DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH INQUISITION.

We then proceeded, said Col. L., to explore another room on the left. Here we found the instruments of torture, of every kind which the ingenuity of man or devils could invent. Col L. here described four of these horrid instruments. The first was a machine by which the victim was confined, and then, beginning with the fingers, every joint in the hands, arms, and body, were broken or drawn one after the other, until the victim died. The second was a box, in which the head and neck of the victim were so closely confined by a screw that he could not move in any way. Over the box was a vessel, from which one drop of water a second fell upon the head of the victim-every successive drop falling upon precisely the same place on the head, suspended the circulation in a few moments, and put the sufferer in the most excruciating agony. The third was an infernal machine, laid horizontally, to which the victim was bound; the machime then being placed between two beams, in which were scores of knives so fixed that, by turning the machine with a crank, the flesh of the sufferer was torn from his limbs in small pieces. The fourth surpassed the others in fiendish ingenuity. Its exterior was a beautiful woman, or large doll, richly dressed, with arms extended, ready to embrace its victim. Around her feet a semi-circle was drawn. The victim who passed over this fatal mark, touched a spring, which caused the diabolical engine to open; its arms clasped him, and a thousand knives cut him into as many pieces in the deadly embrace.

Col. L. said that the sight of these engines of infernal cruelty kindled the rage of the soldiers to fury. They declared that every Inquisitor and soldier of the Inquisition should be put to the torture. Their rage was ungovernable. Col. L. did not oppose them; they might have turned their arms against him, if he had attempted to arrest their work. They began with the holy fathers. The first they put to death in the machine for breaking joints. The torture of the Inquisitor put to death by the dropping of water on his head was most excruciating. The poor man cried out in agony to be taken from the fatal machine. The Inquisitor General was brought before the infernal engine called the Virgin.' He begged to be excused. 'No,' said they, 'you have caused others to kiss her, and now you must do it.' They interlocked their bayonets so as to form large forks, and with these pushed him over the deadly circle. The beautiful image instantly prepared for the embrace, clasped him in its arms, and he was cut into innumerable pieces. Col.

DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH INQUISITION.

L. said, that he witnessed the torture of four of them-his heart sickened at the awful scene - and he left the soldiers to wreak their vengeance on the last guilty inmate of that prisonhouse of hell.

In the meantime it was reported through Madrid that the prisons of the Inquisition were broken open, and multitudes hastened to the fatal spot. And oh, what a meeting was there! It was like a resurrection! About a bundred who had been buried for many years were now restored to life. There were fathers who found their long lost daughters; wives were restored to their husbands, sisters to their brothers, and parents to their children; and there were some who could recognise no friend among the multitude. The scene was such as no tongue can describe.

When the multitude had retired, Col. L. caused the library, paintings, furniture, &c., to be removed, and having sent to the city for a waggon load of powder, he deposited a large quantity in the vaults beneath the building, and placed a slow match in connection with it. All had withdrawn to a distance, and in a few moments there was a most joyful sight to thousands. The walls and turrets of the massive structure rose majestically towards the heavens, impelled by the tremendous explosion, and fell back to the earth an immense heap of ruins. The Inquisition was no more!

Philadelphian Christian Observer.

For

The above narrative has been published several years in the United States, where it first appeared, and in England; and we have not heard of any attempt on the part of papists to contradict it, which might have been easily done if false. our part we deliberately believe that the devil never had more willing agents upon earth than popish inquisitors - we say the devil, for unprompted by him human beings could not have invented such infernal cruelties. We can fully believe tha such cruelties were practised. Only the other day a gentleman told us, that when in a continental city, a few years ago, he saw as curiosities, in the large cell of a public building, similar instruments of cruelty; and when the city of Rome was in the hands of the people in 1849, remains of human beings were found in the cells of the Inquisition, in which building Dr. Achilli was confined on the return of the Pope and his Cardinals.

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

Anecdotes and Selections.

BEWARE OF THE WOLF.-Some people will tell us that we have no need to trouble ourselves about the pope and his cardinals, bishops, and priests; they will do us no harm now; the times have changed. Yes, the times have changed, but they have not. In Spain, and Italy, and Austria, where they can do what they please, they shew themselves to be the same enemies of the bible and civil freedom they always have been; and if Cardinal Wiseman and his bishops can get the end of the wedge into old England, they will pay us off for all we have done for the bible and for liberty. This sly Spanish cardinal comes now as meek as a lamb-he only wants to do good to the dirty ragged wretches about Westminster Abbey, he says, the hypocrite! Why he is one of the most ambitious men England has had since Cardinal Wolsey died in our old abbey at Leicester. Well might our Lord say, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." So let us beware! If thieves are about we bolt and bar our doors, and we wont open them except we know who is at the door. Let us do so with these papists, for they are not to be trusted by any human beings on the face of God's earth any more. The ancient Britons-the Welsh, who have never relished papists, have the following lines:

"WOE unto him of hope forlorn
Who will not watch his rising corn
And clear his field from tares!
Woe to the shepherd, faithless wight!
Who will not watch his flock by night,
A traitor to his cares!

Woe unto him who shall not keep,

And with his crook defend his sheep
From Romish wolves and snares."

THE BARTHOLOMEW MASSACRE began at midnight, Aug. 24, 1572, in the city of Paris. When the news of this massacre arrived at Rome, it occasioned the most excessive joy. The letter of the Pope's Nuncio at the court of France, on the subject, was read in an assembly of cardinals on the 6th of September, informing hem that the scheme was projected by the king; and it was immediately resolved that the pope, accompanied by the cardinals, should go to the church of St. Mary, to give God thanks, in the most solemn manner, for the singular favour which He had shown to the Holy See, and to all christendom: and that, on the Monday following, a solemn mass should be performed on the occasion, when the Pope and the cardinals should attend, and that an universal Jubilee should

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

be published. In the evening, the guns of St. Angelo, at Rome, were fired; and bonfires were made in all the streets. In short, nothing was omitted that was usual, on occasions of the greatest victory, and the most signal advantage to the Holy See. The Cardinal of Lorraine, who was then at Rome, was so transported with joy, that he gave a thousand crowns of gold to the person who brought him the news.

ROMANISM.-Without saying that there is not in other ecclesiastical systems, especially as allied with secular government, a large amount of similar evils, I maintain Romanism to be the most corrupt and pernicious of all ecclesiastical systems. In my judgment, it is hostile to the happiness of private, domestic, and social life, and to the general welfare of the community. It is politically noxious, and a foe to civil and religious liberty; at once ambitious, despotic, and cruel. In religion, it is among the grossest of all superstitions and idolatries; playing with the imagination in order to stupify the conscience and deceive the heart. Not Paganism is more corrupt, nor Mahomedanism more intolerant; while no system ever known on earth has clothed its schemes of avarice, or its deeds of blood, with such plausible and audacious pretences of piety and charity. Among all the calamities that may be conceived of as happening in our country, I know of none so great as would be constituted by the prevalence of Popery. In England's Protestantism is England's happiness, and England's hope.--Howard Hinton.

THE ASSUMED SUPREMACY of the Roman Pontiff grossly insults the majesty of God. "He exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." This is strong language, but it is true when applied to the arrogance of the Pope; especially in two respects; for it sets aside the commands of God, and it advances pretensions in the Divine name which the Deity has never claimed, and which must be infinitely abhorrent to the Divine mind. It supersedes the Divine authority. The institution of image worship, as enjoined by the papacy, plainly sets aside the law of God, as expressed in the second commandment of the decalogue; the prohibition of the marriage of the clergy, sets aside the Divine charter, which says, “marriage is honorable in all;" the withholding of the cup from the communicants in the Lord's Supper, sets aside the command of Christ who says, "drink ye all of it in remembrance of me;" the injunction to "abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving;" and numerous other prohibitions of the papal dynasty, clearly show how that dynasty exalts itself "above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." Edwards.

[We have given these extracts respecting popery this month as the times require them.]

THE FIRESIDE.

The Fireside.

HOW DID OUR FATHERS LIVE? is a question sometimes asked. For some people think they were better off than we are now in those "good old times" as they are called by many. Let us see. A writer in a Scotch periodical says:- "The mode of living of our ancestors was very different, as far as regards food, from our own. Butcher-meat seems to have formed the greater portion of at least two meals in the day. Farming, however, was in so wretched a condition, that a stock of food for winter could not be provided for more than a very few domesticated animals. It was therefore the custom to fatten as many animals as possible upon the summer's grass, slaughter them, and salt their carcases for winter consumption. In the houses of even the highest nobility fresh meat ceased from appearing upon their tables by Christmas, and animals could scarcely be fattened in summer before the end of July. People in a lower rank of life could not procure a supply of fresh butcher-meat for more than three or four months of the year.

Our ancestors used along with butcher-meat bread made from oats, rye, and to a similar extent wheat. They possessed kail, and perhaps red cabbages, but scarcely any other kind of vegetable. When the wife of Henry VIII. desired a salad, she had to send to Flanders for it. A root, formerly called potato, but now extinct with us, although we believe it is cultivated in Spain to this day, was in use in the fifteenth century. The true potato was brought from Virginia by Hakluyt in 1584, but did not come into general use for two centuries later. The Jerusalem artichoke, still too much neglected, was brought from Brazil in 1617. Turnips were first cultivated to any extent during the Commonwealth. Carrots were brought into England by the Flemish refugees during the reign of Elizabeth. Other vegetables are of still more recent introduction; and there is no doubt of the fact, that our forefathers consumed, in addition to bread, scarcely any other vegetable food excepting kail, and that only in very restricted quantities.

Then their ordinary beverage was fermented drink. The higher classes consumed wine, partly imported from France, and partly manufactured at home. Those lower in social position seem to have preferred ale and intoxicating drinks prepared from honey, such as mead and metheglin. The quantity used of all these drinks appears to have been very great."

Now on perusing this, which we believe to be correct, we think our readers will agree with us, that the eatables so easy to be obtained now even in our villages, are very superior to these coarse foods; and is not our tea, coffee, and sugar, far better for our refreshment than the honeyed ale or sour beer of our fathers. So say not ye that the former times were better than these.