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pastors to follow some occupation, inconsistent with their sacred calling. The answer then made would apply to their present condition. "We do not hold that our pastors ought to work for their bread. They might be better qualified to instruct us, if we could maintain them without their own labour, but our poverty has no remedy."

Knowing the very limited incomes of these excellent men, I asked why the pastors did not unite the office of schoolmaster in their own persons, as there is a regular provision for the school-masters, which would be a material addition to their salaries. The reply was, that the ministers have labours too complicated already to allow of their undertaking any more; and the wife of one of them assured me, that her husband sometimes returned from his walks in a state of the most alarming exhaustion: that his flock was so scattered about the mountains, and put him in such constant requisition, that it was impossible his health could stand the fatigue and agitation, which his pastoral visits occasioned. These good shepherds are summoned upon all matters where their assistance and advice can be of service, to console the afflicted, to confirm the wavering, to refute the arguments of Roman Catholic missionaries, and to administer an antidote to the poison instilled by them; to reconcile differences, and prevent disputes. It is thus that they obey the Apostle's injunction, and "warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, and support the weak." The least relaxation, in their vigilance or exertions, would hazard not only their own reputation, but the safety of the fold; the wolf would get in and seize his prey.

It is quite wonderful that so small a remnant as 20,000, who have but thirteen spiritual guides, should have preserved their integrity, and continue to adhere to the faith of their ancestors, amidst all the arts and bribes and terrors, which have been constantly held out to induce them to enter within the pale of the Roman Church. Offers of the most tempting nature, sums of money, pensions for life,

public employments, rank in the army, and grants of land are notoriously proffered to those who will change their religion; but poor and destitute as many of the objects are, to whom these tempting proposals are made, it rarely happens that an apostate can be found. Hitherto a variety of circumstances has operated in favour of keeping the Vaudois a detached people, and in giving force to the exhortations of the clergy. Active persecution is always a stimulus : intolerance exasperates and hardens the heart in its predilections and prejudices, instead of subduing it. The little intercourse, which these mountaineers had formerly with the world, also assisted in the preservation of their faith; they acquired no taste for the different sort of life which a change of religion held forth, but now it is to be feared, lest a long communication with the French, and enlistment in their armies, may have given them a desire for what is not attainable in the solitudes of the Alps. Add to this, they were for a long time like a cherished spot, which their brethren, of the Protestant faith in other countries, would not suffer to be blotted out from the face of the earth, and they took pride in knowing that the eyes of men were upon them.

But at present they are more neglected and overlooked: they have been placed in a condition which they would like to resume; they have been in the enjoyment of privileges which they sigh to have restored, and their pastors, instead of being pensioned and supported, as they used to be, are left to struggle with difficulties and deprivations, which the spirit of man is sometimes too feeble to bear. Under all these circumstances, it never was so much an imperative duty to give a helping hand to the Vaudois clergy, as at present, and to promote the circulation of Christian knowledge among their flocks, by a more regular and liberal supply of books. Elementary instruction is already imparted, in a manner which does credit to the pastors and school-masters, but food must be provided for the minds

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of the children, beyond the common hours of instruction, that they may be fortified against the seductive means, which are actively employed to separate them from their families, and induce them to apostatize.

None but those who have intermixed a great deal with Roman Catholics, and in countries, where the imposing services of the Roman Church are performed with theatrical attention to effect, can have any idea of the influence, which the Popish priesthood holds over weak understandings. Whatever can affect a lively imagination, a romantic turn of mind, a warm temperament, a nervous constitution, or a sensitive heart, is employed in the public rites, and in the secret practices of the clergy. There is nothing of simplicity in the character of the Romish religion: it is all mysticism, symbol, and delusion. The avowal has been made by one of its most eloquent advocates. the regions of the south, where the sky is bright, and nature bountiful, where the heart is warm, and the imagination active, external demonstrations have ever been employed to express feelings too big for utterance, and external shews introduced to convey impressions, and excite sentiments, grand and sublime beyond the reach of ordinary language P."

"In

But such external shews and external demonstrations only serve to heat the fancy, and substitute a dangerous enthusiasm, in the place of that genuine and rational adoration, which, springing from the mind, can only perish with the mind. Confessions, breathed into the ear of an indulgent confessor, and secret inclinations confided to one, who

P Eustace, Vol. II. p. 529.

4 Read what Mr. Blanco White says, the author of Doblado's Letters, who was educated abroad, in a Roman Catholic college, and ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic church, but afterwards renounced the errors of Rome, and became a minister of the church of England.

"The necessity of confession, seen at a distance, is lighter than a feather in the balance of desire, while at a subsequent period it becomes a punishment on delicacy-an instrument to blunt the moral sense, by multiplying the subjects

is expected to whisper assurances of absolution, but seldom

of remorse, and directing its greatest terrors against imaginary crimes. These evils affect nearly equally the two sexes; but there are some that fall peculiarly to the lot of the softer. Yet the remotest of all, at least as long as the Inquisition shall exist, is the danger of direct seduction from the priest. The formidable powers of that odious tribunal have been so skilfully arrayed against the abuse of sacramental trust, that few are found base and blind enough to make the confessional a direct instrument of debauch. The strictest delicacy however is, I believe, inadequate fully to oppose the demoralizing tendency of auricular confession. Without the slightest responsibility, and not unfrequently, in the conscientious discharge of what he believes his duty, the confessor conveys to the female mind the first foul breath, which dims its virgin purity. He undoubtedly has a right to interrogate upon subjects, which are justly deemed awkward even for maternal confidence; and it would require more than common simplicity to suppose, that a discretionary power of this nature, left in the hands of thousands, men beset with more than common temptations to abuse it, will generally be exercised with proper caution *.”

It is notorious, and will be attested by all who have seen them, that the books of religious instruction, which are put into the hands of young Romanists, particularly those touching auricular confession, are indecent, gross, and filthy, beyond all conception.

* In corroboration of Mr. White's observations, the reader is referred to the following extract from the Constitutionnel, May 2, 1825.-" We have received a little book, printed at Lyons, with the approbation of the Vicar-General, and circulated by the missionaries. It is entitled, Examination of the Conscience. Rule of Life. Remedies against Sin. Abridgment of our Faith;' and is distributed among the young people of both sexes at school. We have looked into this book, and found to our surprise, at the 9th page, appropriated to the 6th and 9th Commandments, obscene expressions, impure details, a complete exposé of the most monstrous combinations of licentiousness; in short, a treatise to teach debauchery and corruption; and this at a time when the Jesuits are making such an outcry about religion and morality. The reader may judge of its improper nature, when we say that it is so bad that we cannot, dare not copy it; and we are sure the Etoile and Drapeau Blanc dare not insert any portion of it in their pages, though it is approved by Vicars Generals, and circulated by the missionaries. The book has been printed at various places, and in a short time will be distributed through the whole of France, and our youth will be in structed by a book to which the cases of conscience of Dr. Sanchez were pure. In looking at this gross abuse, we must ask why the Procureurs du Roi, so sensible on other occasions, have no power when morality is thus outraged, and justice violated? Are they not fathers? Have they no daughters at boarding schools? and are they contented with this mode of insinuating into their minds a knowledge of debauchery, and acquainting them with the nomenclature of a series of vices, of which, in ordinary circumstances, women remain ignorant their whole lives? Are these magistrates deaf to the wishes of fathers ? and must parents not attempt to save the honour of their families, and the future honour of their country? Is there not a commission to examine books of devotion? Does not the ministry talk incessantly of morality, and has it not extended its cares to the purity of the Opera, and can it allow corruption to be in this manner carried into the heart of every family? Is it not time to overlook the Theatre, and examine what is taught at Church, to set Tartuffe at liberty, and put the Examen under restraint?"-Note to Second Edition.

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produce amendment. It happens to me, at this moment, to know a young Roman Catholic female, whose mind is agonized by a sentiment of more than spiritual affection, which she entertains for her confessor. What she calls his graceful performance of the sacerdotal functions, and his majestic appearance before the altar, clad in the splendid robes of his sacred office, compared with his mild and persuasive gentleness, when he assists her private devotions, have inspired this fatal passion; not because she is more susceptible than the rest of her sex, or that he takes undue advantage of her sensibility, but because the pomp and. ceremonies of the Roman Church, and the relation between the priest, and the youthful members of a family, where he is venerated as a being of superior intelligence, are calculated to produce such impressions.

There is an anecdote told of Pope Braschi, who assumed the name of Pius the Sixth, which shews, that the Roman Catholic clergy set no little value upon the assistance, that may be derived from personal appearance. Upon an occasion when that pontiff was passing through a street of Rome, and was carried along in his papal chair, with a splendour suitable to his dignity, a voice was heard from one of the windows which was crowded with admiring spectators. It was that of a young lady of rank. Quanto è bello-quanto è bello. How handsome he is, cried she, in a moment of enthusiasm. An old woman, in haste to correct any thing that might appear too profane in this exclamation, replied, with her hands joined, and her eyes lifted up to heaven, Tanto è bello, quanto è santo. He is holy as he is handsome. It is said, that such a compliment gave Pius the Sixth more secret satisfaction, than all the incense lavished upon him by the prelates at the altar, and all the genuflexions of the sacred college r.

Several English ladies have acknowledged, in my hear

Annual Register, 1799.