under the Catholic Kings of Spain, the Inquisition in Portugal was equally alert in the same catholic pursuit. In the latter kingdom there were Kings who would gladly have put a stop to these horrors,..one especially, whose name is deservedly dear in that country, Joam IV. in whom the rightful line was restored: but the clergy and the friars were too powerful. There was a Jesuit living at that same time who possessed and deserved the friendship of that King; a man whose single virtues might almost redeem his Order,.. whose single genius might alone ennoble his country, if it had no other boast: (it is of Vieyra that I am speaking,) and for exerting himself in behalf of the New Christians, he was brought under the power of the Inquisition himself. Some fantastic notions connected with Sebastianism afforded a pretext, but this was the cause. I could thrill your blood, Sir, as mine has been thrilled, by authentic details of the Inquisitorial proceedings in Spain and Portugal! I know not whether such details would touch the heart or penetrate the understanding of those BRITISH ROMAN CATHOLICS* who, only ten years ago, expressed

"Pendant mon séjour à Londres, j'ai entendu dire à quelques Catholiques que l'Inquisition était utile en Espagne pour la conservation de la foi Catholique; et qu'il eût été avantageux pour

their opinion to Llorente that THE INQUISITION HAD BEEN USEFUL IN SPAIN, AND REGRETTED THAT IT HAD NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED IN FRANCE ALSO! But assuredly they would make you shudder, and draw from you something more than an admission that such things were objectionable. The Popes might at any time have stopt this wickedness. At any time they might have put an end to the enormous evil, the unutterable cruelties, the incalculable sum of human sufferings (sufferings whereof the rack and the stake are the least part) which the Holy Office was producing. If any misunderstanding or dispute arose concerning the asserted privileges of the Papacy, the Popes were ready to exert their power without delay. But when humanity was thus outraged, when religion was

la France d'avoir un pareil établissement. Ce qui trompait ces personnes, c'était de croire qu'il suffisait d'être bon Catholique pour n'avoir rien à craindre du Saint Office."-Hist. Critique de l'Inquisition d'Espagne. Preface, xxiii.

It cannot be necessary to inform Mr. Butler that Llorente was a Roman Catholic himself, who had been secretary to the Inquisition, and that the English Roman Catholic Society, into which he was introduced, cannot have been of the worst kind. But it is well that the British public should know what opinions he found there. The fact is recent; the testimony is undeniable; and these are the persons who are at this time endeavouring to obtain political power!

thus blasphemed and injured, when Christianity was thus perverted and made an object of hatred and horror, they were silent: not a whisper of disapprobation was heard from the Vatican, which was wont to express its displeasure in thunder; not a breath came from the brazen Bulls which had breathed fire against the Waldenses, the Lollards, and the Protestants! The Popes acquiesced in these things; they suffered them to be done, to be approved, to be applauded, as the triumphs of the holy Roman Catholic and Apostolical faith; they allowed the pictures of the victims in their sanbenitos, which had been displayed as part of the pageantry while those victims were in the flames, to be suspended as ornaments and trophies in the Churches! Year after year, and generation after generation, the Inquisition immured its victims in solitary dungeons, stretched them on the rack, consumed them at the stake for a holyday spectacle, (for horrible as it may seem, an auto-da-fè was considered as a festival!) and scattered their ashes upon the winds and waters! And this is one part of the conduct of the Popes toward the Jews. This is the protection which they who could have protected them, afforded! The Popes could have prevented these things, but they permitted them; a large portion of

the guilt, therefore, is upon their heads; and the infamy is upon that Church, that Roman Catholic Church whose principles made persecution a duty;... that Roman Catholic Church which, till this hour, has neither retracted the principle, nor expressed its contrition for the practice.

You have adjured me "as a Christian and a gentleman,* to say on which side the balance of religious persecution lies... the (Roman) Catholic or the Protestant?" There is an Irish act against making comparisons, which you cannot but be acquainted with, were it only for its name's-sake, for it is called the Butler-aboo Statute. You should have remembered it, Sir, on this occasion, and enforced it against yourself... On which side does the balance of persecution lie!! Put the Inquisition in the scale, Sir, and nothing can be found to counterpoise it, unless Hell be plucked up by the roots!

SLAVERY.-THE SLAVE TRADE.

CONCERNING slavery, Sir, you have claimed for the Popes a merit which belongs to the Christian religion. "Great exertions," you say,† "were made by them for the redemption + Page 97.

* Page 260.

of captives and the melioration of the condition of the slaves in 1167 Pope Alexander III. solemnly declared in council, that all Christians ought to be exempt from slavery." That declaration certainly was not followed by any systematic measures for effecting the object which it had in view. But the gradual abolition of slavery in European Christendom is one of those benefits for which we are indebted mainly to Christianity; it is one of those things whereby, as I had stated, "the Clergy advanced the best interests of this country even during the darkest ages of Papal domination."

**

Here, Sir, let me introduce a remark relating to the present times,..intreating you to lay aside for the moment all controversial feelings, and receive it in the spirit in which it is offered. Nearly twenty years have elapsed since the British Government endeavoured to put an end, so far as its authority extended, to one of the greatest evils that afflict and disgrace humanity. You will at once perceive that it is the slave trade of which I speak. In this good work all the Protestant powers, who were any ways concerned in that trade, have cordially co-operated, certain new States in America alone excepted, who have shown themselves strong enough in

* Book of the Church, i. p. 2.