THE INQUISITION NOT DEAD.
The Roman correspondent of the New York Observer thus writes about the Inquisition:— "As to the existence of the Inquisition even now, no liberal Roman doubts it, although it has no longer the power to burn and torture and imprison. Only the presence of the Italian government renders it harmless. But tokens of its existence are given now and then by the prohibition of new books. They are put 'in the Index'—that Index which must now contain the noblest and best of Italian thought for centuries. Padre Curci also, a Jesuit of liberal opinions, was a year or two ago banished from the Order. When the Roman Republic was established in 1849 the palace of the Inquisition was converted into homes for the poor, first being exposed to the public for a few days. It was proposed to raze it to the ground, and erect a column of infamy on the spot, but the idea of using it for the poor prevailed. But when the French replaced Pius IX. on the papal throne, the Inquisition took possession of that palace again, and it returned to its original use. After that fearful revelation of its secrets the Jesuits did not presume to torture as they had done, but they did keep prisoners there 'in duro carcere.' The liberals, whom they persecuted and imprisoned instead of heretics and Jews, were kept in another prison—that of San Michele—but this was also the work of the Jesuits and their tool, the Holy Inquisition. Many liberals, still comparatively young men, now live in Rome who were imprisoned there for years. Only the entrance of the Italian government into Rome in 1870 opened the prison doors, and also let into the gates of the city that noble army of Italian exiles who had been wandering in strange cities and in foreign lands. "Volumes could be written on this subject, and those who wish to inform themselves in regard to it can read a book which, I think, has been translated into English—'Papal Rome' by the Rev. Luigi de Sanctis. Professor Timothy Dwight's book on the 'Roman Republic of 1849' also gives many interesting details. Of this there is no doubt, that wherever the Jesuits go there will be the Inquisition in one form or another. Far from being dead two hundred years ago, it still lives, and would display all its fierceness even in New York if it had the power."