·

prayerful heart; for I tell you confidently, that if you will seek heaven in preference to this world's pleasures, God will bless you. At this moment the wife took up the subject, and said, You have always been very cross with this gentleman, and you know he comes from the chapel where they visited you from' (referring to Surrey Chapel, and some visitation and relief he had had while ill from its noble benevolent society); you certainly ought to be civil to them.' This seemed to subdue him, and he put down his stick. I then said, But I hope you will not be friendly with me merely on that account, for that will be of no good, nor do I desire your kind feeling on this account; I did not even know that you had been visited by any person beside myself.' He then said, 'Well, I have no time now, but if you will leave the tract I will read it. As to praying, I must think about that, and you can call again. It is pleasing to add, that in twelve months after this, as the result of Mr Miller's persevering labour, this aged sinner had become a regular attendant on public worship, expressed deep interest in the services of the sanctuary, and earnest hope that he should continue to attend them as long as he might live."

Our readers will thank us for the following additional specimen of London life on the one hand, and the efforts of London Christians on the other:

"In the same spirit, he threw himself into connection with the Christian Instruction Society of Surrey Chapel; penetrated with them, from time to time, the miserable lodging-houses of the Mint, and sought among the degraded wrecks of humanity that so thickly strew these shores of life, cast hither by its adverse or indignant heavings, to diffuse the healing truths and influences of a living Christianity. This Mint, as its name imports, is the place where formerly the coin of the realm was made. It was at that time inclosed by gates, within which many families of distinction had their dwellings. The residences of some of these continue to this day. But how is the gold become dim, and the fine gold changed.' The distinguished residents have long ago vanished. The property, at a later period, was thrown into Chancery, and the place became a mart for the sale of furniture, a haunt and harbour for abandoned women, and a hiding-place and stronghold for thieves. Gradually it has been drained of its trade by the more attractive thoroughfare of the New Cut, and left in the almost sole possession of the dregs of society of every species. It would seem as if formed on purpose to attract and accommodate these. It is extremely close, is furnished with but with little more light than suffices to make darkness visible, and abounds in dark and narrow courts. It affords almost every facility for the protection of thieves, and the concealment of their prey. Its houses, in some instances, run one into another, and have different doors for ingress and egress communicating with as many various streets. They are also furnished with trap-doors aud cellars. One of them is distinguished as having long been the dwelling of the infamous Jack Shepherd. Such is the character of the people and the place that, before the establishment of the New Police Force, no one would dare to pursue a thief within the gates. Once there, he felt himself, and was felt by all, as safe as if entrenched in the most impregnable citadel.

"It is now occupied by about nine hundred families, generally numerous; and of these, in 1846, only twenty persons professed to attend any Protestant place of worship. There are in it upwards of thirty lodging-houses. It is difficult for any one not personally acquainted with these places, so abundant now in all the poorer parts of the metropolis, to form any fair and full idea of them. They differ in size-accommodating from ten to upwards of a hundred each. They are in general badly constructed, and worse conditioned. Most of them are kept by persons who themselves reside at a distance in the more aristocratic parts of the city, or in the suburbs, deriving from them an ample income, and living in comparative affluence and splendour. In some cases, several are held by the same person, yielding them an almost princely revenue. They are sometimes let to individuals at a fixed rent, to be re-let by them; in other instances, they are entrusted to deputies to be managed for the proprietors. They are, for the most part, subjected to the least possible restriction or regulation. Persons of almost every age, character, sex, and social grade, mix indiscriminately together. 'I have seen,' says one familiar with them, the illiterate and the learned, the reckless spendthrift and the child of misfortune, the

broken-down tradesman, the artizan, and labourer, the mother with her babe and her children of a larger growth, and youths, fast shooting into womanhood and manhood, mixed promiscuously with fallen girls, abandoned women, and notorious thieves.'

"The modes adapted by them for obtaining a livelihood are very diversified, and generally very strange. There are beggars of numerous species, ballad-singers, sweepers of public crossings, costermongers, cab drivers, tumblers in publichouses, jugglers, knobblers, or mobsmen, with their fancy women, street-walkers, and street-chalkers, highflyers or professional writers of begging-letters, cadgers, and thieves of various hue and name,-as counter-jumpers, till-priggers, molbursers, whose business it is to dive their hands into ladies' pockets, &c. "Here many

of the deformed, limping, half-naked impostors, who perambulate the streets of London during the day, and by a thousand deceitful arts extort from and rob the public, may be seen at night practically asserting their independency of their crutches, rejoicing in their freedom from the thraldom of their bandages, attired in their proper costume, and exhibiting their true characters, regaling themselves extravagantly with costly meats and drinks, dancing to the voluptuous sound of music, or gambling and card-playing-their favourite occupation-uttering oft the most profane and filthy language, and engaging in the most savage and sanguinary combats, the walls resounding not seldom to the shriek of terror and the cry of murder. Justly are they designated 'the worst sinks of iniquity in the metropolis. No person can once enter them as an abode with impunity. He that ever crosses their threshold, to abide in them though but for a night, returns no more the same as he entered. Decency forbids even the mention of the gross and terrible abominations which, in some of them, are continually exhibited. Here youths of both sexes, some driven by the storms of adversity, and others fleeing from their deserted masters and mistresses, or hiding from their forsaken and broken-hearted parents, seduced and run-away children, servants and apprentices, are first placed in the midst of objects and influences that deaden every moral sensibility,-then drawn into the worst companionships, then schooled systematically into professional vagrancy and vice, and become at length abandoned streetwalkers, inmates of prisons, or tenantry of the hulks and penal settlements.

"It was into these houses that Mr Miller and his friends were accustomed, from time to time, on a Sabbath afternoon or evening, to carry the lamp of life. Here they read and expounded the Word of God, sung his praises, distributed tracts, familiarly conversed, and otherwise sought to disseminate the gospel. The number in attendance averaged about forty. It was a strange and motley assembly, and odd was the spectacle exhibited by them on such occasions. Imagine the speaker, in the centre of a large messroom; before him is a huge and blazing fire; around, on every hand, are benches and tables occupied by persons of the above description. Some are seated, some standing, some lounging or sleeping, some cooking, some eating, some smoking, some talking, criticising the speaker, or what he says, and some most unceremoniously dashing in and out of the room. But this is a favourable view; sometimes the scene was one of the wildest uproar. One of these is mentioned by Mr Miller, under date of October 1844. I held (the day previous) a meeting at the Lodging-house. There were near forty persons. All went on very well, until a drunken woman came in-a noted beggar in the streets. As soon as she entered, she said she was not of my religion, so I should not preach there. The landlord appeared and tried to put her to silence, but in vain; for two men joined the woman, and were worse than she. The tumult rapidly increased. Obscenity and blasphemy rolled from their tongues like a torrent. Many regretted it, but could do nothing. I tried to proceed, but was unable, so I concluded by giving away some tracts."

That true nobleman, the Earl of Shaftesbury, better known as the Lord Ashley, found our hero the very man for his projects; and the evening Ragged Schools of London may be traced to the large and earnest faith of these men from the extremes of British society. We had marked very copious extracts illustrative of this, but we are compelled to leave them out.

The close of this good man's life will affect our

readers not less than the ample extracts which we have given. Let his biographer declare it:

"In the midst of these benevolent and useful labours, he received the mournful intelligence of his mother's death. From the time he became the subject of religion, he had exerted himself to promote her spiritual welfare. With a view to this object, he had kept up a frequent correspondence with her. Although there does not appear decisive evidence of her conversion to God, yet there is some reason to hope concerning her. In a letter addressed to him by the Rev. S. Bowen of Macclesfield, that gentleman says,-Your good mother is not in Macclesfield at present; as long as she tarried here, she was very punctual in her attendance upon the means, and so far as I could see, conducted herself in every way very becomingly.' On receiving the sad tidings of her death, he immediately resolved to hasten to Manchester, the place where the melancholy event had taken place, to render to her remains the last tribute of filial reverence and love. It was on Saturday the 5th June 1847. He gathered his family around him in domestic worship, read John xi., expatiating with much feeling on different parts of the sadly-pleasing narrative therein recorded, then for the last time knelt with them in prayer. In devotion, probably from the peculiar circumstances of the time, he was singularly copious, earnest, and solemn. How affect. ing to those who were present is the memory of that hour! He then proceeded to fulfil an engagement he had made with Lord Ashley, relative to the approaching meeting of the friends of his ragged school, at which his lordship had promised to preside, and to arrange some affairs affected by his sudden call from London; and in the evening left by the mail train for Manchester. He was not, however, permitted ever to see that town, or to advance far upon the way. As the train approached the Wolverton station, it was, through some remissness of one of the policemen, turned into a siding, which threw it into violent collision with the carriages there stationed. Mr Miller and six other passengers were killed upon the spot.

"It is a remarkable and pleasing fact stated by a surviving fellow-passenger, that Mr Miller and the party accompanying him in the same carriage had agreed to close the day with devotion, and at the time when the sudden and solemn event took place, were actually engaged in singing the Evening Hymn. How appropriate to that event are the words of that hymn !

Teach me to live that I may dread
My grave as little as my bed;
Teach me to die, that so I may,

Rise glorious at the judgment-day,' &c.

"When searched, after death, his pockets were found filled with papers containing plans of usefulness, and printed notices of the annual meeting of his ragged school, which was to have taken place the week following. His intention was to obtain assistance for these during his absence in the country, and thus, in his case, is beautifully seen

'The ruling passion strong in death.' "Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing!""

The impression produced by the manner as well as the event of his death may be conceived, and is very tenderly related. Being a member of Mr Sherman's church, this excellent minister sought the improvement of the living by preaching a funeral sermon on the following Sabbath evening, from Eccles. ix. 10, which is given in the appendix.

The story of his life and labours leads us to the conclusion expressed in the following words:

"Though uneducated, he was in no degree coarse; though unlettered, he was not scantily endowed with mental gifts. His understanding was vigorous, and distinguished for strong common sense. On all practical questions, his mind was prompt and powerful in operation, and his views clear, sound, and comprehensive. He had real piety, but it discovered itself chiefly in action. His great characteristics were simple, disinterested, and generous kindness of heart, and unconquerable energy and firmness of will. There was sometimes an appearance of egotism, but this is only what ordinarily attends an earnest spirit and powerful will, and is, perhaps, in some degree, inseparable from these. Taking him all in all, he was a fine sample of sanctified humanity, and of missionary piety

and philanthropy. And in him is verified most fully and forcibly the beautiful language of Lord Brougham: Resting from his labours, he bequeathed his memory to the generation whom his works have blessed, and sleeps under the humble but not inglorious epitaph commemorating one in whom mankind lost a friend, and no man got rid of an enemy.'"

Verily, if earnest philanthropy, holy zeal, and consecrated energy, could do so much in one humble city missionary, what may we not expect when all the ministries and membership of the Christian church are similarly embued? If, as David Nasmyth, their founder, said, city missions can accomplish so much, with all their acknowledged disadvantages, what glory to God in the highest will accrue, when the church, whose function it is, shall" arise and shine." The salvation of God shall then break forth like the morning. With unutterable gladness, therefore, we hail our church in her home mission movement-with prayerful interest we witness Glasgow in her Chalmerian enterprise. Before such heroes, whom the Lord alone can raise up, "the superstition, vice, and disorders of many generations will melt away as mist, and the age come quickly on, when all our dwellings shall enjoy our Sabbaths, and celebrate responsively to heaven a lasting jubilee."

Goliath's sword was of tempered steel. The weapon had no fault, though it was long wielded with effect by the uncircumcised Philistine. When wrenched from the foe by the servant of the Lord, it did goodly service on the side of Israel. "The sword of Goliath the Philistine," said the priest Ahimilech to David in his distress: "if thou wilt take that, take it; for there is no other save that here." And David said, "There is none like that; give it me." Here is the Pharisee's hymn of praise: "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are." I answer: "There is none like that; give it me."

A brief analysis of the passage will enable us to wrest that pregnant utterance from the Pharisee who abused it, and employ it acceptably in the high praises of God.

1. The two men who went up into the temple to pray, were in the same condition as to personal merit before God. It is not that the Pharisee was a bad man, and the publican a good man. They differed in the outward form of their sins; but both, and both alike, were sinners. The one had been hypocritical, the other profane. In the past life of both, the Pharisee had pretended to a piety which he possessed not-the publican had not troubled himself with such a profession. It is a curious fact in the natural history of sin, that men often make a merit of their very abandonment in wickedness. Not a few seem to think that they shall please God by being able to say that they did not count it necessary to make a show of pleasing Him. Those who have no religion are often found trusting to this as a merit, that they did not pretend to have any. I think I have as often

merciful spirit of Christianity-to rouse a strong public feeling against it, and to try to make governments and nations averse to undertake it, except when unavoidable-all that is exceedingly laudable, and so far as the proceedings of the Peace Congress, and such essays as the present, are directed to that end, every patriot and Christian will bid them God speed. We go further and say, that we can see no reasonable objection to the proposal that in the treaties of civilized nations a clause should be inserted, agreeing to refer any disputes that might arise between them to arbitration, so as to avoid war. But we do not approve of the proposal of national disarmament, because we are very sure that till there is more real Christianity among the nations, both civilized and barbarous, we shall never cease to be liable, from some quarter or another, to those outbursts of ambition, passion, and pride, which trample all treaties in the dust, and kindle the flames of war. We do not like the indiscriminate condemnation in which the article deals of all who bear the profession of arms. Altogether, the article seems to us too declamatory, and wanting in sober argumentation, and not very likely to make many proselytes to the Peace Society. Indeed, in sundry other parts of this very Number, the old warlike spirit is seen to be far from extinct.

The next article is on the "Principles of Taxation." It is designed to show the folly of the recent proposal that all taxation should be direct, and to expose certain popular outcries on the unequal pressure of taxation. The experience of the Income Tax seems to us very thoroughly to justify the writer's opposition to direct taxation, a system which looks plausible in the abstract, but is surrounded by difficulties innumerable in detail. We likewise agree with what seems to be the author's view, that taxation should mainly be levied on the two items of realized property and luxuries. In so far we think him right in holding that taxation presses on the working masses much more lightly than it once did; but we do not altogether acquiesce in his view that they bear no more than a proper share of the burden. The following remarks occur in the article, which we copy for the sake of pointing out a very current fallacy :

"Take the case of a man with an income of £1000 a-year. He pays, we will say, £200 a-year in taxes, direct and indirect; the remaining £800 meets his personal expenditure. He keeps three servants, besides a groom and a horse. A new system of taxation increases his taxes to £400 a-year, and of course diminishes his available income to £600. His tea, coffee, and sugar, will cost him less than before, owing to the abolition of customs and excise duties. But the difference will be so slight, that he must diminish his general expenditure materially. He can only do so by paying less wages, or by purchasing less of those articles whose production gives employment to the poor,-i.., by diminishing that portion of his expenditure which was spent, directly or indirectly, in the payment of labour. He dismisses his groom and sells his horse. His groom in the first place, his saddler and blacksmith in the second, and the farmer who supplied him with hay and oats, in the third, are the sufferers." He gives up wine, and deprives of employment the artisan who used to produce the article of export which was formerly sent abroad to purchase his wine. He reduces the expenditure of his family in clothes: the tailor, the shoemaker, the spinner, the weaver, the dyer, feel the effect of his increased taxation. They have their sugar, their tea, their tobacco, their beer, cheaper than before; but the poor groom has lost all his means of purchasing these luxuries, and the other artisans have had their means greatly curtailed. Almost the whole expenditure of the rich man goes, in one form or another, in the employment of labour-often, it is true, in a most unwise employment of it; and when this truth is fully apprehended by the working classes, they will understand that every diminution of the rich man's income, by partial taxation, must recoil upon the poor,-not by a law of Parliament, but by a law of Economic science, against which Parliamentary enact

ments contend in vain."

Oracular though this be, we hold it to involve a clear fallacy. It may be true that the rich man gives up groom, horse, and wine, and pays less to the saddler and the blacksmith. But the reviewer utterly forgets to mention, that as the members of the community at large get their bread, tea, clothing, and other articles cheaper, they have more spare money than before. Consequently, they use more clothing, procure better houses, buy more books, and give better remuneration to the

schoolmaster and the doctor. The tendency of the arrangement is to encourage the useful trades and professions, and to discountenance the more useless. The rich man gives up his horse and groom when he is deprived of £200 of his income; but meanwhile, the intelligent working people of the village, finding that after defraying the bare expense of living, they have some spare money, club together, and of course come to the conclusion that the very best way to spend it is to take out three or four copies of the North British Review; so that while a heavy blow falls on the horse and groom, there arises a great encouragement to the whole North British staff, from the editor to the printer's boy. We don't refer to this matter with a view merely to the question of taxation-but to show that a more equal distribution of wealth would not involve the evil results to the working classes that are often ascribed to it. It would shake old arrangements, and produce temporary derangement, but decided benefit would accrue in the end.

We have exhausted our space, and can but refer to the calm and useful exposure of NEWMAN and GREGG on the Old Testament and its difficulties; the lively and graphic picture of JOHN OWEN; and the deeply interesting sketch of the revival of Christian activity in GERMANY, coinciding very closely with the accounts that have appeared from time to time in this Magazine. The other articles are able and wellwritten, and the Review gives increasing evidence of ability to plant its standard over the whole field of literature, and to subject all to its salutary inspection.

The Doctrine of Plenary Inspiration, and the Errors of M. Scherer of Geneva. By COUNT A. DE GASPARIN. Translated by Rev. J. Montgomery, A.M., Innerleithen.

Edinburgh 1851. THE subject of Inspiration is every year acquiring more and more importance in the view of influential minds. It is indeed "the doctrine of doctrines," for upon it depends the answer to the question-Have we a revelation from God at all? Is God's mind really made known to us-or have we only the opinions or effusions of men fallible, and untrustworthy like ourselves? And in proportion to the importance of the subject, have been the attacks against Plenary Inspiration. Even such men as Neander, Tholuck, and others, have held such opinions on the subject as infallibly tend to infidelity in minds less devout than their own. The ranks of the assailants of Plenary Inspiration have recently been strengthened by the accession of M. Scherer, who was formerGeneva; but is now the fast friend of those who are, unconly the colleague of Dr M. D'Aubigné and Dr Gaussen, at sciously perhaps, but certainly, undermining the foundations of our trust in revelation. Scherer has taken inspiration from the Word of God, and given it to man. It is not a book that is infallibly true-it is the feelings, the desires, and aspirations of the creature. In other words, Scherer has adopted that strange blending of the Papist and the Mystic which is so rife in some earnest, but withal ignorant minds, in Germany and elsewhere. Biblicism, or the love of the Bible, excites in them nothing but wrath; and, with the zeal of a new convert, M. Scherer has spoken in terms of peculiar offensiveness against the Scriptures, calling their inspiration a "cabalistic ventriloquism.' Under the impulse of such errors, he is obviously drifting away from all that is fixed and true-and M. Gasparin has added another to former favours bestowed by him on the churches, by tracking M. Scherer through his aberrations, and confronting him with the truth of God-the truth as it is in Jesus. We trust that Mr Montgomery's very idiomatic and fluent translation of M. Gasparin's treatise will be widely circulated, as we know of few works in which the same amount of scriptural truth on this important subject could be found in the same compass. We commend it especially to the attention of our students and younger ministers, as sound, safe, and conclusive, against Scherer's errors.

A Sermon preached in Free St John's Church, on Sabbath, the 19th October, on occasion of the Death of WM. M. GUNN, LL.D. By the Rev. THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D. Edinburgh: 1851.

THIS discourse is characterised by much Christian faithfulness and simplicity, and by all the well-known qualities of Dr Guthrie's eloquence. We insert the following passage, both as a specimen of the discourse, and a memorial of the

excellent and able office-bearer of our church to whom it refers:

"How finely was his care for souls brought out in the sentence he raised himself up on his deathbed to pass on the infidelity of Voltaire! The poison was in his house; he was not content in large letters to write Poison' on the volumes. How they got into his library I do not know-they are in ashes now. His library may have gotten them before his own soul got grace-or he may have gotten them, that, like a wary general, he might see into the enemy's camp; but for whatever purpose he got them, he trembled lest these volumes should fall into hauds not gauntleted and glaived like his own to handle such poisoned weapons; he condemned Voltaire to the flames; and when it was said, no one will read them, "Ah!' was his reply, that was the salvo I once laid to my conscience; it won't do here.'

"A young man stood by his bed to whom he had been a father, and a friend-he looked on him with undying affection. I shall soon be dead,' he said, as he addressed him with melting affection; by and by I shall be forgotten (never by some of us); it is proper,' he continued, and it is best that it should be so; but when time has healed this wound, and dried these tears, and you have forgotten me amid the business and bustle of the world, remember, oh! I beseech you, remember, never to forget your God.'

"Visited within a day or two of the closing scene by an elder of our church, and one of his colleagues in the High School, he collected his strength to deliver a solemn charge to the masters with whom he had been associated. Like all else, it was full of the love that many waters could not quench; to me it is inexpressibly precious, of the highest value, as the clear utterance on his deathbed of his views on the great subject of Education. Amid circumstances of awful solemnity, standing on the verge of another world, where your praise or censure was nothing, as utter nothingness to him, he has left in this deathbed charge the noblest vindication of his character, and an exposition of his sentiments, which must place them now beyond the possibility of mistake. Raising his emaciated hand, and panting for breath, he saidOh! charge my dear associates never to forget that human learning and accomplishments are but means to an end-that end is to train up the young into Christian men-that end only can be reached by bringing them to Jesus Christ; to do that, let the teachers be men of prayer.' Dear as his memory is, and ever shall be to me, that he left behind him this solemn and sublime expression of views, not taken up under the pressure, and in the presence of Death, but all along held, meekly, but firmly held, I give God praise and thanks this day.

"The earthly provision of his family he rolled upon God. Strong in faith--a firm believer in Providence he left his little ones in their nest to the care of Him, who hears the young ravens cry, and in whom the fatherless findeth mercy. When, all unconscious of their approaching loss, he heard the young ones singing by the door-the infants singing, and the father dying-he listened and said, They are sweet childrenpoor things-my God will bless them. Yet often did he entreat those to whose love they were committed, with dying breath, and dying earnestness, he charged and entreated them to bring up his orphans in the fear of the Lord. That sad hour when we say farewell at length arrived-and when his motherless children were gathered around him, he told the elder ones that he was going to heaven to meet Jesus and their mother, and that they might all meet at length, he prayed and pleaded with them to come to the feet of Jesus; then remarking, as he clasped the poor babes in his armthey cannot remember much'-' I will leave them,' he said, but one short word'-it was a short, but a very sweet one,Seek Jesus, remember to seek Jesus.' And now the Benoni of his house, having caught the saying, may be heard, as he roams through his orphan home rhyming the words,' Seek Jesus, seek Jesus.'

"From the lips of that lisping boy-from the lips of a dying father-I catch the precious words, and speaking for him who can speak no more, and whose face we shall see no more, I turn to this great assembly and say-Seek JesusSeek Jesus. Oh! Seek the Lord while He is to be found; call ye upon Him while He is near.'-Do it now. Have you sought Him-waited for Him-prayed for Him-found Him? Happy are ye. Abide in Christ. Be holy. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; the latter end of that man is peace.""_

History of the Pontificate of Pius IX., including a Narr tive of the Political Movement in Italy, during the lat five years. By G. B. NICOLINI of Rome, Deputy to the Tuscan Constituent Assembly, and Officer of the General Staff of the Roman Army. Edinburgh: 1851.

THIS is a most interesting little work. There is life in every page-and every where the manifestations of a noble, chiral rous, and most generous spirit. As the work of a patrist, and exhibiting the spirit of patriots, and as a seemingly fair narrative of the Italian Revolution, we recommend it to the attention of our readers; while, at the same time, we confes that we desiderate a more scriptural spirit in the treatmen of some of the mighty subjects to which the author has occ sion to advert. We subjoin a few brief extracts from t little work.

SECRETS OF THE INQUISITION. "When the Dominican Friars, alarmed by a poptar mult, hastily fled from their convent, they left behind their hurry, a very precious document which disclosed the practices. This was a volume of autograph letters from different Prelates, Bishops, and ordinary priests, addressed the President of the Inquisition. Every one knows that th the Pope, who, however, leaves all these affairs to the Genes Inquisitor-a Dominican. In almost every one of these ters, it was found that the writer had VIOLATED THE SECRES OF THE CONFESSIONAL-secrets which they declare so invita ble that one of their own authors (I do not at present remes ber which) says somewhere, that GOD HIMSELF NEEDS KNOWS WHAT YOU SAY TO YOUR CONFESSOR.' And worthy of remark, that in almost every instance the secre revealed in these letters related to political and state an no matter in what country. Many of these letters were writ by Irish and English Prelates. And from the whole of thes letters it was clearly evident, (which was, however, well known to us before) that the confessional is nothing but an engine, of police.

This fact I asserted in another little work published ab a year ago, and it has never been contradicted. To those ask why we did not publish these letters when first vered, and why we still abstain from doing so, I rep then we were otherwise too busy, and never anticipated t we should afterwards be prevented by the Pope's return; s that now we are unable, because the precious volume cealed in Rome, along with some others of a similar nat and we cannot obtain possession of it till our return thither Should any Catholic doubt my word, I refer him to Stert Morelli, Montecchi, and many others, all gentlemen of doubted veracity, at present residing in England or f

France."

THE ROMAN TRIUMVIRS.

"Armellini was one of the ablest advocates in Rome, perhaps its best jurist. He professed a very moderate ralism, was chosen a deputy, became a member of the P visional Government, and was afterwards named Trum He is a man of about sixty-five years of age, pusillanincautious, and easily moved either by menaces or flattery was subservient and courteous equally to those he fe and to those he liked. He undertook the legal depart (so to speak) of the Government; and all those de points in which learning was requisite were referred to As for the rest, he knew little or nothing of the great schem of his colleagues, and it was often curious to hear Arme ask a stranger what Mazzini was about to do in sach or sach. a matter. He owed his place in the second triumvirate to the influence of two or three of the republican party, to whe was entirely subservient.

"Saffi is a handsome and elegant young man, aged a thirty; his conduct does not disgrace his birth, which is He is a native of Forli, and resided there the acknowledg chief of the moderate constitutional party. Modest, reser of unexceptionable moral character, and having many ary acquirements, he was held in great repute in his na town. He was elected a Deputy, became Minister of Interior under the first Triumvirate, and was the frie ther than the colleague of Mazzini, to whose intelligence & genius he paid a perfect deference. He was active, and for exact in the details of business.

"Of Mazzini's character and merits it is needless to ge so universally are they known. As for his uprightness, sufficient to say that even his bitterest enemies have