“In this particular, the constitution of the new Inquisition is more reprehensible than that of the old one; for, as the old father expressed it, ‘_Nuno sigillum non revelat Inquisitio_.’ Formerly, the friends of those unfortunate persons who were thrown into its prison, had the melancholy satisfaction of seeing them once a year walking in the procession of the _auto da fé_; or, if they were condemned to die, they witnessed their death, and mourned for the dead. But now they have no means of learning, for years, whether they be dead or alive. The policy of this new mode of concealment appears to be this,--to preserve the power of the Inquisition, and at the same time to lessen the public odium of its proceedings, in the presence of British dominion and civilisation. I asked the father his opinion concerning the nature and frequency of the punishments within the walls. He said he possessed no certain means of giving a satisfactory answer; that everything transacted there was declared to be _sacrum et secretum_. But this he knew to be true, that there were constantly captives in the dungeons; that some of them are liberated after long confinement; but that they never speak afterwards of what passed within the place. He added, that of all the persons he had known, who had been liberated, he never knew one who did not carry about with him what might be called ‘The mark of the Inquisition;’ that is to say, who did not show, in the solemnity of his countenance, or in his peculiar demeanour, or his terror of the priests, that he had been in that dreadful place.