According to the authors quoted, religion is the source of all the civilization of the United States. But what religion? Protestantism. M. Quinet tells us so. "The Protestant principle is realized there with a manifest result; and it is surprising that many writers amongst us, who have treated of American democracy, have only seen in these institutions the vague influence of religion in general. These institutions bear the exclusive stamp of the Reformation; for each one of their founders turned aside from the resort of men into the depths of the forests: he was there, so to speak, King of the world; there was no appeal in the physical and moral universe but to himself. Nature and the Bible encompassed him. In this immensity, he was himself a church: uniting in himself the offices of Priest, King, and artisan, he baptized his children, he celebrated their marriage. By slow degrees, other Sovereigns like himself found themselves almost unconsciously touching his boundaries; intervals were filled up; the cabin became a village, the village a town. A community was formed without the individual ceding any of his power. And this spectacle is unique. The Gospel, open everywhere, was the primitive contract which made these solitary men the citizens of a republic of equals."

Such are the religious principles of the United States ? What are those of South America? Let us examine.

M. D'Orbigny, whom we have already quoted, is a man of learning, sent by the French Government on a scientific expedition to South America. He passed several years in travelling over these countries: he is therefore well acquainted with them. In describing the climate, plants, mines, &c., he often expresses his opinion of the inhabitants. As the naturalist, when writing, could have had no idea of the use that we should make of his reports, his testimony is so much the more valuable to us. He thus expresses himself on the religion of the Brazilians: "What a singular contrast! What outward religion, and what corruption in grain! The conscience of the inhabitants of Corrientes must be unscrupulous indeed, or they must have a religion for themselves altogether different from the true

one; a religion teaching the Spanish belief, that confession effaces all sins." "Notwithstanding the dissipated lives led by both sexes at Corrientes, they never neglect going to mass on Sundays and festivals; they offer numberless prayers, and are continually asking for blessings: these are remains of the system of education established by the Jesuits in their Missions. But if we consider their religious belief in its true point of view, we shall see that for the inhabitants of these provinces religion is rather a matter of habit than of conviction; for it does not hinder them from indulging, when they are young, in all kinds of excesses, without much fear of future punishment, notwithstanding the bloody spectacles of the Holy Week, and the awful penances to which the aged men and women submit themselves.'

"The most bloody representations of the Passion are exhibited in the churches during Passion-week. All there breathes horror. It is then that faults are expiated; if indeed the superstitious acts of an exaggerated worship have ever borne the characteristic marks of real repentance."

"Women sometimes die from the effects of their penances. Some may feel justly astonished at seeing so much austerity allied to such laxity of morals; but I have always met the one accompanying the other. The Ministers of religion would undoubtedly obtain more advantageous results by preaching sound morality, and supporting it by the example of a pure and spotless life."

"The Spaniards, in general, exaggerate everything relating to the externals of religion. Thus it is difficult to recognise anything human under the wounds and blood with which the statues are covered. Perhaps I was illdisposed, but this frightful spectacle filled me with horror, and I could share but slightly in the enthusiasm with which the Priest extolled each of these groups to me; repeating, in every possible form, that true religion existed nowhere but in Moxos. After vespers, a troop of Italians, dressed in a burlesque manner in red and other glaring colours, and performing the characters of Jews, went slowly over the Mission searching for Jesus Christ. The

melancholy sounds of the drums, half unstrung, and the plaintive notes of the flutes, produced upon me an effect that I cannot describe; my whole nervous system seemed shaken. The Priest told me that the drums represented the noise of the populace enraged against Jesus Christ; the flutes counterfeited cries; and the calabashes imitated the earthquake."

"At Christmas, I was spectator at Chuquisaca of a singular custom. All the ladies decorate altars, where are exposed images of the child Jesus surrounded by playthings. In order to see these altars, every one visits the ladies, who rival each other in luxury. On these occasions, it is the custom to play practical jokes. You are invited, for example, to take some whipped cream; instead of which you find cotton: this excites the hilarity of the bystanders." "More than ten different bands, grotesquely dressed, danced before the holy sacrament at Tiaguanaco, as well as at La Paz; and, in the evening, they did as much around the square. Going from chapel to chapel, the music, executed without any attempt at harmony, produced a most extraordinary cacophony. Afterwards I called down vengeance upon the authors of these dances; for two nights running they never ceased to go about the streets, executing their wild concert."

"At Corrientes, during Passion-week, I had the opportunity of observing the remains of the fanatical rites which seem to have presided in this country since the first dawning of civilization. But as I had been warned that this excess of outward devotion generally concealed a great amount of depravity, I silently quitted the wretched scene of this religious parody, pained at seeing the profanation of the mysteries of a religion which is always respected when its Ministers know how to render it respectable, by respecting themselves." "I saw practised there the velario, a custom which seems to unite the fanaticism of the first ages of Christianity with the barbarism of the savage state. Strangers and relations for two leagues round assemble in the house where a child has died, dance the ciéléto, drink brandy, smoke, and indulge in foolish merriment. They

afterwards go to bury the body, accompanied by a fiddle, at least. In order to multiply these festivals, (a monstrous mixture of superstition and debauchery, which violates the rights of humanity, and effaces or perverts the sentiments of nature!) they even go so far as to borrow the body of a child, which often passes from house to house until it is putrefied."

To complete this picture of the state of religion in South America, let us give some traits of the Clergy, who, in Catholicism, are so completely identified with religion itself.

M. Auguste de Saint Hilaire cannot refrain from noticing a number of abuses which may be observed in the Clergy of the country of Minas (Brazil). "The stipend of the Priests being insufficient since the suppression of tithes, an arrangement, known by the name of the Constitution of Bahia, grants to the Priests forty reis (twopence halfpenny) for each proprietor and his wife, and twenty reis (a penny farthing) for each slave. This contribution had been voluntary; but the Clergy soon advanced other claims; and, on pretence of being indemnified for the Easter confession, which European Catholics will happily have some difficulty in believing, the Priests succeeded in introducing the custom of being paid three hundred reis (one shilling and sevenpence halfpenny) by each communicant. Priests have been seen (one hardly dares to say so) who, at the moment of giving the communion at Easter, have interrupted the solemn act to demand of the poor the accustomed gratuity. It is, without doubt, in this way that certain benefices produce as much as nine thousand cruzados.” The author points out, with a moderation which gives additional authority to his words, the monstrous abuses which, as he proves, are opposed to the prosperity of the country.

"Confession," he continues, "is, of all the sacerdotal functions, that which takes up most of the Priest's time; and I have seen five Negroes despatched in a quarter of an hour. If the Ecclesiastics read their Breviary, it must be very secretly; for I never but once chanced to meet one in

the performance of this study. To be a Priest is a kind of trade, and the Ecclesiastics themselves find it quite natural thus to consider the Priesthood."

"There have not been wanting instances of Ecclesiastics devoting themselves to trade, (literally,) and even selling in a shop. At the same time, it is some satisfaction to know that they do not add hypocrisy to their other faults. They show themselves for what they are, and do not seek to deceive any one by grave discourses or an austere deportment. We may add to this strange picture, that we ourselves have seen, in the neighbourhood of San-Salvador, a Priest making his parishioners dance to the sound of a guitar, and without any person being scandalized thereby."

"In order to convert the natives the more easily to the Catholic religion," says M. D'Orbigny, "the Jesuits and other enlightened Ecclesiastics had introduced into the Christian festivals the religious dances of the Incas; a highly politic concession; but, subsequently, these festivals were multiplied to such a degree by the importunities of the Priests interested in maintaining them, that they now constitute one of the heaviest imposts by which these poor creatures are oppressed."

The manner in which these Ecclesiastics enter on their office is worthy of their ministry. "At Santa-Cruz, they celebrate a solemn festival on the day on which a young Ecclesiastic says his first mass. A drum summons to the door of his relatives the persons invited: there are assembled the religious, civil, and military authorities. They go in procession to the church, preceded by music. On returning home, the young Priest stands at his door, and offers his hand to kiss to those who present themselves. A table is spread with sweetmeats, wine, and liquors of every kind, and they invite each other to drink."

[The reader is requested to forgive the misuse of the word "Catholic" in these pages. French Protestants, under the coercion of intolerance, appear to think it necessary to apply that glorious designation to Popery.]