was to induce me to return to Rome; and when I would not so much as hear this spoken of, he suggested that I should go to Turin, a kingdom governed by Jesuits. On finding that I had no confidence in any Italian government, he contented himself with proposing to me Germany or France. I considered England was the only secure asylum for me, and intimated that no human force should drag me from its hospitable shore. My indefatigable interrogator then proposed that I should go to Ireland, to a monastery of the Cistercians, merely to await my secularization from Rome; but as the idea of monkhood stirred my blood, he in the end recommended that I should retire to the college of Oscott, near Birmingham, regulated by Dr Wiseman." Pp. 177-179.

Such was the craft of these Jesuits, that they fairly bewildered this poor Protestant refugee. They evidently were sure of success, and had written letters announcing that they had secured their victim. That all this should have occurred in London is truly appalling. It is monstrous to think that these demons should be allowed to carry on their deeds of wickedness in this land of truth and liberty, -or that they should be allowed with impunity to act as the emissaries of Rome, in a land where the yoke of Rome has been cast off as an insufferable burden. Oh that Britain would awake, and shake off these tools of anti-christ, that brood of Priests, Monks, and Jesuits that threatens to fasten round her free neck the chains of an infinite bondage, that brood of fiends that are already mixing their poisoned chalices, and counting how many Protestant victims they may be able to secure!

But Dr Baldacconi's character opens up a little more. His hatred of education is rather amusingly brought out in a singular scene which occurred. Our author has ventured to visit a London school for the instruction of Italians. This roused the Jesuit's wrath. abhorrence of the whole system of education broke forth.

His

"How!" said Dr Baldacconi, 'have you been to Pistrucci's school?' "Yes; I was there yesterday evening.'

"What did they say to you?'

ck :

Nothing for which I ought not to thank those well-disposed persons. They showed me every attention, and I have reason to believe them sincere in their professions of being useful to me, should I find myself in circumstances to need their assistance.'

666

how

How,' he resumed, in a movement of great excitement, came you to think of entering that den of outlaws? how is it that you speak to me in their favour?-but, however, you are but just arrived, and you as yet know nothing of this school of perdition.'

"But it does not appear to me to be a school of perdition; they teach reading, and writing, and—'

"There is taught the canker, the pest, the ruin of souls. There immorality marches triumphant; the Pope and the bulls are evil spoken of, prohibited books read, governments abused; and there are fomented insubordination and revolt.'

“‹ Pardon me, I think that what you say of their immorality is not true; and with regard to books, those they read are Silvio Pellico, Manzoni, the histories-'

"How! not true! Is it not immorality to deliver revolutionary discourses-to teach that the people have a right to raise tumults, to give laws to kings, to kill them! to propagate anarchy, and to put into the heads of the Italians, who otherwise would never think of it, notions of liberty which are the ruin of nations and religion? And are not these their motives for reading Pellico? This book speaks throughout in a tone of resentment and hatred of the legitimate power, and is more mischievous than others, because it appears to be written with sentiments of moderation and Christian charity, but I repeat to you, it is a canker, a pest! Cankers and pests are those who direct the school, those who frequent it, those who speak in praise of it, those who defend it! May the curse of God, and the excommunication of the Pope rest upon them! As for me, could I destroy it altogether, believe me, I would not hesitate for one moment to do so.'

"He might have spared himself this last expression; for the paroxysm of rage into which he was thrown, but too clearly revealed the sincerity of his impotent wish.

"This conversation had much to do with a resolution I formed to hold myself aloof from a man who thus openly avowed himself the defender of tyranny, and dared to tax with iniquity and immorality a school where they spoke of liberty and patriotic love. I was confirmed in the persuasion, that the religion of the Pope, in deifying tyranny, was diametrically opposed to the spirit of the Gospel, and I had many opportunities of being convinced of the tyrannical spirit animating the Church of Rome, in whatever part of the globe she exists." Pp. 180–183.

So determined were these London Jesuits to entangle their victim again, that he was surrounded on every side by their emissaries, who, as he says, ' like hawks for their prey, watched him at every turn, so that he could not stir from the hotel without meeting a Baldacconian, or a Franciscan, or a Dominican, or a Jesuit,' who sought to converse with him, and lead him back to their Church. So numerous, so vigilant, so unwearied, so crafty are these Romish agents! Their name is Legion! But from all these he was rescued, through the kindness of an English clergyman.

Such is the story of this poor refugee. It ought to be scattered wide and far throughout the empire. It is a fearful disclosure of what is at this moment doing at Rome. How many victims are there who have never escaped to tell their tale? How many have perished unseen, in the cell or dungeon, by poison, or confinement, or grief, or starvation, or terror, or torture, or broken hearts? It shows us what Papal Rome is in 1842. It shows us that she is still the oppressor, the persecutor, the blasphemer,-the enemy of all that is free, or generous, or noble, or religious,—the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. When will Britain learn this

lesson? When will a British government and a British parliament learn the real character of that Church they are fondling and flattering? When will they see it as God sees it, and as the word of God paints it? When will they hear the cry of its suffering victims, and hasten to their rescue ? When will they banish from this realm the brood of demons calling themselves Priests of Rome, who are scattered throughout the kingdom to allure the simple into the snare?

Oh for the firm union of all true-hearted Protestants! Oh for the uplifted voice of the free millions of Britain,-a voice which heretofore made Europe tremble, and shook the Romish Arch-demon on his seven-hilled throne! Oh for the universal shout that shall lay prostrate the walls of the Vatican, and bring up to day before the gaze of a shuddering world the myriads of bones and skulls, that for ages have been crumbling there!*

ART. II.-Notices of the State of Religion in Geneva and Belgium. By H. HEUGH, D.D. Glasgow: Maclehose. 1844.

GENEVA has for centuries been a spot of lively interest to all the friends of freedom and of religious truth in Europe and America.

* The paper you so kindly sent me, containing an account of the demolition of that diabolical institution, for so I must call it, the Inquisition at Madrid, forcibly recalls to my mind some horrible scenes I witnessed at Rome in 1803, during my very early military career, the impression of which will never be effaced from my mind while memory lasts.

My duty as an officer in the service of Napoleon called me to that city, soon after the destruction, by his order, of the holy tribunal of the Inquisition; and having previously heard much of the severities therein practised, by men calling themselves ministers of a God of goodness and mercy, I was naturally anxious to visit its ruins. With two of my brother officers, therefore, I sallied forth for that purpose; but how shall I describe what there met our eyes? Familiarized as I had already become with the carnage of the battle-field, having been at Marengo, and early initiated as I had been with the sanguinary scenes of horror daily occurring at Paris during the revolution, while I was a mere stripling at school in that city; yet did all these sink into insignificance before the display of the various modes of cold-blooded torture which the diabolical minds of men calling themselves "holy" had invented. The various instruments I there beheld, doubtless, differed but little from those mentioned by Col. Lehmanowski; indeed, they appear much to have resembled each other in all the inquisitorial establishments. All that the most refined cruelty could invent to extort confession, by inflicting pain, was there to be seen. Two modes of punishment there were, however, at Rome, of which he makes no mention in his account, and which I will describe to you. The one, a gridiron, sufficiently large to admit the unfortunate victim to be thereon extended, over a slow fire, until death put an end to his sufferings. The other was, perhaps, a more refined piece of barbarity; there was a room, around which were several niches, just large enough to admit the human body quite upright; in these the unfortunate offenders were placed, and walled up to the middle, there to remain till death should end their miseries, which were protracted by their being compelled, at very distant intervals, to swal low a small portion of bread and water.'-Letter in a London newspaper.

VOL. XVII. NO. III.

Y

Its magnificent mountain scenery is not the attraction; neither its sunny lake, nor its romantic valleys, nor its picturesque villas, nor its ancient city and cathedral. It is none of these. The earth is rich in fine scenery. The civilised world has many an ancient edifice and gorgeous palace. It is not these. It is the dignity which freedom gives to man-it is the moral grandeur that hangs around religious truth that elevates Geneva. Her conflicts for liberty,her native mountain-heroes, her escape from the yoke of the oppressor; form narratives that stir the heart and swell the pulse of the generous youth of many countries.

There stands a little republic in Italy looking down from its home on the Apennines to the Adriatic, by name San Marino. This mountain cradle of freedom, from natural association, has long presented itself to us in connection with Geneva. It presents an example of the dignity which liberal institutions bestow on any spot, however limited in geographical extent and political importance. When Buonaparte was causing the autocrat of Russia to tremble in the far fastnesses of his dominions, while he was engulphing cities, weary of their petty dukes, and ripe for any change, in his new kingdom of Italy— while Parma, Modena, and Monaca hailed his sweeping revolutions, San Marino asked nothing of him but to be let alone. She even refused the extension of her dominion to the river which the conqueror offered as her natural boundary. She shrunk from the introduction of men subdued by despotism to be managers of her free institutions, and Buonaparte respected her claims, and left her in the solitude of her republican government to unfurl the standard of freedom in the sight of lands trodden down by the despotism of the powers around them.

The children of San Marino are in a good degree educated. Her men walk erectly, sustain their families by honest industry, and are accustomed to think for themselves. But political influences can only reach to a certain extent in exciting to mental culture. The trammels of a degrading superstition form a fetter which impedes all enlightened movement. Therefore, at this point the parallel between San Marino and Geneva ceases. She possesses the dignity of freedom; but she lacks the moral grandeur imparted by religious truth, which Geneva possesses, or at least once possessed. The purity of Geneva's first reformed doctrines, the holiness of her reformers, the hospitality of her reformed people to the persecuted from many countries, give her a standing and interest among the nations, which she never could have derived from her mere political importance. We have not seen anywhere what seemed to us a complete exhibition of the causes which led to the decline of the Genevan Church from the purity of her doctrinal standards and practice. Dr Heugh in the very clear and interesting volume under review, traces some

fundamental errors in the construction of her church in the days of Calvin, in which we readily concur, and to which we shall advert presently, and some in which we differ from him in part, though we may not feel at present called on to argue out our differences. The first cause Dr Heugh states, is

neva.

"An attempt suddenly to identify the republic with the church of GeThe republic was all Popish before; it was attempted to have it all Protestant now. Had this change been the effect of conviction and conversion, it had been well; but speedier measures were resorted to. Within three or four years after the entrance of the Reformation, the whole body of the citizens were called upon to take a solemn oath to renounce Popish errors, and to live according to the rules of the gospel. This conversion of the country was too hasty and too interested to be very sound." P. 40.

It is true that hearts cannot be changed by oath-taking, nor can people become enlightened Protestants by simply renouncing the profession of Popery. It was a remnant of the old Popish notion of complete unity in church form, which led to this haste in some of the early reformers. Bringing the people in droves to the new mode of worship, and admitting them indiscriminately to the most sacred ordinances, was forming a profession, but not a church. We do not in the book of Acts find any whole state, or even any single city converted to Christianity. We find the church of Christ "at" such and such a place-and the strangers scattered abroad who were members of the true church, but nowhere a whole

body of men turned at once. The result of these unscriptural proceedings at Geneva was, that the lives of multitudes were a reproach to the gospel. We lay before our readers an extract which exhibits Calvin in his zeal and resolution to overcome the mischief that had been done by these hasty measures.

"To such an extent did this immorality prevail, that the ministers for a time desisted from administering the Lord's Supper-a determination which the pride of the people resented, by banishing Calvin and the other ministers from the republic. On his recall about two years after his exile, and when a spirit of repentance had very extensively shown itself, we find the Reformer thus addressing the Genevese:-'If you desire to have me for your pastor, correct the disorders of your lives. If you have with sincerity recalled me from exile, banish the crimes and debauchery which prevail among you. I cannot behold, without the most painful displeasure, within your walls, discipline trodden under foot, and crimes committed with impunity. I cannot possibly live in a place so grossly immoral. I consider the principal enemies of the gospel to be, not the pontiff of Rome, nor heretics, nor seceders, nor tyrants, but such bad Christians; because the former exercise their influence. out of the church, while drunkenness, luxury, perjury, blasphemy, impurity, adultery, and other abominable vices, overthrow my doctrine, and