ACCOUNT OF THE INQUISITION.

INNOCENT the Third, a Pope as enterprizing as he was successful in his enterprizes, having sent Dominic, with some missionaries, into Languedoc, these men so irritated the Heretics they were sent to convert, that most of them were assassinated at Toulouse, in the year 1200. It was then he called in for aid temporal arms, and published against them a crusade; granting, as is usual with the Popes on similar occasions, all kinds of indulgences and pardons to those who should arm against these Mahometans, as he stiled these unfortunate men. Raimond, Count of Toulouse, was constrained to submit. The inhabitants were passed on the edge of the sword, without distinction of age or sex. It was then he established that scourge of Europe, THE INQUISITION: for having considered that, though all might be compelled to submit by arms, there might remain numbers who would profess particular dogmas, he ,established this sanguinary tribunal solely to inspect into all families, and examine all persons who they imagined were unfriendly to the interests of Rome Dominic did so much by his cares and continued pursecutions, that he firmly established it at Toulouse.

It was as late as the year 1484 that it became known in Spain, It was also to a Dominican, John de Torquemada, that the court of Rome owed this obligation. As he was the confessor of Queen Isabella, he had extorted from her a promise that, if ever she ascended the throne, she would use every means to extirpate heresy and heretics. Ferdinand > had conquered Grenada, and had chaced from the Spanish realms multitudes of unfortunate Moor. A few had remained; who, with the Jews, he obliged to become Christians: they at least assumed the name; but it was well known that both these nations naturally respected their own prejudices, rather than those of the Christians.

Torquemada pretended that this dissimulation would greatly hurt the interests of the Holy Religion. The queen listened with respectful diffidence to her confessor; and, at length, gained over the king to consent to the establishment of this barbarous tribunal. Torquemada, indefatigable in his zeal for the holy seat, in the space of fourteen years that he exercised the office of chief inquisitor, persecuted near eighty thousand persons, of whom six thousand were condemned to the fames! Voltaire attributes the taciturnity of the Spaniards to the universal horror such proceedings spread. He says A general jealousy and suspicion took possession of all-ranks of people: friendship and sociability were all at an end! Brothers were afraid of brothers; fathers of their children.

Let us contemplate a slight sketch of that DESPOTISM which, with the destruction of the Bastile, we hope is extinguished throughout Europe.

During the pontificate of Sixtus the fifth the Inquisition was powerful and rigorous in Rome. Muretus, in writing to De Thou the historian, says" we do not know what becomes of the people here. Almost

every day, when I rise I hear, with an alarming surprize, how such an one has disapeared. We dare not whisper our suspicions: the Inquisition wou d e immediately at our doors "

'Taverner, in his Travels, informs us, that a man of letters, who had fallen into the hauds of the inqu sitors, said, that nothing troubled him so much as the ignorance of the inquisitor and his council when they put any question; so that he inclined to believe that not one of them had really read the Scriptures!

Dr. Grainger affords us a curious piece of information. He assures us, tha: in is remembrance, a horse, that had been taught to tell the spots upon cards, the hour of the day, &c. by significant tokens, was, together with his owner, put into the inquisition for both of them dealing with the devil! The man who teaches a horse, in the present day, will be much better paid than the philosopher who instructs his scholars.

The Inquisition have chosen to punish heretics by fire, in preference to any other punishment; because Bayle assures us) it is to elude the maxim, Ecclesia non novit sanguinem, which they conceive to be observed m these punishments; as burning a man, they say, does not break his bones, or shed his blood!-Religion has her quibbles as well as Law.

Although we imagine that the fires of this terrible tribunal are extinguished, its ashes may yet kind e. It was only as far back as the year 1761, that Gabrie Malagrida, an old man of seventy, was burnt by these evangelical executiouers. His verbal process was printed at Amsterdam, 1762, from the Lisbon copy. And for what was this unhappy Jesuit condemned? Not, as some have imagined, for his having been concerned in a conspiracy against the King of Portugal. No other charge is laid to him in his verbal process, but that of having indulged certain heretical notions, which any other tribunal than that of the Inquisition would have looked upon as the delirious fancies of an old fanatic. Will posteri y believe that, in the eighteenth century, an aged visionary was led to the stake, for having said, amongst other extravagancies, that- The holy Virgin having commanded him to write the life of Anti-Christ, told him that he, Malagrida, was a second John, but more clear than John the Evangelist: that there were to be three Anti-Christs, and that the last should be born at Milan, o a Monk and a Nun, in the year 1920; and that he would marry Proserpe, one of the infernal furies."

It was for such ravings as these the unhappy o'd man was burnt; whi. I repeat once more, was not forty years ago!

POETRY.

TO A FRIEND ON HIS MARRIAGE.

"A prudent wife is from the Lord."

SOLOMON.

BLEST be the day which crowns that mutual love,
Unerring Wisdom first ordain'd above,

What native instinct, or exterior charms,
First rais'd the tumult of love's soft alarms?

What sweet inducement taught the breast to move,
The soul to languish, and the heart to love?
'Twas winning piety and sense conjoin'd,
That spoke the innate beauties of the mind:
Cementing Friendship lent her gentle aid,
And crown'd the happy choice that prudence made :
Spontaneous efforts fann'd the mutual fire,
And grace inherent sanctify'd desire.

May heav'n propitious bless you from above,
And crown with many a pledge your mutual love,
The father's virtues in the boys be found,
The mother's graces in the girls abound:
Maria's charms include whate'er we know,
Can heighten joy, or soften care below;

Her sweet converse shall soothe thy future hours,
And strew the rugged path of life with flow'rs;
Thy constant bliss shall all her care employ,
And her bright viriue teach thee how to die!
Her gentle hand support thy drooping head,
When all the joys of human life are fled.

The great first Cause, the Sire of heav'n and earth, Who gave all animated being birth,

Saw Adam solitary-saw him grieve,
And want the sweet society of Eve;

Her new-made form redoubled all his joys,
And heightened ev'ry charm of Paradise.
The world, without a soft congenial mind,
Is but a tiresome medley of mankind;

And heaven, to make the draught of life go down,
Has, in the cup of frail existence, thrown
Those fair companions of our leisure hours.
Whose tender minds refine our mental pow'rs;
Whate'er we wish below to charm the mind,
We in a virtuous woman richly find.

The highest point to which our passions move,
Is to be truly lov'd-and fondly love.
Of all the joys that God to man has giv'n.
A happy marriage most resembles heav'n!
Of all the plagues that language e'er could tell,
It's sad reverse the most resembles hell!

If love and harmony you would preserve,
Avoid, by carefull steps, that fiend Reserve:
Let both alike with conscious pleasure see,
A gen'rous mind from false deception free,
Let both in each a meet companion find,
Indulgent, tender, affable, and kind;
Devoid of art, let each attempt to prove,
A greater warmth of undissembled love :
In joy, in sorrow, or in pain or ease,
Let each alike be studious how to please-
In ev'ry trial take an equal share,
Each bear a part, and strive to lessen care.

Your setting sun, when life's short day is o'er,
Shall rise unclouded, and go down no more;
His genial rays shall ev'ry care destroy,

And stamp eternal all your future joy,

In that blest clime where suns revolve no more,
And saints with seraphim their God adore.

THE CHRISTIAN ADDRESSED BY HIS WATCH.

BELIEVER, when beholding me,

An emblem of thyself here see!

My springs are hid from outward shew,
My ticking pulse conceal'd from view;
And yet my face the hours disclose,
Th' effect appears, tho' hid the cause:
My work admitting no delay,
I constant serve thee night and day.

W. H.

So Christian, let thy inward light
Enjoy'd in Christ, appear in sight!
Let outward works to all proclaim,
Thy faith unfeign'd in Jesu's name!
For surely faith in Jesu's blood,
Will te ch to love the thing that's good!
What God hath join'd let none div de,
No tree that's good its fruit can hide :
But let not works assume Christ's place,
Thou'rt justify'd alone by grace.
Thus Faith and works in Love agree,
This lesson, Christian, learn of me.

EPITAPH

ON SAMUEL LOVE, A. M. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL.

WHEN worthless grandeur decks th' embellished urn,
No poignant grief attends the sable bier,

But when distinguished excellence we mourn,
Deep is the sorrow, genuine the tear.

Stranger! shouldst thou approach this awful shrine,
The merits of the honour'd dead to seek,
The friend, the son, the Christian, the divine,

Let those who knew him, those who lov'd him, speak.

Oh! let them in some pause from anguish say,
What zeal inspir'd, what faith enlarg'd his breast,
How soon th' unfetter'd spirit wing'd its way,
From earth to heav'n, from blessing to be blest!