and guarded him till he had received the two hundred lashes according to his sentence. After this, the lords Inquisitors ordered, that as he had behaved himself indecently towards the alguazil, four years more should be added to the six for which he was at first condemned to the galleys." When the tribunal judges that the words or actions which are denounced, are sufficient to warrant an inquiry, witnesses are cited, none of whom are informed of the subject on which they are to make depositions. They are only asked in general terms, "If they have ever heard or seen any thing which was, or appeared contrary to the Catholic faith, or the right of the Inquisition?" The consequence is, that sometimes circumstances foreign to the case in hand are recollected, and deposed to by the witnesses, which tend to criminate others, against whom new processes are immediately commenced! "When we speak of witnesses in Great Britain," says an eminent writer, "we almost unavoidably think of a charge regularly brought, the judges upon the bench, the jury sworn, the criminal apprehended, and in open court, the people admitted as auditors, and the whole judicial assembly feeling and acting under the assurance that they are responsible to an intelligent and watchful public, for every part of their proceedings. But, in the Inquisitorial tribunal, when the witnesses are summoned, the party accused has not even been taken into custody. He remains in his own house, and in the bosom of his family, engaged in his ordinary occupations, and entering, it may be, into the amusements of the place where he lives; utterly ignorant of all that has been done against him, and utterly unprepared for all that is to follow. In truth, the depositions of the witnesses are viewed, rather in connection with the charge, than with the issue, and relate not so much to the guilt or the innocence of the party accused, as to the sufficiency or insufficiency of the information. Like the informer, the witnesses are sworn to secrecy; their names and personal history are most industriously concealed; and there are instances upon record, where brothers and sisters have given evidence against brothers and sisters, where the wife has deposed against the husband, and the husband against the wife."