Spiritualism has resorted to all the trickery that for ages has been used to delude and delight the populace. Much of it could be traced back to the very first mountebanks who wandered about the streets of the ancient cities, or squatted at the gates of palaces or in market-places to catch the frequent obolus from the curious passer-by. In every country under the sun, the trade of deception has been turned to the account of religious superstition. The Hindus, in particular, excel in this branch of necromancy. The marvelous things that Aaron and the Egyptian sorcerers did before Pharaoh, are really as nothing compared with what the modern jugglers of India and China perform. All of the developments of the art that have taken place in the West, seem but trivial imitation beside these, and indeed they are little better. No sooner had Spiritualism made many proselytes, than there was no limit to its audacious pretensions. Its apostles imagined that they could go on duping the world and even hoodwinking the scientists, and that by appealing to the Federal government for a formal investigation of its claims, which they could not have believed for a moment would be granted, they could obtain a sort of quasi-official recognition of their so-called new religion. Accordingly, on the 17th of April, 1854, a petition was sent to Congress, bearing fifteen thousand names, and was presented in executive session by Senator Shields of Illinois. As a rather skillful contemporaneous characterization of the matter, what he said on this occasion is of historical interest. The following were his words: