THE MASSACRE ON ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY.-The celebrated Darwin, in his "Zoonomia," relates the following anecdote :-A commander, who had been very active in leading and encouraging the bloody deeds of St. Bartholomew's Day at Paris, on confessing his sins to a worthy ecclesiastic, on his deathbed, was asked, "Have you nothing to say about St. Bartholomew ?" "On that day," he replied, "God Almighty was obliged to me." How the language of this proud persecutor corresponds with the prophetic warning of our Saviour: "The time shall come when they that kill you shall think that they do God service."

INFIDELITY OF THE FRENCH NATION.-Dr. Pritchard observes, that in France, since the Revolution, the influence of religion on the community has been less than it ever was in any civilized country.

A respectable priest, M. L'Abbé Bruitte, has quitted the Romish church to join the evangelical church. M. Bruitte has published the motives which induced him to abandon the Church of Rome, in a pamphlet, entitled, "Farewell to Rome ( Mes Adieux à Rome'); a letter of the Abbé Bruitte, ex-curé of LaChapelle, and professor of philosophy, formerly of the royal guards, chevalier of Legion of Honour, and now Christian, not Roman; to M. Guyard, grand vicar of Mgr, de Irélissac, bishop of Montaubun." Published by Delay, Rue-bassedu-Remport, 62, Paris.-L'Esperance, Sept. 14.

SWITZERLAND.-We extract the following from the Courrier Suisse :-" The order of Jesuits was instituted shortly after the Reformation, with the design to contend against, and to reconquer to Catholicism, the countries which had been detached from it. A similar conquest is designed in the present day, in all the movements which are made to introduce the Jesuits into Switzerland, wherever it is possible to force the admission. The net-work of Catholic churches, which is being spread all over Protestant Switzerland, is with the same object. A journal (French), devoted to the interest of Catholicism (l'Univers), in its number of January 6th, publishes a brief of the Pope, in favour of the construction of the college and the church of the Jesuits at Schwyz (Switzerland). It is from Schwyz that the signal for conquest will proceed. But, let us hear what l'Univers says:

"Great blessings will flow forth from a country sanctified by a faith so sincere, and by virtues so constant; and when the canton of Schwyz has arrived at the fourteenth century of the Helvetic Independence, which will be in our own time, then will come-we have confidence of it-the signal of return to unity. Ah! it is then-it is when Switzerland shall have re-entered altogether into the bosom of the church, that it will find again all its glory and all its power!"

May our brethren of Helvetia be on their guard. If they do not hold the gospel fast, they have everything to fear both for themselves and their children. -L'Esperance, Jan. 24, 1843.

BERNE. We read, also, in the Courrier Suisse :-"The government of Berne (Protestant) have given 400 francs to the Catholic community of Zurich, for the building a new (Popish) church."-Ibid.

The King of Prussia has revived the Order of the Swan, created by Joachim I., elector of Brandenberg, in 1440, in honour of the Virgin Mary, and as a reward to persons eminent for their Christian virtues. The Order was abolished by Joachim II., 1539, when he had embraced the doctrines of Luther. The person on whom the King has bestowed the Order is the Queen. His Majesty recently placed the image of the Virgin, which is the principal ornament of the Order, round the neck of his royal consort, in presence of the whole court.-Galignani.

PIOUS FRAUD. (From the Dublin Evening Mail.)-Popery, said the advocates of emancipation, is not what it was. Some explained the meaning of this oracle by saying, that Rome had shared in the general enlightenment of the world; others, by shewing that the Pope had become an old woman.

Without entering upon the question as to whether Popery is better or worse than it was, we may assert that it is as bad as ever.

The example with which we are about to confirm our opinion is so extravagant that we approach it with considerable doubt and fear; doubt, whether we ought

to make our columns, even at second-hand, the vehicle of an impious fraudand fear, lest in so doing we offend the just reserve and rational sensibility of true Christians on such subjects. But we believe that imposture is best counteracted by being exposed to the daylight of truth, and hence that the duty devolves on us of quoting from the Freeman's Journal-the acknowledged organ of the Roman-catholic priests and bishops of Ireland in the nineteenth century-the following pretended miracle, obviously manufactured in a foreign loom for the use of the Irish market:

From the Freeman's Journal.

The Univers, of the 12th of February inst., contains the following remarkable statement:

"The accounts from China attest facts of another description, and which, to Christians, will explain those we have above announced. The silence we have preserved during the last fortnight will be a guarantee to our readers, if we speak out to-day, it is on testimony the most weighty and worthy of belief. A letter which we received yesterday from Rome contains the following:- Authentic letters from the Chinese missionaries confirm the astounding miracle of the apparition of our Lord in the presence of a vast number of the faithful, and unbelievers."

The Univers states it has received other details, but contents itself with quoting some observations from the Gazette du Simplon of the 8th of February. Our letters, adds the Freeman, confirm its details:

"Intelligence of undoubted authority has arrived from the apostolic vicariate of China, stating that a great multitude of Christians and pagans belonging to that nation saw in the air, the heavens being serene and clear, the image of Christ Jesus crucified."

We really resist the indulgence of an impatient desire to comment on this audacious forgery; for we could not trust ourselves to comment upon it with the reverent feeling in which such themes should be discussed. But we cannot forbear calling attention to the course of fraud which seems to be the universal policy of the Church of Rome at present-namely, the lying miracles inherent in their church. The Chinese impostor, however, puts to shame the invention and credulity of all modern Shrewsburies, and throws Estaticas and Addoloratas into the shade.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Our publisher will be glad to gratify "A Constant Reader," and the "True Friends of the Protestant Cause," if the portrait of the distinguished individual can be easily procured; but the great sacrifices he has already made to improve the literary character of the Magazine will, we fear, prevent him from going to any extra expense to do so.

"T. M." dissuades us from admitting the contributions of "Charlotte Elizabeth," on the ground of her having written a fanciful book on The Language of Flowers. This is wholly untrue: her Chapters on Flowers is a biographical work, without one word of fiction. Persons should be better informed before they bring accusations against the brethren, more particularly when such charges are made anonymously.

"W. T. V." will excuse our inserting his favour.

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"LORD, when thine arm is lifted up, they will not see,” was the complaint of the Prophet, who had just before said, "When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." To those who are in the habit of watching the progress of God's dealings with his perverse creatures, it is a matter of unceasing wonder that others can be so utterly blind to the lifting up of a hand, the lightest stroke of which can crumble all earth's empires into nothingness. Such blindness is judicial; and a fearful omen it is of coming judgment, that men refuse to humble themselves under the menacing aspect of the times. Would to God we had power to rouse our brethren to a sense of the position in which the church and the country now stand! By rousing them to such a sense, we do not mean merely convincing them of the fact, but inducing an action answerable to such conviction. Let a man but be persuaded that his house is actually taking fire, and he will not sit quietly in an upper chamber, recapitulating the various methods recommended for the construction of fire-escapes. If he acts so, we may rest assured that he does not simply believe the fact. In like manner, it is impossible to hope that any credence is really given to our honest report of existing perils, while no answering movement is discerned among those whose worldly possessions, whose very lives, are endangered; and, far more important than either, whose faith is placed in such extreme jeopardy. For, what is faith but a trustful reliance on the words of the Most High?-on the same word which expressly commands us "earnestly to contend" for this very faith, once delivered to the saints; and if we shew that VOL. V.-April, 1843.

H