with healing on its wings, came and softened down the harsh feelings and petty feuds which divided the little community!

I have already observed that the mission was conducted with the most dramatic effect, and according to the most ingenious principles of art; and the offices of the three or four last evenings were so striking, that I noted them more particularly. On the occasion, then, to which I allude, the first preacher gave a dry exposition of a passage in Scripture, which I may venture to say was so little understood by the people, that the only impression produced upon them was that of the good friar's learning. To him succeeded another of the fraternity, a man of wit and anecdote, another Rowland Hill with a cowl and scapular, who kept the people in a perpetual flow of good-humour. It was amusing to see the change produced on the physiognomies of the multitude in one short quarter of an hour,-the solemn, lifeless, sleepy expression relaxing beneath many an undulating smile, and at last breaking into a general titter. No wonder that he was a general favourite, and universally deemed a nice man. At length came the preacher par excellence-the Boanerges of the monkish train—emaciated by fasting and penance rather than by age, and distinguished by as quick and brilliant an eye as I have ever witnessed. Before giving out his text, he chanted in the minor key a Canzoncino, the words of which you may take or reject as you like, but they are as follows:

These stanzas, chanted by the friar and taken up by the multitude, produced a most lugubrious effect, and readily disposed the minds of the ignobile vulgus for any impression the preacher was disposed to make. The subject of the sermon was "Death," which was of course painted in all the terrors a fertile and excited imagination could suggest, and enforced occasionally by references to Rousseau, Henry VIII., and other equally uncatholic individuals, of whom the greater portion of the audience doubtless knew as little as of the Grand Lama. After exhausting all his oratory, the friar at length produced a human skull and thigh-bones, the real "argumentum ad hominem," and dangling them over and rattling them against the pulpit, exclaimed, Here, lovely girl! see to what you will be reduced!"—an appeal which was responded to by wailing and sobbing from all parts of the church, interrupted only by the preacher's exclaiming, "Alla penitenza-alla penitenza!" Then, as on the preceding occasions, the congregation again fell upon their knees, and with ropes repeated the same castigation amidst the usual fearful cries.

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The next morning was Sunday-in our dear land so replete with calm and holy influences-in how strong a contrast with the scenes I now was destined to witness! There was a restlessness, an attempt at dramatic effect in every thing I saw and heard, utterly at variance with the calm and simple dignity of the religion of Christ; and, apart from curiosity, I was sadly tired of the exhibition. On entering, then, the church, I found all the confessionals full and high mass being celebrated, at the conclusion of which the whole congregation received the communion-a ceremony which offered many scenes of no slight interest. For there might be seen many aged and sick who had been brought from their beds to perform this, perhaps, the last religious office of their lives, and supported by their children in all the flower and beauty of youth. There was more than one group that reminded me of that wonderful painting of Domenichino in the Vatican which represents the administration of the communion to St. Jerome. The pleasing impressions of the morning, however, were completely effaced by the services of the evening. The subject of the discourse was the Last Judgment, which you will have no difficulty in believing was handled in a manner to terrify the poor audience, the preacher using every art his imagination could suggest to affect such minds as those he was addressing; sometimes throwing a veil over the Madonna's face, or turning her round (for she moved on a pivot) and presenting her back to them in token of alienation of feeling; sometimes shaking her garments, which were black, allusive to the train of thought in which he was indulging; and, lastly, producing an iron chain and again scourging himself violently, the harsh clank of which against the pannels of the pulpit, united with the heavy sound of the ropes as they once more fell upon the shoulders of the unfortunate fanatics, and the sobs and shrieks of the females, produced a confusion so distressing, that I could no longer endure it. Oh, what a relief it was to leave the church, and amidst the silence of Nature gaze upwards on the thousand lights which glittered in the heavens, speaking more eloquently than human tongue could speak of the majesty of the Most High! Never had Night appeared so beautiful as this; it was not that it had all the softness and transparence of an Italian night, but in every aspect it assumed it had a moral and religious influence, tranquillizing my feelings, which had been outraged, and setting forth the dignity and power and goodness of God in terms but ill understood by those whom I had so recently listened to. And yet on the following evening I found myself in the same position. What a strange piece of contradiction is man! There was a fascination in these scenes which I could not resist. Whether it was the love of excitement or curiosity that led me there, I cannot say; but there I was as usual; and the subject of the sermon was Hell-fit subject for such a preacher and such an audience! It might have been Omniscience itself that was speaking, so intimate was the knowledge displayed of the secrets of the unknown world; and a terrible experience, it might have been supposed, had taught the friar all the horrors he detailed. It was towards the end of his discourse that he called for a lighted pitch torch, which was in waiting, and, deliberately plucking up his sleeve, held out his wrist immediately over the rising flame. Such was the torment to which every member of the sinner would be subjected hereafter throughout

all eternity! It was remarkable that there was no flinching on the part of the friar, so strongly his nerves seemed to be strung, nor was there any deception; for I went to see him the next day, and his wrist then, as on several later occasions, was bound up, and he evidently suffered. Indeed, his general suffering was great; for I have known him, in the intervals of his exertions, to be confined to his bed and throwing up blood; and though under medical orders not to leave his chamber, yet the morning and evening always found him at his post. If there was fanaticism in the conduct of this man, then, there was at least sincerity. But what a spectacle was that I have just described, and what a scene of confusion ensued! The house of God, that holy retreat from all the cares and turmoils of the world, seemed, as if by magic, to be changed into a Pandemonium, and to bring before the bodily eye the terrors which had been painted in such lively colours. Wailings and sobs and shrieks arose, not from one or two, but from the mass; and, as if the elements themselves sympathized in the scene, a sirocco wind was roaring without, ready to burst in at the first opening, whilst the thunder pealed aloft and the lightning flashed in broad sheets through the windows. It is a literal and meagre description I give you; the most active imagination would fail, I think, to picture any thing more terrible. For myself, I was trembling with excitement, though my reason condemned in the strongest terms all that I witnessed; and of the others who were present, several were the next morning confined to their beds, and more than one carried to the grave.* And now came the concluding scenes of the mission. Five crosses were to be erected in different parts of the neighbourhood, as the first part of the morning's performance. I had seen them in the rough as mere logs of wood, and now I saw them carried before the priests and all the authorities of the country, amidst the chantings of the clergy and the whole population who followed. As each was erected, a friar made a short address, and, blessing the cross, assured the multitude that, kissing it and repeating an Ave-maria and a Pater-noster, they would acquire 2000 years of indulgence; so that in a pleasant morning's walk 10,000 years of indulgence were thus easily to be obtained! How strongly was I reminded of the words of the Prophet-"He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation, chooseth a tree that will not rot ;" and again, "Their land is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made; and the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself." The evening also brought its marvels. You must know that in the south of Italy now, as in the days of Augustus, amulets and charms are carried by almost every one for protection against the mal'occhio, or from some feeling of devotion. The Cross, or a sprig of blessed olive enclosed in a bag, with pictures of the Madonna or a Saint, or the claw of a crab or its counterpart in silver or coral, may be seen dangling from the neck of the peasant or the chain of the noble, as may the horns of a ram or a goat be seen nailed above every shop-door, and those of a Sicilian ox elegantly mounted in the saloon of the prince, somewhat less conspi

In these countries, a person dying at night is buried next morning, and those dying in the morning are buried at eve. The other morning I sent a poor

woman her merendà-in the afternoon she was buried.

cuously. Now, to complete the charm, these must all be blessed-an operation which must be performed en masse or individually. I saw it en masse. Notice having been given from the pulpit that a benediction would this evening be pronounced on such articles, all the people appeared in great force bearing crucifixes, both small and great, trees, bags and horns, pictures in folio and frames, dolls, Madonnas or Saints, præsepes and cradles, and every other article that the invention or superstition of man could suggest, or Soho Bazaar could or could not furnish. I know not to what to compare the scene, whether to the flitting of a village in which each inhabitant carries some little article of furniture, or to the termination of an auction, when (in obedience to the orders of the presiding deity to move every thing off the ground) each man grasps his purchase; but this I know, that it was one of the most extraordinary scenes have ever seen-as worthy of my humble comparisons, as it was unworthy of the dignity of the house of God. An address having been made touching the efficacy of blessed amulets, orders were given to each to raise his "charm," and immediately above the head appeared, not the forest of Dunsinane in motion, nor any other forest or thing which had its likeness in the heavens above or the earth beneath, but a mixed mass of articles, such as I have described above. On these the solemn benediction was pronounced; the Holy Spirit fell; and the people remained the happy possessors of sovereign charms against mal'occhio, sickness and the Devil! It was amusing, though melancholy, to see with what eagerness these articles were appropriated or carried to friends who could not attend in consequence of sickness. Yet here there was a difficulty which gave rise to a grave discussion between the juge du pays and one of the dons of the country, as to whether articles held in the hands of one person during the benediction would be efficacious when applied to another. It was a knotty subject, which, if I remember aright, the highest legal authority in the "paese" decided in the negative. It was during this remarkable spectacle of the benediction that the friar par excellence, the Boanerges of the company, was seen to dart from an obscure corner of the church, and with his robe streaming behind him, rush up the pulpit stairs, exclaiming, "To Paradise-to Paradise!-this night let us go!" people took it up, and with one universal cry repeated, "Yes, yes!— to-night, to-night, let us go! Madonna mia-Santa Maria !"—and then were showered down upon them promises as bright as the maledictions and menaces of preceding evenings had been terrible. I could scarcely recognize the preacher, so altered was his manner and appearance that lugubrious recitative in the minor key was omitted at the commencement of the sermon; the voice and aspect were cheerful and beaming; even the Madonna had changed her robes, wearing, if I remember aright, a light blue silk dress, and presenting now her face, rather than her back, to the multitudes, with a countenance glowing with as much benevolence as wax and glass beads could manifest. And how happy were the people! They touched the Madonna's robes, and kissed their fingers, and uttered their "Mama mia's," until they worked themselves up into a frenzy of joy, which found relief in smiles and tears. And no wonder was it; for after having been threatened for many evenings, by those whom the Church regards as "God upon earth," with death and the Devil, enforced by all the gloomy emblems

The

of mortality and future torment, they were snatched from the horrors of each, and now, through the promises of the preacher and the intercession of the Lady in blue silk, felt as confident of salvation as they had on the previous night trembled in the sure and appalling expectation of damnation.

And thus ended a Roman Catholic Mission in the South of Italy. A stronger exhibition of fanaticism, I may venture to assert, the annals of Dissent cannot furnish; and a remedy for sin so useless, that it lost its effect in twenty-four hours after. That I have given you these sketches as illustrative of the genius of the Roman Catholic religion, you will not of course imagine,-what is often called the genius of a religion depending as much upon the intellectual development of the professors of it, as upon any thing inherent in itself. It is the mind of the individual which gives to religion what is often called its genius, producing all those monstrous diversities which, under the same name, may be discovered even in Europe. Thus the Transcendentalism of Germany, and the implicit faith and fanaticism of Italy, and the mixture of the two in England, are all modifications of Christianity, without arriving at its ideal form. So with the superstition of the Calabrian and the more enlightened faith of the Parisian-these are but the modifications of an ideal Catholicism, depending on the mental culture of a people for the aspect it assumes, and capable of assuming a thousand different aspects, according to a change of circumstances. It is therefore rather as sketches of character that I send you these observations; for he who undertakes to describe the social character of the Italians must needs describe their religious character. Here the man will not bathe, nor the woman swathe her baby, without first signing the cross; nor the mariner put to sea for a long voyage without offering his candle to the Madonna. Every hour has its devotion, and every" tocco" of the church-bell suggests some act of worship. Every shop is holy ground, for there may be found "Santa Maria ;" and every street corner has its Christian emblem; nay, in the midst of the wilds of the Apennines, or the dreary yet grand sweeps of the Campagna, may often be found the Cross, recording a deed of blood, and reminding one of the sufferings of the Redeemer. It is in their religious character, therefore, that we must seek the social character of the Italians; and hence such remarks as I now send you must not be regarded as indicative of an animus against any one form of religion, nor of the vulgar curiosity of a traveller who delights in accumulating minute details, to use them as a weapon of offence.

And now I bid you farewell for some months, unless by chance I send you an occasional letter. I am again about to enter on a vagabond life; but I trust that in my wanderings I may pick up some notices which will have some interest for you in the future. Till, then, we meet again, " Dio ti conserva."* HENRY W

*We cannot allow the last of this interesting series of Letters to go to the press without expressing our very great obligations to their author in having made our work the means of giving to the public so much curious and valuable information, conveyed in a style of great beauty, and set off by a truly catholic spirit. The series of Letters now brought to a close, well deserves to appear in a connected form, and we shall be gratified to learn that their author is encouraged to reprint them. ED.