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Rh sharp. On the last occasion this antagonism decided the election; and with intensity not diminished, why should it not again prove the determining element? But the intention here is not to speculate on the future, but only to narrate facts of the past. Gregory died, then, as has been said, unexpectedly, although his advanced years should have prepared the public for such an event. He had, however, been so robust that his eighty years had dropped out of sight. Not merely the population of Rome was taken by surprise on hearing of his death, but likewise the Catholic Cabinets, who had unaccountably neglected to be prepared for a sudden emergency with proper candidates, and confidential agents, instructed how to exercise their respective vetoes. This was the more extraordinary inasmuch as the relations of the Court of Rome and general political considerations connected with the state of Italy had occupied not a little the attention of those Catholic Cabinets which have an especial interest in the Holy See. The closing years of Gregory 's reign had been marked by various incidents that had given rise to much agitation in diplomatic circles. In 1845, there occurred