“I here return thanks, with all the power of my soul, to the Almighty, for his having so visibly protected me from that infernal band of friars, who employed their various tortures to force me to apostatise from my holy religion. I return our sovereign, George II., the most dutiful and respectful thanks for his so graciously interposing in favour of an ill-fated galley-slave. I shall retain, so long as I have breath, the deepest sensation of affection and loyalty for his sacred person, and will ever be ready to expose my life for his majesty and his august family.” MR. BOWER.--Mr. Archibald Bower was not so much a victim as to be subjected to the torture, as he was enabled to escape from the power of the inquisitors; but his biography illustrates the character of the Inquisition. He was born in 1686, near Dundee, in Scotland. His parents being Roman Catholics, sent him, at the age of five years, to an uncle in Italy, for education. First at Douay, and then at Rome, his progress was uncommon. He became a Jesuit, and was appointed professor of rhetoric and logic, in the college of Macerata, in Italy. In this city he became intimate with the inquisitor-general of the Holy Office, from whom he received preferment as a counsellor to the Inquisition. There were twelve counsellors, each of whom had a residence, with about £200 per annum, besides extensive privileges. On being installed into office, he received a manuscript book of directions for inquisitors, for his private guidance. These rules required the extremes of inhumanity; and his attendance on the trials of the Holy Office he found most agonising, so that he frequently uttered exclamations of horror. Though not suspected, the inquisitor-general, on one occasion, in great warmth, striking the table, remarked, “Mr. Bower, you always object to the evidence.” At another time, looking on the face of a wretched victim undergoing the torture, he perceived symptoms of death, and fainted, when he was carried out of the hall; and on his return he was reproved by the chief-inquisitor, alleging that “what is done to the body is for the good of the soul.” Mr. Bower excused himself, urging “the weakness of his nature, which he could not help.” “Nature!” exclaimed the inquisitor, “you must overcome nature by grace!” But the colloquy ceased, as the miserable victim died at that moment under the torment!