proposition to remove the pyramids of Egypt from their ancient foundations and transfer them to the sandlots of San Francisco, to open up a Chinese laundry in the King's Chamber; a proposition to dispatch an army of laborers with shovels to the crater of Vesuvius and attempt to extinguish that volcano by shoveling in sand, might, in 1899, have been regarded as a plausible undertaking; the attempt of a delegation of Protestant ministers to personally convert the Sultan of Turkey from Mohamedanism and induce him to attend a camp-meeting, might have commended itself to all good citizens in 1899, but the startling proposition to remove the Papal Court from ancient Rome to South America, appeared to all minds in 1899 as the most improbable of all improbabilities, yet in 1945, (forty-six years later,) the public mind was better prepared for this great change and the removal of the Court of Rome in that year to Rio Janeiro was entertained in better grace and in a more conciliatory spirit. In 1945 the position of the Papacy in Rome was no longer endurable. The [Rome Unsafe for the Pontiff.] sacred person of the Pontiff became no longer safe within the precincts of the Eternal City. The Vatican had been frequently violated by mobs from the banks of the Tiber and the slums of Rome, over which the Italian government could effect no control. The revered head of the church, like his Divine Master while on earth, knew not where to lay his head. Europe in 1945 had no refuge or shelter to offer to His Holiness. Russia, the home of the Greek church, could offer him no asylum, where one of his exalted rank might dwell in peace. Austria, that steadfast and ever faithful son of the church, would gladly have sheltered the Papal Court, assuring it permanent safety and a splendor commensurate with its prestige, but, unfortunately for Austria in 1945 that country was rent in twain, a shadow of its former greatness. Hungary had long enjoyed her richly merited independence and in that year had become a leading European power. The eyes of the Papacy could not turn to Spain for succor in 1945. Spain in that year was reduced to a barren waste, having expiated her crime of 1930, that of employing powerful fulminants from air-ships to destroy two African cities. France in 1945 had no refuge to offer the Pope. As a result of two unfortunate wars, she had passed into the custody of Germany, occupying the position of a mere vassal.