of mass on Sundays and festivals,-the keeping of the preed fasts,―confession once a-year at least,—and the taking he communion in Easter week. The last two are strictly rced. On the approach of Easter, the priest goes round and s a ticket to every parishioner; and if these are not reed through the confessional, a policeman waits on the perand tells him that he has been remiss in his religious es, and must submit himself to the Church's discipline, ch he, the Church's officer, has come to administer to him the Church's penitentiary or dungeons. Innumerable are methods taken by the Romans to evade confession, among ch the more common is to hire some one to confess for n. Others, though they go, confess nothing of moment. ou all here believe in the Pope and purgatory," I remarked a commissario one day. "A few old women do," he red. "Do you not believe in them?" I asked. "I believe one God; but I do not believe in one priest," said he. "I e you will say so next time you go to confession," I obed. "I don't confess," he replied. "How can you avoid fessing?" I enquired. "I pay an old woman," he answered, ho can confess for me every day if she pleases." There is = a greater contrast in the world than that which exists bext the cost of the papal religion and its fruits,-betwixt the mbers and wealth of the clergy, and the knowledge and moity of the people. Under these heads we append below me very instructive notices.*

WHAT THE ROMAN RELIGION COSTS.

The following statistics of the wealth of the clergy in the Roman States taken from the American Crusader :

'The clergy in the Roman States realize from the funds a clear income two millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. From the cattle ey have another income of one hundred thousand dollars; from the

In fine, one word will suffice to describe the religion of Rome; and that word is ATHEISM. There may be exceptions,

canons, three hundred thousand dollars; from the public debt another income of one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from the priests' individual estates, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from the portions assigned by law to nuns, five hundred thousand dollars; from the celebration of masses, two millions one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from taxes on baptisms, forty-five thousand dollars; from the tax on the Sacrament of Confirmation, eighteen thousand dollars; from the celebration of marriages, twenty-five thousand dollars; from the attestations of births, nine thousand dollars; from other attestations, such as births, marriages, deaths, &c. &c., nine thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars; from funerals, six hundred thousand dollars; from the gifts to begging-orders, one million eight hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars; from the gifts for motives of benevolence or festivities, or maintenance of altars and lights, or for celebrating mass for the souls in purgatory, two hundred thousand dollars; from the tithes exacted in several parts of the Roman States according to the ancient rigour, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from preaching and panegyrics, according to the regular taxes, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; from seminaries for entrance taxes and other rights belonging to the students, besides the boarding, fifteen thousand dollars; from the chancery for ecclesiastical provisions, for matrimonial licenses, for sanatives, &c. &c., fifty thousand dollars; from benedictions during Easter, thirty thousand dollars; from offerings to the miraculous images of Virgin Marys and Saints, seventy-five thousand dollars; from triduums for the sick, or for prayers, five hundred thousand dollars; from benedictions to fields, cattle, nuptial-beds, &c. &c., nine thousand dollars.

"All these incomes, which amount to ten million five hundred and ten thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, are realized and enjoyed by the secular and regular clergy, composed in all of sixty thousand individuals, including nuns, without mentioning the incomes allowed them from foreign countries, for the chancery and other cosmopolite congregations.

"It is further to be observed, that in this calculation are not comprised the portions which the Romans call passatore, which the laity pay to the clergy; such as purchase, permutation, resignation, and ordination taxes; patents for confessions, preaching, holy oils, privileged altars, professors' chairs, and the like, which will make up another amount of a million of dollars; nor those other taxes called pretatico, which are paid by the Jews to the parish priest for permission to dwell without the Jews' quarter; nor those for the ringing of bells for dying persons, or those who are in agony; nor those which cripples pay for receiving in Rome the visit of the wooden child of the celestial altar, who must always go out in a carriage, accompanied by friars called minori observanti, Franciscan friars, whose incomes they col

as a general rule the Romans believe in nothing. can it be otherwise? Of the gospel they know absolutely

and govern. The value of charitable edifices (which are not registered, g exempt from all dative) is not comprised either; and the same extion is extended to churches; although all these buildings cost the intants of the State several millions of expense for provisional possession, displays of ceremonies and feasts which are celebrated in them."

WHAT THE ROMAN RELIGION YIELDS.

distinguished English gentleman, who has spent many years as a resit or in travelling in various papal countries in Europe, in a recent speech London has presented some deeply interesting facts concerning vice and ne in Papal and Protestant countries. He possessed himself of the vernment returns of every Romanist Government on the Continent. e have condensed and will state its results.

in England, four persons for a million, on the average, are committed murder per year. In Ireland there are nineteen to the million. In lgium, a Catholic country, there are eighteen murders to the million. France there are thirty-one. Passing into Austria, we find thirty-six. Bavaria, also Catholic, sixty-eight to the million; or, if homicides are uck out, there will be thirty. Going into Italy, where Catholic influce is the strongest of any country on earth, and taking first the kingdom Sardinia, we find twenty murders to the million. In the Venetian and ilanese provinces there is the enormous result of forty-five to the million. Tuscany, forty-two, though that land is claimed as a kind of earthly radise; and in the Papal States not less than one hundred murders for e million of people. There are ninety in Sicily; and in Naples the reIt is more appalling still, where public documents show there are two ndred murders per year to the million of people!

The above facts are all drawn from the civil and criminal records of the spective countries named. Now, taking the whole of these countries gether, we have seventy-five cases of murder for every million of people. Protestant countries,-England, for example,- -we have but four for every illion. Aside from various other demoralizing influences of Popery, the ct now to be named beyond doubt operates with great power in cheapening uman life in Catholic countries. The Protestant criminal believes he is ending his victim, if not a Christian, at once to a miserable eternity; and his awful consideration gives a terrible aspect to the crime of murder. But the Papist only sends his victim to purgatory, whence he can be escued by the masses the priest can be hired to say for his soul; or his wn bloody hand and heart will not hinder him from doing that office imself. We think the above facts in regard to vice and crime in the two great departments of Christendom worthy the most serious pondering of every friend of morality and virtue.

nothing beyond what the priest tells them; even that he, the priest, can change a wafer into God, and, by giving it to people to eat, can save them from hell. This the Romans cannot believe; and therefore their creed is a negation. In the room of indifference, which could not be said to believe or disbelieve, because it never thought on the subject, has now come intense hatred of the Papacy, from the destruction of the nation's hopes under Pio Nono. He who seven years ago heard the streets of Rome echoing to the cry that she alone was La Regina delle Genti,-" sat a queen, and should see no sorrow," -can best form an estimate of the terrible re-action that has followed the tumult of that hour, and can best understand how it has happened, that now the hatred wherewith the Italians hate the Papacy is greater than the love wherewith they loved it. Tradition, by its fooleries,-the mass, by its monstrosity,—the priest, by his immoralities,—and, above all, the Pope, by his perfidy and tyranny,-have made the papal religion to stink in the nostrils of the great mass of the Roman people. You might as well look for religion in pandemonium itself, as in a country groaning under such a complication of vices and miseries. Nay, there is more faith in pandemonium than in Rome; for we are told that the devils believe and tremble; but in Rome, generally speaking, there is faith in nothing. And for this fearful state of matters the Papacy, beyond all question, is responsible.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

MENTAL STATE OF THE PRIESTHOOD IN ITALY.

rst Impressions in Rome erroneous-The unseen Rome-Her devotement to one thing-In what light do the Priests in Italy regard their own System?-Can they possibly believe their Cheats to be Miracles? -A goodly number of the Priests Infidels-Others never thought on the subject-Some have strong Misgivings-Others convinced of the Falsehood of that Church, but lack Courage or Opportunity to leave itMaking Allowance for all these Classes, the Majority of Priests do believe in their System-The Explanation of this-The real Ruler in the Church of Rome, not the Pope, nor the Cardinals, nor the Jesuits, but the System-Human Machinery-The Pontiff-The College of Cardinals -Antonelli-The Bishops and Priests-The Jesuits-Their Activity and Importance at Rome-Their Appearance described.

WHEN an Englishman visits the Eternal City, he is very apt, uring the first days of his sojourn, to underrate the power nd influence of the Papal system. At home he has been sed to see power associated with splendour, and surrounded with the fruits and monuments of intelligence. At Rome

verything on which he sets his eye bears marks of a growing arbarism and decay. Outside the walls of the city is a vast lesert, attesting the utter extinction of industry. Within is in air of stagnation and idleness, which bespeaks the utter absence of all mental activity. A very considerable portion of