See HOUSES OF CORRECTION, PRISONERS, &c. &c.

IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT.

The bankrupt who, after a short examination, has proved, before proper judges, that either the fraud or losses of others, or misfortunes unavoidable by human prudence, have stripped him of his substance-upon what barbarous pretence is he thrown into prison, and thus deprived of the only remaining good, the melancholy enjoyment of mere liberty? why is he ranked with criminals, and, in despair, compelled to repent of his honesty ? Let his debt, if you will, not be considered as cancelled, till the payment of the whole; let him be refused the liberty of leaving the country without leave of his creditors, or of carrying into another nation that industry which, under a penalty, he should be obliged to employ for their benefit; but what pretence can justify the depriving an innocent though unfortunate man of his liberty, without the least utility to his creditors? Beccariu.

INQUISITION, the,

Is a tribunal in several Roman Catholic countries, erected by the popes for the examination and punishment of heretics.

This court was founded in the twelfth century, by Father Dominic and his followers, who were sent by Pope Innocent III with orders to excite the catholic princes and people to extirpate heretics, to search into their number and quality, and to transmit a faithful account thereof to Rome. Hence they were called inquisitors; and this gave birth to the formidable tribunal of the inquisition, which

was received in all Italy and the dominions of Spain, except the kingdom of Naples and the Low Countries.

This diabolical tribunal takes cognizance of heresy, judaism, mahometanism, sodomy, and polygamy; and the people stand in so much fear of it, that parents deliver up their children, husbands their wives, and masters their servants, to it's officers, without daring in the least to murmur. The prisoners are kept for a long time, tili they themselves turn their own accusers, and declare the cause of their imprisonment; for they are neither told their crime nor confronted with witnesses. As soon as they are imprisoned, their friends go into mourning, and speak of them as dead, not daring to solicit their pardon, lest they should be brought in as accomplices. When there is, no shadow of proof against the pretended criminal, he is discharged, after suffering the most cruel tortures, a tedious and dreadful imprisonment, and the loss of the greatest part of his effects. The sentence against the prisoners is pronounced publicly, and with extraordinary solemnity. In Portugal, they erect a theatre capable of holding three thousand persons; in which they place a rich altar, and raise seats on each side in the form of an amphitheatre. There the prisoners are placed; and over against them is a high chair, whither they are called, one by one, to hear their doom from one of the inquisitors.

These unhappy people know what they are to suffer by the clothes they wear that day. Those who appear in their own clothes are discharged, upon payment of a fine; those who have a sante benito, or strait yellow coat without sleeves, charged with St. Andrew's cross, have their lives, but forfeit all their effects; those who have the resemblance

resemblance of flames, made of red serge, sewed upon their santo benito, without any cross, are pardoned, but threatened to be burnt if ever they relapse; but those who, besides these flames, have on their santo benito their own picture, surrounded with figures of devils, are condemned to expire in the flames. The inquisitors, who are ecclesiastics, do not pronounce the sentence of death, but form and read an act, in which they say, that the criminal, being convicted of such a crime, by his own confession, is with much reluctance delivered to the secular power, to be punished according to his demerits; and this writing they give to the seven judges who attend at the right side of the altar, who immediately pass sentence.

The Act of Faith (Auto da Fe) is a solemn day held by the inquisition for the punishment of heretics and the absolution of the innocent accused. They usually contrive the Auto to fall on some great festival, that the execution may pass with the more awe and regard; at least, it is always on a Sunday.

The Auto da Fe may be called the last act of the inquisitorial tragedy; it is a kind of gaol-delivery, appointed as oft as a competent number of prisoners in the inquisition are convicted of heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted confession, or on the evidence of certain witnesses. The process is thus. In the morning, they are brought into a great hall, where they have certain habits put on, which they are to wear in the procession. The procession is led up by dominican friars; after which come the penitents, some with san-benitoes and some without, according to the nature of their crimes; being all in black coats without sleeves, and bare, footed, with a wax candle in their hands. These

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These are followed by the penitents who have nar rowly escaped being burnt, who, over their black coats, have flames painted, with their points turned downwards, Fuego revolto. Next come the negative and relapsed, who are to be burnt, having fames on their habits pointing upwards. After these, come such as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of Rome, who, besides flames pointing upwards, have their picture painted on their breasts, with gods, serpents, and devils, all open-mouthed, about it. Each prisoner is attended with a familiar of the inquisition; and those to be burnt have also a jesuit on each hand, who are continually preaching to them to abjure. After the prisoners, come a troop of familiars on horseback; and after them, the inquisitors, and other officers of the court, on mules; last of all, the inquisitor general on a white horse, led by two men with black hats and green hatbands. A scaffold is erected in the Terriero de Paio, big enough for two or three thousand people, at one end of which are the prisoners, at the other the inquisitors. After a sermon, made up of encomiums of the inquisition and invectives against heretics, a priest ascends a desk near the middle of the scaffold, and, having taken the abjuration of the penitents, recites the final sentence of those who are to be put to death; and delivers them to the secular arm, earnestly beseeching at the same time the secular power not to touch their blood or put their lives in danger. The prisoners, being thus in the hands of the civil magistrate, are presently loaded with chains, and carried first to the secular gaol, and from thence, in an hour or two, brought before the civil judge; who, after asking in what religion they intend to die, pronounces sentence, on such as declare they die in the commu

hion of the church of Rome, that they shall be first strangled, and then burnt to ashes; on such as die in any other faith, that they be burnt alive. Both are immediately carried to the Ribera, the place of execution; where there are as many stakes set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, with a quantity of dry furze about them. The stakes of the professed, that is, such as persist in their heresy, are about four yards high, having a small board towards the top, for the prisoner to be seated on. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed mount their stakes by a ladder; and the jesuits, after several repeated exhortations to be reconciled to the church, part with them, telling them they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow to receive their souls, and carry them with him into the flames of hell. On this, a great shout is raised; and the cry is, 'Let the dogs' beards be made;' which is done by thrusting flaming furzes, fastened to long poles, against their faces, till their faces are burnt to a coal, which is accompanied with the loudest acclamations of joy. At last, fire is set to the furze at the bottom of the stake, over which the professed are chained so high, that the top of the flame seldom reaches higher than the seat they sit on; so that they rather seem roasted than burnt. There cannot be a more lamentable spectacle; the sufferers continually cry out, while they are able, Misericordia per amor de Dios! Pity for the love of God!' yet it is beheld by all sexes and ages with transports of joy and satisfaction!

INTERROGATIONS.

The laws forbid suggestive interrogations; that