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scarcely known among them. In order to remedy such a frightful state of crime and ignorance, the English Government has lately established schools and colleges, where religion as a study is rigorously excluded; thus endeavoring to supply the wants of a mixed population, and eventually end sectarianism. Rome anathematizes these institutions, naming them the "Godless colleges," and denounces from the altar those enlightened parents who permit their children to frequent them.

There is not an election in which we do not find instances of priests threatening from the altar those who voted for a Protestant candidate. The fearful riots which result from this interference are only quelled by the intervention of an armed force. Everywhere the Romanists are deficient in knowledge and wealth. They are the uneducated, the miserable, the servants of their own land. In short, turn where you will, the result is the same. The difference between Romanism and Protestantism is known by the appearance of every parish, every village, every house and cottage in the land.

Italy! Italy! Mistress of the World! the glory of Europe! She had decked herself with the master-works of the human mind, like a queen adorning her brow. Michael Angelo was her architect; Raphael, Titian, and Da Vinci were her painters; Dante, Petrarch, and Ariosto sang her praises. For her, Genoa and Venice unladed their rich argosies; emperors and kings were her willing vassals. Italy, possessing in her bosom the Infallible Head of the Church; Italy, enjoying the pure influence of Romanism, and never suffering from heresy, surely Italy must give high proofs of the blessed influence of the Papacy; but the Eternal City! Imperial Rome! is in ruins! Half her streets are deserted; wretchedness and filth reign triumphantly. The glory of the City of the Sea, Venice, is gone; Genoa is fallen; Florence is in tears! Italians are distracted and desolate, the prey of ever-changing tyrants!

It is to Popery alone we must attribute the shame of the actual state of Italy. It is the work, the legitimate offspring, the exclusive pupil of the Papal power. Whatever Popery is able to accomplish,

has been accomplished in Italy. No opposition has been offered there. On the contrary, Popery has been enthroned; princes and people have bowed before it, as an idol; and the Head of Romanism, armed with a triple tiara, held as infallible. The Roman Caiphas, accepted as vice-God, has prepared and consummated this tremendous ruin.

But there is a bright ray of hope for this glorious country of the past. Sardinia is waking up to liberty, and manfully striding on in the road to freedom. Rome is in agony; her ministers fume, her Pontiff threatens excommunication and interdict. But bravely do Sardinia's king and people bear such Middle-Age threats; and the secularization of the property of the Church, the appointment of bishops by the government, the annihilation of the monasteries, all go bravely on. Italy's salvation is in the North; and we trust ere long to see a magnificent empire rising up, embracing Sardinia, Lombardy, and the lesser States, and setting free the city of Rienzi— Eternal Rome herself.

But in order to appreciate the struggle between modern Romanism and Protestantism, we must leave Europe. Here they are both embarrassed in their movements by too many old established customs and prejudices. Providence has given them a vast arena, where each, being surrounded by its own deeds, will be judged by them alone. The Church of Rome and the Reformation have each, in America, a world in which to try their civilizing power,-a duel which has heaven and earth for witnesses. America is a country of the future. She is a virgin, fertile, and extensive land. She has not, by degrading laws, closed the doors upon truth. Neither has she proscribed error; all forms, religions, governments, are admitted. Truth, eternal truth, will alone prevail.

A magnificent armament, under the banners of imperial Spain, arrives in South America. The strength and chivalry of Europe land amidst wondering spectators. They march from victory to vi Untold treasures fill the coffers of the Church. Rome, in ir Threetion, sings countless Te Deums.

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A few men land, one by one, on the shores of North America; poor, humble, and unknown. They bring with them but one bookthe Bible. They open it on the strand; and begin forthwith to build up the new city, on the plan of the book recovered by Luther.

Hearken to the sound of the axe. The emigrant fells the primeval oak in the virgin forests; the sweat inundates his brow. With toil and trouble he builds an unknown hut, near a running stream. The traveller scarce deigns to turn his head towards this humble dwelling, where the noise of the axe and hammer mingles with the chant of a psalm. But if, a few years later, he pass again by the same spot, he sees, by a sort of social miracle, in the place of the hut, a mighty empire rising from the earth. The poor emigrant has conquered a world! In this immense arena the lists are opened between two religions. The doctrines of the Council of Trent have received, for the display of their strength, South America. There the founders are not isolated individuals, but on the contrary, according to Romanist principles, an association already formed. A powerful empire, with all its resources, comes to take possession of the soil. Rich valleys and fertile plains seem to demand the living energy which would give birth to new empires. In order that the trial may be more decisive, Romanism alone is allowed to approach these shores. The civilization of the natives, which might have embarrassed her actions, disappears. Nothing remains but mighty nature, who, in her solitude, invites man to crown her with vast ideas, projects, innovations, kingdoms, gigantic as herself. But man remains motionless, bound by an invisible force.

Throughout the entire continent of South America, it is impossible to enforce the observance of the most simple law or police regulation. The insolence of the inhabitants renders them hostile to every kind of control. Morals are in a state that makes us blush for humanity; manufactures are scarcely known; commerce languishes, or is in the hands of foreigners; society is utterly demoralized, and anarchy reigns supreme. From the Isthmus to the Horn, wherever Rome has planted It her Faith, civilization flies. Revolution succeeds revolution, but no state of good results from the change. South America is one vast moral pupil of

charnel-house. Mexico, even, which should receive some beneficial influence from the neighboring states, is paralyzed by the priesthood, in alliance with despotism. Cuba, the brightest jewel in the bosom of ocean, for which nature has done so much and man so little, is ground down and cursed by this overwhelming spiritual tyranny. Priestcraft pillages her, and military despots put her to death. Rome, wherever supreme, reduces society to chaos.

What a magnificent contrast in the Protestant North! Forests have given place to fruitful fields; cities spring up on every side; railroads stretch to remotest points; commerce brings to her the wealth of the old world; Science bridges her rivers, works her roads and canals; the Arts enshrine themselves in her midst; and Literature carries her glory into far-distant climes. Her Faith and her Progress are one and inseparable; the dignity and independence of man, his self-reliance, have wrought this. Protestantism settled her finest States-it breathes through and animates her constitution; her forefathers were the everlasting enemies of Rome and tyranny. Instead of ignorance, we find education more diffused than in any other part of the world; a school is as necessary to a village as houses; and every succeeding year strives to surpass the last in improving instruction.

The mind fails to grasp the FUTURE of such a people. When we see the progress accomplished in so short a period; plenty everywhere and misery nowhere; churches, schools, towns, manufactories, rising on all sides, as if by enchantment; forests cleared away almost as soon as discovered; a hardy population, active, persevering, eager for knowledge, and ever advancing, we are almost tempted to give history the lie, when we think how much has been done in so short a time.

Romanism, opposed to all social and commercial progress, is defended by its subjects with the specious remark that the change proves nothing against the Church, because man is not made for this world, and, therefore, it makes but little difference whether he be free, happy, prosperous, or otherwise, so long as he is an acceptable mem

ber of the Papal communion. This is the favorite argument to make the Irish people contented with the misery they suffer by the priestridden degradation in their native land. Another class of the defenders of the Papacy admit the commercial and social degradation of Papal nations, but assert that their decline in temporal prosperity is due to the change of the great routes of navigation. It is true that America and England obtained access to the East Indies around the Cape of Good Hope, but this route is, and was, open to Spain, Portugal, and all Romanist countries. No recent discoveries have altered the route to South America; nearly the whole of that trade was hers, for her colonies, eleven times the area of the mother country, were equal to India in fertility; rivers were more numerous and mineral productions far superior. England, and in fact the whole of Europe, could never reach the South American Continent as quickly as Spain, for the northeast trade-winds were in her favor, and those nations would always be compelled to take a southern course to reach the Gulf of Mexico. Portugal and Spain obtained a vast continent, besides possessions in the West Indies and North America. No change in navigation could possibly affect the development of these immense acquisitions; but, as we have seen, ill government and superstition have left them a wilderness, and the very name of Spain an execration.

But granting, for the sake of argument, that the carrying trade has been transferred, surely the loss of commerce cannot have plunged Spain, Portugal, and Italy into such moral debasement and political annihilation as they are now suffering. The asserters of so monstrous a proposition would make us believe that no country can prosper without commerce, which is palpably ridiculous. But if their argument be correct, why should Protestant Holland differ so materially from the above-mentioned countries? She has lost the greater part of her commerce and colonies, yet we see no such moral debasement, no such reducing of man to the level of the brute as we find with them.

Protestantism found the world in medieval barbarism; feudalism and tyranny triumphant; mankind in slavery and ignorance. She has disenthralled the people, blessed them with literature and science,