From the Archepiscopal Palace there came yesterday a pastoral letter addressed to the faithful of Almaria and, in the Cardinal's generous phrase, "to all people of good will." His Eminence Cardenal Marín, writing in the measured cadence for which his pen is known, commended the kingdom to a season of unity and prudence, and warned, without naming any faction, against "the quarrels that feed upon themselves while the pantry empties."

The letter, which will be read in parishes across the coast on Sunday, touches upon the hardships now gathering about ordinary Almarian homes: the climb of fuel prices, the strain upon the fisheries at Cala Rossa, and what the Cardinal describes as "the wearying clamour of public life." He counsels his flock to keep the old disciplines, to look first to the neighbour and second to the newspaper, and to trust that the institutions of the kingdom, rightly ordered, will yet answer the hour.

Observers in Sant Joan noted the letter's careful distances. His Eminence praised neither the government nor its critics; he invoked neither dissolution nor delay. But those accustomed to reading between his lines will have marked the sentence in which he commends "those who, in positions of trust, refuse the easy comfort of the loud word," a formulation that will be variously claimed.

The Cardinal closed with a blessing upon the fishermen of the port, whose nets this weekend must keep clear of the fuel sheen off the headland, and upon "the writers and printers who, in difficult seasons, still set type for the truth." The Herald records the benediction with gratitude, and with the usual reservations of its trade.