What disorder and confusion must such a conduct give rise to in a tenderly affectionate family! An expression, innocent in itself, and, perhaps, but too true, shall, from an indiscreet zeal, or a panic fear, give infinite uneasiness to a family, shall ruin its peace intirely, and, perhaps, at length, cause one or more of its members to be the innocent, unhappy victims of the most barbarous of all tribunals.

What distractions must necessarily break forth in an house where the husband and wife are at variance, or the children loose and wicked! Will such children scruple to sacrifice a father, who endeavours to restrain them by his exhortations, by reproofs, or paternal corrections? Will not they rather, after plundering his house, to support their extravagance and riot, readily deliver up their unhappy parent to all the horrors of a procedure, founded on the blackest injustice?

A riotous husband, or a loose wife, have likewise an easy opportunity, assisted by means of the prosecutions in question, to rid themselves of one who is a check to their vices, by delivering him or her up to the rigors of the Inquisition.

Every detestable expedient, such aš false oaths and testimonies, are employed, with impunity, to sacrifice an inno cent person. Very justly, therefore, might an ingenious French author, a Romanist, write thus, speaking of the various courts in Lima: The most formidable of all the tribunals is that of the Inquisition, whose bare name strikes universal terror, 1st, Because the informer is admitted as a witness. 2ndly, As the per sons impeached never know those who inform against them. 3dly, As the witnesses are never confronted. Hence, innocent people are daily seized, whose only crime is, that certain wretches are bent on their destruction.

He is thoroughly searched, to discover, if possible, any books or papers which may serve to convict him; or some instrument he may employ to put an end to his life, in order to escape the various tortures, &c. Of this there are but too many sad examples; and some prisoners have been so rash as to dash out their brains against a wall, upon their being unprovided with scissors, a knife, a rope, or the like.

After a prisoner has been carefully searched, and his money, papers, buckles, rings, &c. are taken from him, he is conveyed to a dungeon, the sight of which must fill him with horror. Torn from his family and friends, who are not allowed access, or even to send him one consolatory letter, or take the least step in his favor, in order to prove his innocence: he sees himself instantly abandoned to his inflexible judges, to malancholy and despair, and even often to his most inveterate enemies, quite

uncertain of his fate. Innocence, on such an oocasion, is as a weak reed, nothing being easier than to ruin an innocent person.

All prisoners have not the like place of confinement; yet, though some cells are lighter than others, they are all very horrible and nasty, though it is dignified with the amiable title of Santa Casa i. e. the Holy House, the manner in which these cells are built is calculated to hold a great number of miserable creatures. The prison consists of several portions, each of which is divided into a number of small square cells ten feet square, all vaulted and built over each other in two rows, the uppermost cells receiving a small glimmering of day, through a narrow opening guarded with iron gates above the reach of a very tall man; those below are not only quite dark, but narrower than the upper ones. The walls are five feet thick; each cell is fastened with two

doors; the inner one thick covered with iron; and in the lower part of it there is an iron gate; in the uppermost part there is a small window, that is fastened with two iron bolts, through which the prisoner receives such necessaries as are thought proper. The outer door is entirely without any opening at all; and this generally left open every morning from six to eleven, to air the prison.

When the prisoners are safely lodged in these cells, whether they are men or women, their heads are shaved on the third day after their confinement, without any regard to birth or quality. Those who are confined in the lower cells generally sit in darkness (no light being allowed them) and are kept there for years without any person being suffered to speak to them, except their keeper, and he only at certain hours, when they generally give them their provisions. They are not allowed any