the face of the country; and, as far as the eye could reach, plain and hill-side lay under a covering of marl, which was grooved and furrowed by torrents. "Is this Italy?" I asked myself in astonishment. As the day rose, both weather and scenery improved. Towards mid-day, the green beauteous mount on which Sienna, with its white buildings and its cathedral towers, is situated, rose in the far distance; and, after many hours' winding and climbing, we entered its walls. At Sienna we exchanged the diligence for the railway, the course of which lay through a series of ravines and valleys of the most magnificent description, and thoroughly Tuscan in their character. We had torrents below, crags crowned with castles above, vines, chestnuts, and noble oaks clothing the steep, and purple shadows, such as Italy only can show, enrobing all. I reached Pisa late in the evening; and there a substantial supper, followed by yet more grateful sleep, made amends for the four previous days' fasting, sleeplessness, and endurance. I passed the Sabbath at Leghorn; and, starting again on Monday via Marseilles, and prosecuting my journey day and night without intermission, save for an hour at a time, came on Saturday evening to the capital of happy England, where I rested on the morrow, according to the commandment." 66 CHAPTER XXX. HE ARGUMENT FROM THE WHOLE, OR, ROME HER OWN WITNESS. HEN one goes to Rome, it is not unreasonable that he should ere look for some proofs of the vaunted excellence of the oman faith. Rome is the seat of Christ's Vicar, and the ntre of Christianity, as Romanists maintain; and there surely, anywhere, may he expect to find those personal and social rtues which have ever flourished in the wake of Christianity. › what region has she gone where barbarism and vice have -t disappeared? and in what age has she flourished in which e has not moulded the hearts of men and the institutions of ciety into conformity with the purity of her own precepts, and e benevolence of her own spirit? She has been no teacher villany and cruelty,-no patron of lust,-no champion of pression. She has known only “whatsoever things are nest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, atsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good rert." Her great Founder demanded that she should be tried her fruits; and why should Rome be unwilling to submit this test? If the Pope be Christ's Vicar, his deeds cannot evil. If Romanism be Christianity, or rather, if it alone be Christianity, as its champions maintain, Rome must be the most Christian city on the earth, and the Romans examples to the whole human race, of industry, of sobriety, of the love of truth, and, in short, of whatever tends to dignify and exalt human character. On the assumption that the Christianity of the Seven Hills is the Christianity of the New Testament, Rome ought to be the seat of just laws, of inflexibly upright and impartial tribunals, and of wise, paternal, and incorruptible rulers. Is it so? Is Christ's Vicar a model to all governors? and is the region over which he bears sway renowned throughout the earth as the most virtuous, the most happy, and the most prosperous region in it? Alas! the very opposite of all this is the fact. There is not on the face of the earth a region more barren of everything Christian, and of everything that ought to spring from Christianity, than is the region of the Seven Hills. And not only do we there find the absence of all that reminds us of Christianity, or that could indicate her presence; but we find there the presence, on a most gigantic scale, and in most intense activity, of all the elements and forms of evil. When the infidel would select the very strongest proofs that Christianity cannot possibly be Divine, and that its influence on individual and national character is most disastrous, he goes to the banks of the Tiber. The weapons which Voltaire and his compeers wielded with such terrible effect in the end of last century were borrowed from Rome. Now, why is this? Either Christianity is to a most extraordinary degree destructive of all the temporal interests of man, or Romanism is not Christianity. The first part of the alternative cannot in reason be maintained. Christianity, like man, was made in the image of Him who created her; and, like her great Maker, is essentially and supremely benevolent. She is as much the fountain of good as the sun is the fountain of light; and the good that is in the nor institutions which exist around her comes from her, just the mild effulgence of the planets radiates from the great orb day. She cherishes man in all the extent of his diversified culties, and throughout the vast range of his interests, temral and eternal. But Romanism is as universal in her evil Christianity is in her good. She is as omnipotent to overrow as Christianity is to build up. Man, in his intellectual wers and his moral affections,-in his social relations and his tional interests,-she converts into a wreck; and where hristianity creates an angel, Romanism produces a fiend. Acrdingly, the region where Romanism has fixed its seat is a ighty and appalling ruin. Like some Indian divinity seated nidst the blood, and skulls, and mangled limbs of its victims, omanism is grimly seated amidst the mangled remains of lierty, and civilization, and humanity. Her throne is a graveyard, -a graveyard that covers, not the mortal bodies of men, but he fruits and acquisitions, alas! of man's immortal genius. hither have gone down the labours, the achievements, the opes, of innumerable ages; and in this gulph they have all erished. Italy, glorious once with the light of intelligence and of liberty on her brow, and crowned with the laurel of conquest, is now naked and manacled. Who converted Italy _nto a barbarian and a slave? The Papacy. The growth of chat foul superstition and the decay of the country have gone on by equal stages. In the territory blessed with the pontifical government there is-as the previous chapters showno trade, no industry, no justice, no patriotism; there is neither personal worth nor public virtue; there is nothing but corruption and ruin. In fine, the Papal States are a physical, social, political, and moral wreck; and from whatever quarter that religion has come which has created this wreck, it is undeniable that it has not come from the New Testament. If it be true Christianity, as its champions maintain, Rome must be the most Christian city on the earth, and the Romans examples to the whole human race, of industry, of sobriety, of the love of truth, and, in short, of whatever tends to dignify and exalt human character. On the assumption that the Christianity of the Seven Hills is the Christianity of the New Testament, Rome ought to be the seat of just laws, of inflexibly upright and impartial tribunals, and of wise, paternal, and incorruptible rulers. Is it so ? Is Christ's Vicar a model to all governors? and is the region over which he bears sway renowned throughout the earth as the most virtuous, the most happy, and the most prosperous region in it? Alas! the very opposite of all this is the fact. There is not on the face of the earth a region more barren of everything Christian, and of everything that ought to spring from Christianity, than is the region of the Seven Hills. And not only do we there find the absence of all that reminds us of Christianity, or that could indicate her presence; but we find there the presence, on a most gigantic scale, and in most intense activity, of all the elements and forms of evil. When the infidel would select the very strongest proofs that Christianity cannot possibly be Divine, and that its influence on individual and national character is most disastrous, he goes to the banks of the Tiber. The weapons which Voltaire and his compeers wielded with such terrible effect in the end of last century were borrowed from Rome. Now, why is this? Either Christianity is to a most extraordinary degree destructive of all the temporal interests of man, or Romanism is not Christianity. The first part of the alternative cannot in reason be maintained. Christianity, like man, was made in the image of Him who created her; and, like her great Maker, is essentially and supremely benevolent. She is as much the fountain of good as the sun is the fountain of light; and the good that is in the |