who were reverenced by him as the chosen people. He assumed the title of the Defender of Religion, and the foe of blasphemy and atheism. His followers worshipped him. For hours they lay at his feet, and believed themselves sainted by the touch of his garments. The psalm "Memento" was paraphrased in his honor, and sung, "Memento Domine Cagliostro et mansuetudinis ejus.”

In the furtherance of this great work, he visited Berlin, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Venice, Strasburg, everywhere meeting with many believers and but few sceptics. In Strasburgh he met the Cardinal de Rohan, and journeyed with him to Paris. Suddenly he hurried to Naples, pretexting the call of a dying friend, and then returned to France, where he remained until the affair of the Diamond Necklace. The Cardinal de Rohan and Cagliostro were sent to the Bastile. Against Cagliostro nothing was proved, except that on the day of the cardinal's arrest (15th Aug., 1785,) he had invited his eminence to sup with Henry the Fourth, Voltaire, and Rousseau. Cagliostro's friends believed him innocent. Men of rank petitioned the Parliament in his favor, as a friend of humanity, a distinguished physician, prophet, and ghost-seer. After his banishment they followed him to Passy, and when he embarked at Boulogne thousands stood upon the strand and prayed for his blessing.

But the time was now approaching when the Prophet was to fall. Neither Sinai nor Ararat, nor the white mixture, were as potent in England as they had been. Except Lord George Gordon of No-Popery fame, no person of fortune or influence received him. The sceptics attacked him on every side, and fairly drove him to the continent. Matters were not much better here. He wandered from place to place, until at last his destiny led him to Rome. An attempt to establish an Egyptian Lodge brought him before the Inquisition. He was sent to the Castle of St. Angelo, and after a long and fair trial condemned to death. The Pope commuted the punishment into perpetual imprisonment. Lorenza was placed in a convent of penitents, and so ended the Grand Kophta, the pupil of the wise Althatas. The date of his death is not known.

Cagliostro was small in stature, and well made, with a dark, handsome countenance. In public, his manners and voice were those of an ostentatious quack. He generally harangued his disciples with a drawn sword in his right hand, in a jargon which no one understood. In private conversation he was lively and agreeable. How could a man fail to be so, whose life had passed in wandering about the world preying upon his fellows? He spent money profusely, always traveled with six post chaises, and with the state of a prince.

At the same time, from 1750 to 1780, flourished the Count de St. Germain, a being yet more mysterious; an adventurer whose occult wisdom was profitable to himself without injuring the finances of his friends; a man whose origin was never discovered, who appears to have attained uncommon longevity without the aid of the Materia Prima, or of Mount Ararat; who wandered to and fro upon the earth under various names and titles, enjoying everywhere the consideration of the great, and who finally died in comfortable quarters, full of years.

In Spain he was called Marquis of Montferrat; in Venice, Count of Bellamore; in Pisa, Chevalier Schöning. He figured in Milan as Chevalier Welldone; in Genoa, as Count Soltikow. In Swabia he was known as Count Tzagory, and in France as the Count de St. Germain. Some

people took him for a Portuguese Jew, others for a Spanish Jesuit, Aymar. Many persons thought that his real name was Simon Wolf, a Jew of Alsatia, or else that he was the son of a Piedmontese tax-gatherer at San Germano in Savoy. The Duke of Choiseul, who disliked him, called him the son of a Portuguese Jew. He spoke German and English very well, excellent Italian, French with the Piedmontese accent, Spanish and Portuguese perfectly. The Count was of the middle size, and stoutly built. He preserved the same appearance for a wonderfully long time. Rameau saw him in Venice in 1710; he then looked to be fifty; in 1759 he seemed no older than sixty-and Morin, a Danish Secretary of Legation, who knew him in Holland in 1735, said twenty-five years after that the Count did not appear a day older. To the end of his life he had the mien of a well-preserved man of sixty. It is probable, however, that Rameau may have been deceived by striking resemblance. His age and his country he never revealed. Even Frederick the Great spoke of him as an enigma he could not solve. St. Germain's charlatanism was harmless. He neither borrowed nor swindled, and had always plenty of money. His pretensions were moderate. His chemical scents few, and not for sale. He knew how to make a beautiful amalgam of copper and zinc, and possessed the art of making false diamonds. He once showed the Baron Von Gleichen a small collection of the choicest paintings, and such a mass of glittering jewels, that the Baron thought himself in the presence of Aladdin. In the memoirs of the time, mention is frequently made of diamonds and pearls received as presents from the Count of St. Germain. Once while traveling in Piedmont, the mysterious Count was arrested in a small town, because a bill given by him proved to be worthless, whereupon he immediately produced one hundred thousand scudi in the best of money, paid every thing, and received the homage of the Governor of the place. He neither pretended to have the philosopher's stone, nor the universal medicine, nor supernatural knowledge of any kind. He lived temperately, drank no wine, and when ill, treated himself with a decoction of senna. This was the only advice he gave to those who asked him how they might obtain as long a life as his. Occasionally he appears to have engaged in political intrigues-and frequently he recommended to government speculations and industrial enterprizes, which showed judgment and a knowledge of political economy. The Marquis of Bellisle, when minister of war, sent him to the Hague as a secret agent to negotiate a peace between France and Austria, through the Prince Louis of Denmark, with whom St. Germain was personally acquainted. Choiseul, the prime minister, had different views, and on learning of this underhand diplomacy through D'Affry, the French ambassador at the Hague, sent to have St. Germain arrested. The Count escaped to England, and went thence to Russia, where he must have taken some part in the dethronement of Peter the Third in 1762; because, when he appeared in Leghorn in 1770, wearing the Russian uniform and bearing a Russian name, Count Alexis Orlow treated him with a deference that haughty nobleman showed to no other man; and in 1772, traveling with the Margrave of Anspach, he met Gregory Orlow at Nuremberg, who called him his caro padre," sent him twenty thousand zechins, and said to the Margrave, "Voila un homme qui a joué un grand rôle dans notre revolution." After many wanderings he established himself with the Landgrave of Hesse, and died quietly in 1780. In his last years he was waited upon only by women. His papers remained in the hands of his host, who, however,

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never alluded to their contents. The Count treated the Landgrave as a boy ignorant of the higher mysteries. Occasionally he would show him the outside of a letter from Frederick the Second-" Do you know that hand and seal ?" he would ask-"Yes, it is the seal of the King." "Well, you shall not know what is in it," and replaced the letter in his pocket.

St. Germain made use of his miraculously youthful appearance to excite the belief of great age. In this he succeeded without hazarding any positive assertions. It is not true that he spoke of himself as a contemporary of Christ, and boasted of his intercession with Pontius Pilate in his behalf. This story belongs to some Parisian wag of the time. But he certainly did hint at a couple of centuries. Possessed of great knowledge of the detail of history, he would describe scenes of the past with such accuracy of time and place, and such a lively picture of the appearance of the actors, their dress, manners and conversation, that it was impossible for his hearers to believe they were not listening to a man who had seen with his own eyes what he related. Sometimes in repeating a conversation of Francis the First, or of Henry the Eighth, he would say in an absent way: "The King turned to me"-then stopping suddenly as if he had forgotten himself, add, " to the Duke, and said," &c., &c. Talking one day to the Baron Von Gleichen, he remarked: "Those blockheads of Parisians believe that I am five hundred years old, and I encourage them, as I see it gives them pleasure: not that I am indeed much older than I seem." St. Germain made no other use of his presumed longevity and his other talents, than to obtain consideration-to live with ease and comfort in the society of the great, and to amuse himself with the wonder he excited.

We have no space to give more of "Bülau's" curiosities. There are many other noteworthy passages in this volume. It contains a detailed account of the Russian Revolution of 1762, which dethroned Peter III., and that of 1801, which cost Paul his life. It gives us a sketch of the diplomatic Princesse des Ursins, and of her rival and successor, Cardinal Alberoni, and short biographies of the renegade noblemen, Ripperda and Count de Bonneval, and of the triple traitor, Lord Lovat. These are followed by scenes of German court and peasant life in the eighteenth century; anecdotes of Schrepfer and La Croix, adventurers in the Cagliostro vein; notices of Oberreit, the metallurgist, who provoked Zimmerman into the work on Solitude; of the Convulsionnaires of Paris, and of Jacob Cazotte, the author of the "Diable Amoureux," who is said to have prophesied the impending revolution of 1789, at a dinner given by the Duchesse de Grammont, and to have foretold the melancholy fate of every person present, including his own. In his preface, the professor an nounces that a second volume is ready for publication. It has not, however, as yet reached this country.

THE HIGHER LAW.*

AMONG the extraordinary manifestations of the age is to be ranked the schism which has been introduced by the slavery question, into all religious denominations, in regard to the teachings of the bill upon that question. Feeble-minded persons talk of a dissolution of the Union, because politcal parties have been sundered through the use of the slavery question in the hands of demagogues, mostly half-educated lawyers having affinities only for the knavery of the profession, who attempt a forced construction of the Constitution; or, failing in that, reject its authority, and repudiate its obligations. So, also, in most religious denominations, ill-taught and ambitious preachers who take counsel only of their own base desires, pervert the meaning of the scriptures, and attempt to make it a stepping-stone to their own earthly advancement, by adapting their expositions of the holy word to the political prejudices of their hearers. Others of this class, unable to wrest the meaning of God's teachings, have openly denounced his revelation, and publicly trodden it under foot in contempt of its precepts, which do not accord with their superior wisdom. Out of these violent discussions, political and religious, has apparently grown this great good, viz., that the Constitution in the political world, and the Bible in the religious world, have been more thoroughly examined and discussed, and the truth of both instruments has been more clearly developed and impressed upon the public mind. The time has been when the Roman Catholics professing the universal religion refused to receive the Bible as the perfect rule of faith. The abuses into which that religion necessarily and consequently ran, produced the Reformation. The Bible then became the object of prayerful study by all Protestants, and its revealed truths, proclaimed with fear and trembling, were alone referred to as a rule of action. Of late, many preachers have not sought constantly to refer back to the divine revelation, but rather to adapt it to circumstances as they find them, claiming for it an "expansion of sense." It is undoubtedly true that the progress of science in the last fifty years has been such as to change the construction which had been placed upon the geography, astronomy, geology and natural history of the scriptures. These new discoveries, however, have not invalidated, but only served to elucidate the scriptures; and it is matter of great rejoicing that the progress of science has been from time to time alleged to be in opposition to the teachings of the scriptures, since such allegations have led to deeper and constantly renewed research into the true meaning of the divine word, always resulting in its triumph. In the same manner that religious heresies have only led to more frequent reference to the foundation of the Christian faith, have political heresies led to a constant refreshment of the public mind in relation to the stipulations of our glorious Constitution. It has been matter of extreme surprise to many observant persons on the occurrence of any political agitation involving constitutional principles, to find how many intelligent persons are absolutely ignorant even of such primary distinctions, as that between the Constitutions of the several States and that of the Federal Government. A few months of occasional

1st. Speech on the Slavery Resolutions delivered in the General Assembly which met in Detroit, May, 1850. By Joseph C. Stiles.

2d. Domestic Slavery Considered, in a Correspondence between the Rev. Richard Fuller and the Rev. Francis Wayland.

agitation like that which we have passed, is absolutely necessary to the political education of the people. So, also, in the religious world, indolent and time-serving preachers go on from week to week, and from year to year, dozing over their divine minion, and wresting its interpretation according to the prejudices ignorantly imbibed by their congregations, as the most ready way of reaching and retaining popularity, until some great popular excitement makes a recurrence to the true teachings of God upon the point agitated indispensable. Then it is that the time-serving supremacy of "blind-guides" becomes manifest, and the cause of religion purges itself of false advocates.

The churches of nearly all the Christian denominations are spread throughout the United States, and all the members of each denomination were in communion with each other, acknowledging the same ecclesiastical discipline as applicable to the principles of faith professed. Each of these denominations followed certain expositions of the Bible, as those which they believed were the true expressions of its teachings. They all based their hopes on the merits of the Redeemer, and lived in harmony, at least within the several sects, even if occasionally some want of charity for the belief of others escaped the more zealous. For more than 1800 years the followers of Christ were slave-holders, and they never in all that time doubted the perfect consistency of their conduct, in that respect, with their religious professions, the commands of Christ and the teachings of his Apostles, in regard to that relation with their fellow-men. The federal compact expressly recognizes the servitude of blacks as a political institution, and until within a few years past that institution of the South existed in the undisputed recognition of the Bible, the Constitution, and religious association. In the course of the excitements which attend our popular elections, political partizans set up a sectional cry against the existence of an institution which belongs only to states, and in their treasonable and unholy zeal, threatened to repudiate the constitutional compact, unless certain sovereign states could be deprived of a portion of their sovereignty which had been reserved to them when the Constitution was formed. The plea was raised, that the admission of new slave states was a violation of the Constitution. To strengthen, prolong, and give effect to these attempts upon the Constitution, a similar heresy was introduced into the several religious denominations, through the influence of partizans over faithless preachers. For we consider a sentinel who admits an enemy through inattention, or want of perception, as faithless as he who does so for a bribe. This heresy was, that the mere holding of slaves is a sin, per se, and that the discipline of the church must be invoked upon all who do not instantly manumit their slaves. This conduct has caused the separation of many of the denominations into northern and southern churches. What had been considered compatible with Christian conduct for more than eighteen centuries, was suddenly, under political promptings, denounced as so utterly inconsistent with all faith in Christ, that denominations which had lived in harmony and brotherly love, agreeing fully upon all other doctrinal points, suddenly disagreed on this one head, and separated with angry feelings. The "Higher Law" which a political demagogue had declared superior to our Constitution, religious demagogues declared superior to Christ's mandate-" to love thy neighbor as thyself." Whole denominations divided with ill-nature, and went to law about their common property, because one portion were alleged by the other to have violated, through slave-holding, the command "to love one another !"