leaving England, I had on that evening prayers, as usual, at eight o'clock, in the cuddy, at which all attended. For two weeks previously, I had offered a special petition for preservation from death: on this occasion I did so, pleading with the Hearer and Answerer of prayer, and submitting ourselves to His holy will. At this time the storm was raging with great fury, and so continued till about aquarter to ten o'clock, P.M., when suddenly there was a dead calm-the ship seemed to settle down as if about to sink-the water rushed into the lower and upper sternports, and there was one awful clap of thunder, preceded by lightning. The storm had ceased; the mountainous waves had subsided into a heavy, but comparatively harmless swell; and ere the lapse of ten minutes, the sky, which for two days previously had been laden with stormy clouds, cleared up a light breeze sprung up from the opposite direction, and every heart was filled with joy. Thanks be to God, all of us were strengthened in the hour of great tribulation."

The vessel reached Port Louis, Mauritius, on the 25th September, when all the passengers landed. During the voyage many opportunities for usefulness were afforded to Mr. Laseron. The vessel conveyed 150 troops, and Mr. Laseron was permitted to open a school for their instruction, which was regularly attended by fifty-four, who were instructed in Scriptural knowledge, as well as reading, writing. arithmetic, and geography. Mr. Laseron had also obtained in London, from the Bible Society, a grant of tracts and books, by means of which 40 books and 100 tracts were kept constantly in circulation during the voyage. Among so many it was to be expected that many would be found regardless, and indisposed to receive instruction; many, however, were attentive to the instructions given them, and although, when the meetings were first begun, the interruptions were so frequent, and the rude behaviour of several so offensive, that Mr. Laseron was at times scarcely able to hear his own voice, in the course of one week matters were so changed, that those who did not choose to listen quietly, retired from the meeting; while more than sixty remained, who listened with earnest attention to the Word of eternal life.

On the arrival of the Seringapatam at Port Louis, she was found so damaged as to be unable to proceed on the voyage, and Mr. Laseron was detained there for about two months and a-half. During this period Mr. Laseron had divine service in the Malayalim language for the natives;

and also preached several times for Mr. Beaton, the clergyman from the Church of Scotland in the Mauritius.

On the 15th December, Mr. Laseron left the Mauritius by the Sagof, and arrived at Cochin on the 25th of January -in safety and in health-where he found the Rev. Mr. Bonthorne, who had been sent out as his fellow-labourer, had arrived thirty-two days previously.

m

ORPHANAGE AT COCHIN,

By letters which had been received from Mr. Laseron, he mentions that three of the orphan girls, and two of the boys, had died; while three of the boys had left during his absence. And he adds: "We have at present just six girls and three boys; for these we want provision at once from the Orphanage Fund. A number of orphans have been offered us already the few days we are here, but we cannot accept them, for two reasons,-the first, for want of room, and the second, for want of the support. The building, I dare say, will be ready in about two months and a-half, and by that time, I suppose we shall have authority to admit a number of children. Four of the boys who were with us are now learning coopering, and receive enough to maintain themselves. Six children, five of whom are boys, and one a girl, have been offered us yesterday, but we could not accept any without sanction from home. So we require permission and funds for the admittance of perhaps ten; then, after we have regularly admitted them, we can send home their names, ages, &c., and then they may be chosen by the various parties. Mr. Laseron also mentions, that a considerable quantity of the materials for building the Orphanage were already laid down, and that the building was to be commenced immediately; but that, as the price of timber and labour had risen very much, he feared that £300 would be required for the building, instead of £250.

Mr. Laseron further mentions, that not only is there divine worship in the church regularly twice every Sabbath, but that a Sabbath school has also been commenced, and is attended by a very considerable number of children,— about forty-seven names being on the roll; while there is every prospect of a large increase in the attendance.

We trust that our young friends will help forward this good work. Contributions may be forwarded to us for this object, and they are also received by Mr. John Tawse, the Treasurer in Edinburgh; or Mr. James Robertson, the Treasurer in Glasgow, to the Cochin Orphanage Fund.

TUSCAN PERSECUTIONS.

IMPRISONMENT FOR READING THE BIBLE.

FLORENCE, March 30, 1855.

ANOTHER Tuscan Protestant has been made to feel the vengeance of the Popish priests. Domenico Cecchetti was seized last Sunday morning, at half-past four, hurried away from his children to the prison of the Bargello, condemned without any trial, without any witnesses, by the Council of Prefecture, to a year's confinement in the Penitentiary of Imbrogiano, near Monte Lupo, whither he was conveyed in chains on the following morning; the crimes for which he was consigned to a dungeon being the posses. sion of one Bible and two Testaments, and the avowal, when examined by the Chancellor of the Delegation of Santa Maria Novella, that he considered Jesus Christ the sole Head of the Church!

The circumstances which led to this arrest are so charac teristic of the spy-system now prevalent throughout Tuscany, and so honourable to the man against whom it was directed, that I make no apology for communicating them with as much fulness of detail as your columns will allow. Domenico Cecchetti is a workman employed in the tobacco manufactory of MM. Emanuel Fenzi and Co., the wellknown bankers, who have for years farmed this monopoly. He was one of the best workmen in the establishment, earning five pauls a-day, and enjoyed the esteem and confidence of his employers in the highest possible degree. His age is about forty-three, and as he is a widower, with four boys, of whom the eldest is sixteen, and the youngest six, there has devolved on him not only the task of maintaining his family, but of discharging all those domestic duties which are a mother's peculiar province. And these duties he has discharged so well that his four boys are patterns of good conduct, and the whole neighbourhood is wont to speak of Cecchetti's children as the models of what children ought to be. The two eldest were already employed in the tobacco manufactory, where they, too, earned on an average a liara a-day each.

Cecchetti lived on the first floor of a house in the Via Taddea, close to the tobacco manufactory. In another small apartment on the same floor was lodged a young man, the apprentice of a vintner in Borgo La Noce. He was struck by the good conduct of the young Cecchettis, and by the excellent and kind bearing of the father, and in

VOL. IV. No. VI.

JUN 1855.

the course of conversation and familiar intercourse at length learned that the father was in the habit of reading with his children and his friends the Bible. And in casual chat with his own master, he repeated this circumstance to him, expressing his belief that the Bible could not be such a very bad book, after all, when it produced such happy fruits.

A few days afterwards the vintner went to confession at San Lorenzo, and there mentioned to the confessor that his apprentice had been talking to him about Diodati's Bible, which he thought not so bad as it had been represented. The priest immediately interrupted the confession, and refused him absolution. Next day, he met Priest Buratti, the first curate of San Lorenzo, and one of the fiercest and most relentless persecutors of the Tuscan Protestants. "Why, what is the matter with you," said Curate Buratti, "you seem so dull ?" "Ah, Curate, no wonder; yesterday I was refused absolution." "Refused absolution!" rejoined the curate, "impossible. Refuse absolution to so good a Catholic as you. There must be some mistake. Come to my house and confess to me, and I hope it will prove nothing."

The vintner made his confession to Curate Buratti, and received absolution, all snug and comfortable; and Curate Buratti lost no time in denouncing Domenico Cecchetti to the Tuscan police as guilty of the crime of Protestant propagandism, and requiring them to watch over his proceedings, and, if possible, to seize him in the act.

Accordingly, some three months ago, four gendarmes suddenly entered Cecchetti's house, about nine o'clock in the evening. They expected to have found him in company with other inquirers, reading the Scriptures; they found only another fellow-lodger, named Ciolli, who had come to repay Cecchetti the sum of five pauls, which he had borrowed on the previous day. But they seized and carried off in triumph one copy of Diodati's Bible, and two copies of the New Testament.

Cecchetti heard nothing more of the matter for nearly ten weeks. On the morning of Wednesday, the 14th inst., he received an order to appear before the Delegate of Santa Maria Novella, in the afternoon of the same day. Then and there he was examined by the Chancellor of the Delegation, and required to declare why three copies of Diodati's Bible and Testament were found in his possession. Indeed, Signor Delegato," was the answer, "I only wish there had been five instead of three, for there are five of us, my four

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boys and myself, and we require a Bible a piece." The Cancelliere successively interrogated him as to his opinion regarding mass, confession, and the authority of the Pope, on all which points he stated his opinion without reserve. He replied that Jesus Christ had been offered up once as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind; that no future sacrifice was or could be wanted. He said: "As to confession, when I have sinned, it is my duty to confess my sin, first to Almighty God and implore his pardon; then to my brother, if I have acted wrongly against my brother-to you, Signor Cancelliere, for example, if I have offended you. As to the Pope being the head of the Church, I know, he said, no headship save that of Jesus Christ. The Pope is a constituted authority, like you, Signor Cancelliere!"

But, respecting certain matters, he neither heard nor learned anything from Domenico Cecchetti, though again and again he returned to the charge. Neither wheedling nor bullying could induce him to reveal the name of one of the Christian brethren with whom he read and discoursed upon the Scriptures. His answer invariably was-"On all points regarding myself I will answer you without the slightest_reserve; but questions likely to commit my friends, I cannot and will not reply to." The Cancelliere, finding the attempt hopeless, then read over the minutes of the examination. Cecchetti himself perused it, and signed the same; and so, for the time, the affair terminated with the dismissal of the accused.

The paper thus obtained was submitted to the Council of Prefecture, which, on the avowals it contained, sentenced Domenico Cecchetti to a year's imprisonment in the Penitentiary of Imbrogiana. Imbrogiana was formerly a villa of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, in which they solaced themselves after the cares of state with rural pleasures, and is now a dungeon for the Protestant subjects of Leopold II., and in that character, doubtless, affords him as much pleasure as he is capable of receiving.

On the morning of Sunday, the 25th, the gendarmes were charged with the execution of the sentence. They entered the house of Domenico Cecchetti at half past four, and told him that they had been sent to convey him to the Bargello, from whence he was not likely soon to return. Hastily kissing his four boys he bade them farewell, leaving them in the care of Him, "with whom is strength and wisdom, and whose are both the deceiver and the deceived." On the following morning he was met at a quarter to seven,