On the 5th of April, Don Francisco Xavier de Mier y Campillo, the Inquisitor-general, published an edict, offering a term of grace to those who had fallen into the crime of heresy, provided they denounced themselves before the end of the year; and declaring that "Spain was infected by the new and dangerous doctrines which had ruined the greatest part of Europe." And on the 22d of July following, the Inquisitors issued an order for the suppression of almost every work which had been published in Spain during the revolution, subjecting every reader and retainer of any of the proscribed books to the most grievous punishments. Thus, although both the king and the Inquisitors pretended that reformations had taken place in the holy tribunal, and the latter in particular boasted of the "sweetness and charity which are now used in the ecclesiastical procedure," yet it is evident that the re-established Inquisition differs little or nothing from that which was suppressed. It does not appear that a single public auto-da-fé has been celebrated since that period,[20] and it is to be hoped that a scene so barbarous will never again be exhibited in Spain; yet, while that odious tribunal exists, who can be safe in that oppressed and degraded country? Its secret prisons, and its various modes of torture and other punishments, still remain. Spain, therefore, can never be happy, or its inhabitants one moment secure, while the falsely denominated "Holy Office" continues to enjoy the smallest footing in that kingdom. Nor let these remarks be termed the effects of prejudice. On the contrary, it is proved by numerous living authors, who adduce facts, the best of all evidence, in support of their statements, that the procedure of the modern Inquisition is equally cruel with that of the ancient, excepting indeed the celebration of public autos-da-fé. Among these none give a more ample detail of the present state of the holy tribunal, than Lieut. Colonel Don Juan Van Halen, and Llorente. The former of these writers has published a narrative of his imprisonment in the dungeons of the Holy Office in 1817. He was confined first in the Inquisition of Murcia, and subsequently in that of Madrid, for the active part which he took in the exertions of the _liberales_ to deliver their country from tyranny, both civil and ecclesiastical. He was arrested at Murcia, on the 21st of September, and all his papers were seized, among which were several that very nearly involved many eminent persons in the same persecution. Passing over the sufferings which he endured while confined in the Inquisition of Murcia, we shall give here, in his own words, an account of part of those which were inflicted on him in Madrid.