The declarations of the Bishop of Challons, connected with the prayers I have inserted, and other tenets of the church of Rome, fully accounts for the reality of the opinions held at Gozo and Hull.

at its sound, all the fiery darts of the enemy, all the blasts of lightning, the force of hail-stones, and the violence of storms, may be driven far away; so that when the question of the prophet shall be asked, 'What aileth thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest?—the earth, with its dispelled commotions may answer, with the course-reverted Jordan of old,—At the face of the Lord [IN THIS BELL] the earth is moved,' [we tempests flee.]

Then follow other ceremonies, to incense the bell, in which it is made to receive the whole smoke inside; the choir singing the antiphon during this operation, with Psalm 76; and then a concluding prayer, supplicating that all hostile and inimical force might flee before the bell, and that faith, devotion, &c. may be excited by its sound; in which last prayer are these words, "O Almighty Lord Christ, who, when in the days of thy flesh sleeping in a ship, wast awakened, and didst in a moment dispel a storm which had risen and mightily disturbed the waters; do thou anoint this bell with the dew of Thy Holy Spirit, that before its sound may flee every enemy of the good, &c. &c. &c."

tu hoc tintinnabulum cælesti benedictione perfunde: ut ad sonitum ejus longius effugentur ignita jacula inimici, percussio fulminum, impetus lapidum, læsio tempestatum; ut ad interrogationem propheticam, Quid est tibi mare, quod fugisti? suis motibus cum Jordane retroacto fluento respondeat; A facie Domini mota est terra, a facie Dei Jacob, qui convertit petram in stagna aquarum, et rupem in fontes aquarum. Non ergo nobis, Domine, non nobis; sed nomini tuo, da gloriam, super misericordia tua: ut cum præsens vasculum, sicut reliqua altaris vasa, sacro Chrismate tangitur, oleo sancto ungitur; quicumque ad sonitum ejus convenerint ab omnibus inimici tentationibus liberi, semper fidei Catholicæ documenta sectentur. Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum Filium tuum: qui tecum Vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

Tum sedet Pontifex, et accepta mitra, imponit in thuribulo thymiama, thus, et myrrham, si haberi possunt; alioquin, quæ ex ipsis habentur : quibus impositis, thuribulum ipsum supponitur campanæ, seu signo, ut totum fumum recipiat, schola interim cantante Antiphonam, &c. Quibus dictis, reposita mitra, surgit Pontifex, et dicit:

OREMUS.-Omnipotens Dominator Christe, quo secundum carnis assumptionem dormiente in navi, dum oborta tempestas mare conturbasset, te protinus excitato, et imperante, dissiluit; tu necessitatibus populi tui benignus succurre; tu hoc tintinnabulum Sancti Spiritus rore perfunde: ut ante sonitum illius scmper fugiat bonorum inimicus; invitetur ad fidem populus Christianus; hostilis terreatur exercitus ; confortetur in Domino per illud populus tuus convocatus: ac sicut Davidica cithara delectatus desuper descendat Spiritus Sanctus: atque ut Samuele lactentem agnum mactante in holocaustum Regis æterni imperii, fragor aurarum turbam repulit adversantium; ita dum hujus vasculi sonitus transit per nubila, Ecclesiæ tuæ conventum manus conservet Angelica, fruges credentium, mentes, et corpora salvet protectio sempiterna. Per te, Christe Jesu, qui cum Deo Patre vivis et regnas in unitate ejusdem Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

I never thought of asking what Christian name the great bell of Fort Angelo had; but having belonged to a religious order, and continuing to be used in their church worship, (which church they declare to be the one infallible unchangeable church, the same at all times and at all places,) there can be no doubt it has been christened, and has spiritual properties, like its sisters Mary and Anne at Challons, and those at Gozo and Hull.

Roman Catholic governments make their troops attend their cathedral services under arms, and a soldier is ordered to present arms and drop his colours as his act of outward worship to the host.

It was usual when I was at Malta to order, twice or thrice a year, a grand Guard of honour from the British regiments of the line, of one hundred, or one hundred and fifty, men and officers, with the King's colour of the regiment to which they belonged, to attend high mass in the cathedral of Valetta (see the requisition of the canons of the cathedral, mentioned in the Order of the 27th May, 1823, p. 73.) and our Protestant officers and men had not only to attend, but also to present arms and drop the King's colours when the host was elevated ;-thus doing the same acts of outward worship to this object which the Maltese Troops and British Roman Catholic soldiers, under arms with them, did: for these military acts are substituted and intended for the same purposes by the priests who directed them, as the bowing down and kneeling of the Roman Catholics who are not under arms. A signal from the top of the church caused the royal artillery on the battery to join their salute to this worship.

No British Protestant officer would know, when ordered on one of these church Guards of honour how to draw up his men, or when to present arms and drop his colours, unless he received his directions and signals from the priests, or from some one initiated in their rites.

The Governor, or Lieutenant Governor, at Malta, usually attends the high mass worship on these occasions; and the staff and principal officers of the garrison are ordered to accompany him.

Once while I was at Malta several ladies of the highest rank in the garrison received notes to attend at the cathedral on one of these occasions. These notes had the same authority which all invitations from the Governor (the representative of His Majesty) have; and though in some sense complimentary, the custom of the service requires, that they be received with the respect due to a command.

It is right to observe here, that there are Protestants who, (feeling that the principles contained in articles and homilies of the Church of England are not dictated merely from opposition to Popery, but that they

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arise justly from the truth of Scripture, of reason, and common sense,) will not willingly pass the threshold of a Roman Catholic church :-not all the splendour of their buildings, their images, paintings, and ceremonies, could draw them to countenance in any manner the purposes for which these blandishments are designed and used. What must such Protestants feel if ordered to attend this worship, and forced into outward acts of devotion to idolatrous objects, the same as the priests demand from the Roman Catholic troops; or if subject to have their wives, and consequently other branches of their families, summoned to countenance what they had taught them always to abhor.

Protestants, who have not particularly considered the Roman Catholic rites, and even those who have done so, but who have not seen them in operation in countries where this religion is dominant, cannot properly judge of the offensiveness of the orders I received. The following is of daily occurrence at Malta :-When the host is carried to the sick, it is accompanied by a procession carrying lanterns even in the day-time, and a crowd of people singing and praying to it. A priest dressed in much finery, with a canopy supported over him, carries the host in his hand; and when the inhabitants see him, they fall down on their knees and worship it. In some countries the people have obliged strangers to kneel to it as they do but at Malta they expect a stranger will pull off his hat to the host; and, if he does not, he is liable to have it knocked off. You may meet this object at every turn; and if you cannot get out of the way, as some Protestants endeavour to do, you must bow to it, (which some feel to be as objectionable in principle as kneeling to it) or be in danger of being insulted. Those who abhor the idea of a set of priests assuming the power of changing a wafer into God, by a few ceremonies, and Latin words said over it, (the ALL-CREATING DEITY, MADE by a WORM of the earth; --the INFINITE JEHOVAH, CARRIED in the HAND of a MAN;-the ALMIGHTY GOD, to be UNDER THE POWER Of one of his CREATURES, to be broken into pieces at his pleasure) :– or who pity the lamentable spectacle of multitudes following or kneeling to this object, all praying or singing aloud to it; and though they can all see, and touch, and taste, and do what they please with it, are yet induced at the command of the priest, to renounce the evidence of their senses, as well as abandon the use of that judgment and reason, which a merciful God has given them, in order that they should not be thus abused:—those, I say, who can realize this spectacle to the mind may judge what would arise in their breasts when ordered to assist such practices and such delusion.

It was rare, while I was in the Island, for the Maltese to insult strangers who do not take off their hats to the host, or their favourite images in

processions; yet no officer felt safe from this outrage, unless he complied with their expectations.

Within little more than a year a British officer in full uniform unexpectedly fell in with the host; and, passing it without noticing it, one of the ecclesiastics sprung out of the procession, and knocked his cap off. The bishop punished this man severely when this circumstance was reported to him by the General: but when any of the populace commits this outrage, there is no remedy against it.

I state this to shew that one of the objects which British Protestant officers are ordered publicly to honour is a matter constantly and most offensively obtruded on the mind; as the host is sometimes met two or three times a day.

Some of the images and pictures at Malta are spoken of as possessing miraculous powers; or which came miraculously, like the Roman Catholic images mentioned in the Homilies, p. 209 and 213. I have seen one (if not more) the inscription under which designated it "Questa imagine miracolosa." The inscriptions under those at the corners of nearly every street are usually followed by a promise of great future rewards to whomsoever will say an Ave and a Pater noster before it. In one case it is specified that their prayers are required in honour of the image itself. The priests and others pull off their hats to the images as they pass them; and many persons are seen, after praying before the image, either to kiss the pedestal, or to touch it with their hand, and then to kiss their hand to the image. As they stand in the churches, and as they are carried in procession, silver and wax representations of eyes, hands, legs, feet, &c. are hung about them as offerings and public acknowledgments of the particular cures which the members so represented received through the image.* For the benefit is supposed to come through some one particular piece of wood, stone, or painted canvass. Any man may have as good a figure of the same saint at home, but then it has no such powers as the miraculous one has. The saint must be propitiated through the particular image which the priests declare the saint has honoured by performing some miracle through it.

These gifted images usually belong to some church; and, whatever prayers a man may say to his own image, he still must go to the miraculous image, there to say his prayers and pay his money in a box attached to it, or to an ecclesiastic who waits to receive the offerings, in order to obtain the favour of the saint.

I have seen the images for which the artillery had to fire hung about with a number of Agni Dei, as well as of models of the limbs, &c. it

* See Homilies, p. 212-215.

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had cured, when carried in procession. Having touched the image, and thereby received the powers it is said to confer, together with the powers which the processions, salutes, &c. also confer; these amulets or charms are supposed to be able to avert those various evils of this life, which can only be averted by the almighty power and will of God. After the procession they are to be seen at the church door exposed for sale. At Malta, you hear that the earth swallowed up a man at the back of the island who had dared to doubt of their efficacy and use, and who would not wear one. The lower classes are generally to be observed wearing one next the body, their dress exposing them to sight.

The means used to keep up this idolatry, and the delusion of the people on the subject, but increases the abhorrence justly felt at its instigators. Besides keeping the Scriptures out of the hands of the people, the priests at Malta and other places DARE TO ALTER the commands of God when they profess to teach them; leaving out the second commandment entirely from the Catechism generally printed; and to make up for the one expunged they divide the tenth commandment into two. After this they instruct and entice their people to do that which God has commanded them not to do.*

There are other profanations of God's revelation equally gross in the rites which I was ordered to promote; equally pernicious to the present and eternal interests of the people; and manifestly serving no other ends than to keep the bulk of the people in a state of mental and spiritual bondage, and by false terrors and false hopes to extort their money. say this last from the declaration and complaints which a Roman Catholic made to me respecting some expiatory masses for the dead, by which he felt himself a considerable sufferer.

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Council of Trent Catechism, p. 344.-" Of the WORSHIP and INVOCATION of Saints."

Sect. XIX. OF ANGELS." They are to be invoked, because they always behold God, and most willingly undertake the patronage of our salvation committed to them." Sect. XXIV. OF SAINTS.-" They are to be honoured and invoked because they earnestly pray for the salvation of men, and FOR THEIR SAKE and MERIT God bestows many benefits upon us."

Sect. XXX.-" Who is there whom the wonderful things that have been done at their graves, viz. the blind, the lame, the maimed, and otherwise diseased persons restored to health and soundness, the dead recovered to life, do not convince of the honour which is due to the saints; and OF OUR PROTECTION which they undertake.”

Sect. XXXI." Who can be so bold as to deny that God, by the sacred ashes, the bones, and other reliques of the saints, does wonderfully work the same thing."

Sect. XXXIX.-" But the curate shall shew not only that it is lawful to have images in the church, and to give them honour and WORSHIP, seeing that the honour which is given to them is to be referred to the prototype; but he shall also declare that this hath been done to this very day, to the great advantage of the faithful.”