No. 290.
Mr. Marsh
to Mr. Evarts.
Rome, January 20, 1878. (Received February 8.)
Sir: The funeral of King Victor Emanuel was celebrated with great pomp on Thursday, the 19th instant, and attended with manifestations of sympathy and regret both on the part of his own people and of foreign nations, the like of which have certainly not been seen in Italy since the death of Germanicus, in the time of the Emperor Tiberius.
Within the ten days following the death of the King the railways brought to the city not less than 300,000 persons to visit the Chapelle Ardente, in which the remains of his late Majesty lay in state for several days, to attend the obsequies, and to witness the imposing ceremony of the administering to the new King, Humbert I, the oath of fidelity to the constitution.
Great numbers also arrived in town by other conveyances, and during this whole period the city has been crowded and the streets encumbered to a degree not witnessed before within the memory of man. It is much to the credit of the Italian people and to the Roman municipal authorities that so vast a multitude should have been collected and again dispersed without any riot or other disturbance of the public peace, and it is not known that the movements of the railways, of the funeral procession, or of the military were attended with any serious accident to life or limb.
The foreign representation, both official and voluntary, was very large and comprised persons of every rank, from hereditary princes to private citizens, and the expressions of condolence from the highest sources in Europe have been very numerous. To these have been added many addresses conveying like sentiments from the foreign residents, including the citizens of the United States at Rome, and scarcely a voice of dissent has been heard from any quarter.
The remains of King Victor Emanuel were deposited in the Pantheon, a structure of the time of Augustus Cæsar, and with the intention of making that building the permanent mausoleum of the royal family of Italy, for which purpose it is well suited by its circular form, its domical roof supported by pillars or arches, and of dimensions and proportions which render it one of the most imposing inclosed spaces found in ancient or modern architecture. The site of the Pantheon, however, is so low as to expose its approaches to inundations, and there are other inconveniences in its location. It is now suggested that the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, originally constructed as an appendage to the Baths of Diocletian, and converted into a church by Michael Angelo, is better adapted to the purpose in question, and this opinion may perhaps in time prevail.
This being the first occasion of a transfer of the crown since the formation of the kingdom, various questions of form and some of substance respecting the action of parliament on the occasion have been suggested, but they have excited little discussion and no delay in the proceedings, and the organization of the new reign may now be considered complete.
I have, &c.,