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ruption being offensive to the occupants of the inquisition, there were flues extending along the roofs of the cells and carrying the odour off to the open air. Among the living prisoners we found aged men and women of threescore years and ten; youths and girls of fourteen or fifteen; and others in the prime of life. Some had been there for many years, and had lost count of the time since they entered. The soldiers went to work to release them from their chains, and took from their knapsacks their overcoats and other clothing to cover their nakedness. They were eager to be taken to the light of day, but having heard of the danger of this, I caused food to be given to them, and then directed them gradually to be brought out to the light as they were able to bear it.

By the side of one of the marble slabs the water was passing through fast, as though there were an opening beneath. All hands were now at work for further discovery. The officers with their swords, and the men with their bayonets, were trying to clear out the seam and to raise the slab. Others began to strike the slab with all their might with the butts of their muskets in order to break it. The fathers who had been looking on with the greatest dismay, now broke out into loud remonstrance against our desecration of their holy and beautiful house. As they were thus engaged, one of the soldiers who was busy with the butt of his musket, struck a part of the marble under which was a spring, and the slab partly flew up. Then the faces of the inquisitors grew pale, and they trembled, as Belshazzar when the handwriting appeared on the We then proceeded to explore another wall. The marble slab being raised, the room where were the instruments of tortop of a staircase appeared. I stepped to ture. One of these was a machine, on the altar, and took one of the long which the victim was stretched, and candles which was burning, some of my every joint of the body, beginning with men doing the same, that we might see the fingers, was racked until the sufferer to explore what was below. One of the swooned away or died. Another engine inquisitors here came up to me, and consisted of a box in which the head and laying his hand gently on my arm, said, neck were immoveably confined by a with a demure and holy look, "My screw, and over this box was a vessel son, you must not take those lights from which, drop by drop, water fell with your bloody hands; they are holy." every second upon the head. This per"Well," said I, pushing him back, "Ipetual drop falling on will take a holy thing to shed light on iniquity; I will bear the responsibility." We proceeded down the staircase.

On reaching the floor, the first room we entered was a large square hall, on one side of which was a raised platform with seats, the centre one being raised considerably, being the throne of the Inquisitor-General. In the centre of the hall was a large block, with a chain fastened to it, where the accused were chained during the examination.

On leaving the Hall of Judgment we proceeded along a passage with numerous doors. These were the cells of solitary imprisonment, from which the miserable victims were never brought out, except it were for torture. Within some of the cells we heard sounds as we advanced. On opening the doors we witnessed such sights as I wish never to see again, the details of which are too horrible to relate. In some cells we found bodies apparently but a short time dead. Others were in various stages of decay, and we saw some of which little but the bones remained, still fixed by chains to the floor of the dungeon. To prevent this cor

Another

the same spot caused most excruciating agony, ending ere long in raving madness. infernal machine lay along horizontally, to which the sufferer was bound, and then was placed between two beams on which scores of knives were fixed, so that by turning the machine with a crank the flesh was torn from the limbs in small pieces. A fourth machine surpassed the others in fiendish ingenuity. Its exterior was a beautiful woman, richly dressed, with arms extended to embrace the victim; around her feet a semicircle was drawn. Whoever stepped over this line touched a spring, which caused the diabolical engine to open, and a thousand knives pierced him with deadly force.

The sight of these engines of infernal cruelty kindled the fury of the soldiers, already enraged with the resistance they met with, and the death of their comrades in assaulting the walls. They declared that they would put their prisoners to the torture. I could not stem their fury. They began with the holy fathers. They put one on the machine for racking the joints. Another was put under the dropping water, and terrible was the

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brothers met once more.
Some were
friendless and unrecognised. The scene
of mingled joy, surprise, and anguish, no
tongue could describe.

While this was going on, said Colonel
Lehmanowsky, I gave orders for the
library, paintings, and furniture to be
carefully removed, and sent to the city
for a large quantity of gunpowder.
Placing this in the vaults and subterranean
places of the buildings, and a slow match
being set, we all withdrew to a distance,
and awaited the result in silence.
sently loud cheers rent the air; the walls
and turrets of the massive structure rose
majestically towards the heaven, impelled
by the tremendous explosion, and fell
back to the earth a vast heap of ruins.
The Inquisition was no more!

Pre

VISIT TO ST. GEORGE'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, SOUTHWARK.— SERMON BY MR. OAKELEY.

WE went on the evening of July 11 to | hear Vespers at the new Romish Cathedral in the Borough, which had been opened with a solemn pontifical high mass, and a great deal of pomp, during the preceding week. The building may be called magnificent for these degenerate days of Church architecture. The effect, however, of the interior does not correspond with the grandeur and taste of the exterior. And to those who have been accustomed to the Romish cathedrals abroad, the whole aspect of St. George's Church during service will be found poor and unimposing.

The church was on this occasion about

three-fourths filled. Many, however, were mere on-lookers and listeners. The greater part of the worshippers seemed to be poor Irish or foreigners. After the Vesper service there was a sermon, which, although delivered with little animation, and no rhetorical art, was listened to with marked attention.

The preacher was the Rev. Mr. Oakeley, formerly in the Anglican Church, and minister of Margaret-street Chapel. On standing up in the pulpit he pulled off his cap, and said, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.-Amen." Then covering his head again, he proceeded to his discourse. That verse in the Prophet Zechariah

(ch. xiii. 3) immediately came into our mind, "Thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord;" but of this our readers will judge from the following outline of the

sermon:

The text was from St. John's Gospel ii. 25, "He knew what was in man.” After a few prefatory remarks on the divine knowledge, as well as divine power, of our Lord and Saviour, the preacher laid down this position, viz., that the holy Catholic Church possesses the same divine authority and the same divine insight, which Christ possessed when on earth. In education, in legislation, and other important subjects, the use of authority was universally acknowledged, and yet on the most momentous of all subjects is man to be left to uncertainty and doubt? is religion to be left to the private interpretation of God's Word, or even to our private interpretation of the Church's interpretation? No: the Great Head of the Church has left on earth a living witness, and a divine teacher and guide. Christ spake with authority; and in this, as in everything else, he is now represented by the Church, which is (in the words of a distinguished divine) "a perpetual and abiding incarnation of Christ." The words of power, of promise, of absolution, and of invitation, spoken by Christ are now used by the Church.

She it was who says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are burthened, and I will refresh you."

prising.

It seemed to us almost blasphemy to assume for the Church "the same divine insight with the Lord our Saviour." It looks like blasphemy to say that she can speak with the same authority, and invite the weary and heavy laden so as to give them rest, as He could. It looks like blasphemy to arrogate the office of the Divine Teacher and Interpreter, which belongeth to the Holy Ghost; of whom our Lord said that he would send Him to be the Enlightener and Comforter and Sanctifier. The poor ignorant people, if questioned after this sermon, however much they might know about the Church, might have said as the men of Ephesus did to Paul, (Acts xix. 2,) "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost."

which seemed to give great satisfaction to a portion of the audience, but of which the hardihood of statement and the weakThe Reverend preacher, after gratefulness of argument were to us alike suracknowledgment of the rest and refreshment he had found in the bosom of the Church, and after shewing what was implied in the divine commission and promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the consummation of the world," proceeded to show how the Church made use of her divine knowledge of what was in man. She knew how to meet all the wants of man's nature. First, as to the intellect, she met man's desire of knowledge and craving after truth, by her authoritative decision of controversies and solution of doubts. She spake with authority, and declared the counsel of God. Secondly, she met the want of man's affections. She provided, even in this life, a hundredfold more than any ever forsaketh for Christ. She supplies the communion of saints; and not of saints on earth only, but saints in heaven, guardian angels, and intercessors. And she supplies infinitely more than any earthly mother forsaken, "in our dear and most blessed Lady the Virgin." And not only does our Lord give us his own mother, saying, "Children, behold your mother," but he gives us himself! In the real presence in the sacrament we have the possession of him who walked by the sea of Galilee and taught in the temple, as truly as the disciples of old had his presence on earth.

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Then, as to the argument of the sermon, if mere assertion can be called argument, it is simply not true that the Church has the divine insight and authority claimed for her. You cannot prove it, Mr. Oakeley, from the Word of God. And you cannot expect us to take the bare assertion of infallibility by the Church herself as sufficient evidence. Prove your infallibility; and then it will be less difficult to credit the dicta of your infallible Church. But whenever you attempt to prove your infallibility, you can only do so by appealing to our judgment, and if we are capable of exercising our private judgment on this point, we are as capable of doing so on others. Your whole system rests on bare assertion, and when the things asserted are opposed to Scripture and reason, miserable dupes are those who credit them on the ground of your self-asserted infallibility!

We have no participation in the dark forebodings which many entertain as to the progress of Popery in England. A few perverts may here and there be made, and the ungodliness of others may take the form of superstition instead of scepticism. But there is too much good sense abroad among the people of England ever to admit of such doctrines as transubstantiation being generally professed as God's truth. There is too much love of liberty ever again to submit to the ascendancy of the soul-degrading and body-debasing priesthood of Rome.

There is too much love of truth to tolerate the imposture and deceit and falsehood of the Popish Church. And, above all, there is too much love of the Bible and of the Gospel, ever to leave room for the substitution of the traditions and falsehoods of men in place of the word and doctrine of the God of truth. The present activity of the Romish Church is like the spasmodic convulsion of a galvanized dead body, not like the energy and vigour of health and life. Pius IX. may very probably be the last of the Popes, and his successors be merely Bishops of Rome. But the danger to Protestantism and to Evangelical religion will be then far

greater, when a specious Catholicism shall be allied with Infidelity, in opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. Oh, that there were more union among true Protestants in preparation for the great conflict of principles which is gathering around us. Let us stay ourselves on that word of promise, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." And meanwhile let_each division of the Protestant Church remember that the Lord of Hosts hath "committed unto them a banner, to be displayed because of the truth.” (Isaiah lix. 19; Psalm lx. 4.)

INSURRECTION AT EDINBURGH. (Letter of an English Tourist.)

I WAS sitting before noon on Monday (July 3), reading the papers at a window in M'Queen's Hotel in Princes-street, when I observed an unusual stir in the street. Numbers of working men were hurrying along westward, and two strong bodies of police marched past. Thinking it was a Chartist meeting, or some such thing, and wishing to see the ways of an Edinburgh mob, I took my hat and walked out. On passing the group of waiters standing on the top of the stairs at the street door, I asked one of them what was the row? "It's a roup for minister's steepend, Sir," was his reply. After needful explanation, I found, to my surprise, that it was something about church-rates! I had fancied that no such thing was known in Scotland, but it seems that in Edinburgh and a few other places the stipends of the Established clergy are levied by a small tax upon the inhabitants. This rate, which is called the Annuity-tax, is very unpopular, especially since the disruption in the Scottish Church. Refusals to pay the tax have been becoming more and more frequent, and the clergy have caused the goods of the recusants to be seized for arrears due. The articles being sold by public auction, or roup, as they call it here, great excitement has been caused, and a league was formed some time ago to procure the abolition of the tax. At the last roup no purchaser could be found for any of the goods, and the auctioneer was unable to proceed with the sale, on account of the opposition of the crowd. The collector

of the tax was determined, however, to have these goods sold, and Monday was the day fixed. The sale was in Frederickstreet, at a furniture-warehouse, the proprietor of which, Mr. Darlington, being a Dissenter, had refused payment.

On going along Princes-street, I saw large boards with the words "Shameroup for minister's stipend!" There were placards also from the Anti-State Church Association. A great crowd had already assembled round the shop-door, but I managed to squeeze myself inside.

When the hour of sale arrived, the auctioneer appeared, and was received with a tremendous volley of hoots and groans. Not being known to the crowd, cries got up of "Who are you?" "What's your name?" "Whaur do ye come frae?" In reply to these questions, he handed his card to Mr. Darlington, who announced him as Mr. Thomas Barclay, auctioneer, from Glasgow. Here another storm of hisses and multiform cries arose. One wicked wag near me proposed that one of the Established clergy should be sent for to open the meeting with prayer. In vain the auctioneer tried to read the list of articles for sale; his voice was quite drowned in the tumult. His countenance was seen sometimes as if trying to soothe the people by being funny, sometimes looking as fierce as possible. The crowd began, however, to lose patience, and closing in upon him, were beginning to abuse him shamefully, when, after some violent gesticulations, he declared the sale was over. Having

heard not a single bid, I did not know how the business was done, but was told after, that in default of offers, the goods were knocked down to the poinding creditor, at the price at which they had been previously valued.

As there was to be another sale at one o'clock in a neighbouring street, (Hanover-street), I went with the crowd, which rushed thither en masse. This time I could not get near the door, and therefore saw nothing of the proceedings inside. The scene was also here at a furniture-warehouse, belonging to a Mr. Sword. There must have been at least 10,000 persons collected in the street. Presently there was a movement in the crowd, and a large detachment of police, headed by the sheriff and other officials, appeared on the ground, and after clearing the area in front of the warehouse, formed in square, and prevented all thoroughfare in the street. I went down towards Princes-street, and was standing on the stair of a chemist's shop at the corner, when several companies of the 33d Regiment came marching across the Earthen Mound from the Castle! The crowd at the bottom of Hanover-street received the troops with loud laughter and shouts of derisive cheering. Two Frenchmen, who were standing at the chemist's door beside me, and to whom I had been trying to expound the affair, entered heartily into the joke, and called out" Vive la ligne!" The troops marched up towards the police, and took their station inside of the square already formed. The Colonel of the regiment, and Major-General Riddel, Commander of Her Majesty's forces in North Britain, entered into the square, and held a consultation with the Sheriff of Edinburgh. The Sheriff (Gordon, a son-in-law of old Christopher North), either seemed to enjoy the spree exceedingly, or else he was a violent partisan of the clergy, for I saw him rush up to seize several of the printed placards and boards, and demolish them with great gusto. The officers of the 33d, as well as the men, looked as if they felt they were being made great fools of by these clergy and supporters. After a considerable pause, another movement took place in the dense crowd, and two troops of the 2d Dragoon Guards came dashing along Princes-street from the barracks near Portobello. The laughter, shouts, and cheering were again renewed. Some one raised the report that the artillery were

also on their way from Leith Fort! The authorities, thinking that there was now force sufficient to overawe the people, determined to proceed with the sale. The crowd inside the premises having been ejected by the police, the furniture was brought out into the square, formed in the middle of the street. Here, in the midst of the soldiers and police, Mr. Barclay re-appeared, surrounded by about twenty persons, raff-looking fellows, put in for appearance, and accompanied by one or two small brokers from Glasgow, by whom the goods were brought. It was certainly much to the credit of Edinburgh that neither auctioneer nor buyers could be found out of all its inhabitants.

About three o'clock the sale was over, and the articles were conveyed in three carts along Princes-street toward the Glasgow Railway, escorted by a strong body of police and soldiers. Some severe skirmishes took place on the march, but in the afternoon the streets resumed their usual quiet appearance.

I doubt whether such a scene has taken place in Scotland since the days of Janet Geddes. The Established clergy are most unaccountable fools, thus to attract public attention to their already unpopular position. Since the formation of the Free Church, the Establishment in Scotland is supported only by a fraction of the people. The aristocracy and landed interest belong chiefly to the Episcopal Church; in most cases at the same time compelling their servants and tenants to belong to the Establishment. If the Free Church, and the other Dissenting Presbyterian bodies in Scotland were able to act together with anything like cordiality, the poor effete Establishment could not long command any support or respect. And as the landed proprietors are already estranged from her, and the people desire her not, I think that little opposition would, after a while, be made to the appropriation of the Church property to more useful purposes. A poor-law has recently been established in Scotland, and the aristocracy will speedily feel the burden of that. Why should not the Church lands or revenues be employed for the poor-rates, and for education, and relief of the sick, and other useful parochial purposes; seeing that the Free Church and other voluntary religious bodies have amply shewn their ability to provide for the religious wants of the people?

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