dear to you, let me tell you in one word, that the history of the world proves that it has never been real, stable, and universal in any country, and never shall while the world lasts, but where men live under the influence of true and undefiled religion. In vain will men promise themselves liberty while they are the slaves of corruption. The body can never be free while the mind is enslaved, and the mind can never be free that sets any other than God upon the throne. -From a Lecture by Rev. J. Gibson.

THE MODE OF ELECTING

A POPE.

THERE are four different modes of electing the Supreme Pontiff: by inspiration, by compromise, by scrutiny, and by access.

An election by inspiration is effected by several of the cardinals calling aloud, as by a sudden impulse, the name of the person whom they wish to raise to the pontifical dignity. This method of resorting to the pretext of supernatural aid is seldom relied on, except when all human means have failed of success. If, however, a powerful party can be raised, and their efforts happen to be strongly seconded, the rest of the cardinals, unwilling to distinguish themselves by a decided opposition, or to be the last in expressing their consent, hasten to concur in the choice.

It is called an election by compromise, when the cardinals, not being able to determine on a proper person, agree to submit the choice of a

pontiff to one or more of their own body, nominated for that purpose.. It was thus that John XXII., after having obtained the solemn assent of the whole college to abide by his decision, assumed to himself the pontificate, an event which induced the cardinals not to entrust this power in future to any of their number, without such restrictions as might effectually prevent the recurrence of a similar event.

In choosing a Pope by scrutiny, the cardinals each write their own name, with that of the person whom they wish to recommend, on a billet or ticket; which they afterwards place, with many ceremonies and genuflexions, in a large and highlyornamented chalice on the altar of the chapel in which they assemble. The tickets are then taken out by officers appointed from their own body for that purpose, and the number is carefully compared with that of the persons present; after which, if it appears that any one of the cardinals has two-thirds of the votes in his favour, he is declared to be canonically elected Pope.

When, however, after repeated trials, this does not occur, a new proceeding takes place, which is called election by access; in which any cardinal may accede to the vote of another, by an alteration of his ticket in a prescribed form. When by these means the choice of a pontiff is effected, the tickets are prudently committed to the flames, to prevent all pretext for further inquiry.

It is important that Young Men should acquire habits of observation, and become keenly observant of the effects of things. In reading Works of History, more particularly, it is important so to do, since there is no other method of getting at what is

properly termed its philosophy. It will generally be found, that in periods of war, which have unhappily made up a large portion of the history of nations, there is much less slaughter from actual conflict than might be supposed, and that, in

that, to be rightly appreciated, it must be looked at, not in the hour of conflict, and upon the field of battle, but in all its movements, from the first to the last. Man is but a feeble creature, and his noise greatly exceeds his execution. The Divine movements are still, but they are full of power: by the noiseless "breath of his mouth he slays the sons of men." The following facts, also supplied by the Government, furnish illustrations:

DEATHS BY PESTILENCE.

Total number of persons killed by cholera and epidemic diarrhoea in 1848 and 1849, in England and Wales. 1. Killed 72,180

Of these, 34,397 were able-bodied persons, and of an age to get their own living, being between the ages of 15 and 60. But it is known that there was much omission and falsification of returns, and that these amounts are under statements of the fatality of the disease.

The number of attacks from cholera is estimated at two attacks to one death. The numbers, therefore would beAttacked

. 144,360

Of those attacked so many are permanently reduced in strength as to be made more susceptible to the prevalent causes of disease, as to be subjected to premature deaths equivalent to the premature deaths and wounded in battle.

Average annual deaths from preventible, that is, typhus and other zymotic diseases, from which wellmanaged public establishments and improved dwellings are kept clear,

115,000 Annual deaths from other causes eventually preventible in civil life; those by violence, by improvement in the education and industrial training of manual labourers, rendering them more discreet by improvement in the arts; rendering processes and engines more safe; and

On the medical inspectors being sent from the General Board of Health to make preparations in the West Indies against the threatened visitation of the Asiatic Cholera, application was made for insurances, but none could be obtained from any respectable office in London under less than 12 per cent. on the amount insured. Of the three, one was so reduced by the climate that he died immediately on his return, and another had a dangerous attack of yellow fever.

Of the medical men engaged in the actual visitation and treatment of the severe epidemics, as many as 12 per cent. have died. In some instances as many as 20 per cent. have been killed.

The secretary of the London City Mission Society states that though the missionaries have many of them previously been born and bred in poor districts, and accustomed to

tensive checks and mitigations.

We sustain as much loss of life and health in prosecuting missionary work in London as those societies do, the object of which is to send missionaries to foreign parts, many of which are notoriously unhealthy. This is a reproach to the metropolis of our country. There are some districts respecting which we almost feel sometimes a question whether we ought to expose the health and life of men by placing them on them; and there are other districts on which missionary after missionary has broken down, when located there, while even in a large number of our districts, the energy, strength, and vigour of our missionaries become impaired by their constant exposure to impure air.

The widowhood and orphanage from pestilence, inasmuch as there is always a large proportion of married adults attacked, are immeasurably greater in proportion to the gross number killed than in war. In 1842, on an enumeration, it appeared that there were 27,000 cases of premature widowhood, and upwards of 100,000 orphans then chargeable to the poor-rates from preventible causes. In the returns from 12 Unions, where there had been 11,170 deaths from cholera, it was found that there were 3,567 widows and orphans chargeable to the epidemic cholera of 1848-49, and an expenditure, for only four years' relief, of £121,000. In the same proportion for the whole of the 72,000 deaths, the total number of widows of the class falling into destitution would be 23,000, and the four years charge of them, £780,000. The total expense of funerals is estimated at £500,000, and the total private as well as public expenses of that one epidemic, at not less than

Taking as the test of the obtainable rate of mortality, the rate obtained in good old dwellings improved by self-cleansing drainage works, as well as by improved supplies of water-as well as in the new model dwellings, namely, 13 in a thousand (the common average of the whole kingdom being 23 in a thousand); the total annual losses from preventible disease, from lost labour by premature death, and excessive and premature sickness; and the expense of excessive numbers of funerals, is under estimated at 12 millions per annum, or about the total annual charge of the entire army and navy.

This is surely throughout a serious view of things, and one which deserves from all classes of society particular attention. We consider no employments more meritorious than those that have for their object the diffusion of the principles of peace amongst the nations of the earth, since war-itself a principal crimeis the parent of crimes innumerable, and the misery is as extensive as the crime. But next to this, we look on sanitary inquiries and operations as possessing an all-pervading and allpowerful claim. While there has been for a generation peace among the nations, there is among every people, and more especially in our own illustrious Isle, a constant war waging between right and wrong, purity and corruption, in matters physical, bearing with them moral results, and issuing in an amount of human destruction, compared with which the doings of death, in the days of the greatest European war, were comparatively insignificant. Christian people ought not, therefore, to look coldly on sanitary move