if religion be of God, it must, like all else that be beneficent in its influence. He who ordaine diate the earth with his light, and fructify it v would not have given a religion that fetters th and barbarises the species. And yet, if Rom He has done so; for the champions of that Cl by the irresistible logic of facts, now tacitly a a decaying civilization is following in the Catholicism in every part of the world. List to the following confession of M. Michel C Journal des Debats :

:

"I cannot shut my eyes to the facts that mi influence of the Catholic spirit,-facts which more especially during the last third of a ce are still in progress,-facts that are fitted to mind that sympathises with the Catholic caus apprehensions. On comparing the respectiv since 1814 by non-Catholic Christian natio vancement of power attained by Catholic nati with astonishment at the disproportion. United States, which are Protestant Power Greek Power, have assumed to an incalculab minion of immense regions, destined to be der already teeming with a large population. E conquered all those vast and populous regio the generic name of India. In America sh vilization to the extreme north, in the dese nada. Through the toil of her children, sh session of every point and position of an is land (Australia),-which is as large as a co has been sending forth her fresh shoots over gos with which the great ocean is studded.

moreover, enlarged on all sides the limits of that domain, anciently confined to a narrow stripe along the shores of the Atlantic. They now sit on the two oceans. San Francisco has become the pendant of New York, and promises speedily to rival it in its destinies. They have proved their superiority over the Catholic nations of the New World, and have subjected them to a dictatorship which admits of no farther dispute. To the authority of these two Powers,-England and the United States,—after an attempt made by the former on China, the two most renowned empires of the East,-empires which represent nearly the numerical half of the human race,— China and Japan,-seem to be on the point of yielding. Russia, again, appears to be assuming every day a position of growing importance in Europe. During all this time, what way has been made by the Catholic nations? The foremost of them all, the most compact, the most glorious,-France,which seemed fifty years ago to have mounted the throne of civilization, has seen, through a course of strange disasters, her sceptre shivered and her power dissolved. Once and again has she risen to her feet, with noble courage and indomitable energy; but every time, as all expected to see her take a rapid flight upward, fate has sent her, as a curse from God, a revolution to paralyze her efforts, and make her miserably fall back. Unquestionably, since 1789 the balance of power between Catholic civilization and non-Catholic civilization has been reversed."

CHAPTER XVI.

PADUA.

Doves of Venice-Re-cross the Lagunes-Padua-Wr rior-Misery of its Inhabitants-Splendour of i Shrine of St Antony-His Sermon to a Congregation taurant in Padua-Reach the Po at Daybreak-Er mony-Find the Apostles again become Fishermen -Arrest-Liberty.

CONTENTING myself with a hasty perusal of on painting which the academy forms, and wh so many ages and so many various masters to turned again to the square of St Mark. Dov were assembled on the spot, hovering on wing of the houses, or covering the pavement below, seemed, of being trodden upon by the passeng at my companion what this meant. He told old gentleman by last will and testament had certain sum to be expended in feeding these duly as the great clock in the Gothic tower certain quantity of corn was every day thrown in the piazza. Every dove in the "Republic" minute. There doves have come to acquire a so

racter, and it would be about as hazardous to kill a dove in Venice, as of old a cat in Egypt. We wish some one would do as much for the beggars, which are yet more numerous, and who know no more, when they get up in the morning, where they are to be fed, than do the fowls of heaven. Trade there is none; 66 to dig," they have no land, and, even if they had, they are too indolent; they want, too, the dove's wing to fly away to some happier country. Their seas have shut them in; their marble city is but a splendid prison. The story of Venice is that of Tyre over again,-her wealth, her glory, her luxuriousness, and now her doom. But we must leave her. Bidding adieu, on the stairs of St Mark, to the partner of the day's explorations, with a regret which those only can understand who have had the good fortune to meet an intelligent and estimable companion in a foreign land, I leaped into a gondola, and glided away, leaving Venice sitting in silent melancholy beauty amid her tideless seas.

Traversing again the long bridge over the Lagunes, and the flat country beyond, covered with memorials of decay in the shape of dilapidated villas, and crossing the full-volumed Brenta, rolling on within its lofty embankments, I sighted the fine Tyrolean Alps on the right, and, after a run of twenty-four miles, the gray towers of Padua, at about a mile's distance from the railway, on the left.

Poor Padua ! Who could enter it without weeping almost. Of all the wretched and ruinous places I ever saw, this is the most wretched and ruinous, hopelessly, incurably ruinous. Padua does, indeed, look imposing at a little distance. Its fine dome, its numerous towers, the large vine-stocks which are rooted in its soil, the air of vast fertility which is spread over the landscape, and the halo of former glory which, cloudlike, rests above it, consort well with one's preconceived ideas

of this once illustrious seat of learning, whic of our own land were wont to frequent; b the dismal sight!-ruins, filth, ignorance, hand. The streets are narrow and gloomy, with heavy and dark arcades; the houses, and bear marks of former opulence, are stan stances untenanted. Not a few stately ma converted into stables, or carriers' sheds, or a walls, which the dogs of the city, or other their den. The inhabitants, pale, emaciated huge cloaks, wander through the streets lik Padua a heap of ruins, without a single hu near its site, its desolation would be less aff bearable melancholy sat down upon me the mo and the recollection oppresses me at the distan

In the midst of all this ruin and poverty, t not how many duomos and churches, with towers, as if they meant to mock the misery look. They are the repositories of vast weal of silver lamps, votive offerings, paintings, an appropriate a penny of that treasure in behalf beings who swarm unfed and untaught in their would bring down upon Padua the terrible in god St Antony. He is there known as saint), and has a gorgeous temple erected crowned with not less than eight cupolas, day and night by golden lamps and silver can burn continually before his shrine. "There a in the monument that stands over him," "where good Catholics rub their beads, and which they say have in them a natural perfur like apoplectic balsam; and, what would ma