blessed couches. I really forget how many times each day the prison and these beds are to be surrounded, and how many thousand prayers are to be repeated during the circumference, though each circumference is in fact making the grand tour of the island but I never shall forget that was the best part of a July day at it, when the soles of my feet were flayed, and the stones hot enough to broil a beef-steak! When the first day's station was over, is it necessary to say that a little rest would have been agreeable? But no-this would not suit the policy of the place : here it may be truly said that there is no rest for the wicked.— The only luxury allowed me was the privilege of feasting upon one of my cakes (having not tasted food that blessed day until then)-upon one of my cakes, I say, and a copious supply of the water of the lake, which, to render the repast more stomachable, was made lukewarm! This was to keep my spirits up after the delicate day's labour I had gone through, and to cheer me against the pleasant prospect of a hard night's praying without sleep, which lay in the back ground! But when I saw every one at this refreshing meal with a good, thick, substantial bannock, and then looked at the immateriality of my own, I could not help reverting to the woman who made them for me, with a degree of vivacity not altogether in unison with the charity of a Christian. The knavish creature defrauded me of one half of the oatmeal, although I had purchased it myself in Petigo for the occasion; being determined, that as I was only to get two meals in the three days, they should be such as a person could fast upon. Never was there a man more bitterly disappointed; on the contrary, they were not thicker than six shilling pieces, and I searched for them in my mouth to no purpose-the only thing like substance I could feel there was the warm water. At last night came; but here to describe the horrors of what I suffered I hold myself utterly inadequate. I was hedged in a truckle bed with seven others, one of whom was a Scotch Papist-another a man with a shrunk leg, who wore a crutch-all afflicted with that disease which northern men that feed on oatmeal are liable to; and then the swarms that fell upon my poor young skin, and probed, and stung, and fed on me! it was pressure and persecution almost insupportable, and yet such was my fatigue, that sleep even here began to weigh down my eyelids.

I was just on the point of enjoying a little rest, when a man ringing a large hand bell, came round, crying out in a low, supernatural growl, which could be heard double the distance of the loudest shout-" waken up, waken up, and come to prison." The words were no sooner out of his mouth, than there was a sudden start, and a general scramble in the dark for our respective garments. When we got dressed, we proceeded to the waters of the lake, in which we washed our face and hands, repeating. prayers during the ablution. This to me was the most impressive and agreeable part of the whole station. The night while we were in bed, had become quite stormy, and the waves of the lake beat against the shore with the violenee of an agitated sea. There was just sufficient moon to make the "darkness visible,"

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and to show the black clouds drifting with rapid confusion, in broken masses over our heads. This, joined to the tossing of the billows against the shore-the dark silent groups that came, like shadows, stooping for a moment over the surface of the waters, and retreating again in a manner which the severity of the night rendered necessarily quick, raising thereby in the mind the idea of gliding spirits-then the pre-conceived desolation of the surrounding scenery-the indistinct shadowy chain of dreary mountains which, faintly relieved by the lurid sky, hemmed in the lake-the silence of the forms, contrasted with the tumult of the elements about us-the loneliness of the place—its isolation, and remoteness from the habitations of men-all this put together, joined to the feeling of deep devotion in which I was wrapped, had really a sublime effect upon me. Upon the generality of those who were there, blind to the natural beauty and effect of the hour and the place, and viewing it only through the medium of superstitious awe, it was indeed calculated to produce the notion of something not belonging to the circumstance and reality of human life.

From this scene we passed to one, which, though not characterized by its dark awful beauty, was scarcely inferior to it in effect. It was called the "Prison," and it is necessary to observe here, that every pilgrim must pass twenty-four hours in this place without food or sleep, kneeling, although one meal of bread and warm water, and whatever sleep he could get in Petigo with seven in a bed, were his allowance of food and sleep during the twenty four hours previous. I must here beg the good reader's attention for a moment, with reference to our penance in the "prison." Let us consider now the nature of this pilgrimage: it must be performed on foot, no matter what the distance of residence (allowing for voyages)—the condition of life-the age or the sex of the pilgrim may be. Individuals from France, America, England and Scotland visit it-as voluntary devotees, or to perform an act of penance for some great crime-or perhaps to atone for a bad life in general. It is performed, too, in the dead heat of summer, when labour is slack, and the lower orders have sufficient leisure to undertake it; and, I may add when travelling on foot is most fatiguing: they arrive, therefore, without a single exception, blown and jaded almost to death. The first thing they do, notwithstanding this, is to commence the fresh rigours of the station, which occupies them several hours. This consists in what I have already described, viz. the pleasant promenade upon the stony spikes around the prison and the "beds;" that over, they take their first and only meal for the day; after which, as in my own case just related, they must huddle themselves in clusters, on what is barefacedly called a bed, but which is nothing more nor less than a beggarman's "shake-down," where the smell, the heat, the filth, and, above all, the vermin, are intolerable to the very farthest stretch of the superlative degree. As soon as their eyes begin to close here, they are roused by the bell-man, and summoned at the hour of twelvefirst washing themselves, as aforesaid, in the lake, and then ad

journing to the prison, which I am about to describe. There is not on earth, with the exception of pagan rites, and it is melancholy to be compelled to compare any institution of the Christian religion with a Juggernaut ;-there is not on earth, I say, a regulation, of a religious nature, more barbarous and inhuman than this. It has destroyed thousands since its establishment—has left children without parents, and parents childless. It has made wives widows, and torn from the disconsolate husband the mother of his children; and is itself the monster which St. Patrick is said to have destroyed in the place a monster, which is a complete and significant allegory of this great and destructive superstition. But what is even worse than death, by stretching the powers of human sufferance, until the mind cracks under them, it sometimes returns these pitiable creatures maniacs-exulting in the laugh of madness, or sunk for ever in the incurable apathy of religious melancholy. I mention this now, to exhibit the cunning with which these calamities are turned to account, and the knavery which is exercised over these poor, unsuspecting people, in consequence of their occurrence. The pilgrims, being thus aroused at midnight, are sent to prison; and what think you is the impression under which they enter it? one indeed, which, when we consider their bodily weakness and mental excitement, must do its work with success. It is this that as soon as they enter the prison, a supernatural tendency to sleep will come over them, which, they say, is peculiar to the place; that this is an emblem of the influence of sin over the soul, and a type of their future fate that if they resist this, they will be saved; but that if they yield to it, they will not only be damned to the flames of hell in the next world, but will go mad in this. Is it any wonder that a weak mind and exhausted body, wrought upon by these fiendish bugbears, should induce upon itself, by its own terrors, the malady of derangement? We know that nothing acts so strongly and so fatally upon reason, as an imagination diseased by religious terrors; and I regret to say, that I had upon that night an opportunity of witnessing a fatal instance of it.

After having washed ourselves in the dark waters of the lake, we entered this famous "prison," which is only a naked, unplaistered chapel, with an altar against one of the sidewalls, and two galleries. On entering this place, a scene presented itself altogether unparallelled on the earth, and in every point of view capable to sustain the feelings raised in the mind by the midnight scenery of the lake as seen during the ablutions. The prison was full, but not crowded; for had it been crowded, we would have been happy. It was, however, just sufficiently filled to give every individual the pleasure of sustaining himself, without having it in his power to recline, for a moment, in an attitude of rest, or to change that most insupportable of all bodily sufferings, uniformity of position. There we knelt upon a hard ground floor, and commenced praying;-and again I must advert to the policy which prevails in this island. During the period of imprisonment there are no prescribed prayers nor ceremonies whatever to be performed, and this is the more strange, as every other stage

of the station has its proper devotions. But these are suspended here, lest the attention of the prisoners might be fixed on any particular object, aad the supernatural character of drowsiness imputed to the place, be thus doubted-they are, therefore, turned in without any thing to excite them to attention, or to resist the propensity to sleep occasioned by their fatigue and want of rest. Having thus nothing to do-nothing to sustain-nothing to stimulate them, it is very natural that they should, even if unexhausted by previous lassitude, be inclined to sleep-but every thing that can weigh them down is laid upon them in this heavy and oppressive superstition, that the strong delusion may be kept up. We however began to pray-and such prayer! Oh, Romanism! Romanism! the blood of millions is upon you-you have your popes, your priests, your friars, your nuns, your monks, your hermits, your hair, your teeth, your nails, your garments, your blessed buttons, your rotten bones, your bits of wood, your gold, your ivory, your pictures, your scapulars, your cords, your candles, your ashes, your salt, your water, your charms, your exorcisms, your wafers, your masses, your penance, your indulgences, your fasts, your feasts, your jubilees, your oils, your absolutions, your confessions, your floating funds of good works in this life, to be sold out to the credulous to relieve them from imaginary purgatories in the next, you have your visionary lies, and your lying visions, your dreams and your raptures, your miracles, your holy wells, your blessed graves, and your Lough-deargs, you have all these, but you have not Christ-these form the great idol which you have set up in his stead, these are the "strong delusion," the "lie" which you are given to believe, and yet you call your

self of Christ!-You have first told man that he is a sinner, and you next teach him to look to human intercession for salvation ! Did Christ speak truth when he declared that there is no way unto the Father but by Him? that He is the way, the truth, and the life? These words contain the awful sentence of your condemnation in them you hear the eternal voice of God against you. You stand, therefore, between them and your people-you wrap that guide from which you have departed, in darkness, lest it should testify against you-lest the people whom you have led astray should find their error and return to the truth-lest they should perceive, that, like the Pharisees, whilst you have pretended to them to have the word of God as your standard, you have made it of "none effect by your traditions." But the day is coming is already come-when the imposture of the priest, and the lie of the man, shall both be tried and detected by the word of God.

On entering the prison I was struck with the dim religious twilight of the place. Two candles gleamed faintly from the altar, and there was something I thought of a deadly light about them, as they burned feebly and stilly against the darkness which hung over the other part of the building. Two priests, facing the congregation, stood upon the altar in silence, with pale spectral faces, their eyes catching an unearthly glare from the sepulchral light of the slender tapers. But that which was strangest of all,

and as I said before, without parallel in this world, was the impression and effect produced by the deep, drowsy, hollow, hoarse, guttural, ceaseless, and monotonous hum, which proceeded from about six hundred individuals half asleep, and at prayer; for their cadences were blended and slurred into each other, as they repeated, in an awe-struck and earnest undertone, the prayers in which they were engaged. It was certainly the strangest and most super-natural-like sound I ever heard, and resembled a thousand subterraneons groans, uttered in a kind of low deep unvaried chaunt. Nothing could produce a sense of gloomy alarm in a weak superstitious mind equal to this; and it derived much of its wild and singular character, as well as of its lethargic influence, from its continuity; for it still-still rung lowly and supernaturally on my ear. Perhaps the deep wavy prolongation of the bass of a large cathedral bell, or that low, continued tone, which is distinct from its higher and louder intonations, would give a faint notion of it-yet only a faint one; for the body of hoarse monotony here was immense. Indeed, such a noise had something so powerfully lulling, that human nature, even excited by the terrible suggestions of superstitious fear, was scarcely able to withstand it. Now the poor pilgrims forget, that this strong disposition to sleep arises from the weariness produced by their long journies-by the exhausting penance of the station, performed without giving them time to rest-by the other natural consequence of not giving them time to sleep-by the drowsy darkness of the chapel-and by the heaviness caught from the low peculiar murmur of the pilgrims which would of itself overcome the lightest spirit. I was here but a very short time when I began to doze, and just as my chin was sinking placidly on my breast, and the words of an Ave Maria dying upon my lips, I felt the charm all at once broken by a well-meant rap upon the occiput, conferred through the instrumentality of a little angry looking squat urchin of sixty years, and a remarkably good blackthorn cudgel, which, along with its owner, was engaged in thwacking the heads of such sinners as, not having the dread of insanity and the regulations of the place before their eyes, were inclined to sleep. I declare the knock I received told to such purpose on my head, that nothing occurred during the pilgrimage that vexed me so much. After all I really slept the better half of the night; yet so indescribably powerful was the apprehension of derangement, that my hypocritical tongue wagged aloud at the prayers, during these furtive naps. Nay, I not only slept but dreamed. I experienced also that singular state of being, in which, while the senses are accessible to the influence of surrounding objects, the process of thought is suspended, and man seems to enjoy an inverted existence, in which the soul sleeps, and the body remains awake and susceptible of external impressions. I once thought I was washing myself in the lake, and that the dashing noise of its waters rang in my ears: I also fancied myself at home in conversation with my friends; yet, in neither case, did I altogether forget where I was. Still in struggling to bring my mind back, so paramount was the dread of awaking deranged, should I fall