Papal Rome gives the same adoration and performs the same devotional acts to their female' god, which they style the queen of heaven.

That Rome lost the faith of the primitive church, there is no doubt; that the practices of that church are heathenish, none can deny. In Rimini the principal city of the Romagna, or papal province, there was an old custom, that a certain miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary (I do not remember her name) was carried in procession every corpus Domini with a crown upon her head; being considered the protectress of that city; she was adored by all the citizens. The cardinal Giustiniani, who was appointed archbishop of Rimini forbade that the Virgin Mary should have a crown any longer upon her head. The reason he gave was simply, that: "she is not yet canonized." He had no other object in view, than that the citizens should promise to collect a hundred thousand dollars as a fee for the canonization; he would write in the mean time to Rome for a dispensation (which would be another source of revenue for the vatican,) until the sum could be collected, which would entitle her to wear a crown. But the magistrates of that city would enter into no agreement whatever, requesting his Eminence to grant their

Protectress the privilege to wear a crown, a privilege which she enjoyed for a long series of years, but all was in vain. The cardinal would not grant it, except they applied for a dispensation to the Pope.

The day of the procession arrived; the circumstances were known in the neighborhood, the people came from all parts, some to revenge the wrong which had been inflicted upon the miraculous lady, others out of curiosity; but it is suf ficient to say, that the city of Rimini never witnessed such a spectacle before, and 1 trust it never will again.

The procession began, the friars of all colours. marched on in their ranks; the respective companies in their masquerades followed the monks and friars; soldiers in arms accompanied the train; the priests and canons of the Cathedral joined in the procession, then, alas! the Virgin Lady Mary was carried out of the church without a crown, but had seven stars in a half circle over her head. Why the number seven had been chosen I do not know, but that twelve thousand dollars had been staked in the lottery upon the number seven is a melancholy fact.

Scarcely had the statue appeared in the street, when the people stoped the men who carried her and would not allow that she should be carried in such a dishonored manner in procession. The soldiers tried to disperse the crowd with their muskets, but all in vain. The enraged multitude wounding a soldier, it was found necessary to make use of bayonets, by which means they in their turn wounded some of the citizens, and in the crowd injured also some females; the mob became furious, throwing stones upon the soldiers and crying vengeance against the priests. The commander ordered them to fire upon the people, many of whom were mortally wounded, even unoffensive women and children; then the cry: "Morte ai preti," death to the priests! was heard in all directions; the priests with their stoles escaped from their ranks; the screams of the children, the lamentations of the wives in behalf of their husbands; the running of the monks, the explosion of the muskets, was a melancholy sight. At the time that the tragedy was going on, a part of the mob ran to the episcopal palace, where the cardinal resided, rushed like a flood into the palace: "Morte al tiranno," death to the tyrant, was heard from every mouth; fortunately he had

time to save himself through the garden. Not finding the cardinal, they broke all the furniture, dashed it through the windows and burned it in the middle of the street.

The news went to Rome; the panic was exceedingly great; the Pope feared a revolution; soldiers were ordered in the same night to leave Rome for Rimini, to terrify the agitated spirits of the mob. The Pope by a special decree graciously ordered, that the authors of that tragic scene, who had disturbed the public peace should be severely punished, and a plenary indulgence to all, who say so many ave marias to the Virgin Mary, who shall henceforth have the privilege to wear a crown. Here we must say with Virgil: "Magnum Jovis incrementum," or with the inhabitants of Ephesus; "great is Diana of the Ephesiens."

If I could accompany my readers through the city of Rome, I would lead them upon mount Janiculum, now called St. John of Lateran; there they would find a chapel, where they would see thousands of people crawling up a high flight of stairs upon their knees and kissing every step with the Rosaries in their hands, until they arrive upon the last step. The priests tell us that

this is the holy stair-case which Christ aseended when he appeared before Pilate, which has been carried by angels from Jerusalem to Rome.' But I must not forget to mention, that the crawling upon the knees must be occompanied with some

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'The celebrated scala santa or holy stairs, contains twenty-eight white marble steps; it is said to have belonged to the palace of Pilate, at Jerusalem, and to have been trodden by Jesus Christ. They were covered with wooden boards by order of Clement XII. to prevent their being worn out by the multitudes of devotees ascending them on their knees. There is a great deal of mysteriousness and false sacredness thrown about the whole edifice which contains these stairs; there are several secret apartments, which are kept constantly locked. One of them (the priests says,) contains the most precious and most sacred relic of christianity. Some say, it contains the feather of the seraphic Doctor, with which he wrote his works, which an angel brought him in his study." Others say, "the feather of a wing of the arch-angel Gabriel, which he left when he saluted the Virgin Mary; a bottle of the Virgin Mary's milk. A bottle with tears of our Saviour shed at the grave of Lazarus; the cord with which our Saviour was bound at the pillar when scourged," &c., the fact is, no body knows what that edifice contains; you will not find even the oldest of the priests, who ever troubled himself about it, and still he maintains, that some holy thing is in it. There Luther, the glorious reformer, once basely crawled upon his knees to purchase an absolution; but the light of eternal truth had previously dawned upon his mind, and the words, "the just shall live by faith," sounded like thunder in his ears while he was on the very stairs. He arose in horror from his servile debasement and from that moment walked forth a free man, vowed to exhibit the fraud and wickedness of exacting such penances, and to publish the truth as it is in Jesus.