to the shrine of the Virgin. The high altar of the principal church possesses the privilege already alluded to. And near it was a bureau or office; with a notice publicly setting forth to the multitude of pilgrims that it was there they received the payments for the privileged masses, for the relief of the souls in purgatory. The pilgrims were entering, paying their money, giving the names of their departed friends, receiving an acknowledgment, and then withdrawing. I entered myself; I stated my wish to release the soul of a departed friend. The official bowed courteously, and opening a large account-book, asked me my name.

"I gave him my name.

We

"He entered it in this account book, but spelled it, as most Italians do with an English name, so that I could not myself recognise it. both smiled, and he apologised on account of the difficulty of writing a foreign name.

"I asked him, how much I was to pay for the release of my friend. "He replied,-two francs Milanese and seven cents.

"I gave him a five-franc piece and received the change, by which it appeared he retained about one shilling and eightpence.

"He then asked the name of my friend in purgatory, whose soul was to be released.

"I felt that this was the moment for demonstrating the absurdity and knavery of this system. I thought that the best way of doing this was to give the name of some one who was certainly not then in purgatory. I gave my own name!

"He immediately handed me a book-the book of the names of all souls to be released by the privileged mass, and which book is deposited on the altar, so as that when the priest says the privileged mass, he may name audibly or mentally the names of those to be released. In this book there were entered on the same page above twenty names already. On handing this book to me he smiled courteously, and apologising for giving me the trouble of writing the name, requested that I would myself write it, lest he should make any mistake. I wrote my own name at full length !

"He again bowed most courteously, apparently intimating that all was completed for the present. But, remembering that I saw others get receipts, I asked for one.

"On filling the blanks in the receipt form, he asked whether I would not like a blessing for my friend's soul, as well as the mass. "I replied, with many thanks, that as the privileged mass was sure to release his soul from purgatory, he would not want the blessing. "He smiled, completed the receipt-signed it-and I withdrew. "Such was the scene in which I personally took part. The following is a copy of the receipt:

"1851. Sept. 8th. The Sacred Mount. "I, the undersigned, agent of the venerable fabric of the Sacred Mount of Varallo, have received from Mr. Hobart Seymour, the charity of one shilling and eightpence for one mass to be celebrated at the perpetually privileged daily altar of the most blessed Virgin Mary in Varallo.

"In witness.

AGNO BERTOLI.'

"When a system like this is openly and publicly taught, and believed, and practised, by the priesthood on one hand and by the people on the other; a system by which either murderer or victim may be released from the sufferings of another world by a small sum in this where a system like this prevails among the population of any country, it ceases to be a matter of surprise that crime should abound in all its most dark and terrible features. The wonder would be if it should be otherwise."

We hope to notice the subject of this work in our next or a subsequent number.

DEATH OF LORD LORTON.

WE regret to record the death of one of the Vice-Presidents and earliest patrons of our Protestant Association: the Venerable Viscount Lorton, who died at his seat, in the county of Roscommon, on the 20th of November, at the advanced age of eighty-one. His Lordship had been for a long series of years a resident landlord on his estates in Ireland, spending a large income among his tenantry, and also very liberally contributing to many of the religious and charitable institutions of the United Kingdom. By his death we have lost another member of that once united band of consistent Protestants who always opposed Roman Catholic Emancipation in their places in Parliament. Within the last few years the number has been greatly lessened, so that out of one hundred and nine Peers who voted in the House of Lords against that mistaken measure in 1829, only thirty-one are living at this present time. F. G.

Dec. 7, 1854.

THE LATE REV. J. HALDANE STEWART.
(Abridged from the Liverpool Mail.)

THAT truly good man and widely-esteemed minister of Christ, James
Haldane Stewart, after a short but not severe illness of about three
weeks, gently departed this life for a better, on Sunday, the 22d of
November. Like the devout and contemplative Leighton, he calmly
declared that he regarded the day of his death as the happiest day of
his life" the day he had so much desired and longed for." He died
at his own rectory, and his honoured remains sleep in the quiet
churchyard of Limpsfield, in Surrey, a rural parish, in which the
tranquil evening of his life was spent. In the prime and vigour of
his days, he held the incumbency of Percy Chapel, London, where he
collected a numerous and influential congregation, chiefly of the sober-
minded Old Evangelical party. Some twenty or more years since, he
settled in Liverpool, in order to undertake the pastoral charge of the
large proprietary church of St. Bride's, then recently built.
from hence, a few years ago, he was preferred to the valuable benefice
of Limpsfield. At this latter place, where his ministerial duties would
be less onerous to his declining strength, he appears to have continued
in the enjoyment of excellent health and spirits-constantly engaged,

as usual, in works of active benevolence and practical piety. Some couple of months ago, he visited London, on the occasion of the Primate solemnizing the marriage of his son and successor at St. Bride's, the Rev. David Dale Stewart, now incumbent of Maidstone, to the daughter of Chancellor Raikes. .. Mr. Stewart had attained to the green old age of fourscore years within one; so that he has departed from amongst us, both full of years and full of honours. . . .

Mr. Stewart may be regarded as belonging to the pious men of a former generation; he was, we believe, originally educated for a barrister, if he did not actually practise as one, and he dated his strong religious convictions from the very commencement of the present century,-a period which, as Dr. Hook, in common with all other observant and impartial writers, admits and deplores, was still a season of coldness and deadness in our Church generally.

...

Mr. Stewart was an eminently devout man-a Christian of childlike simple faith; in prayer, almost unceasing; in praise, always rejoicing; in good works, abounding. Like "good George Herbert and his friend Nicholas Farrer, he peculiarly delighted in the singing of psalms and hymns, celebrating the praises of his God and Saviour with heart and soul for hours together. With him and his, was emphatically realized that Divine promise, "Them that honour me, I will honour." He was remarkably blessed, both in an affectionate family and an attached flock. His was, indeed, "a happy home." He was surrounded with troops of friends, as well as with the general esteem of the wise and the good. Very many who, like us, honestly differed from some of his theological opinions and religious peculiarities, nevertheless, like us, highly and heartily appreciated his Christian virtues and personal excellences. He might not be gifted with lofty grasp of intellect or great profundity of judgment; he might not be deemed eloquent, either as a preacher or a public speaker; he might not be deeply read as a theologian; but he was a diligent student, and an "ex-animo" expositor of Holy Scripture. His very soul seemed to feast on the never-failing freshness of its imperishable contents. "In thy favour is life" appeared to be his chief, constant, cheering motto. His serene and solemnized aspect was almost a sermon in itself. Hence he wielded an untold amount of unostentatious but most useful Christian influences wherever his ministerial intercourse or his persuasive example extended. His happy freedom from that polemical acrimony, that repulsive self-conceit, which sours and spoils so many who aspire to be popular preachers and leaders and luminaries of what is aptly called " the religious world "—his amiable and courtier-like manners-his cheerful piety and unaffected humility-his habitual and untiring benevolence-his saintly and kindly and winning disposition-all these good and generous qualities endear his name and memory to multitudes who, like ourselves, had but ever so slight an acquaintance with the first incumbent of St. Bride's. Few of us need to be told that most estimable was he in every relation of life, private or public, domestic or ministerial-the love of Christ and of souls was ever in his heart-the law of kindness ever on his lips. In short, we can only conclude as we commenced, Haldane Stewart was, indeed, "a truly good man "—and we doubt not he has been not only an

honour to his own section of our common Church, but an honoured instrument of diffusing widespread blessings in his day and generation. "All must to their cold graves;

"But the religious actions of the just

"Smell sweet in death, and blossom in the dust."

THE UTILITY OF PROTESTANT ASSOCIATIONS: ADDRESSED TO THE PROTESTANTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

As the utility of Protestant Unions is frequently denied by some from whom we should expect a very different judgment, I beg to call the public attention to some of those fallacious objections by which the "Father of Lies" is now striving to defeat the objects, and hinder the progress of Protestant Associations. Knowing that to make known the present stealthy proceedings and the past history of Popery would be to weaken his kingdom, the arch-enemy accuses the faithful few that are in the land of turning the world upside down for the sake of notoriety, which is pronounced as "nothing better than casting out devils by the prince of the devils." If a minister of Christ " goes out into the highways to warn the people of danger-if he warns them against the usurpations of Antichrist, he is denounced as a "firebrand," who "persuadeth the people to worship God contrary to the law." The "old Serpent next suggests "that Protestant organizations are unauthorized by English law, and therefore such combinations are of very questionable utility! And these shallow devices are sought to be palmed upon the ignorant and the unreflecting by men of learning and influence, although the school-boy knows that previous to the establishment of Maynooth College, and the passing of the Act of 1829, the constitution, or institutions of England, were thoroughly Protestant, and that subsequent to the Reformation, every congregation with its minister at its head, was a kind of protesting body against the arrogant claims of the Bishop of Rome. Time was, so to speak, when every dwelling-house was a place of meeting, and when every pulpit was a platform on which stood a witness for the truth, who laboured earnestly "to drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines contrary to God's Word, both by public and private monitions and exhortations." Not yet content, Satan again insinuates, that annual meetings and public gatherings for discussion, are opposed to peace and charity! "That to use yearly a form of prayer and thanksgiving for the happy deliverance of the three estates of England from an intended massacre by gunpowder is to keep up the bitterness of party spirit! And thus, some ministers of the National Church in our day, have been induced to disregard altogether both the religious observance of the Fifth day of November, and the authority which enjoins it-even with the murderous crash of the Enniskillen train sounding in their ears! Thank God, however, that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices; for he now incites the minions of Rome to write anonymous letters threatening "to take away the life" of those who venture to allude publicly to the past

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bistory and hellish machinations of Rome, He further hints through the medium of the semi-Protestant and pro-Popish press, that because "we are now allied with the French" in protecting the dominions of a weak neighbour, we must not utter a word against" the superstition of that noble yet enslaved people, lest we should violate that "good understanding which now exists!" If this reasoning is sound, we are as much bound to countenance the delusion of the Turk as the errors of the Frenchman. But we have not so learned Christ. With our marching orders" continually before our eyes, "Go ye out into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature," we are bound to obey. Instead of turning back let us resolve anew in the strength of the Captain of our salvation, to advance-let us beware of the snares that are laid in our way, and instead of concealing the beacons or taking down the monuments of history, let us rather remember to keep in view the altars which the Papacy herself has raised, not that we may "offer sacrifices thereon, but as standing witnesses between her and us, and our generations after us; that we may do the service of the Lord, and that her children may not make our children cease from fearing the Lord, to follow after cunningly-devised fables." That our forefathers judged wisely in keeping these witnessing signs before the people is proved by the fact, that for a considerable period Popery in England was comparatively extinct. But things have been very different since this uniform, consistent, and indispensable protest has been abandoned by a majority of the clergy. In polite circles a breach of good manners is often treated as a mortal sin, whilst to notice errors in religion is regarded as the climax of bitterness, intolerance, and bigotry. It is clear, then, from what has been advanced, as well as from the scattered state of the armies of the Lord of Hosts, that there is urgent need for real and visible union, whereby they may maintain their common protest, as their common shield against the dangers that menace their camp both from within and from without. To secure consentaneous and, as far as possible, concentrated action, so as to enable us successfully to resist the political aggressions of Rome, is the grand object of Protestant Associations. And if the laity could be induced to take the lead, as they ought, in this department, it would be an additional advantage. Not that their operations should be conducted with unnecessary and unmeaning display, but openly and honestly-not with the secresy of the midnight assassin.

To suppose that a diversified Protestant Association, as such, can discharge the duties of the pastoral office, or engage in missionary labours, is obviously a mistake. But they may infuse more widely the true leaven by co-operating with other existing and accredited Societies for the furtherance of religious objects-by promoting lectures on the fundamental points of difference between the Romish and Reformed Churches-by inciting individual members to place themselves at the disposal of their respective pastors-or by other constituted authorities acting with them, whether as churchwardens, Scripture-readers, tract distributors, or teachers in the day and Sunday schools; and finally, by meeting together for mutual conference in times of emergency, and by presenting petitions to the Legislature against unconstitutional measures. Thus, it is plain, that a union of