cast into cannon. After the restoration | property; and the government not only see it NOTES ON THE ISLAND OF CUBA. FROM THE UNPUBLISHED MEMORANDA OF A TRAVELLER. No. IV. THE free blacks and people of colour were always more numerous in the Spanish settlements than in the colonies of any other nation. The number of free blacks and people of colour in the Island of Cuba exceeds mightily the total amount of that class in all the other West India colonies put together. The laws of Spain, contrary to the usual system of colonial policy followed by Europeans, are extremely favourable to the manumission of slaves; and the piety and devotion of the Spanish character contribute powerfully, as in the dark ages, to increase the number of freed men. In the district I visited, slavery scarcely existed. The agricultural population were free blacks and free persons of colour, some of whom had acquired large property by their industry. They support their families respectably, educate their children, and in their habits are an example to many of the lower class of whites. It is this description of people who are the artizans of the towns, being masters of shops, and employing many men. If a slave can prove that a promise of emancipation has been made to him by his master, the latter will be compelled to perform interpreted most favourably to the slaves. it; and wills relating to this subject are always The law is, that a coartado slave is as much a slave as any other, except as regards his price, and the quota he is to pay his master, if hired out. The master, therefore, is as much entitled in law to his personal service, as to that of a slave in venta real. But this is somewho tenders his master the sum he was bought to his master coartado, or become so in his serEvery slave, under the Spanish colonial law, what modified in practice. If a slave descend at, is entitled to enfranchisement, nor can his vice, the master may require his personal sermaster refuse it. If the arrangement is objected vice, and the slave cannot demand to be allowed to, the slave has only to apply to a court of to work out. But when a coartado slave is justice, through the procurador-general, to be sold, it being the custom for the slave himself valued. Beside this, there is a system of par- to seek for a new master, he uniformly stiputial liberty, called the coartado, in which the lates beforehand whether he is to serve perslave is permitted to purchase his freedom as sonally, or to work out, paying the usual daily obliged to give him an eseretura, expressing master to observe such stipulation, unless the his ability allows, and his master is then quota; and judges will always compel the that he was coartado in the difference between slave should neglect to pay; when the only the sum paid and his esteemed value. A re- remedy is to exact his personal service. It cent writer, in letters from the Havanna pub-is not uncommon, therefore, for a master lished in 1821, and dedicated to Mr. Croker, wishing to employ his coartado slave, who has of the Admiralty, gives the following details stipulated to be allowed to work out, to pay of this practical system of enfranchisement :- the difference between the sum the slave "Such as are coartado," he observes, "are in ought daily to pay him, and the wages usually consequence entitled to a licence to work earned by the slave. In this case alone is the where and with whom they please, pay- slave paid for labour by the master, except, ining to their master a rial (5d.) per day, for deed, he is employed on Sundays or holidays. every hundred dollars remaining of their The law which so eminently favours the value, beyond the instalment they have paid. slave, does not neglect his offspring. A pregMany who are not coartado are allowed by nant negress may emancipate her unborn intheir owners to labour where they please, under fant for thirty-five dollars; and, between the similar conditions; by which means an indus- birth and baptism, the infant may be emancicient to ransom himself. The excellence of during childhood, its value being then low, it trious slave may, in a few years, procure suffi-pated for fifty dollars; and at any other time such a regulation it is easy to appreciate. The may acquire its liberty, or be coartado like both a wise and merciful policy. It satisfies permission to purchase freedom by portions is other slaves. the master with a high interest, during the period the slave is working out his freedom; and it imbues the latter with habits of cheerful negro earns four reals a day and is fed; a Wages are high in Cuba. A common field mechanic ten reals to three dollars a day; and a regular house-servant twenty to thirty dollars a month, besides being fed and clothed. With such wages the coartado slave is well able to the courts of justice in Cuba, to sanction such by something for the attainment of his liberty.* It has been the practice at all times, of pay the daily quota to his master, and to lay regulations as tend to ameliorate the lot of The large white population, too, is a great slaves; and this has gradually given rise to a advantage to the slaves, not merely from the custom, has acquired the force of law, and system, which, though principally founded on many parts of which have been confirmed in royal decrees. Among other beneficial regulations there is a public officer in every district, who is the official protector of slaves, and whose presence is necessary at every legal decision concerning them. work In the neighbourhood of the Havanna and of St. Jago, they are the cultivators of the garden grounds, and supply the market with vegetables. In the forest districts they are the wood-cutters, and, when squaring timber for daily hire, are the persons spoken of by the merchants under the name of the labradores (labourers), on whom they are dependent for their shipments of timber and dye-woods. All these people attach themselves to the Europeans, because, having something to lose in the event of disturbances or disputes with the slave population, they naturally rally round the standard of those who possess power and * In "Las Obras de Misericordia," for the use of children, it is the fifth injunction, under the head, corporeal works of pity, "Redimir al cautivo," to redeem the captive;-a charitable injunction, the spirit of which is seen operating beneficially in the Spanish slave code. divided into two classes; those in venta real, Slaves may acquire their liberty by the mere This demand of security in our colonies, has incalculable benefits derived from the master's immediate presence by a residence in the island, and from his influence and authority, preventing a thousand difficulties and abuses which cannot but exist under the management of an agent, but from the facility thereby afforded to change masters, and thus remedy many of the evils attending their state. The from this circumstance, is particularly favourlot of household slaves, who derive most benefit able. They are almost always taught some trade, and, by well employing their leisure hours, they may easily acquire their liberty in seven years. Field slaves, too, have their ad These are the Havanna prices of labour; in Manzanilla it is generally less than one-half the above. + Almost all the female domestic slaves of Cuba are taught the art of shoe-making, so that the household servants are not bare-footed, as in Jamaica. The household slaves are also fed from the master's table; they, therefore, take their meals at the family hours. This domestic economy differs much from the system adopted in the British West India colonies, where the negro feeds himself, independent of his master, from his weekly allowance. keeps the household servants always engaged in The Spanish arrangement domestic industry, and is attended with good moral results. vantages. They are by law entitled to a certain quantity of ground, with the produce of which, and the breeding of pigs and poultry, they may well look forward to acquiring money to become coartado, and even to being emancipated. It is also highly advantageous to the slaves that public opinion is favourable to granting them their liberty; and all respectable men would feel ashamed to throw obstacles in the way of their becoming free; on the contrary, masters are generally very willing to assist their slaves in the attainment of this most desirable object. The effects of this system are seen in the state of the population. The last census (which, though not very exact, is sufficiently so for the present purpose) makes the whites 290,000, the free people of colour 150,000, and the slaves 225,000. Of all schemes for getting rid of the curse of slavery in our sugar colonies, there is none which can come recommended with greater practical certainty than the system recognized by the Spanish laws. If its abolition be effected, as the benevolence of some would suggest, by an immediate emancipation, without a due provision for continued industry, we indeed get rid of slavery, but we are in danger of substituting no other certain system of steady labour in its place, and the commerce and agriculture of our colonies become at once jeoparded by rash innovation. If to be redeemed from bondage, and to provide for a family, without the discredit of being burdensome to the community we belong to, were to be the only consideration, any scheme which determined the abolition of slavery at a definite period might be sufficient for the adoption of the legislature; but to see the negro contented with living idly in hovels scarcely more than accommodated to the purposes of shelter, or to see him diligent only in the supply of those wants which are scarce an attention to the common decencies of life, is not the object of those who desire that he should be a freeman and a citizen. It is to embue him with habits by which he may appreciate his own interest in continuing the cultivation of the sugar estates held by the present capitalists of the colonies; to become his former master's sugar farmer, occupying his accustomed land and cottage at a stated rent-charge; and to look to European immigration not as the coming of a dominant complexional class, but on the better principle of bringing among the indigenous population those who can infuse among them a spirit of intelligence and activity, arising out of a continually increased desire to be intelligent and usefully active. This can be best effected by giving the slave early an interest in his own labour in his master's fields; those habits will then become impressed which will induce him, as it does the European husbandman, to regard the spot of his early associations as one of affection, and to consider it, on this account, as the best through evil and good. Now, the law of the coartado does this; and the necessity of the driving system, which renders tropical labour so repulsive, is done away with as soon as the negro, on the terms of becoming partially free, enters into a contract to make the value of his labour on his own days the measured value of his services on the days that are his master's. We must excite labour by factitious means. Necessity, interest, or ambition, are the incentives to industry. Labour, simply as such, is no where a natural impulse; it is called into activity by real or imaginary wants. To place the negro only where it will spring from necessity alone, and cease with the immediate occasion that calls it forth, is doing nothing for substantial utility and happiness, whatever it may effect for his ease. He must have an interest in the accumulation of wealth, that he may be induced to labour to obtain it; and he must be impelled to industry by that spirit of social emulation which can alone lead to great and unwearied exertion. In Cuba, other circumstances, however, beside the coartado system, come in aid of this state of things. There is something of political equality existing among the free; and there is the fact, that all complexions are to be found among the class of labradores, or hired workpeople. The creole whites, independent of the coloured classes, who are recognized as the blancos de la tierra, or the indigenous or Indian whites, beside being chiefly occupied in the rearing of cattle, which they drive 300 or 400 miles to find a market for, cultivate small estates, on which sugar, coffee, tobacco, and corn are grown, less for exportation than for the supply of the neighbouring districts. Upon these estates whites and blacks work together. Such labourers being extremely orderly and giving no trouble, they are greatly to be depended on when they hire themselves out, as they occasionally do, in the exposed and fatiguing labour of tilling and clearing new lands, and receive wages as high as from twelve to fifteen dollars per month. I have myself seen, in the tobacco district of Yarra, the youths,-both white, black, and brown, returning together from the fields in the evening, with their implements of husbandry on their shoulders, cheerful and happy, and amusing themselves with all the wild joyousness of boys coming from a harvest-field in England. The moral effects of this are incalculably great. The negro becomes content with his life when this participation in his toils, by those who are physically different, convince him that a life of labour is not exclusively the lot of the black man. DJEZZAR PACHA AND DR. CLARKE. DR. CLARKE'S portrait of the celebrated Djezzar Pacha, says the Edinburgh Review, is drawn with much spirit, though we found a little portion of horror mingled with our amusement while we contemplated it. Next to the remarkable personage who has so long attracted the attention and disturbed the tranquillity of Europe, we look upon Ali Pacha of Jenina, and Djezzar Pacha of Acre, as the most extraordinary men of the present times. The name of the latter, which he assumed voluntarily, and out of ostentation, signifies Butcher; and, by all accounts, he has imply earned it. Throughout his life, he has generally acted as his own executioner. On one occasion, in a fit of jealousy, he put seven of his women to death with his own hand; and is regularly attended by what he calls his marked men—that is, men whom he has formerly deprived of a nose, an eye, or an arm, for some disobedience or offence. He affects the utmost plainness and hermit austerity in his way of living; occupies himself nearly the whole day in cutting out paper into fantastic forms with his scissars; and utters such a quantity of frivolous stuff-long obscure parables, and inapplicable truisms-that it is but rarely that an occasional visitor can discover any traces of that profound sagacity, consummate art, and extraordinary quickness and decision for which he has so long been celebrated. "We found him seated on a mat in a little chamber, destitute even of the meanest article of furniture, excepting a coarse, porous, earthenware vessel, for cooling the water he occasionally drank. He was surrounded by persons maimed and disfigured in the manner before described. He scarcely looked up to notice our entrance, but continued his employment of drawing upon the floor, for one of his engineers, a plan of some works he was then constructing. His form was athletic, and his long white beard entirely covered his breast. His habit was that of a common Arab, plain but clean, consisting of a white camlet over a cotton cassock. His turban was also white. Neither cushion nor carpet decorated the naked boards of his divan. "The conversation began by a request from the Pacha that English captains, in future, would fire only one gun, rather as a signal than as a salute, upon their arrival. There can be no good reason,' said he, for such a waste of gunpowder in ceremony between friends. Besides,' he added, 'I am too old to be pleased with ceremony: among forty-three Pachas of three tails, now living in Turkey, I am the senior. My occupations are, consequently, as you see, very important,' taking out a pair of scissars, and beginning to cut figures in paper, which was his constant employment when strangers were present; these he afterwards stuck upon the wainscot. His whole discourse was in parables, proverbs, truisms, and oriental apologues. One of his tales lasted nearly an hour, about a man who wished to enjoy the peaceful cultivation of a small garden, without consulting the lord of the manor whenever he removed a tulip; alluding, perhaps, to his situation, with reference to the Grand Signior. There was evidently much cunning and deep policy in his pretended frivolity. Apparently occupied in regulating the shape of a watch-paper with his scissars, he was all the while deeply attentive to our words, and even to our looks. He believed that dissensions had been excited in his dominions by Sir Sidney Smith, to divert him from the possibility of assisting the French, by attacking the Vizier's army in its march through Syria, and was much incensed while he complained to us of this breach of confidence. 'I ate,' said he, 'bread and salt with that man; we were together as sworn friends. He did what he pleased here. I lent him my staff; he released all my prisoners, many of whom were in my debt, and never paid me a para. What engagements with him have 1 violated? What promises have I not fulfilled? What requests have I denied? I wished to combat the French by his side; but he has taken care that I shall be confined at home, to fight against my own people. Have I merited such treatment?" When he was a little pacified we ventured to assure him that he had listened to his own and to Sir Sidney's enemies; that there did not exist a man more sincerely allied to him; and that the last commission we received, previously to our leaving the fleet, were Sir Sidney's memorials of his regard for Djezzar Pacha. In proof of this, I presumed to lay before him the present Sir Sidney had entrusted to my care. a small but very elegant telescope, with silver slides. He regarded it, however, with disdain, saying it had too splendid an exterior for him; and, taking down an old ship glass that hung above his head, covered with greasy leather, added, Humbler instruments serve my purposes; besides, you may tell Sir Sidney that Djezzar, old as he is, seldom requires the aid of a glass to view what passes around him.'" It was THE TOURIST. MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1833. very WE recur with pleasure to the able article which was commenced in the accompanying number. Leaving the general subject, the writer closes with the following advice to constituents : This measure, however, is not the only one which the Anti-slavery and Agency committees have urged upon their friends. We lament to say that even now, with a reformed parliament, it is not a work of supererogation to require the attendance of our representatives in their places. In the first place, after the novelty of the thing has subsided, a walk to St. Stephen's chapel is a great bore; and to listen to long speeches, a greater: but worst of all is to remain till two o'clock in the morning, to divide upon any question, except reform. Gentlemen must, therefore, be reminded of their duty in terms as peremptory as respect for their high office will permit. "Oh! but" says one man, "I need not write, for our members are favourable." "And mine," says another, "will vote with the minister that black is white." While a third declares, with equal certainty, that the members for his borough are pledged to the hilts for our opponents. To all we answer, Write: and write with decision. The favourable will thank you; the ministerialist will not be ungrateful to you for reminding him of his duty; the West Indian will be robbed of every excuse at the next election. Write, then: and, what is more, request an answer; and, if that answer be not satisfactory, WRITE AGAIN: leave your member no ground of excuse, and yourself none for self-reproach. We have yet another word of advice; and we have left it for the last, because, practically, it is the most important. Wave all minor considerations; forget all petty and non-essential differences. The unqualified freedom of the slave is the grand point; let it be conceded that he has the full and immediate enjoyment of right of property-freedom of person-equality of justice and, above all, unrestrained access to gospel truth; and we have gained the day. to appreciate the importance of this sugges- this manner betray that their faculties have been occupied and interested by the special views unfolded in the evangelic dispensation. Of their coming from the contemplation of these views you discover no notices analogous, for instance, to those which appear in the Can we add any thing to give emphasis to writing or discourse of a man who has been these remarks? We feel that this is our con- passing some time amidst the wonders of cluding effort. We have fought the battle Rome or Egypt, and who shows you, by alwith all the energy, and all the strength, and most unconscious allusions and images occurall the perseverance, that we could give to the ring in his language even on other subjects, task; and those who recognize our pen will how profoundly he has been interested in know that this is true. We say it not in beholding triumphal arches, temples, pyraboasting, but that we may give to our en- mids, and cemeteries. Their minds are not treaties the force of a last appeal. During naturalized, if I may so speak, to the images the whole of our arduous contest, we have and scenery of the kingdom of Christ, or to never felt any crisis to be so important as this. that kind of light which the gospel throws on Let our readers reflect for a moment upon our all objects. They are somewhat like the inpresent situation. Government are pledged habitants of those towns within the vast saltto the measure, and that it shall be "safe and mines of Poland, who, seeing every object in satisfactory." The words are jesuitical: they their region by the light of lamps and candles admit of any, of every, construction. Within only, have in their conversation hardly any a fortnight the ministers must decide, or the expressions describing things in such aspects country must decide for them, as we under- as never appear but under the lights of heaven. stood to be their wish-what is "safe and You might observe, the next time that you satisfactory." If any half measure is adopted, open one of these works, how far you may the country is for the time appeased-popular read without meeting with an idea of such a feeling is momentarily silenced. The half-nature, or so expressed, as could not have liberated slave may wear away the rest of been unless Jesus Christ had come into the existence under legalized oppression, without world, though the subject in hand may be remedy, and without hope; cart-whips may be one of those which he came in a special manabolished, and replaced by thumb-screws; ner to illuminate, and to enforce on the mind dungeons may be substituted for chains, and by new and most cogent arguments. And church discipline be made the veil of intoler- where so little of the light and rectifying inance. Yet tyranny, in this modified form, fluence of these communications has been admust pass unnoticed; for complaint will be mitted into the habits of thought, there will stigmatised as the clamour of discontent! be very few cordially reverential and animated Such will be the inevitable result of all half references to the great Instructor himself. measures: but half measures will most as- These will, perhaps, occur not oftener than a suredly be adopted, if the country remain traveller, in some parts of Africa, or Arabia, silent or indifferent. comes to a spot of green vegetation in the desert. You might have read a considerable number of volumes without becoming clearly apprised of the existence of the dispensation, or that such a sublime Minister of it had ever appeared among men. And you might have diligently read, for several years, and through several hundred volumes, without discovering its nature or importance, or that the writers, when alluding to it, acknowledged any peculiar and essential importance as belonging to it. You would only have conjectured it to be a scheme of opinions and discipline which had appeared in its day, as many others had appeared, and left us, as the others have left us, to follow our speculations very much in our own way, taking from those schemes, indif We entreat, we implore the religious public to rouse themselves to determined action. On them, more than on others, rests the awful responsibility. As they will answer for it at that great day when we must all render our account, we charge it upon them now to do their duty. The tears, the blood, the soul, of the miserable slave, will at that day be demanded at their hands. Let them come forward with all that influence which their example gives to society, and they may safely leave the event to that Power who never, from the creation of the world, turned a deaf ear to the voice of the oppressed. If the delegates, on their arrival in town, bring with them the seeds of discord, they will embarrass instead of supporting the views of government: their prolocutor will be unable MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE ferently, any notions that we may approve, to declare their sentiments; the minister will be perplexed to discover them; and thus they will thwart the very object which they come to promote. This must be most carefully avoided: perfect concord is of all things the most desirable; and the means of securing it have been happily afforded them. The Anti-slavery committees could not, without the appearance of dictation, which they have always carefully avoided, suggest any particular line of conduct but it can imply no disrespect to the provincial associations, to recommend them carefully to follow the example which has been given them by the metropolitan meeting. The resolutions of that meeting have been forwarded to every quarter. WE EARNESTLY ADVISE THEIR ADOPTION, IPSISSIMIS VERBIS; the delegates will thus be armed with uniform instructions by all the country, and no difficulty can possibly arise in conveying the single sentiment to the mind of government. It may be difficult for those at a distance fully OF THE CLASSICS. IN casting a recollective glance over our elegant literature, as far as I am acquainted with it, I cannot help thinking that much the greater part falls under condemnation. After a comparatively small number of names and books are excepted, what are called the British Classics, with the addition of very many works of great literary merit that have not quite attained that rank, present an immense vacancy of Christianized sentiment. The authors do not give signs of having ever deeply studied Christianity, or of having been aware that any such thing is a duty. Whatever has strongly occupied a man's attention, affected his feelings, and filled his mind with ideas, will even unintentionally show itself in the train and cast of his discourse; these writers do not in and facts or fictions that we may admire. You would have supposed that these writers had heard of one Jesus Christ, as they had heard of one Confucius, as a teacher whose instructions are admitted to contain many excellent things, and to whose system a liberal mind will occasionally advert, well pleased to see China, Greece, and Judea, as well as England, producing their philosophers, of various degrees and modes of illumination, for the honour of their respective countries and periods, and for the concurrent promotion of human intelligence. All the information which they would have supplied to your understanding, and all the conjectures to which they might have excited your curiosity, would have Except, perhaps, in respect to humanity and benevolence, on which subject his instructions have improved the sentiments of infidels themselves, in spite of the rejection of their divine authority. left you, if not instructed from other sources, Now, if the fine spirits, who have thus preto meet the real religion itself, when at length served an ample, rich, diversified, crowded disclosed to you, as a thing of which you had province of our literature clear of evangelical but slight recognition, further than its name, intrusion, are really the chief instructors of as a wonderful novelty. How little you would persons of taste, and form, from early life, have expected, from their literary and ethical their habits of feeling and thought, the natuglimpses, to find the case to be, that the sys-ral result must be a state of mind very uncontem so insignificantly and carelessly acknow- genial with the gospel. Views habitually preledged in the course of their fine sentiments, sented to the mind in its most susceptible is the actual and sole economy by the provi- periods, and during the prolonged course of its sions of which their happiness can be secured, improvements, in the varied forms and lights by the laws of which they will be judged, of sublimity and beauty, with every fascinawhich has declared the relations of man with tion of the taste, ingenuity, and eloquence, his Creator, and specified the exclusive ground which it has admired still more each year, as of acceptance; which is, therefore, of infinite its faculties have expanded, will have become consequence to you, and to them, and to all the settled order of its ideas. And it will feel their readers, as fixing the entire theory of the same complacency in this intellectual orthe condition and destinies of man, on the der that we feel, as inhabitants of the material final principles to which all theories and sen- world, in the great arrangement of nature, in timents are solemnly required to be "brought the green-blooming earth, and the splendid hemisphere of heaven. into obedience." THE above cut represents a scene which occurred during the benevolent attempts of Colonel Walker to abolish the horrid practice of infanticide in India, and is interesting as marking the first successes which have crowned their exertions. In a communication to the Governor of Bombay, in 1809, Colonel Walker says:During the recent expedition into Kattywar, I was not unmindful of inquiring into the success of the humane arrangements introduced under the influence of the Honourable Company's Government, for the abolishment of female infanticide among the Jahreja Rajpoots; and I am happy to report that this reform has completely taken root. I have the honour to enclose a list of those Jahrejas who have preserved their female children, which fell under my own direct observance. On my halt at Dherole, I had all those in the immediate neighbourhood who were capable of attending brought to my tent, and many were too young to be brought from any distance. It was extremely gratifying on this occasion to observe the triumph of nature, feeling, and parental affection, over prejudice and a horrid superstition; and that those who, but a short period before, would, as many of them had done, 6 To such of our readers as may not be aware of the nature and former extent of this practice, the following statements will be interesting.-Infanticide appears principally to exist at the present period in India and China. Of its prevalence in China a missionary writes: "A man came to me for medicine, with whom I conversed awhile privately. I asked him how long he had left China, and whether he ever thought upon his family there. He said he frequently thought on them, and intended next year to return and visit them, for he had three sons, and one daughter who was married. I had another daughter,' he added, but I did not bring her up. Not bring her up,' said I; what, then, did you do with her?' I smothered her,' said he. " "This year also, I heard by letter that another daughter was born; I sent word to have that smothered also, but the mother has preserved her alive. I was shocked at this speech, and still more at the indifference with which he uttered it. What!' said I, 'murder your own children! Do you not shudder at such an act?' 'Oh, no!' said he, it is a very common thing in China; we put the female children out of the way to save the trouble of bringing them up some people have smothered five or six daughters! My horror was increased by this continued indifference, and the lightness with which such crimes are perpetrated in China with impunity." "The people in some parts of India," says the late Rev. W. Ward, "particularly the inhabitants of Orissa, and of the eastern parts of Bengal, frequently offer their children to the goddess Gunga. The following reason is assigned for this practice:-When a woman has been long married, and has no children, it is common for the man, or his wife, or both of them, to make a vow to the goddess Gunga, that, if she will bestow the blessing of children upon them, they will devote the first-born to her. If after this vow they have children, the eldest is nourished till a proper age, which may be three, four, or more years, according to circumstances, when, on a particular day appointed for bathing in any holy part of the river, they take the child with them, and offer it to this goddess: the child is encouraged to go farther and farther into the water till it is carried away by the stream, or is pushed off by its inhuman parents. Sometimes a stranger seizes the child, and brings it up; but it is abandoned by its parents from the moment it floats in the water, and, if no one be found more humane than they, it infallibly perishes!" si yo auonsorent ANECDOTE OF THE SPANISH INQUISITION, On the death of Charles II. in 1700, and the accession of his uncle, Philip V., a kind of civil war broke out in Spain, in consequence of the pretensions of the Archduke Charles of Austria. Among the troops employed by Philip were about fourteen thousand auxiliaries provided by the King of France. This force was sent into Arragon, the inhabitants of which had declared for Charles. The people were soon overawed; and, in their victorious career, the French came into possession of the city of Saragossa, in which there was a number of convents, and in particular one belonging to the Dominicans. M. de Legal, the French commander, found it necessary to levy a pretty heavy contribution on the inhabitants, not excepting the convents. The Dominicans, all the friars of which were familiars of the inquisition, excused themselves in a civil manner, saying they had no money, and that if M. Legal insisted upon the demand of their part of the contribution, they could not pay him in any other way than by sending him the silver images of the saints. These crafty friars imagined that the French commander would not presume to insist upon such a sacrifice, or, if he did, that they would, by raising the cry of heresy against him, expose him to the vengeance of a blind and superstitious people. But M. Legal was indifferent alike to the destruction of the images, and to the rage both of the priests and people. He, therefore, informed the Dominicans that the silver saints would answer his purpose equally the same as money. Perceiving the dilemma in which they had now placed themselves, the friars endeavoured to raise a mob, by carrying their images in solemn procession, dressed in black, and accompanied by lighted candles. Aware of their intention, M. Legal ordered out four companies of soldiers, well armed, to receive the procession, so that the design of raising the people completely failed. M. Legal immediately sent the images to the mint, which threw the friars into the greatest consternation, and they lost no time in making application to the inquisition, to interpose its supreme power in order to save their idols from the furnace. With this request the inquisitors speedily complied, by framing an instrument, excommunicating M. Legal as having been guilty of sacrilege. This paper was put into the hands of the secretary of the holy office, who was ordered to go and read it to the French commander. Instead of expressing either displeasure or surprise, M. Legal took the paper from the secretary after hearing it read, and mildly said, "Pray tell your masters, the inquisitors, that I will answer them to-morrow morning.” The Frenchman was as good as his word. Having caused his secretary to draw out a copy of the excommunication, with the simple alteration of inserting "the holy inquisitors," instead of his own name, he ordered him, on the following morning, to repair with it, accompanied by four regiments of soldiers, to the inquisition, and, having read it to the inquisitors themselves, if they made the least noise to turn them to the door, open all the prisons, and quarter two regiments in the sacred edifice. These orders were implicitly obeyed. Amazed and confounded to hear themselves excommunicated by a man who had no authority for it, the inquisitors began to cry out against Legal as a heretic, and as having publicly insulted the Catholic faith. "Holy inquisitors," replied the secretary, "the king wants this house to quarter his troops in; so walk out immediately." Having no alternative, the holy fathers were compelled to obey. The doors of all the prisons were thrown open, and four hundred prisoners set at liberty. Among these were sixty young women, who were found to be the private property of the three inquisitors, whom they had unjustly taken from their fathers' homes in the city and neighbourhood. The next day the inquisitors complained to Philip; but that monarch calmly replied, "I am very sorry, but I cannot help it; my crown is in danger, and my grandfather defends it, and this is done by his troops. If it had been done by my troops I should have applied a speedy remedy; but you must have patience till things take another turn." They were accordingly obliged to exercise that patience for a period of eight months. The archbishop, however, deeply concerned for the honour of the holy tribunal, requested M. Legal to send the women to his palace, promising that he would take care of them, and threatening with excommunication all who should dare to defame, by groundless reports, the tribunal of the inquisition. M. Legal professed his willingness to comply with this request; but, as to the young women, he informed his grace that they had already been taken away by the French officers. This affair, which is related by Gavin, and other writers, shows at once the detestable nature of a tribunal where deeds of darkness were so unblushingly committed. For these young women were chiefly ladies, beautiful and accomplished, who had been forcibly carried away, at the pleasure of the inquisitors, from the most opulent families in the city, to enrich their seraglio, and who, probably, would never have been seen without the walls of the holy office, but for such a deliverance as that which was effected by the French soldiers." Think of me--still so young, Silent, though fond, who cast my life away, Daring to disobey The passionate spirit that around me clung. Farewell, again! and yet, Must it indeed be so--and on this shore Together see the sun of the summer set? For me, my days are gone! No more shall I, in vintage times, prepare Chaplets to bind my hair, As I was wont: oh, 'twas for you alone! But on my bier I'll lay Me down in frozen beauty, pale and wan, Martyr of love to man, And, like a broken flower, gently decay. CROMWELL'S EXPULSION OF THE PARLIAMENT. WE have lately inserted a very spirited and graphic description of the ravages of the plague in London, from the pen of Dr. Lingard. We will now give the same author's account of the expulsion of the parliament by Cromwell, which is strikingly distinguished from all other descriptions of the event by the same traits which characterized the former sketch. At length Cromwell fixed on his plan to procure the dissolution of the parliament, and to vest for a time the sovereign authority in a council of forty persons, with himself at their head. It was his wish to effect this quietly by the votes of the parliament-his resolution to effect it by open force, if such votes were refused. Several meetings were held by the officers and members, at the lodgings of the lord-general, in Whitehall. St. John and a few others gave their assent; the rest, under the guidance of Whitelock and Widrington, declared that the dissolution would be dangerous, and the establishment of the proposed council unwarrantable. In the meantime, the house resumed the consideration of the new representative body; and several qualifications were voted; to all of which the officers raised objections, but chiefly to the "admission of members," a project to strengthen the government by the introduction of the presbyterian interest. "Never," said Cromwell," shall any of that judgment who have deserted the good cause be admitted to power." On the last meeting, held on the 19th of April, all these points were long and warmly debated. Some of the officers declared that the parliament must be dissolved" one way or other;" but the general checked their indiscretion and precipitancy; and the assembly broke up at midnight with an understanding that the leading men on each side should resume the subject in the morning. At an early hour the conference was recommenced, and after a short time interrupted, in consequence of the receipt of a notice by the general, that it was the intention of the house to comply with the desires of the army. This was a mistake: the opposite party had, indeed, resolved to pass a bill of dissolution; not, however, the bill proposed by the officers, but their own bill, containing all the obnoxious provisions, and to pass it that very morning, that it might obtain the force of law before their adversaries could have time to appeal to the power of the sword. While Harrison "most strictly and humbly" conjured them to pause before they took so important a step, Ingoldsby hastened to inform the lord-general at Whitehall. His resolution was immediately formed; and a company of musketeers received orders to accompany him to the house. At this eventful moment, big with the most important consequences both to himself and his country, whatever were the workings of Cromwell's mind, he had the art to conceal them from the eyes of the beholders. Leaving the military in the lobby, he entered the house, and composedly seated himself on one of the outer benches. His dress was a plain suit of black cloth, with grey worsted stockings. For a while he seemed to listen with interest to the debate; but, when the speaker was going to put the question, he whispered to Harrison, "This is the time: I must do it ;" and, rising, put off his hat to address the house. At first his language was decorous, and even lauda |