ON MONDAY, after a Conclave of five days, the Ring of the Fisherman was set upon the finger of Cardinal Achille Ratti, Archbishop of Milan. He had been only eight months a Cardinal. The election is welcomed by all. Pius XI. is a man of wide learning and many gifts. The many years which he spent in libraries had not unfitted him for affairs, his diplomatic service in Poland was eminently successful, and incidentally gave him the opportunity of showing that personal courage which he had developed as a mountaineer. His accomplishments include a mastery of English, and he is said to be the only Pope who has visited Manchester before his election. The significance of his bestowal of the blessing urbi et orbi from the exterior balcony of St Peter’s, for the first time since the loss of the States of the Church in 1870, has not been missed, and the Italian Press has been cordial rather than merely civil in its greeting to the new Pope. To such a Pope we may wish in all sincerity a long reign, and the fulfilment of his desire for the pacification of the world.

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