poniards of the Inquisition? Truly, it would be difficult to point out in any other age, or in any other country, such a galaxy of immortal names-men, who united to the loftiest genius, the courage of heroes, and the devotedness of martyrs.

But the mission of Italy as a teacher of mankind, was unhappily fast drawing to a close. The mental aspirations of her talented sons, were doomed to be crushed beneath the rule of foreign tyrants, and an ignorant, intolerant priesthood.

The decadence of the Italian mind offers an instructive, an important lesson to nations, and should not be disregarded by any man who enjoys the greatest of all earthly blessings, civil and religious liberty. He should also remember that since the beginning of time, the aim of all priests, whether Pagan or Christian, has been power, spiritual and temporal; and whenever they have placed the sword in the hand of the civil magistrate, it has only been with the view, that they might, unseen and unsuspected, direct more effectually the blow against the

civil and religious liberties of mankind, without which no nation, however gifted, can hope to escape from that lingering death, which is certain to overtake every country and every people cursed with the despotism of priestly rule. Our own far-seeing ancestors at the Reformation, aware of this tendency in the hierarchy, and knowing that their superior education and sacred calling must always place them in a position exercising great influence over the minds of man, wisely placed the highest spiritual and temporal power in the hands of the laity; and were it not for this wholesome check, to which we may add the number of seceders from the Reformed Church, who have formed, as it were, a species of ecclesiastical democracy, opposing and combatting any assumption of temporal power in the great and well-paid dignitaries of the Established Church, it is impossible to say what might ultimately be the fate of England; and much as we reformers may love our Church, and believe it to be the only true and Apostolic Church of Christ, yet it is easy to perceive in

the countenance directly and indirectly given by some of our prelates and clergy in the present day to Popish usages, together with the attempt to establish synods, and other innovations contrary to the ecclesiastical constitution of the country; a well-organized conspiracy to render the spiritual power independent of the state, and pave the way to clerical despotism.

CHAPTER IV.

Details of the late insurrection in Rome-Erroneous statements of the French Press with reference to it— Extracts from reliable Italian authors respecting the insurrection-Character of the Roman people vindicated-Want of faith displayed by the French government towards the Roman Republic-Its injury to the French national character-Deplorable state of Italy -Character of young Italy-General observations.

As there is a direct and indissoluble connection between oppression and resistance, the transition is natural from considerations on the effects of priestly government with which we closed our last chapter, to the late insurrection in the Papal States.

An explosion of public feeling so general and unanimous in a little state numbering about

three millions, so protracted and bloody, and which required the united force of the best appointed armies of France and Austria to repress, was an event of no ordinary importance, involving as it did so many interests, and so full of portentous meaning-the abolition of the temporal and spiritual power of a pope by his own subjects!

Most of our readers have no doubt read extracts from the ultramontane press of France, and other countries interested in the support of the Papacy, commenting upon the late insurrection in the Papal States and the character of its leaders. These statements were for the most part a malicious perversion of facts, a series of ungenerous attacks on the character and efforts of a gallant people, a mere handful of resolute patriots, battling against fearful odds for their their lives and liberties; the coalesced troops of the bigoted powers of Europe, in open hostility against them, while secret enemies in every court and capital endeavoured to prejudice the public mind in their cause; in some instances,

VOL. II.

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