“I cannot fix the time when this machine was first employed in Spain; but I was told by Mr. Gévay, a learned Hungarian in the Imperial Library at Vienna, that he had read of this machine in Spanish romance of the early part of the _sixteenth_ century, which proves that it was known in Spain at the period in question. The author, also, of a French romance, published at Paris in 1828, and entitled ‘Cornelia Borogina,’ makes mention of it as Spanish, and this attributes it to the same epoch. Add to this, that it is an instrument much more congenial with the genius of the Spanish nation than with that of the Germans. “Probably one might find in Spain other specimens of this machine; perhaps some may exist in Italy; for I have heard that at the close of 1814, there was something like it at Florence. But after having seen the engine in the possession of Baron Diedrich, one can no longer doubt that others of its species were employed as appendages to the ancient tribunals; and one is, therefore, obliged to regard the story of ‘_The Kiss of the Virgin_,’ not as a popular legend, but as history.” Reflecting on popery, existing thus in Rome and other countries called Catholic, degrading all classes of the community in every nation, we cannot but consider it deserving the execration of mankind. It is a system of priestcraft grafted on the Gospel, a “mystery of iniquity,” utterly at variance with the first principles of humanity, as well as the letter and spirit of Christianity, as taught in the Scriptures. Its dreaded Inquisition, in all its various agencies, is regarded with the utmost abhorrence by the more intelligent people of Rome and of the other States of Italy. The Catholic priests, too, are hated generally, as the crafty oppressors of the laity; and, though this might be denied by the adherents of the Pope, the fact is notorious, from the late revolutions in Europe, and especially from the present condition of the Italian States, whose governments require to be severally supported by the military power of Austria, while Rome itself is occupied by a French army, as indispensable to the support of “_the Most Holy Father_,” against his _beloved children_, in _his own city_! Intelligent persons, in all popish countries, regard the Romish priesthood with mingled contempt and dread. This is testified by every well-informed writer. As an evidence of this, it may be stated, that a merchant from Portugal, recently in London, being asked by an English merchant, freely, in his counting-house, whether he allowed his own parish priest familiarly to visit his family,--consisting chiefly of daughters,--replied, “No, indeed! on no account whatever would I suffer him to enter my house!” and, laying his hand upon the desk, he declared, with peculiar emphasis, “I would rather suffer this hand to be chopped off, than allow the priest to associate with my family!”