Icrowd of people coming in and going out, and staring around them; but not one prayer, nor one verse of the Holy Scriptures intelligible to the people, not even if they knew Latin; nor one word of a sermon; in short, it was nothing more nor less than a PAGAN SHOW.

Sunday at Milan-Sunday Schools-Punch-Virgin Mary-Noisy Festival-Popery like Paganism-Church of St. Ambrose-Library-Amphi- Still I do not doubt that much good may be theatre of Bonaparte- Unfinished Triumphal done on the whole-the Catholic catechisms conArch-Remains of Roman Baths-Mint-Po-tain the foundation of the Christian religion, a geTesin-Turin-Churches-Palace-Ambioggio neral view of Scripture history, explanations of -Lans-le-bourg-Ancient Arch at Susa-Mount the creation and redemption of mankind, some Cenis Road-Reflections-St. Michael-Aiguebelle-Chamberry-Life of Borromeo-Extracts good instructions on the moral law, sound statefrom Writings.

MILAN, Sunday evening, Sept. 14, 1823. MY DEAREST SISTER-I have witnessed to-day, with grief and indignation, all the superstitions of Popery in their full triumph. In other towns, the neighborhood of Protestantism has been some check on the display of idolatry; but here in Italy, where a Protestant is scarcely tolerated, except in the chapels of ambassadors, you see what things tend to; Popery has its unimpeded course; every thing follows the guidance and authority of the prevailing taste in religion.

At half-past ten this morning we went to the cathedral, where seats were obtained for us in the gallery near the altar. We saw the whole of the proceedings at High Mass-priests almost without end-incense-singing-music-processions perpetual changes of dress-four persons with mitres, whom the people called the little bishops-a

and identity of the superstitions. Such is Dr. Middleton's testimony, in his most interesting, elegant, learned, and decisive "Letter from Rome," in the year 1729 *—a testimony confirmed by all impartial writers since.t

A late traveller, for instance, says, there is the same strange mixture of the ceremonies of Paganism with the rites of the Roman Catholic religion in Sicily. The feast de la Vara, at Messina, is ob

lebrated at Athens, in all the abundant details of folly and impiety. The festivals of Saturn and Rhea are also continued there, under names slightly changed; and more than one ancient Pagan deity, is now a Christian saint. The Sicilians show you the mountain of Saint Venus, the well of Saint Juno, the chapel of Saint Mercury!||

you are not a Papist, they suppose that you are a herctic, and have renounced the faith, &c. It was thus that such eminent Christians as Pascal, Nicole, Quesnel, Fénélon, and the great men of the Jansenist school, lived and died in the church of Rome. "A voluntary humility," as well as the "worshipping of angels,"-Coloss. ii. 18-may well be noted by St. Paul as an error, which ought zealously to be excluded from the Christian church. After dinner, at half-past three, we had our se-viously founded on that of the Panathenæum cecond English service, at our hotel, and then were hurried out to see, what you will think incredible in a Christian country, altars set up in the open air to the Virgin Mary, with hangings, festoons of lamps, priests offering prayers, lanips hung on cords stretched across the streets, the houses and squales gaily adorned with carpets and lights; the churches open and illuminated, and crowds The facility with which the Jesuit Missionaries passing in and out; while priests were giving re- in Japan and China allowed their converts to retain lics to kiss to the devotees who came kneeling at the rites and usages of Paganism, is well known, the altar in the most rapid succession; and soldiers and is entirely consistent with the above statewere parading about to keep in order the assem-ments. The Spanish Missionaries in America actbled mobs. I never was so astonished in all my life. Religion was, in fact, turned into an OPEN NOISY AMUSEMENT. Before the cathedral itself, there was an amazing crowd to witness Punch and his wife -literally, Punch and his wife:* priests were mingled in the crowd; and the thing is so much a matter of course, that nearly every picture of this cathedral, has, I understand, Punch and his auditory in the fore-ground; thus the farce is kept up throughout this sacred day.

And what is all this, but the ceremonies of ancient Roman Heathenism colored over with modern Roman Christianity? The resemblance between Popery and Paganism in Italy strikes every impartial observer. The names of things only are changed. There are the same prostrations-the same incense the same holy water-the same lamps and candles-the same votive offerings and tablets -the same temples, with the names of the heathen deities slightly altered to suit the names of pretended saints-the same adoration of images the same worship of the supposed guardians of roads and highways-the same pomps and processions the same flagellations at certain periods -the same pretended miracles. It is not a little curious, that the very superstitions which the early Christian fathers most vehemently condemned in the Pagan rites, are now celebrated at Rome, in open day, as a part of Christian worship. As to the fact of the similiarity of the heathen and Popish ceremonies, it is admitted on all hands. The Italian antiquaries delight in tracing, in all simplicity, the resemblance; whilst the theologians defend it on the ground of the necessity, in the conversion of the gentiles, of dissembling and winking at many things, and yeilding to the times. And if at last they are pressed with the notorious idolatry and folly of many of these usages, they explain them away, precisely as the heathen did their worship of false deities; and thus establish the connection

* Italy is the native country of Punch. A priest at Naples once observing the crowd more attentive to Punch, then exhibiting, than to himself who was preaching, suddenly seized a crucifix, and pointing to the figure of our Lord, exclaimed, "Ecco il vero Puncinello." He turned the admiration of the multitude instantaneously to himself.

ed the same part. Popery conceals and corrupts Christianity; and then alloys it further with the peculiar habits and superstitions of each country.¶ But to pass to another subject. What a lamentable reflection is it, that all this is in a Christian country, and under color of Christianity, and even on the Christian Sabbath. The fact is, the Sabbath is almost unknown here as the day of sanctification and holy rest! Doubtless, in so vast a population, there are many secret disciples of the Lord Christ, who "sigh and cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof;" but as to the mass of the people, the Sunday is forgotten, obliterated, lost-nay, it is turned into the very worst day of all the week-no idea enters their minds of the divine purpose and mercy in it, of which the Lord himself speaks by his prophet, "I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that SANCTIFY them." I should conceive there are but very, very few Bibles amongst all this population of one hundred and fifty thousand souls.

What do we owe to Luther, Calvin, Zuingle, Cranmer, Ridley, Knox, &c. who, under God, lived

* There may possibly be, in Dr. Middleton's Letter, some attacks on the Popish miracles in that general spirit of incredulity and levity which seems to condemn all miracles-and against which a young reader cannot be too much on his guard.

+ See Rome in the 19th century, above referred to. M. Forbin.

See "Extract from Les Souvenirs de la Sicile," ut supra.

In a report made a year or two back on the state of religion in the south of India, we are informed that the Roman Catholics at Tinnevelly, a large district under the Presidency of Madras, besides the idolatrous ceremonies which the church of Rome openly sanctions, "add such others as their heathenish inclinations and the customs of the country suggest. At all the great festivals of the church they conform to the customs of the Heathens; except that they call their 'Swamies' by names of Apostles and other saints, instead of Rama, Siva, &c. They draw the Rutt and carry their idols in procession, exactly like the Heathen. The distinction of Hea then castes is observed among them."

hundred broad, and capable of holding forty thousand persons; a truly Roman work. It is as spacious, though less elevated than the celebrated amphitheatre of Verona. The seats are made of turf, and rise one above another on the sloping bank. There are ten rows of them. They are of course all open to the heavens. The amusements are foot and horse races, and naval fights;

and died to rescue us from similar darkness! And what an effusion of grace must have accompanied their labors, to give them the success with which they were crowned throughout the greater part of Europe. And how great must be the guilt of those Protestant countries, who are suffering the light of truth to go out in their churches, and are substituting false schemes of religion, or forms of cold orthodoxy, for the life-the arena being easily filled with water, by giving principles of the Reformation! May we "walk in the light" whilst it remains with us, lest “darkness" should again, in just judgment, be allowed to "come upon us!"

means of sluices. We much admired the chariots made after the ancient Roman models, and used in the games. There is a suitable gallery on one side for distinguished personages; and the whole is surrounded with a wall. We next proceeded to Bonaparte's villa, which is beautiful; and his gate of Marengo also, except that by a great mistake he dedicated it to "Peace the preserver of nations."

Monday evening, eight o'clock, Sept. 15, 1823. -We hired a voiture this morning, and drove about this great city from eight o'clock till six, except taking an hour for refreshment. We have been richly rewarded. I shall say little of the churches. This place is the toyshop of the Virgin But the most splendid and affecting monument Mary: we observe every where tradesmen for of his fame, is the incomplete triumphal arch at selling wax candles, images, crucifixes, ornaments the entrance of the Simplon road. The unfinish-this speaks for itself "Demetrius and his crafts-ed stones remain where they were at his death. men." I will only mention, that I observed a direct claim of miraculous powers on the tomb of a Dominican rector (miraculorum gloriâ clarus.) | Plenary indulgences also were stuck up on almost every church. Two inscriptions, however, under the cross of our Lord, pleased me: "Having made peace by the blood of his cross;" and, "For the joy that was set before him, he despised the shame." If some of these old inscriptions were but acted upon, a mighty change would soon take place.

The bas-reliefs, which were to record his triumphs, are covered with dust. The sheds for the workmen are deserted. You walk amidst the halfformed designs. No one cares to finish the plan; and a total obliteration seems to have effaced the gaudy fascination which once attended his name. In the breasts of the people, however, here as elsewhere, he still lives, and comparisons not the most flattering are made between him and the Austrian government.

The church that delighted me most was that of After this we went to inspect some very curious St. Ambrose, anciently the cathedral, and where Roman antiquities; a noble range of sixteen lofty he ordinarily officiated, founded in the fourth cen- pillars, formerly belonging to the baths of Milan. tury, on the site of a temple of Bacchus. Some re- They are fine Corinthian fluted pillars of white mains of the conquered heathen temple were seen marble of Paros, of admirable proportion, and placin different stones about the building, especially a ed at the most just distances from each other. bas-relief of Bacchanals, a pillar, with serpents, They are near the church of St. Lorenzo, and are emblematic of Esculapius; and the chair of St. thought to have been erected at a time when the Ambrose, formerly used in the idol temple. The purest architectural taste prevailed. The royal church is very old, and built of brick, and is almost palace, and that of the archbishop, had nothing buried by the elevation of the ground all around it. in them very remarkable. At the mint we saw You descend several steps to the large court, sur- a balance which turned with the eight hundredth rounded with galleries in front of it, and then se- part of a grain. The practice all over Bonaparte's veral more steps in entering the church itself. kingdoms of marking the value of each coin on The body of St. Ambrose is supposed to lie under the face of it, seems to be very good. A franc is the high altar. I confess I sat with reverence in marked a franc, five francs, five francs, and so on. the chair of this great luminary of the church, The hospitals and charitable institutions, amountand mused on the fatal tendency to corruption ing to about thirty, we could not visit. in man, which in a few centuries could engraft on St. Ambrose's doctrines, idolatries and superstitions almost as gross as those which he overthrew.

Many of the women here wear at the back of the head a semi-circle of broad cut pieces of tin, something like a fan, with two transverse pieces at the bottom of them towards the neck, like two The Ambrosian Library, called after the name pewter spoons joined by the handles-a costume of Ambrose, was founded by Fred. Borromeo, purely Roman. The general dress of the women cousin to the famous Borromeo; it contains thirty is very becoming, with black or white veils; if thousand volumes. We were shown fifty-eight they have not veus, they draw the shawl over the leaves of a most curious MS. of the Iliad of the head. One of the most peculiar customs at Mififth century before Christ, of which Angelo Mai lan is the hanging of the window-curtains, of all published a fac simile in 1810; a manuscript Virgil, with marginal notes by Petrarch; a Latin translation of Josephus, written on papyrus, of the third century; and a very valuable volume of designs by Leonardi da Vinci.

sorts of colors, not within the house, but on the outside. It is singular also, to observe the dirty blacksmith, or awkward shoe-boy, eating immense bunches of ripe black grapes, which would sell in England for three shillings, or three shillings and I know you will ask, what memorials of Bona- six-pence a pound, as he goes along the streets. parte I visited. In reply I have to say, that we-But I must quit Milan, which though it has went to see his amphitheatre, with which I was distressed, has delighted and instructed us, and much delighted. It is one thousand feet long, five has more than amply repaid us the journey.

have arcades on each side. A rivulet of clear water flows down the middle of each street. The street of the Po is one of the finest in Europe. There is an uniformity in all this; but the arcades are so noble, and the city so well built, that the appearance is imposing. It far surpasses Bern, which, I suppose, must have been built in imitation of it. The character of the inhabitants is like their dialect, Italian with a mixture of French. Their dress is little different from that of the French. Their manners are polished, from the long residence of the court. The English used formerly to remain for some time here, before they prosecuted their Italian tour; in order to perfect themselves in the language and habits of the country. Since the revolution they more commonly rest for this purpose at Geneva. They are thus kept from the snares and seductions of a luxurious court, and the associations, of a dissolute Italian population.

Turin, capital of the principality of Piedmont, 98 miles from Milan, 2047 from London by our route, Tuesday evening. We left Milan this morning at a quarter past five, and in fourteen hours and a half reached this splendid and farfamed city. We left our friend and fellow-traveller, who had accompanied us from England, to go on to Rome for the winter. The two dear boys and I took the carriage which met us at Martigny last Tuesday from Lausanne, and posted hither. We had three horses and no luggage (every thing is at Lausanne ;) so that we have made a most excellent day's journey. The plain of Piedmont is of course level; it is also extremely ill cultivated, and so marshy, from the numerous streams falling into the Tesin or the Po, and perpetually overflowing the country, that we hardly saw a vine the whole hundred miles. The vil lages and towns bear sad marks of that want of energy and spirit connected with the prostrate tendency of despotic governments. Switzerland As to churches, there are one hundred and ten, far, far exceeds what we have yet seen of Pied-with about five thousand priests, monks, &c. Almont, in all respects, except that indescribable soft most all the churches we visited were filled with balmy air, which soothes the whole frame. The hedges are often of acacia. The grapes and peaches are spread in immense baskets for sale in every little village. We gave three-halfpence for a pound of delicious black grapes, and half a franc, fourpence halfpenny, for a bottle of light wine for we did not stop to eat. The people here are of a pure olive color. The priests jostle you almost at every corner. The chief corn in this country, and in Lombardy also, is Indian wheat and some rice.

people, and two priests officiating at separate altars. At the Jesuits' church, I inquired if there were any of that order now at Turin; the guide replied, yes; that they were beginning again, and were arranging their affairs! Thus the zeal and activity of the Roman Catholic church still remain unabated. In some things it deserves to be imitated by Protestant countries. Its ample provision of churches and ecclesiastical ministers

its watchfulness over the people within its jurisdiction-its care in visiting the sick-its diligence in catechising, &c. are examples to the reformed communities. A pure and spiritual religion ought

Turin, Wednesday morning, half-past eight. My boys have taken eleven hours' sleep to balance accounts. This city, of eighty-five thou-to be the motive to similar, and even greater exsand souls, is beautifully situated on the northern bank of the Po, which, rising at mount Viso, crosses northern Italy, and after bathing the walls of fifty cities, and receiving thirty rivers, in a course of three hundred miles, empties itself into the Adriatic sea. It is the king of Italian floods. Indeed the Po, and the Tesin, are the only two rivers famed in song, which are on our route. The Tesin or Ticino, we have crossed more than once; it springs from Mount St. Bernard, traverses the Lago Maggiore, runs by Pavia, and then discharges itself into the Po.

ertions; only abating every thing approaching to intolerance and dominion over the conscience. For in the church of Rome, what is good in itself, is so corrupted, as to leave a melancholy impres sion on the mind. Still, with regard to churches, is it not painful to reflect that in Catholic countries accommodation is provided for the entire population; whilst in many parts of England, one in ten-twelve-fifteen, is all that the churches will contain. Thank God this disproportion is now by degrees lessening!

At the church of St. Mary of the Consolation Ambioggio, twenty-one miles from Turin, on the we were solemnly assured of the miracles which road to Lyon, half-past eight, Wednesday evening. the Virgin had wrought. The walls indeed were -We are now actually on our way to England, covered with the votive offerings of those who and every step will advance us nearer home. imagined they had received miraculous benefits Thanks be to God for preservation and every But this was not more extraordinary than the needful mercy hitherto, during a long journey. chapel of the Holy Napkin, in the cathedral May we be brought again to my dear Ann; and in which chapel is preserved the very napkin i with her and our little girl arrive safely in London! which our Saviour was enfolded after his cruci I must now give you some account of our drive fixion, with the marks of his sacred blood! The this morning about Turin. We set off at half-servant who told me this, did it not only with gra past nine in a voiture. In six hours we had visited many of the chief curiosities. What shall I say to you about this famous city, formerly the gayest of Italy? It is a royal residence of the king of Sardinia, the streets of which are built all in straight lines, or radii, which meet in a centre. There are one hundred and forty-five. It is about rour miles in circuit. The fortifications were domolished after the battle of Marengo. The houses are uniform, and many of the streets

vity, but with an awe in his voice and manne quite unique. He assured me that the Pope ha seen it in passing through the city-this was a irresistible proof!

What would the noble Claudius, bishop of Tu rin in the ninth century, have said to these super stitions? You remember, perhaps, the name. H may be called, truly, the first Reformer from Popery. From the year 817 to 839 he continued t protest against the errors of the see of Rom

and kept them from being introduced into his dio-naments; indeed, the ornaments are too profusely cese, in spite of the violent opposition which was scattered, and the city hardly contains one chaste raised against him. In the remains of his wri- model of architecture. Turin is, however, by far tings which are extant, he declares Jesus Christ more elegant, finished, splendid, attractive, than to be the only Head of the Church-he condemns the enormous mercantile city of Milan. We nothe doctrine of human merits, and the placing ticed that the tradesmen at Turin affix their traditions on the same level with the Scriptures names and trades not above their shop windows, -he maintains that we are saved by faith only-but on pieces of embroidered cloth, extended behe holds the fallibility of the church-exposes the tween the doors of the adjoining houses. futility of praying for the dead, and the sinfulness of the idolatrous practices then supported by the Roman see. The valleys of Piedmont, inhabited now by the Waldenses, or Vaudois, of whom I hope to tell you something more particularly, were in his diocese; and it is probable those churc.ies were much increased and confirmed by his la

bors.*

We dined at half-past three, and at five came on two stages to this small town, because the rain had fallen all day, and we were afraid of snow on mount Cenis; indeed, the rain made it impossible to walk about Turin, and therefore we left it with less regret. We crossed, at Turin, the Po, in going to the queen's palace: perhaps no river has been more celebrated by the poets; but where we saw it, it scarcely answered my expectations. The bridge over it is a noble structure.

But to return to Turin. At the university we saw many undoubted antiquities of Roman fame -busts of Cicero-altars-household gods-tri- Thursday, Sept. 18, Lans-le-bourg, at the foot pods, and a head-dress like what I described as of Mount Cenis, on the French side, five o'clock.now worn at Milan,-all exceedingly curious. We set off this morning from Ambioggio, at a The university contains two thousand five hun-quarter before six, and came in three hours to dred students. There are one hundred and Susa, on the Italian side of mount Cenis. Here twenty thousand volumes in the library. I asked we beheld with admiration the triumphal arch, if they had any manuscripts of the Scriptures; raised in honor of Augustus, by Cottius, king of the librarian stared, and then showed me a Latin the Cottian Alps. After eighteen centuries, it is Bible of Thomas Aquinas! But at Vercelli they profess to have the autograph of St. Mark's Gospel-the sacred original of the evangelist-in Latin; mistaking, I suppose, the celebrated Codex Vercellensis of Eusebius for it; or else confounding Vercelli with Venice.t

directly across its natural fortifications, the Alps. The characteristics of military ambition are the same in every age.

in excellent preservation; the elegance, simplicity, and majesty of it, surpasses much the intended arch of Bonaparte. The inscription is become faint; but it records the names of the twelve nations who remained faithful to Augustus, when all the rest threw off the Roman yoke. It is curious, The royal palace forms one side of an immense that the designs of those who are commemorated square, in the midst of which is a fortified tower, by these arches were similar: Augustus to subsurrounded with a moat, erected by the duke of due France, Bonaparte to subdue Italy; only in Savoy. I think it is the very largest square I the first instance, Italy was the aggressor, and in have seen on the continent. I was pleased to the second, France. Bonaparte's plan was, like see in the palace a portrait of our Charles I.; that of Augustus, to keep in subjection a conand, which is singular, of Calvin. The small li-quered country, by making a road for his artillery brary of the private chapel contained a Bible, Austin's Confessions and Letters, and Nicole's Essays; all excellent books. This leads one to hope, that the same judgment and piety which The road which Bonaparte restored and imformed such a selection, might possibly govern proved over Mount Cenis was finished in 1811, the habits and conduct of some of the royal per- six years after he had executed the astonishing sonages for whom it was made. It was the first work of the Simplon: next to that road, I suppose, time I had seen a Bible in a private Catholic it is the finest in the world. The day, however, library. has been so exceedingly rainy, that we could be The arsenal had thirty thousand muskets of no judges of the scenery around us. The road is English manufacture. We observed in the Mu-in itself admirably good, and the ascent and deseum a stuffed wolf, taken two years ago near scent most gradual. There are twenty-six houses Turin, after having killed twelve or thirteen chil- of refuge, and a military hospice for two thoudren. From the observatory we had a command-sand men. The highest point of the Cenis is ing view of the city and neighborhood. The about nine thousand feet. We have been exchurches generally are magnificent structures, in tremely cold, but without snow. We are now marble of every vein and color, with profuse or- two thousand feet lower, and still need a fire.

* See Milner, Cent. IX.

We left Italy, properly so called, about two or three to-day, and came again into Savoy. From + Jean Andre Irico published at Milan, in 1743, Domo d'Osola to Mount Cenis, we have travelled the book of the Gospels found among the MSS. of in Italy about two hundred and twenty miles: we the church of Vercelli. It is supposed to be in the have had a specimen of Italian scenery, climate, very hand-writing of Eusebius, of Vercelli, who manners, religion; we have visited the capitals lived in the fourth century, and was a friend of of Lombardy and Piedmont. We have seen PopeAthanasius. The MS. is deposited amongst the relics, which are preserved with superstitious re-ry in all its deepest traits of dominant superstiverence in the author's church at Vercelli. There tion, just as we saw it at Bonn, Franckfort, and is a pretended autograph of St. Mark's Gospel at Bern, in its most restrained and modest form. Venice; but it is merely a copy of the Latin ver- The rapid visit has been new, instructive, and yet, most alarming. The general impression is me

sion.