was formed to murder the Emperor and Imperial Family, and establish a republic in Russia. A Captain Sherwin, an Englishman, a Captain in the Russian army, gave privately to the Emperor Alexander the first information of such a conspiracy existing among his nobility, with a list of the names of the conspirators. In that list was the name of a Colonel Glinka, with some names of persons formerly members of the St. Petersburgh Bible Society. This man was indebted to the Emperor for all he possessed. The good, benevolent, and kind-hearted Monarch was cut to the heart. He abandoned the reins of government to an insinuating Jesuit, Count Arakchyeff, a man devoid of honour and principle, who was not slow to poison his master's mind against the great and good Prince Alexander Galitzen and Mr. Papoff. In truth, he denounced all the active members of the Bible Society, and other religious Societies which sprung up under the Emperor's fostering care, as Carbonaries. The Prince Galitzen was removed from the ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, and the presidency of the Bible Society. No meetings of the Committee were held, the true friends of religion were discountenanced, the butterflies of the day soon left the Society. and many of them became its bitterest enemies. Things continued in this state till the poor broken-hearted Alexander died at Taganrog, in November, 1825; exclaiming, a few days before his decease, Les ingrâts, les ingrâts. The revolt broke out on the accession of His present Majesty: it was quelled; and among the conspirators not one was found who was a member of the Russian Bible Society. The Bible Committee met a few months after the accession of the Emperor Nicholas to the throne. Seraphim, the Metropolitan of St. Petersburgh and Novogorod, was in the chair. He opened the Meeting by saying, that to the hierarchy alone belonged the printing, publishing, and circulation of God's holy word; and he instanced, in support of his dictum, the history of the Ethiopian eunuch and "Thomas." A gentleman present, a member of the Committee, said, "Your Eminence, no doubt, means Philip." The Metropolitan, in great wrath, replied, "What salary do you receive from this Society?" to which he received the following reply: "I never have or intend to receive one copeck from this Society, or any other on the contrary, (though I say it of myself,) I am a large contributor to it." Here Prince Lieven (the eldest brother of the late Ambassador to the court of St. James's) rose, said, "I am sixty years of age, and have lived all my life here, and associated with the highest dignitaries of the Church. It is for the first time I hear that the Russian Greek Church, by your Eminence, as her spiritual head, denies to the laity the free use of the holy Scriptures. Let me call to your Eminence's recollection the time when you, under the shadow of our late pious and benevolent Alexander, were foremost in fostering this Society in distributing the holy Scriptures." and At this Meeting the Society's doom was sealed. Dr. Paterson was informed that the Society would be placed under the Synod. He naturally could not act under such a presidency, and left Russia. The house, the printing machines, &c., were delivered to their EmiDECEMBER, 1843. 3 N nences; and, since the year 1825, not a Bible or Testament has been printed in the Russian language. Happily the society was not idle during its ten years' existence; for besides circulating many thousands of Testaments and Psalters, a large supply was left ready bound; and the shop is still open for the sale of Testaments and Psalters in the Russian language. THE POPISH INQUISITION AT MADRID. THE following report of the destruction of the Inquisition at Madrid, is by Colonel Lemanouski, who was for many years an officer under Napoleon, and is now a highly-esteemed minister of the Lutheran Church in the United Sates. In the year 1809, being then at Madrid, my attention was directed to the Inquisition in the neighbourhood of that city. Napoleon had previously issued a decree for the suppression of this Institution, wherever his victorious troops should extend their arms. I reminded Marshal Soult, then Governor of Madrid, of this decree, who directed me to proceed to destroy it. I informed him that my regiment, the 9th of the Polish Lancers, were insufficient for such a service, but that if he would give me two additional regiments, I would undertake the work. He accordingly gave me the two required regiments, one of which, the 117th, was under the command of Colonel de Lile, who is now, like myself, a minister of the Gospel. He is pastor of one of the Evangelical churches in Marseilles. With these troops I proceeded forthwith to the Inquisition, which was situated about five miles from the city. The Inquisition was surrounded with a wall of great strength, and defended by about four hundred soldiers. When we arrived at the walls I addressed one of the sentinels, and summoned the holy fathers to surrender to the Imperial army, and open the gates of the Inquisition. The sentinel who was standing on the wall appeared to enter into conversation for a few moments with some one within, at the close of which he presented his musket and shot one of my men. This was a signal for attack, and I ordered my troops to fire upon those who appeared on the wall. It was soon obvious that it was an unequal warfare. The walls of the Inquisition were covered with the soldiers of the holy office: there was also a breastwork upon the wall, behind which they kept continually, only as they partially exposed themselves as they discharged their muskets. Our troops were in the open plain, and exposed to a destructive fire. We had no cannon, nor could we scale the walls, and the gates successfully resisted all attempts at forcing them. I saw that it was necessary to change the mode of attack, and directed some trees to be cut down and trimmed, and brought on the ground to be used as battering-rams. Two of these were taken up by detachments of men, as numerous as could work to advantage, and brought to bear upon the walls with all the power which they could exert, regardless of the fire which was poured upon them from the walls. Presently the walls began to tremble, and under the well-directed and persevering application of the ram, a breach was made, and the Imperial troops rushed into the Inquisition. Here we met with an incident which nothing but Jesuitical effrontry is equal to. The Inquisitor-General, followed by the father confessors in their priestly robes, all came out of their rooms as we were making our way into the interior of the Inquisition, and, with long faces, and their arms crossed over their breasts, their fingers resting on their shoulders, as though they had been deaf to all the noise of the attack and defence, and had but just learned what was going on, they addressed themselves in the language of rebuke to their own soldiers, saying: "Why do you fight our friends, the French ?" Their intention, apparently, was to make us think that this defence was wholly unauthorized by them, hoping if they could produce in our minds a belief that they were friendly, they should have a better opportunity in the confusion and plunder of the Inquisition to escape. Their artifice was too shallow, and did not succeed. I caused them to be placed under guard, and all of the soldiers of the Inquisition to be secured as prisoners. We then proceed to examine the prisonhouse of hell. We passed through room after room, found altars and crucifixes and wax candles in abundance, but could discover no evidences of iniquity being practised there-nothing of those peculiar features which we expected to find in an Inquisition. Here was beauty and splendour, and the most perfect order on which my eyes had ever rested. The architecture-the proportions were perfect. The ceiling and floors of wood were scoured and highly polished. The marble floors were arranged with a strict regard to order. There was everything to please the eye and gratify a cultivated taste; but where were those horrid instruments of torture of which we had been told, and where those dungeons in which human beings were said to be buried alive? We searched in vain. The holy fathers assured us that they had been belied-that we had seen all; and I was prepared to give up the search, convinced that this Inquisition was dif ferent from others of which I had heard. But Colonel de Lile was not so ready as myself to give up the search, and said to me, 66 Colonel, you are commander to-day, and as you say so it must be, but if you will be advised by me, let this marble floor be examined more. Let some water be brought in and poured upon it, and we will watch and see if there is any place through which it passes more freely than others." I replied to him, "Do as you please, Colonel," and ordered water to be brought accordingly. The slabs of marble were large and beautifully polished. When the water had been poured over the floor, much to the dissatisfaction of the Inquisitors, a careful examination was made of every seam in the floor, to see if the water passed through. Presently Colonel de Lile exclaimed that he had found it. By the side of one of these marble slabs the water passed through fast, as though there was an opening beneath. All hands were now at work for further discovery. The officers with their swords, and the soldiers with their bayonets, seeking to clear out the seam and raise up the slab. Others with the butts of their muskets striking the slab with all their might to break it, whilst the priests remonstrated against our desecrating their holy 66 and beautiful house. While thus engaged, a soldier who was striking with the butt of his musket, struck a spring, and the marble slab flew up. Then the faces of the Inquisitors grew pale, and as Belshazzar, when the hand appeared writing on the wall, so did these men of Belial shake and quake in every bone, joint and sinew. We looked beneath the marble slab, now partly up, and we saw a staircase. I stepped to the table and took from the candlestick one of the candles, four feet in length, which was burning, that I might explore what was before us; as I was doing this, I was arrested by one of the Inquisitors, who laid his hand gently on my arm, and with a very demure and holy look, said, "My son, you must not take that with your profane and bloody hand; it is holy." Well, well," I said, “I want something that is holy to see if it will not shed light on iniquity; I will bear the responsibility." I took the candle and proceeded down the staircase. I now discovered why the water revealed to us this passage. Under the floor was a tight ceiling, except at the trap-door, which could not be rendered close; hence the success of Colonel de Lile's experiment. As we reached the foot of the stairs, we entered a large square room, which was called the Hall of Judgment. In the centre of it was a large block, and a chain fastened to it. On this they had been accustomed to place the accused, chained to this seat. On one side of the room was an elevated seat, called the throne of judgment. This the Inquisitor-General occupied, and on either side were seats less elevated for the holy fathers, when engaged in the solemn business of the Holy Inquisition. From this room we proceeded to the right, and obtained access to small cells, extending the entire length of the edifice; and here, what a sight met our eyes! How has the benevolent religion of Jesus been abused and slandered by its professed friends.. These cells were places of solitary confinement, where the wretched objects of inquisitorial hate were confined year after year, till death released them from their sufferings, and there their bodies were suffered to remain until they were entirely decayed, and the rooms had become fit for others to occupy. To prevent this practice being offensive to those who occupied the Inquisition, there were flues or tubes extending to the open air, sufficiently capacious to carry off the odour from those decaying bodies. In these cells we found the remains of some who had paid the debt of nature; some of them had been dead apparently but a short time, while of others nothing appeared but their bones, still chained to the floor of their dungeon. In others we found the living sufferer of every age, and of both sexes, from the young man and maiden to those of threescore and ten years, all as naked as when they were born into the world. Our soldiers immediately applied themselves to releasing these captives from their chains, stripped themselves in part of their own clothing to cover these wretched beings, and were exceedingly anxious to bring them up to the light of day. But aware of the danger, I insisted on their wants being supplied, and being brought gradually to the light as they could bear it. When we had explored these cells, and opened the prison doors of those who yet survived, we proceeded to explore another room on the left. Here we found the instruments of torture of every kind which the ingenuity of men or devils could invent. At the sight of them the fury of our soldiers refused any longer to be restrained. They declared that every inquisitor, monk, and soldier of the establishment deserved to be put to the torture. We did not attempt any longer to restrain them. They commenced at once the work of torture with the holy fathers. I remained till I saw four different kinds of torture applied, and then retired from the awful scene, which terminated not while one individual remained of the former guilty inmates of this ante-chamber of hell, on whom they could wreak revenge. As soon as the poor sufferers from the cells of the Inquisition could with safety be brought out of their prisons to the light of day (news having been spread far and near, that numbers had been rescued from the Inquisition), all who had been deprived of friends by the holy office, came to inquire if theirs were among the number. Oh, what a meeting was there! About a hundred who had been buried alive for many years, were now restored to the active world; and many of them found here a son and there a daughter-here a sister and there a brother-and some alas ! could recognize no friends. The scene was such that no tongue can describe. When this work of recognition was over, to complete the business in which I had engaged, I went to Madrid and obtained a large quantity of gunpowder, which I placed underneath the edifice, and in its vaults; and as we applied the slow match, there was a joyful sight to thousands of admiring eyes. Oh! it would have done your heart good to see it : the walls and massive turrets of that proud edifice were raised towards the heavens, and the Inquisition of Madrid was no more. KNOWLEDGE FROM EXPERIENCE.* PSALM XXXIV. 8. To one who from a polar home What likeness could the' eternal snows To that which where the floweret blows The bee delights to build? But let him taste the honeycomb, Such sweetness in his polar home Mortal! wouldst thou discern what bliss There is no other way but this, Its sweetness taste and see. *From "Songs from the Parsonage." |