THE PENNY POST BOX.

The Penny Post Box.

IMPERTINENCE OF CLERGY.-TO MOTHERS.

The

66 a

As the clergy are paid out of the public property, one would think they would see the propriety of being a little more civil and courteous, especially as they claim to be considered gentlemen. We said last month, on our cover, that we had received several letters about parsons bothering and teazing poor people. One of our friends has told us of a case which occurred some years ago which will suit the present times. The conversation took place in a populous village in Derbyshire, on the eastern borders of Leicestershire. woman in this case, was a baptist dissenter, and her minister was a man who was highly respected by all classes for his moderation in religion or politics. He was what might be called "a whig," but no more, and scarcely that. He had been brought up a churchman, and still entertained considerable respect for some of its clergy and members. The woman had not, therefore, been taught by radical dissenter." Our friend says, "I remember many years ago, the Vicar of M-going into the house of one of our friends, and observing a child playing about the house, said to its grandmother, Woman, whose child is that?' 'My daughter's, sir.' 'Has it been christened ?' 'No, Sir, we dunna houd wi that. We dunna find it i'th New Testament.' 'Well, if that child dies I shall not bury it, woman.' 'We shanna ax you, sir, we've got a burying place o' were own at P- The Vicar had heard enough, and, finding it useless to protract the conversation, retired, and we never heard of his venturing to commit such an act of unfeeling rudeness again. For the woman told her neighbours, and it was pretty well talked about in the parish to his disadvantage; and I think you will agree with me that she served him right. Even her own minister, when he heard of it, though a man of great gravity, was not a little amused." Now what we advise you mothers to do when any of these men come to teaze and frighten you about your children is, not to imitate their vulgar rudeness, but quietly tell them that you do not believe a word about your babies being saved because they are sprinkled; and ask them to point you to the chapter and verse of the New Testament which says they are, or which says that babies are to be sprinkled or baptized at all. And if you stick to that quietly you will soon see how they will stammer out something intended to bamboozle you. But stick to it for chapter and verse, and they will soon vanish, depend upon it. They cannot, any more than popish priests, find any warrant for their dogmas or their conduct from Holy Scripture. If these young parsons do not know good manners, and their own duty better, the people must teach them.

FACTS, HINTS, AND GEMS.

Facts, Hints, and Gems.

THE CHILDREN'S CORNER.

The Children's Corner.

REMEMBER GOD.

"In the days of my youth I remember'd my God, And he hath not forgotten my age."

THE INQUISITION IN ROME.

THANKS to free talking, free writing, and free printing, in this land of free men, we now know quite enough about that infernal engine of the devil-the Romish Inquisition-to make us all determined that the men who have anything at all to do with it shall never be trusted by us with power to set it up on this island of liberty. On this island it never was set up, and it never will in our opinion. Dark deeds were done in dark days even in England by papists, but we never had the " Holy Office" set up here. Holy! indeed. Call darkness light as soon! The Inquisition always was, now is, and ever will be, the most wicked thing on God's earth! And the vexation is that it perpetrates its foul deeds in the name of religion-the religion of the meek and merciful Saviour. Oh the hypocrites! We wonder that the whole human race have not risen by common consent to sweep every vestige of such hell-born wickedness from off the face of the earth!

Spain-poor, proud, ignorant Spain-in which thousands for ages have lived and died without even knowing there was such a book in the world as the Bible-Spain gave birth to the Inquisition, and there it has flourished and spread out to other lands. We give one sample of its horrid doings in the days when it could do as it liked in Spain, before we tell you what it now is in Rome. Was ever a pagan idolater more cruel than this unfeeling wretched father?

"To such an extreme did the ferocity of some Catholics arrive, in the destruction of Lutherans, that one gentleman of Valladolid, 1581, denounced to the holy office his own two daughters as professors of the reformed religion. Desirous of converting them to Catholicism, he contrived, through the great confidence the inquisitors had in his blindness, that both these young creatures should be removed from the dungeons of the Inquisition to the paternal roof. There the fanatical father, assisted by various of the clergy and friars, attempted to turn away the minds of his daughters from what he believed to be erroneous principles. Both, however, were unmoveable in the true Protestant faith, and his efforts were abortive.

Burning with rage to see that his entreaties were in vain, as well as his threatenings and persecutions, he took them back to the Inquisition, and informed the judges that both of them still defended reform with the greatest pertinacity. In fine, on the

THE INQUISITION IN ROME.

solicitation of their father, both of these unhappy girls were condemned to be burnt. This pompous old man, indignant that his blood should be stained by Lutheran principles, and overcome by a fanatical feeling, went to a certain forest on his own estate, in search of branches from some of the largest trees, and trunks of smaller ones, and cut them into suitable pieces, in order to kindle the flames which were to devour the bodies of his own children! This barbarons man, worthy to have been born among cannibals, then returned to Vallidolid with the spoils from his woods, and presented them to the Holy Office. The inquisitors praised his greatness of mind, and set him forth, to the patricians and to the plebeians, as an example worthy the imitation of all who would increase and serve that faith which they imagined they were defending by the flames of murder.

But this man was not even satisfied with having cut the wood; for, probably incited by the applause of his friends, both secular and ecclesiastic, and with a view of spreading greater consternation through Valladolid, he actually petitioned to be the murderer of his own flesh and blood. After becoming his own enemy and throwing his daughters into the loathsome cells of the Inquisition, nay, bringing his own wood to construct the horrid pile, he asked permission of the inquisitors to set light, with his own hand, in à public auto-de-fe, to that same heap which was to reduce to ashes the delicate frames of these his unhappy girls, unhappier still in having known such a father! The inquisitors, who saw in this barbarous wretch a model of slaves, received most graciously his petition; and, in order to the exaltation of the Catholic faith, proclaimed with cymbals and trumpets, not only the inhuman demand, but their permission to comply with it.

These two unfortunate girls accordingly perished at Valladolid in 1581."

What a horrid tale is this! Did you ever hear one like it? "How was it," perhaps you ask, "that any father could act in this barbarous manner towards his own children ?" Did you not notice that he was pushed on to do this foul deed by popish priests? They were most to blame. The father was evidently a weak-minded and bigoted old man, who placed himself entirely under their wicked influence. But what sort of a religion must that be which calls upon a father to sacrifice all natural affection? What better is it than downright heathenism — just that heathenism described by Paul in the latter part of the first