may come from quarters remote and opposite to those whence danger alone was dreaded. But come when it may or whence it may, it must come ultimately, and come the heavier from the delay in its movements and the distance it has traversed— an avalanche that has gathered in mass every moment it lingered, and every fathom it travelled of the wide interval.

The man or the people would be far out of their course, who should claim a development that had outgrown the Decalogue as God's own voice proclaimed it on Sinai, and who should boast of a patent to possess the earth by virtue of a physical and mental superiority that reverses, in their case, the eighth and tenth commandments, and converts the prohibition into a charter, which says, in effect, to them, "Thou shalt covet (because of his inferior numbers and culture, his lower grade of piety and powers) thy neighbor's possessions ;" and "Thou shalt steal (because of his wretched misgovernment) thy neighbor's land." Jehovah never recognized the right, either of an infallible pontiff or of a sovereign people, to proclaim a dispensation from the obligations of his immutable statutes, by the development of their powers or because of their national greatness.

There is no successful warring against the Lord of Hosts. His will is Fate, his might the quiet irresistibility of Omnipotence. Neither nations nor individuals can contend with Him. And now, dismissing all questions of social interest, let us individually inquire, whether we are serving or rebelling against Him? Look round the scarred and ruinous earth look up to heaven spoiled of Lucifer and the host whom he trailed after him, partners of his revolt and fall. Look to the hell where he writhes. See his conflicts with Christ in the days of His incarnation. See the Church of God often assailed, but the gates of hell not prevailing. Look to sinners on their death-beds. Look into your own consciences, in your more sober and wiser hours, and see, my fellow-sinners, if it be safe to war and to delight in warring against a Holy and Almighty God? Then think of the treachery and ingratitude of fighting a friend, a Deliverer, and see what reasons you can find for beginning another year with a continued quarrel against the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour, who bought you with His own blood? If you war against the redeeming cross, will not, must not the Last Judgment scatter your hopes for ever, and hurl your souls into endless perdition?

The universe is one great battle-field. The founder of the Jesuit order wisely and truly represented all mankind as making up but two great camps, the one under the banners of Satan the Destroyer, the other grouped around the standard of Christ the Redeemer. There is no debatable ground between the hosts. No neutrality is possible in this war. He that gathereth not with Christ scattereth abroad, and shall himself be scattered in the sifting blasts of the Last Judgment. He that is not with us is against us. With whom, then, are you choosing your sides? Each new year, each pause in the procession to eternity, each stile you cross, and each milestone along the highway and in the pilgrimage of life, invites you to review your march and inquire your prospects. Are you still bent on rejecting Christ, and resisting God and defying heaven? How mad the war you wage; it is one of disinheriting for yourself,-of expatriation, endless and hopeless, from the heavenly mansion and home. Against you are angels, and saints, and God, and all holy beings, the prayers of the Church, and the statutes of Omnipotence. With you are the wicked, and the lawless, and the abominable, earth's burden now, and soon to be the fuel of the pit. O, why fight for death, and for damnation, and for endless despair?

APPENDIX.

THE CAGOTS OF FRANCE.

FROM the travels, which, under the assumed name of Derwent Conway, and with the title of "Switzerland, the South of France, and the Pyrenees, in MDCCCXXX," were issued in Constable's Miscellany, as volumes lxvi. and Ixvii., of that work, by R. D. Inglis, Esq., a lineal descendant, we believe, of the excellent Col. Gardiner, we take the following extract, relative to this peculiar race. Inglis published, under his own name, several volumes of travels, marked with much acuteness of observation, strong sense, and felicitous description.

"In speaking of the inhabitants of the Pyrenees, I must not overlook that extraordinary race, which has baffled the historian in his vain endeavors to account for its origin, and which has furnished matter of interest both to the novelist and the traveller. It is probable, that many readers of this volume may never have heard of the Cagots, and that others may know only of the existence of such a race; and although, in presenting some details respecting this extraordinary people, I disclaim any pretension to novelty or original elucidation, yet, having travelled among their valleys, and seen their huts and themselves, I feel that it would be an unpardonable omission, were I to omit availing myself of even the common sources of information, in order that I may include, in this volume, a short account of the Cagots.

"The Cagots are found in several of the more secluded valleys of the Pyrenees, particularly in the lateral valleys that branch from the valley of Baréges, Luchon, and Aure. So sedulously do the Cagots keep apart from the rest of their fellow-men, that one might travel through the Pyrenees without seeing an individual of the race, unless inquiry were specially directed towards them. It was not until I expressed a desire to the guide who attended me in my excursions from St. Sauveur, to see one of the race of Cagots, that my curiosity was gratified. This was in one of the lateral valleys that runs to the right, between Baréges and the Tourmalet, a valley traversed by no road, and which only leads to the lac d'escaibous. The Cagot is known by his sallow and unhealthy countenance-his expression of stupidity-his want of vigor, and relaxed appearance-his imperfect articulation--and, in many cases, his disposition to goîtres. If we were to credit the assertion of the novelist, we should reject one of these characteristics, or at least say, that the stupidity of the Cagot is only apparent. It is possible, that a knowledge of his degraded condition, and the contempt, if not aversion, with which he is regarded, as well as the total seclusion in which the family of the Cagot lives, may have their effect in impressing upon his countenance an expression of humility, distrust, and timidity, that might be mistaken for intellectual deficiency. But the observation of all those who have studied with the greatest advantages the peculiarities of this race, concur in allotting to the Cagot an inferior share of mental capacity.

"The days of Cagot persecution have passed away; but tradition has preserved a recollection of the degradation and sufferings of the race, and has

even, in some small degree, handed down, along with the history of these persecutions, some vestiges of the prejudices which gave rise to it. From time immemorial, the Cagot families have inhabited the most retired valleys, and the most miserable habitations. The race has always been regarded as infamous, and the individuals of it outcasts from the family of mankind. They were excluded from all rights of citizens; they were not permitted to have arms, or to exercise any other trade than that of wood-cutters: and, in more remote times, they were obliged to bear upon their breast a red mark, the sign of their degradation. So far, indeed, was aversion towards this unfortunate people carried, that they entered the churches by a separate door, and occupied seats allotted to the rejected caste. The persecutions have long ceased; and time and its attendant improvements have diminished the prejudices, and weakened the feelings of aversion with which they were formerly regarded. But they are still the race of Cagots-still a separate family-still outcasts still a people who are evidently no kindred of those who live around them, but the remnant of a different and more ancient family.

"It is impossible for the traveller, still less the philosopher, to know of the existence of this caste, without endeavoring to pierce the clouds that hang over its origin, and the causes of its persecution. But it is at least doubtful, whether any of these inquiries have thrown true light upon the subject. History, indeed, records the peculiar persecutions of which they were the subjects; and proves, that these persecutions, pursuing a despised and hated race, were directed against the same people, whether found in Brittany, La Vendée, Auvergne, or the Pyrenees. We find the Parliament of Rennes interfering in their favor, to obtain them the right of sepulture. In the eleventh century, we find the Cagots of Bearn disposed of by testament as slaves. The priests would not admit them to confession; and, by an ancient act of Bearn, it was resolved that the testimony of seven of them should be equivalent to the evidence of one free citizen; and even so late as the fifteenth century, they were forbidden to walk the streets barefooted, in case of infection being communicated to the stones; and upon their clothes was impressed the foot of a goose. Yet all these marks of hatred are unaccounted for. No record has descended to us, by which the cause of this persecution may be explained; and we are left to guess at the origin of that reprobation which has followed this rejected people from the earliest times, and in whatever country they have been found.

"M. Ramond, in his disquisition upon this subject, says, 'The Cagots of all France have a common origin. The same event has confined them all in the most remote and desert spots; and, whatever this event may be, it must be such as will account for every thing-it must be great and generalmust have impressed at once upon the whole of France the same sentiments of hatred--have marked its victims with the seal of the same reprobation-and have disgraced the race, and all its subdivisions, with the opprobrium of a name which every where awakened the same ideas of horror and contempt.' This is just reasoning; but we are as far as ever from the event which has fixed hatred and opprobrium upon the dispersed race of Cagots. Some have held, that they are descendants of lepers, and, as such, exiled from the society of others; but to this, M. Ramond replies, that although lepers have been exiled or confined, there is no record of their having ever been sold or disposed of by testament. Others have contended, that the Cagots are the descendants of the ancient Gauls, brought into a state of slavery by the people who drove out the Romans; but to this hypothesis, also, M. Ramond answers, that under the dominion of the Goths, the Gaul and the Roman were never reduced to a state of slavery; and he rightly adds, that the tyranny merely of a conqueror enslaving the vanquished, would not account for the origin of the Cagot; because the feeling with which the Cagot has been regarded, has not been merely that of.contempt, but of aversion, and even horror. But the explanation attempted by M. Ramond seems to me

to be alike inefficient to explain the origin of this hatred and persecution. He says, 'Such victory as may have terminated the conflict of two nations equally ferocious and inflamed against each other by a long train of rivalry -the invasion of one barbarian punished by another barbarian-the reaction of the oppressed against the oppressor-at last completely disarmed-bloody combats disastrous defeats-such only could have been the sources of the hatred and fury which could have given rise to miseries like those which we behold.' But it appears to me, that such events as M. Ramond supposes, would lead only to oppression, and perhaps slavery, but not to aversion or horror; and that even the deadliest feelings of hatred, engendered from such causes, would not have outlived the generation which first imbibed them. But even the explanation of M. Ramond, if satisfactory, would still leave the origin of Cagots and Cagot persecution as dark as ever; for, among the numerous hordes of barbarians who pushed one another from their conquests, and among the endless and confused strife of battles which destroyed, mingled, and separated the different races, how can we determine, whether Alans, or Suevi, or Vandals, or Huns, or Goths, or Francs, or Moors, or Saracens, were that peculiar race, whose remnant has descended to these days with the mark of persecution and hatred stamped upon it?

"It would prove to most readers an uninteresting detail, were I to go over the arguments of M. de Gebelin, who contends that the Cagots are the remains of the Alans; or of M. Ramond, who believes them to be a remnant of the Goths. Nothing approaching to certainty, scarcely even bordering upon probability, appears in the reasoning of either. The Cagots may have been Alans, or they may have been Goths; but there seems to be nearly the same reason for believing them the remnant of the one as of the other people. If this miserable and proscribed race should, indeed, be all that remains of the Gothic conquerors of half the world, what a lesson for pride is there! "I cannot conclude this hasty sketch better than in the words of M. Ramond, who, whatever his philosophical powers may be, is evidently a kindhearted and an observing man, and who possessed the best of all opportunities for judging of the people which were the object of his inquiry.

"I have seen,' says he, 'some families of these unfortunate creatures. They are gradually approaching the villages from which prejudice has banished them. The side-doors by which they were formerly obliged to enter the churches are useless (M. Ramond might have said shut up, for so they are in general), and some degree of pity mingles, at length, with the contempt and aversion which they formerly inspired; yet I have been in some of their retreats, where they still fear the insults of prejudice, and await the visits of the compassionate. I have found among them the poorest beings perhaps that exist upon the face of the earth. I have met with brothers, who loved each other with that tenderness which is the most pressing want of isolated men. I have seen among them women, whose affection had a somewhat in it of that submission and devotion which are inspired by feebleness and misfortune. And never, in this half annihilation of those beings of my species, could I recognize, without shuddering, the extent of the power which we may exercise over the existence of our fellow-the narrow circle of knowledge and of enjoyment within which we may confine him-the smallness of the sphere to which we may reduce his usefulness.'"-Consta ble's Miscellany, voi. LXVII., pp. 128-134.

The Breton antiquarians, who find in their own portion of France the same race, have seemed inclined to trace them no farther back than to the lepers of the medieval times, victims as they suppose of a disease brought back into Europe by the Crusaders. But the allusions to this remarkable people run back to a far earlier era than that of the first crusade. Michelet, the historian, leaves undetermined the origin of these "Pariahs of the West," as he calls them. The recent erudite and elaborate work of F. Michel, (Histoire des Races Maudites de la France et de l'Espagne. Paris, 1847, 2 tomes,)