"We are the children of a Church which has ever avowed the deepest hostility to the principle of religious liberty,' and which has never given the shadow of a sanction to the theory that civil liberty,' as such, is necessarily a blessing at all. How intolerable is it to see this miserable device for deceiving the Protestant world still so widely popular among us! We say, 'for deceiving the Protestant world; though we are far enough from implying that there is not many a Catholic who really imagines himself to be a votary of religious liberty;' and is confident that, if the tables were turned, and the Catholics were uppermost in the land, he would in all circumstances grant others the same unlimited toleration he now demands for himself. Still, let our Catholic tolerationist be ever so sincere, he is only sincere because he does not take the trouble to look very closely into his own convictions. His great object is to silence the Protestants, or to persuade them to let him alone; and as he certainly feels no personal malice against them, and laughs at their creed quite as cordially as he hates it, he persuades himself that he is telling the exact truth when he professes to be an advocate of religious liberty, and declares that no man ought to be coerced on account of his religious convictions. The practical result is, that now and then, but very seldom, Protestants are blinded, and are ready to clasp their unexpected ally in a fraternal embrace.

"They are deceived, we repeat, nevertheless. Believe us not, Protestants of England and Ireland! for an instant, when you hear us pouring forth our liberalisms. When you hear a Catholic orator at some public assemblage declaring solemnly that this is the most humiliating day of his life, when he is called upon to defend once more the glorious principle of religious freedom,'-be not too simple in your credulity. These are brave words, but they mean nothing; no, nothing more than the promises of a Parliamentary candidate to his constituents on the hustings. He is not talking Catholicism, but Protestantism and nonsense; and he will no more act on these notions in different circumstances than you now act upon them yourselves in your treatment of him. You ask if he were lord in the land, and you were in a minority, if not in numbers yet in power, what would be do to you? That, we say, would depend entirely upon circumstances. If it would benefit the cause of Catholicism, he would tolerate you; if expedient he would imprison you, banish you, fine you; possibly, even, he might hang you. But be assured of one thing, he would never tolerate you for the sake of the glorious principles of civil and religious liberty."

"This candid writer then proceeds to declare, that in his opinion the right to civil liberty is a mere delusion; that the only civil liberty which can be defended or allowed, is the permission to do such and such things as the law may specify. The right of action, with him, as the right of thought, is simply permissive and under license." He then proceeds to inform us that—

"Religious liberty, in the sense of a liberty possessed by every man to choose his own religion, is one of the most wicked delusions ever foisted upon this age by the father of all deceit. The very name of liberty-except in the sense of a permission to do certain definite actsought to be banished from the domain of religion. It is neither more nor less than a falsehood. No man has a right to choose his religion. None but an Atheist can uphold the principles of religious liberty. Shall I, therefore, fall in with this abominable delusion? Shall I foster that damnable doctrine that Socinianism, and Calvinism, and Anglicanism, and Judaism, are not every one of them mortal sins, like murder and adultery? Shall I hold out hopes to my erring Protestant brother, that I will not meddle with his creed if he will not meddle with mine? Shall I tempt him to forget that he has no more right to his religious views than he has to my purse, or my house, or my life-blood? No! Catholicism is the most intolerant of creeds. It is intolerance itself; for it is the truth itself. We might as rationally maintain that a sane man has a right to believe that two and two do not make four, as this theory of religious liberty. Its impiety is only equalled by its absurdity."

POPISH SCHOOLS AND GOVERNMENT GRANTS.-The following ominous announcement lately appeared in the Tablet, under the head of "Liverpool." Is it possible that the threatened organization of Popery in Ireland is to be met by the old, abortive, and unprincipled policy of attempted "conciliation?" Let the Protestants of Liverpool inquire into this.

"IMPORTANT GOVERNMENT GRANT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOLS.-The Committee of Council on Education have just granted the sum of £700 for St. Anne's Catholic School in this town, in order to defray the expenses towards the building, &c. This is, I believe, the first grant made to a Catholic school in England by the Government, and the Catholic Bishops have only just settled the form of the trust-deed with the Committee of Council. The Lords of the Council do not appear to be actuated by the intolerant spirit which runs in other quarters."

"Press on as one man towards THE STRONGHOLD OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY."-Gillis (Popish Bishop of Edinburgh.)

Ir is not often that any of the victims of the Inquisition escape to tell the horrors of that infamous establishment. The present narrative, however, was written by one who had the singular good fortune to obtain his release, and who, being an Englishman, was able to tell his countrymen how he had been treated. It is given by Strype, in his "Annals of the Reformation," from the manuscript of the sufferer, and bears every internal evidence of its authenticity. The simple story is not the less likely to be received with credit by some, that its author does not appear to have been a man of any pretensions to piety. He was a young English merchant, about twenty-five years of age, and appears to have been fully as much concerned about the time and money he had lost in consequence of his imprisonment as anything else. His testimony, therefore, to the atrocities which he witnessed and to the sufferings he endured, cannot, with any show of reason, be ascribed to religious prejudice or fanaticism.

In the year 1560, an Englishman, named Nicolas Britton, a London mer. chant, was seized in Spain by the Inquisition, and after a severe imprisonment in Seville, was cruelly committed to the flames, for the alleged crime of heresy. His goods, as usual, were confiscated for the good of the Church, which had rid the world of a heretic; and as among these there were some articles belonging to others, the owners sent the young man we speak of, whose name was John Frampton, to recover their property. John had not been long in Spain,

when, on his errand being discovered, the Inquisition, loath to part with the precious goods, and at the same timé zealous for the precious soul of the youth who was in search of them, ordered him to be arrested. He was set on a mule, to the saddle of which he was attached by a chain and lock, and conveyed into one of the dungeons of Triana, "God knows," he says, "dull and comfortless enough." Next day he was ushered into the presence of the bishop, and ordered to tell what he knew of himself or any other man, and confess what he or they may have committed against the Holy Catholic Faith of Rome. John replied that he did not know what they meant; that he had nothing to do with matters of faith; he had come to that country on matters of business, and was not conscious of having ever said a word about their faith. The bishop then inquired if he had anything in his chest beside his apparel. “I told him," says Frampton, "that I had a small book of Cato in the English tongue. He demanded of me to what intent I brought it. I answered, To pass the time at sea in reading of it. He asked me if I could say my Ave Maria. I told him, Yea. Then say it, says he. I said, ' Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui,Jesus. Amen.** Say forth, said the Bishop of Taragona. I have said all I can say. Then he said, Herein thou dost deny the intercession of saints. I answered, that I never knew more, nor was it ever otherwise taught in England. Then, saith he, There acketh Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus.† But remember thyself, and declare what thou knowest of thyself and others, for if thou do not, we mean to proceed by rigour of justice."

The result of this and other interviews was that poor Frampton, after being confined about five months, was again brought before the bishop and two inquisitors, who told him that his sentence was that he should be put to the torture. Having been conducted to a dark chamber, two men appeared covered with white canvas from top to toe, and having their faces concealed under vizards. These persons stood dumb beside him, ready to execute the orders of the inquisitors, who next entered and seated themselves at a round table, on which were set two candles. At a given signal the two apparitors stripped him to his shirt, and bound his arms behind him with a small cord, so tight that it cut into his wrists. A pair of fetters were next fixed on his legs, and the cords being first attached to them, and then to a strong rope, hanging from the roof in a pulley, which was worked by a windlass, the poor fellow, thus adjusted, somewhat as the carcase of a sheep is by the butcher, was jerked up with such violence towards the roof, that he declares, “I thought that all my body had been broken in pieces." The inquisitors then called on him to tell the truth; แ and," says he, "by reason of the extreme pains that [ was in, I willed them to tell what I should say, and I would say it." The questions put to him turned chiefly on the subject of religion. Frampton told them very frankly what he believed, quite ignorant, it would appear, that he was declaring what they held to be deadly heresy. In the midst of this unconscious confession he was again swung up to the roof, and let down again half dead. While in this condition, one of the inquisitors, the Licentiate Gasco, with a tender care for his salvation, entered into a discourse with the writhing victim on the virtues of holy water! Frampton having expressed his faith in the death of Christ, the inquisitor endeavoured to convince him,

"Hail, Mary, highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Amen."

"Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners."

that though he might contrive to be saved by the death of Christ, yet, with the ceremonies of the Church he would be saved more comfortably, as a man walks easier with shoes than barefooted. To enforce this holy lesson the poor Englishman was pulled up a third time, when, he says, "I thought to have made an end of my life." The two familiars now lifted him from the grounā, and chafed his arms with hot tallow. The powers of life returned, and the blood sprang from his wrists.

The next day Frampton was summoned by the inquisitors to sign the confession he had made under the rack, and was told that in consequence all his goods were confiscated. But as he freely agreed to "confer with them on religion, and to do whatever they would command him," he was ordered to another prison, and formed part of a melancholy procession, with forty other individuals, charged with different degrees of heresy, with halters about their necks; some condemned to imprisonment, or to the gallies, from six years to the term of their natural lives. While marching with this company, another procession, still more melancholy, issued from another prison. Thirty persons, men and women, came forth, with paper mitres on their heads, and coats covered with rude paintings of flames and devils, and, still more horrible to relate, with wooden gags fastened in their mouths-thus, with diabolic in. genuity, prevented from making the slightest attempt to contradict, with their dying testimony, the slanderous charges brought against them by the infallible Church-painted and paraded, as doomed to eternal flames, while their bodies were to be devoured in the fire-and compelled to submit to the cruellest of all deaths, without the power of giving utterance to the groans and shrieks of expiring nature. These victims, among whom were some learned men and friars, were that same day burned at the stake. As for Frampton, after being confined for two years and four months, during which he lost all his property -he was at length set at liberty. His narrative is only interesting as that of an impartial witness, and may be viewed as furnishing an introduction to a subject which admits of wide and varied illustration.

PUSEYISM, THE PRECURSOR OF POPERY.

PROTESTANT (!) NUNS OF ST. BARNABAS.-THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF CUMBRAY.

It would appear that the "ladies" of the institution established by the Puseyite Mr. Bennett, late of St. Barnabas, London, have gone over bodily to the Church of Rome. This is just what might have been expected, and surely proclaims a loud lesson to Protestants in regard to the true nature of such establishments. The Popish paper announces the change under the title of "Most Interesting Conversion," and adds

"Many of our readers are aware that Mr. Bennett had a sisterhood under his superin. tendence at Saint Barnabas, and some may know also that these good ladies, after the break-up of Mr. Bennett's ministry, were transferred to Mr. Richard's house, 74, Margaret Street, where they have since been living, without any employment, in Mr. Richard's district, but regularly attending the services of his chapel. The community was composed of three principal sisters; the eldest a lady of noble family, two serving sisters,' and several children under their care. They lived, we need not say, as Catholics in all but actual profession. They had their domestic oratory, their images, and sacred pictures, and all other outward appurtenances of a Catholic convent.

"A few days ago, Mr. Oakeley of Islington received a communication from the supe

rioress of this little family to the effect that, with the sanction of friends and advisers in the Established Church, she and her household were desirous of submitting to the Church under Mr. Oakeley's guidance and instruction. It may well be supposed that such a proposal was as acceptable as it was unexpected, and by the particular desire of the ladies themselves, their profession of the faith took place on Sunday last in the midst of the evening services. Accordingly, the Vespers of our Blessed Lady of the Rosary having been sung by his Lordship the Vicar-Apostolic of Hyderabad, the public profession took place, Mr. Oakeley receiving the whole of the interesting party at the high altar.

"Not one of the least interesting features of the case is, that the house occupied by the sisters is that in which Mr. Oakeley lived for several years when minister of Margaret Chapel, and which he revisits after six years under these remarkable circumstances. No. 74, Margaret Street, is a favoured dwelling-place; it has yielded to the Catholic Church five clergymen of the Establishment, all of whom are, or will be, priests; two Jesuits, one oratorian, and now a whole community of the sisters, who, doubtless, will end in consecrating their lives to God in the Catholic Church, as they had began to do in their measure before they submitted to it."

Turning to a more distant part of the field, we find the brother and heirapparent of Lord Glasgow erecting a grand collegiate church in the island of Cumbray, arrayed in all the fullest-blown developments of Puseyism, and at a cost of nearly L.20,000. It is ominous to see men of this rank so thoroughly bigoted; but what we chiefly intended to notice was the following clause from the "Primary Constitution and Statutes of this Church of the Holy Spirit," viz. :—

"All members of the foundation are requested, daily, to offer up a prayer for the founder, in these or the like words :- Shew thy mercy, O Lord, unto him who built and endowed this church and college.'"

There lurks in this clause an immense amount of significancy. There is no limit, it will be observed, set to the time during which this prayer is to be offered, and we presume it is to continue after the "founder" is dead and his eternal state unalterably fixed. "There is no work or device in the grave. As the tree falleth, so it shall lie." But even on the theory of Purgatory, the Cumbray officials might be carrying on their intercession ages after the "founder's" soul had escaped. This seems to be heresy the first. But, besides, men who depart from the Gospel way of salvation are always in a state of uncertainty, and hence their covetous appetency for human intercession. They pretend that they alone are sure of salvation, and yet they never seem to feel the confidence of safety. And above all, whilst we cannot but admire Mr. Boyle's liberality, and should like much to see true Protestants imitating it, why should prayers be bought? Mr. Boyle is to be prayed for in all ages because he spends £20,000; but are the poor, upon Scriptural principles, not as well entitled to our prayers? The theory upon which the whole affair proceeds is very much the old Popish theory of buying prayers, and therefore heaven, by large gifts to the Church, rather than by the blood of Jesus Christ. It is like Paley's theory of the large pigeon, which sat in the centre of the field, and had address enough to get all the other pigeons to feed it. The poor people of Cumbray are in all ages to be helping Mr. Boyle into Heaven because he happens to spend £20,000. This is not "unto the poor the gospel is preached," and seems rather an odd commentary upon the passage, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven." Besides, there is no "reciprocity" in the proposal. The people of Cumbray are to pray for Mr. Boyle, but Mr. Boyle does not pledge himself to pray for them; whilst, upon the Popish theory, his prayers being those of a person likely to secure canonization, would be of far more value. How long are men to deceive themselves with such unscriptural delusions? "Other foundations can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."