hood. In Antwerp, and some other cities, the case is different. A little movement from one cause or other is perceptible in these places, and the invariable effect is a diminution in the influence of the clergy. The priest of Antwerp walks along as if he were treading on eggs. His pale-drawn countenance is composed to an expression of mortification and humility; his meek eyes are cast upon the ground, and his coarse felt chapeau slouches over his eyebrows, undisturbed either by salutation or recognition. At Brussels the priestly influence, as far as outward marks of respect are concerned, is extinct. Groups of workmen may be seen laughing and jeering while the host passes in procession, and expressions of dislike and contempt, are apparently the ordinary street salutations of the priest. Here, then, he gives the game of sanctity up altogether. He is the boon companion of those of his sensual, worldly infidel parishioners, that will condescend to his society. The quantity of Cognac that he can swallow, without inebriety, seems to be the measure of his merits.

'Like people like priest :' the state of the population may be easily gathered from what I have said. Nothing but infidelity is at present interfering with the supremacy of Popery in Belgium. The efforts that are making by the various evangelical societies, are undertaken in an excellent spirit by excellent men, with much discretion and with much zeal :-but, as yet, the impression is altogether imperceptible, where I have had the opportunity of judging of it. As to the Anglican chaplaincies, they are for the most part mere slides, along which the many English people that have settled in Belgium are pleasantly gliding down to Popery. Two specimens shall suffice. The chaplain to the court at Brussels has service at nine on the Sunday morning, in SEPTEMBER, 1847.

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order that it may be over before high mass begins at half-past ten in the Popish cathedral hard by. The following sentence, from a sermon I heard the Sunday before last (July 12) at Ostend, will give a tolerable notion of the preaching of the English clergy in Belgium. The subject was the Sacrament, and the reverend gentleman was exhorting his congregation, who, as he told them, were very worldly and dissipated, to attend. He concluded an impassioned address with the following peroration:-O ye careless, thoughtless sinners! Aggravate not the weight of your condemnation by refusing to come to the holy altar, and to stretch forth your hands, that the body of Christ may be put into them!' It will at once be seen that the tendency, and, so far as appears the design of preaching and practice like this, is to make Protestants Papists, not Papists Protestants.

The extent to which the Reformation in this part of the Netherlands has perished, is a phenomenon for which I must confess I was not prepared. I have made all the inquiry in my power in the route over which I have passed, and have not been able to hear of a single native Protestant congregation, or even individuals. Such certainly may exist; but their existence is unknown to the great majority of their fellow-countrymen. In one city containing 21,000 inhabitants, tended by 350 secular priests and the inmates of 17 convents, the dissidents from the church of Rome in the entire city were comprehended, by a very intelligent and wellinformed inhabitant, in the following meagre list,trois ou quatre Juifs, et trois ou quatre Protestants Allemands.'

The instrument by which the Romish priests accomplished the subjugation of the inhabitants of this part of Belgium is the same as in Ireland. The great ma

jority of the population know no other language than the Flemish, and, so far as I can learn, the literature of that language is exclusively in the possession of the Romish church. There is no greater mistake than to suppose that French is a medium of communication with the inhabitants either of East or West Flanders. Three or four sentences is about the average extent to which the acquaintance of the Flemish peasantry with it generally reaches. In all the priests' schools the Flemish is taught exclusively. There is a very extensive collection of Roman Catholic books in Flemish, published at Ghent, Malines, Bruges, and other cities. Hours, chaplets, rosaries, legends of saints, and other productions of that order, are very abundant. Neither is there any lack of translations from the French, of the attempts which are now making at Limoges to rival the English Religious Tract Society. Accounts of wonderful little girls converted from Protestantism by seeing the miraculous cures performed by the relics of some saints, or of the astonishing succession of imaginary missionaries in islands that have no existence, adorned with trumpery wood-cuts, are of frequent occurrence. But I have inquired in vain for anything whatever in the shape either of a refutation of Romish error, or of a statement of Scripture truth, in Flemish. There may be such, but they are certainly not easy to find; for I have taken some pains in inquiring after them. If this deficiency really exists, I trust it will speedily be supplied, because I consider the present moment to be a particularly favourable one for the efforts of the friends of God's truth in Belgium. A spirit of distrust of the Romish priesthood, and of dissatisfaction with Romanism, is spreading itself far and wide throughout the entire population; and there is a

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spirit of inquiry and of willingness to discuss the subject of religion among them, which has much surprised The elections which have just terminated, have given an unanswerable proof of the existence of this spirit. The partie prêtre, which in all former Chambers of Representatives, since the Revolution in 1830, has had an overwhelming majority, scarcely exists in the present one. But upon this deeply important and interesting subject, I must write to you again. Meanwhile, Yours most truly,

W. O.

IRISH FAMINE ORPHANS.

To the Editor of the Christian Lady's Magazine.

Dear Madam,-The attention of your readers has already been called to the hapless condition of those desolate orphans whom the fearful destruction of human life in our sister country during the last six months, has thrown upon the charity of the public; and in your May Number, an affecting appeal was made in their behalf to the happier children of Great Britain. It appears to me, however, that they have a strong claim upon the Christian benevolence, not only of little ones like themselves, but also of all the Lord's people of every age, and I believe, moreover, that their numbers will, ere long, be found to be so much beyond what any one had calculated on, that it will become a most serious question what is to be done with them. Should the nation take it up, there is little doubt that the liberal' spirit of the times would give them over at once to the teaching of their priests, whom we Protestants, if we are true to our name, believe to be the inculcators of a false and idolatrous faith. It may be called bigotry to wish it otherwise, but for my part I am not ashamed to confess that I believe Popery to be the subtlest scheme for the destruction of souls that ever was invented by the arch-enemy of mankind; having all the false principles of heathenism disguised under the fair exterior of Christianity; and I think that the ministers and people of God are as loudly called