ence connected with Religion have condescended to notice it, hey have done so in such a cursory manner, as if they con idered it as one of the usual occurrences of life; not recollecting, that while any of these nests of human misery are suffered to remain, their dreadful fires may be again tindled, and those horrid engines of cruelty, (perhaps at no very remote period,) be once more set to work in their merci ess operations on the unhappy victims of their power.*

As it seems to be a leading trait in your little work, to mpart such information, as conveys to the mind exalted notions of THE GREAT FIRST CAUSE, and

"vindicate the ways of God to man,"

any thing having a tendency to excite sentiments of gratitude, and remind us of the obligations we owe to the Giver of all Good, must be peculiarly calculated for your Miscellany. If you will have the goodness, therefore, to insert the following facts relating to the RISE, PROGRESS, and NATURE, of a most diabolical contrivance, so long the disgrace of men calling themselves Christians, you will doubtless inspire many of your readers with very different sentiments as to the magnitude of the blessing to be derived from its abolition, and raise their minds in grateful adoration to that Being who has thus brought good out of evil, and order out of confusion, by over-ruling events, apparently big with mischief to the fate of nations, and making them subservient to the good of mankind. At the same time, they must, in pity to their brethren whose minds still remain fettered by this ter rific monster, be compelled to join in the humane wish, that the laudable example thus set by the Spanish lawgivers may speedily be followed up by their neighbouring ally, and that detestabie tribunal, which has for so many centuries been the scourge of Europe, and had assumed such magnitude as to have extended its torturing fangs across the Atlantic

* If any thing were wanting to show the great importance of this measure of the CORTES towards the downfall of Ecclesiastical tyranny, may be gathered from the determined stand made against it by the Pope's Nuncio, which it appears he has carried to such a length, as to have caused him to be ordered out of Spain, and his temporalities to be seized.

2

Atlantic and Indian oceans, and seized its prey in both worlds, may soon be no more heard of, but as a thing that had been. THE ORIGIN OF THE INQUISITION.

INNOCENT the Third, a Pope as enterprising as he was successful in his enterprises, having sent DOMINIC, with some missionaries, into Languedoc, these men so irritated the Heretics they were sent to convert, that most of them were assassinated at Toulouse, in the year 1200. It was then he called in to his aid the temporal arm, and published against the Heretics a crusade; granting, as is usual with the Popes on similar occasions, all kinds of indulgences and pardons to those who should arm against these Mahometans, as he stiled these unfortunate men. Raimond, count of Toulouse, was constrained to submit. The inhabitants were put to the sword, without distinction of age or sex. It was then he established that Scourge of Europe, THE INQUISITION: for having considered that, though all might be compelled to submit by arms, there might remain numbers who would profess particular dogmas, he established this sanguinary tribunal solely to inspect into all families, and examine all persons who they imagined were unfriendly to the interests of Rome. DOMINIC did so much by his cares and continued persecutions, that he firmly established it at Toulouse.

ITS PROGRESS.

It was as late as the year 1484 that it became known in Spain. It was also tó a Dominican, JOHN DE TORQUEMADA, that the court of Rome owed this obligation. As he was the Confessor of Queen Isabella, he had extorted from her a promise that, if ever she ascended the throne, she should use every means to extirpate Heresy and Heretics. Ferdinand had conquered Grenada, and had chaced from the Spanish realms multitudes of unfortunate Moors. A few had remained; whom, with the Jews,

be

e obliged to become Christians: they at least assumed the ame; but it was well known that both these nations natrally respected their own prejudices.

TORQUEMADA pretended that this dissimulation would eatly hurt the interests of the Holy Religion. The queen stened with respectful diffidence to her confessor; and at ngth gained over the king to consent to the establishment this barbarous tribunal. TORQUEMADA, indefatigable in s zeal for the holy seat, in the space of fourteen years at he exercised the office of Chief Inquisitor, persecuted ar eighty thousand persons, of whom six thousand were ondemned to the flames.

Voltaire attributes the taciturnity of the Spaniards to the niversal horror such proceedings spread. He says-'A eneral jealousy and suspicion took possession of all ranks people; friendship and sociability were all at an end! rothers were afraid of brothers! fathers of their children.” During the pontificate of Sixtus the Fifth, the Inquision was powerful and rigorous in Rome. Muretus, in riting to De Thou the historian, says: We do not know hat becomes of the people here. Almost every day, hen I rise, I hear, with alarming surprise, how such n one has disappeared. We dare not whisper our suspions-the Inquisition would be immediately at our doors.'

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE INQUISITION.

“TAVERNIER, in his Travels, inform us, that a man of tters, who had fallen into the hands of the inquisitors, id, that nothing troubled him so much as the ignorance the inquisitor and his council when they put any queson; so that he was inclined to believe that not one of em had really read the Scriptures!

It was only as far back as the year 1761, that Gabriel Halagrida, an old man of seventy, was burnt by these angelical executioners! His trial was printed at Am

sterdam,

sterdam, 1762, from the Lisbon copy.

And for what was this unhappy Jesuit condemned? Not, as some have imagined, for his having been concerned in a conspiracy against the king of Portugal. No other charge is laid to him in this trial but that of having indulged certain heretical notions, which any other tribunal would have looked upon as the delirious fancies of an old fanatic.

The people stand so much in fear of this diabolical tribunal, that parents deliver up their children, husbands their wives, and masters their servants, to its officers, without daring to murmur. The prisoners are kept for a long time, till they themselves turn their own accusers, and declare the cause of their imprisonment; for they are neither told their crime, nor confronted with witnesses. As soon as they are imprisoned, their friends go into mourning, and speak of them as dead, not daring to solicit their pardon, lest they should be brought in as accomplices. When there is no shadow of proof against the pretended criminal, he is discharged after suffering the most cruel tortures, a tedious and dreadful imprisonment, and the loss of the greatest part of his effects.

To be concluded in our next.

The Noblest Revenge.

- "I WILL be revenged of him, that I will, and make him heartily repent it," said little Philip to himself, with a countenance quite red with anger. His mind was so engaged, that, as he walked along, he did not see his dear friend, Stephen, who happened at that instant to meet him, and consequently heard what he had said.

Who is that (said Stephen) that you intend to be revenged on?" Philip, as though awakened from a dream, stopped short, and looking at his friend, soon resumed the

gave me.

smile that was natural to his countenance. "Ah! (said he) come with me, my friend, and you shall see on whom I will De revenged. I believe you remember my supple jack, a very pretty cane, which my father You see it is now all in pieces. It was farmer Robinson's son, who lives in yonder thatched cottage, that reduced it to this worthless state." Stephen very coolly asked him, what induced the farmer's son to break it? "I was walking peaceably along, (replied Philip) and was playing with my cane, by twisting it round my body. By some accident or other, one of the ends got out of my hand when I was opposite the gate just by the wooden bridge, and where the little miscreant had put down a pitcher full of water, which he was carrying home from the well. It so happened, that my cane, in springing, overset the pitcher, but did not break it. He came up close to me, and began to call me names, when I assured him I did not intend any harm; what I had done was by accident, and I was sorry for it. Without paying any regard to what I said, he instantly seized my supple jack, and twisted you bere see; but I will make him heartily repent it." 'To be sure (said Stephen) he is a very wicked boy, and is already very properly punished for it, since nobody likes him, nor will do any thing for him. He finds it very difficult to get any companions to play with him; and if he attempt to intrude himself into their company, they will all instantly leave him. To consider this properly, I think, should be sufficient revenge for you.'

it as

"All this is true, (replied Philip) but he has broken my cane. It was a present from my papa, and a very pretty cane it was. I offered to fill his pitcher again, having knocked it down by accident-I will be revenged."

'My dear friend, (said Stephen) I think you will act better in not minding him, as your contempt will be the best punishment you can inflict on him. He is not upon a