HIS PERSECUTED HOLINESS.

To Archbishop Cullen.

Most Reverend Sir,

The Holy Father has again experienced, at the hands of wicked and perfidious men, enemies of all law, human and divine, an act of fierce and cruel persecution, which exceeds in atrocity any outrage that the tyrannical Emperor Nero ever committed on the early Popes. Oh, what sorrow and compassion must have thrilled the hearts of all pious Catholics who read in the Times the following telegraphic narrative of the suffering and insult inflicted on the Father of the Faithful, as represented by one of his beloved children and servants!

THE MORTARA CASE.

“Modena, Jan. 2.

“In consequence of a demand made by the family Mortara, who gave proofs to the Government that the kidnapping of their child had been ordered by the Rev. Father and Inquisitor Filetti, the latter has been arrested. Judicial proceedings have been instituted against him upon the charge of kidnapping a child.”

Oh, most reverend Sir, was Leo the Isaurian, Copronimus, Hunneric, Herod, Pontius Pilate, ever guilty of so barbarous an outrage? The Successor of St. Peter, arrested in the person of Father Filetti, languishes in prison. An Inquisitor is arrested for taking the child of a Jew into the maternal bosom of the Church. Oh, most unheard-of prodigy! To what a pitch has sacrilegious audacity arrived! What, if the reverend Father should be condemned to the galleys? Another grief will then be added to the bitternesses which afflict the paternal heart of his Holiness. Will not the faithful sons of Erin unite to rescue the Sovereign Pontiff from the dungeon in which he lies immured by proxy?

An answer will oblige your Lordship’s most Obedient Slave,

PUNCH.

Back to SO MUCH FOR BUCKINGHAM PALACE! <<< — >>> Next to WANTED, A LITTLE MORE IMPROVING.