they heard Christ described as the High-priest of our profession, and bloody sacrifices alluded to, they should transfer their impressions of the old to the new faith, and worship the Mother of our Lord as they formerly worshiped Cybele, the Mother of the gods? For myself, I am decidedly of opinion that the one system must have had much influence on the other.

Rome is now much engaged with the Christmas solemnities. The lovers of pleasure are bewailing the report that there will be no Carnival, in consequence of political disquietude; and I,-what am I doing? Why I am living a very quiet life. My mornings are spent in the Library of the Dominican friars, a library consisting of 120,000 volumes, and my evenings always at home. I have therefore nothing to tell you of what is generally called news; and having from necessity filled up my paper with observations which may not interest you at all, I say addio.

The works to which I have referred in reading for the subject of this letter are, Du Choul de Relig. vet Roman,-Montfaucon's L'Antiquite expliquée, &c.,-Martinetti Opuscula Quinque,-Durantus de Ritibus, Dizionario di Teologia di M. Berger,-Dizionario di Erudizione Storico-Ecclesiastic compilato dal Cav. Gaetano Moroni,-Primo Aiuitante di Camera di Sua Santità Gregory XVI.,-Tomassini de celebr. fest.

LETTER II.

I DID not intend to write to you so soon, but as the fêtes of St. Agnese and St. Antonio occur to-day, I shall give you a little history of the remarkable ceremonials connected with them, as being a very good introduction to the general subject of my letter. The fête of St. Agnese is celebrated in honour of her appearance, with a lamb in her hand and surrounded by a choir of angels, to her relations and parents. On this day, January 21, the canons present to the chapter of St. Giovanni two lambs, which are offered on the altar; they are then taken to the Pope, who blesses them and sends them to some monastry, where they are fed till holy week; they then are shorn, and with the wool, which is again blessed by the Santo Padre, are made the pallii which are sent to the Archbishops. The first part of this ceremony was of course enacted as usual this morning at the church of St. Agnese, outside the Porta Pia. The fête of St. Antonio is of a still more extraordinary character, and will require that I should dwell a little more upon it.

Hearing that to-day was the great day of the six, during which the merciful saint has been distributing his blessings amongst the animals, I went with the crowd to witness the scene, though not for the first time. The roads in every direction leading to the church were crowded with carriages, horsemen, and pedestrians; and I do not think that I at all exaggerate when I say that there must have been 10,000 people on the spot and in the immediate neighbourhood. Around the church was placed a military guard to keep the course, and opposite were ranged the carriages of heretics whom curiosity alone had brought here. At the door of the convent adjoining the church, robed in white, aspergoire in hand, with his attendant by his side, stood the priest; and most astonishing was it to see the carriages and beasts of every grade, from the horse down to the humble ass, which were brought up in rapid succession to receive the lustral water. Fancy the scene. With steady step and slow, advances an ass, two joints of its tail tied round with crimson ribbon. Its rider has a peaked Calabrian hat tied round with three rows of the same, and as if he had no sympathy with the saint whose blessing he has come to solicit, he is urging on the poor beast with whip and spur. At length, arrived before the monastry, the priest reads two prayers to the saint, invoking his protection on the animal, sprinkles water upon him thrice, sends down his attendant, who receives the wax candle or the paolo, gives a very correct likeness of the saint in return, which the poor fellow kisses, puts in his hat, and goes off in the same solemn style in which he came up. Let us shift the scene. There is a bustle

in the distance; the people are filing off on each side of the road, and presently a whole train of the halfbroken ponies of the Campagna dash up, their tails and manes knotted with crimson ribbons, and their heads nodding with plumes of every conceivable colour. Their riders, it seems, will not be outdone by them, and are as gay as ribbons and gilt can make them. One benediction serves for all. Who are they? They are only Contadini; they have nothing to offer but a few candles; or perhaps it is that the blessing of the saint is as diffusive as it is efficacious. A finer horse than usual presents itself, and its rider is an Englishman: he takes off his hat, preserves as solemn a countenance as possible, pays his fee, receives his picture, and trots away. There were many who did so; but I thought that, to say the least, it was in very bad taste. However ridiculous the ceremony may have appeared to them, by others it was regarded in a very serious light, and demanded, therefore, an abstinence from insult. The finest part of the scene was when the Pope's carriages were driven up. The servants wore their state liveries of crimson silk, and the horses, to the number of about sixty, were of the fine Roman breed, with long tails. The ceremony for them was of course the same as for their plebeian neighbours; and being rather wearied by this time, and having witnessed the sanction of the Pontiff to this extraordinary scene, I returned, saying to my friend, that no one could believe in the possibility of such things who had not witnessed them. Indeed, much as I have seen in different parts of Europe, this is one of the most extraordinary scenes I ever witnessed, uniting as it does

all the bustle of a cattle fair with the tinsel and gaiety of a gaudy fête. And then how striking, how affecting, how ridiculous are the contrasts. The noble, the gay, and the beautiful,-the wild inhabitants of the Campagna,-the sneering unbeliever, and the ignorant devotee, the Briton, the Gaul, the German, and the descendants of the masters of the world,-all are met together on the Esquiline, within a stone's throw of the golden palace of Nero, to see an ass blessed by a priest, who waits at the altar of St. Antonio. What revolutions one meets with in human affairs; and in the new and changing aspects of society, what cause. does one meet with for laughter and for tears, for ridicule and for reflection! With respect to the origin of this fête, I find from Nibby that in the 11th century a disease raged throughout Europe, and especially in Italy, amongst the cattle, called St. Anthony's fire; since which time the benediction of the good saint has been considered essential to the health of brute beasts; and so implicit is the faith which is placed in this tradition, that I believe the fact of a horse not having been blessed would, in some instances, affect its sale. It is time, however, to advert to the general subject of this letter, so that I shall dismiss his saintship with the observation that he is a type of his class. Oh! how dear are the saints to the inhabitants of this land! What town or village has not its patron! What believer is there who does not affectionately rely on some special advocate before the throne of grace, of whom he can recount a thousand miracles! It is, as I regard it, but a particular expression of the religious sense, modified by circumstances of birth and educa