late oaths of fidelity to the constitution-oaths which he had taken on the Gospel.'

I was really disposed to admire every thing that concerns the religion of Rome; nevertheless I was compelled to acknowledge, that the Sestina Chapel offered a very profane spectacle on Good Friday;a multitude of eunuchs singing an effeminate and sensual music, in presence of the great picture of Michael Angelo, representing the Day of Judgement, and the eternal torments reserved for a single thought of the nature of those which this singing so eloquently expressed; a crowd of Roman, English, and French ladies, elegantly dressed, their bosoms throbbing with delight at this enchanting harmony, while from time to time they cast a pensive glance at these animated instruments; black, white, and piebald monks conversing together, playing with their girdles, their eyes betokening wantonness, and their thoughts certainly not occupied with the great mystery of the redemption. I left the Sestina chapel, far from edified by the ceremony; and sighing at the recollection of this scandalous exhibition, I went to the Palatine mount, and, among the ruins of the palace of the Cæsars, I meditated on the perpetuity of the Popish religion.'

It is in vain, that the holy father surrounds himself with a grand ceremonial pomp, which formerly fascinated the eye and confounded the understanding; his subjects now pay no attention to it, except to calculate what all this pageantry costs them. In vain this pontiff envelops himself with a mantle glittering with gold and precious stones; the imagination strips him of it. I have been surprised at the lukewarmness, and almost indifference, shown by the greater part of the Romans of the present day for the solemnities of the church. I lodge at the house of two old female devotees, who have no other society than a dozen of monks: notwithstanding this, they were not present at the ceremonies of the Passion Week. They told me they had seen enough of ceremonies. The trans-tiberine populace and foreigners alone compose the crowd who run to see the religious functions as to a worldly spectacle. I acknowledge, that the popish worship could not exist without ceremonies to captivate the sight; but the eye, after having seen every thing, will be satiated, and become disdainful. I have known a goatherd, dressed in skins from head to foot, exclaim, at the sight of the famous illuminated cross suspended in St. Peter's, It is not equal to the setting sun! and fancied I heard the sentence of annihilation of all this artificial display called holy pomp. The sacristies of Rome will very soon be obliged to melt all their plate, if the people continue to make similar comparisons, and jest instead of adoring. Yesterday, the pope having given his benediction urbi et orbi from the balcony of St. Peter's, some papers containing indulgencies were thrown down among the people. The rabble, who formerly struggled with each other to procure these indulgencies, cried out with indifference, It would be better to give us tickets for bread from the baker! Can any one doubt of an imminent revolution in the Papal States, when, in the centre even of this territory, eyes darkened by superstition and prejudice are seen raising themselves toward the light of truth? It is in vain, that the government redoubles its

efforts to teach its vassals ignorance and passive obedience; they begin to find it ridiculous, that a man should command their reason to smother itself; they have observed that animals of prey alone are partisans of darkness.'

How can it be accounted for, that, in the city which is not the most tolerant in the world, where certificates of communion are exacted from the inhabitants, there exists the most unlimited tolerance for foreigners, even with respect to all the ceremonies that take place in the open air? It is not at Rome, that the law will attack those who do not ornament their windows on the festival of Corpus Christi; it is not at Rome, that a cross-bearer will oblige you to take off your hat in passing him: they suppose you have your reasons for not uncovering your head, or, what is more probable, they do not pay attention to it. You may be surrounded with processions of all sorts, in the midst of a swarm of monks of all colours, without being obliged to notice them. The noisy retinue of the pope always gives notice of his passage through the streets of Rome; but the consecrated wafer, which contains the real presence, often passes incognito. Alas! do not their motives for this conduct proceed from a calculation of gain? Convinced of the advantage of having foreigners among them, they affect not to see their indifference toward the religious usages of the country, because their concourse supplies the absence of industry.'

The Rev. Mr. Lingard has lately put forth a pamphlet, in which he endeavours to exculpate the French monarch from having authorized the massacre of St. Bartholomew. Will the Court of Rome thank him for this? In the Sistine chapel, there are three large pictures in commemoration of the principal scenes of that horrible drama.

The first picture represents Coligny, wounded by the arquebuse of the assassin Moreval, and carried into his house on it is written, Gaspar Colignius amirallius accepto vulnere domum refertur. Greg. XIII., Pont. Max. 1572. In the second picture, the admiral is massacred in his palace, with Teligny his son-in-law, and some others; on it are these words: Cedes Colignii et sociorum ejus. In the third, the king of France is informed of the murder of Coligny, and testifies his satisfaction at it; Rex Colignii necem probat. A groupe of assassins are seen carrying the unfortunate Coligny in triumph; their ferocious looks appear to reproach death with having released the admiral too soon from his torments. At a little distance, other hired assassins are seen, with a cross in one hand and a poniard in the other, rushing on women and children, who are begging for mercy in vain; further on, in the back ground, a number of assassins are discovered mounting on a heap of dead bodies, to scale the houses of those they want to murder.-When the court of Rome shall be summoned before the tribunal of justice and humanity, as author, or at least as accomplice of this enormous crime, these pictures will appear as rrible accusing witnesses. They will say, We have

served as an ornament for a chapel of the Vatican for two hundred and fifty years; we have seen twenty-six popes succeed each other, who have all been to glut their sight with the murders which we represent: they have made us, as they have a number of other images, the object of their worship.' What will the partisans of popery answer to this? That the popes, who have succeeded Gregory XIII., have allowed these pictures to exist merely out of deference for their departed brother? This is not a sufficient excuse; for the sovereign pontiffs have made no scruple of revoking, breaking, and annulling the decrees of their predecessors. Has not Pius VII. re-established the Jesuits in all their prerogatives, abolished by a solemn bull of Clement XIV.? Will they pretend that Pius VII. is ignorant of the existence of these pictures? This cannot be; for he is continually passing through the room where they are placed, and they are of the largest dimensions; besides, this pontiff is prefect of the holy Inquisition, the innumerable eyes of which are ever on the watch.-Yes; the mere existence of these paintings is an indelible proof of the sanction, every day renewed by the court of Rome, of the conduct of those detestable cannibals, authors of that horrible carnage on the night of Saint Bartholomew. This is not all: the pope caused medals to be struck with his effigy on the reverse, an exterminating angel, armed with a crucifix and a sword, is destroying all before him; it has this motto: Ugonottorum Strages (Slaughter of the Hugonots).-But at length this proud Babel, which has so long dominated over the palaces of kings, begins to totter; its foundations are shaken, and it must soon fall; it is not the confusion of languages, but the language of reason, which will consummate its ruin. The papal knot, more complex than the Gordian, will be cut by the constitutional sword. Representative government, which is become an imperious necessity for civilized nations, has as irreconcileable an antipathy to the dominion of the tiara as Hercules to Antaus: the one must suffocate the other.' pp. 208-10.

The vices of the papal government as exemplified both in the criminal and the fiscal administration,-the pusillanimous or interested policy pursued towards the brigands who overrun this land of indulgencies,'-the cavalletto and the use of torture, the system of monopoly pursued in respect to the necessaries of life,-all these are harmonious features of that monstrous yet imbecile despotism which has converted the Campagna into a desert, and the Church into a puppet-show.

Almost all the bakers' shops belong to dignitaries of the Church they who appear as masters of them, are merely the deputies of these reverendissimi. If any of the laity attempt to exercise this species of industry, they are liable to a thousand vexations, penalties, &c.; and they generally abandon it hopeless of success......... It is not with baking only that the cardinals soil their purple robes; they have also their share in the grocers' shops, and generally in all the necessaries of life which find a daily and lucrative

sale. It is thus that they occupy themselves for the public good. To the monopoly of grain, the Government adds the monopoly of oil: this is striking at the heart of agriculture. The unfortunate husbandman is compelled to dispose of the produce of his labour on terms dictated by the Government; and he is often obliged to buy the same article at a very high rate, which he has been obliged to sell at a very low price.'

The morals of the modern Romans, the cicisbeo system, the deepening shades of licentiousness which distinguish the Parisian, the Roman, and the Neapolitan women,-these are subjects into which we cannot enter. The following statement, however, if we may depend upon its accuracy, is too expressively characteristic of the state of society to be withheld.

The glow of shame is never seen on the cheek of the Neapolitan woman: the Roman woman can still blush. The latter associates religion with her intrigues as a consoler, the former as an accomplice. The Neapolitan woman, to preserve herself from all the dangers of an illicit connexion, places herself with confidence under the protection of the Holy Virgin; she exclaims, La Madonna mi ajuti (May the holy Virgin aid me); the Roman woman says, La Madonna mi perdoni (May the holy Virgin pardon me).

"You will see me at the church of Gesu-Maria," said a young Ronian dame to a Frenchman; "after mass we will take a walk." He went to the rendezvous at the hour appointed. When the mass was ended, he approached the lady cautiously; she made him a sign not to disturb her. "Allow me to observe, madam, that the office is finished." "I know it very well," answered she, "but I always hear two masses."'

Can those' (asks this Writer) who have vowed never to become fathers, have any paternal sentiments for their species?' Can those, we might also ask, who have vowed never to enter into the conjugal relation, feel as men ought to feel on the point of female purity and domestic morality? Such a man has no longer any immediate interest in the maintenance of a high-toned morality. The institutions of society are all against him, because he has renounced them all. Every man, on becoming a husband and a father, may be considered as giving bond, under heavy penalties, to respect the honour and the interests of others. The celibacy of the Romish clergy withdraws them from the operation of any moral restraint arising from the reciprocal interests of men in society, and the obligations of both the domestic and the social compact. And what is the consequence? In proportion to the numbers and ascendancy of a Cybelean priesthood, woman is found dishonoured and degraded, the relation of husband ceases to confer security, and the name of parent almost ceases to be honourable.

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Art. IV. A Paraphrase of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians; with Explanatory Notes. By the Rev. J. G. Tolley. 8vo. pp. 348. London, 1826.

AS

S religious controversies among Christians originate in the different views which are taken by them of the design and meaning of the Sacred Scriptures, and as the contentions which have thus been raised are among the evils which all Christians deplore, the termination of every kind of religious controversy, as the result of a generally received uniform interpretation of the Scriptures, must appear a consummation devoutly to be 'wished. The existing state of religious profession, however, and the character of the exegetical works which are circulated by the several classes of Christian theologists, would seem to indicate, that the time is still distant when the oppositions and differences of religious professors, who acknowledge the Bible as the standard of their opinions, will be extinguished by the illuminations of truth producing in all of them the same apprehensions of the same objects. In temper and in manner, something has been already gained, as testimony in favour of our improvement in the spirit essential to the successful prosecution of religious discussion; but our diversities in sentiment are not diminished.

A living infallible interpreter of Sacred Scripture would afford unspeakably great advantages to persons seriously engaged in the pursuit of truth. To be guided aright in the most important of all inquiries, to have the causes of error so far removed from us as not to induce by their influence incorrect and inadequate perceptions and devious conclusions into our understandings, would be a safeguard to our principles for which our debt of gratitude would be large. The promise of such protection is, indeed, held out by the advocates of the Church of Rome, and to her authority our submission is claimed, as guarding the ancient uniformity of belief, and dictating the explications which are to be received of the sense of Revelation. But, for this authority, the claims which she asserts are altogether nugatory and visionary. Her character and acts afford no presumption in favour of her appointment to so high an office. Her secularity and her crimes denounce her usurpation. Her wisdom is neither pure nor peaceable, is not either gentle or full of mercy and good fruits, and is not therefore heavenly. Her craft, and frauds, and cruelties, are incompatible with the qualities which are inseparable from the custody and propagation of the truth. It is not the key of knowledge that admits into her territories, over which ignorance and superstition spread their overshadowing wings, and