brazen Image of St. Peter, which was cast out of a broken Statue of Jupiter Capitolinus. It sits upon a marble pedestal-beneath a scarlet canopy-on the right hand of the altar-a lamp burns constantly before it-the accom. paniment of the keys is not forgottenit puts out its great toe, with a magisterial air, and Men, Women, and Children, kiss it as they pass-bowing, and scraping, adoration!

A HUNDRED Clerks perform the offices of the Choir, in the various grades of Priesthood-from the Candle-Snuffer to the Canon, and the Cardinal Arch-Priest, all of whom are bound to live in a state

of

of celibacy, and have apartments in the

Vestry.

They assemble, twice a day, in full dress, for matins and vespers, when the pomp of instrumental music is accompanied by half a dozen Eunuchs, whose enchanting voices are sadly contrasted by their pallid faces, and distorted limbs.

It is a singular fact, in the history of Superstition, that the Chapter of St. Peter's-in white and silver-glittering with illumination, and fuming with incensebeneath domes and canopies, fretted with gold, and beaming with scarlet, attracts but few Spectators, even among the church-going Populace of Rome.-While

Crowds

Crowds of Devotees collect every evening to chant the Litany, before a por trait of the Weeping Virgin,* in a little Chapel of the Piazza Colonna.

But the privileged Performers of the Papal Cathedral do not even affect the semblances of zeal. Noviciates are often seen to smile at the awkwardness of initiation, and the Canons themselves sometimes slumber in their stalls.

The splendid mosaic of the Chapel, glistens with the tapers of the Altar, which is served with vessels of silver, and covered with cloth of gold. On either hand is a gallery for the Musi

cians,

* Mater Dolorissima.

cians, in which I have often heard thirty Performers, at a time, arrayed in linen vestments, chanting alternately the responses of the Choral service, in which the Canons and the Clerks occasionally join, from three rows of ascending desks, parallel with the galleries; before which benches are placed transversely for Spectators: but so few attend at St. Peter's that a philosophical Observer may speculate, at his ease, upon the ceremonies of the Choir, where no mark of co-operation, or obeisance, is expected from Strangers.

If this were not the case, the doubts of a Protestant, or the scruples of a Dissenter, might be lulled to rest, by the inscription over the organ loft,

selected

selected from the pious rhapsodies, of the sweet Singer of Israel:

• PSALLITE DEO NOSTRO, *

But when the song of praise ascends, in measured notes, from the graduated Band of voices and instruments, Scepticism, itself, might listen, with rising fervor, to repeated Halleluiahs; and bow to the valedictory ascription of,

Gloria Patri! et Filio! et Spirito Sancto!

St. Peter's, and its appendages, are supposed to have cost twenty Millions sterling—a Sum which (however prodi

gal)

• Sing unto our God.