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QUARTERLY REVIEW.

DECEMBER, 1811.

ART. I. The History of the Inquisition; including the Secret Transactions of those Horrific Tribunals. Illustrated with twelve plates. 4to. Stockdale. 1810.

A Letter upon the mischievous influence of the Spanish Inquisition as it actually exists in the Provinces under the Spanish Government. Translated from El Español, a periodical Spanish Journal published in London. 8vo. pp. 31.

Narrativa da Perseguiçam, de Hippolyto Joseph Da Costa Pereira Furtado de Mendoça, Natural da Colonia do Sacramento, no Rio-da-Prata, prezo e Processado em Lisboa pelo pretenso Crime de Fra Maçon, ou Pedreiro Livre. 2 Tom. Londres. 1811.

Svo.

O called tur attention the present subject, the value is in ve

F the two first publications in this list of books which have

inverse proportion to the bulk. The quarto is a paltry work, compiled with little knowledge, and less judgment: the pamphlet is the production of an able and philosophic mind, reasoning temperately and with the best intentions upon an evil which it has felt and which it thoroughly understands. The History' will do harm rather than good, because the manufacturer of it has indiscriminately heaped together truth and falsehood. The excellent letter of Mr. Blanco White, (for his it appears to be in the valuable journal where it was first published,) will afford some curious and important information for our purpose: so will the narrative of Mr. Hippolyto da Costa, whom we believe to be the editor of the Correio Braziliense, a Portugueze Journal published (like the Español) in London, the principles and opinions of which are most honourable to himself, and might be most useful to his prince and his country.

We live at the commencement of an era, more distinctly marked by the great and immediate revolutions with which it has been ushered in, than any other in the annals of the world. No precise line of demarkation can be traced through the twilight boundaries of ancient and modern history; but the outline which separates this new era from that which has ended within our own remembrance, is

strongly and conspicuously drawn for future ages. The French revolution has been as it were, the breaking up of the abyss, and from our ark of liberty which rides securely upon the waters, we behold every thing around us laid waste by the deluge.

Of all those countries over which the flood has taken its appointed course, Spain and Portugal hold out the most important and interesting matter for contemplation, whether we look back into their history to gather wisdom from the past, or forward into their future state for consolation and hope. Our present business is with the past. In the two kingdoms of the Peninsula, despotism and intolerance have been carried to the fullest extent; the warmest advocates of either could not possibly require a more complete experiment than has been made of both. And let it not be lightly supposed, that these systems can have no advocates for as it is daily seen that no quackery, whether physical or spiritual, is too gross to find believers, so there is no system of political and religious government, how pernicious soever, which may not have its partizans; so easily are the opinions of men perverted by their prejudices, their passions, their interests, and their vices. Despotism and intolerance have subverted the two kingdoms of the Peninsula. Of the first of these evils we are in no danger, though it has never wanted partizans in any country when the tide sets that way; and how near a nation may be to the yoke when it thinks itself farthest from it, we learn from the history of our own commonwealth, and see at this hour in the example of France. But the constitution of our government bears this resemblance to that of the Romish church, that its forms cannot exist without in some degree keeping its spirit alive, so wisely have both been constructed. From the other evil we are not altogether so secure. Intolerance is closely connected with those religious opinions which of late years have been gaining ground among us with fearful progression; and persecution would be as necessary and inevitable a consequence of their ascendancy as it has been of the Romish faith, because upon either system it equally becomes a duty,-a conclusion which (were this the place for proving it) would operate as a reductio ad absurdum against both. It may not therefore be a useless task, and may perhaps be found au interesting one, to trace the rise, progress, and completion of that great experiment of intolerance. which we have seen completed; and we do it the more willingly because we are in possession of many rare and curious documents, manuscript as well as printed, upon the subject.

The Spanish annals are stained with the first appeal against heresy to the secular power, and the first blood shed with the forms of law in a persecution of christains against christams. Priscillian, the protomartyr for the freedom of religious opinion, was a Spaniard.