excel those belonging to England. Dominica and St. Lucia export annually about six thousand hogsheads of sugar each. Martinique exports about sixty thousand hogsheads. The reason given for this superiority is, that the French colonists, whether Creoles or French, consider the West Indies as their country. They cast no wistful looks towards France. They marry, educate, and build on and for the West Indies, and for the West Indies alone.

It was, however, with British Guiana-the last place in the world of which it would be expected-that Mr. Trollope was most pleased; pleased even to ecstasies :

When I settle out of England, and take to the colonies for good and all, British Guiana shall be the land of my adoption. If I call it Demerara perhaps I shall be better understood. At home there are prejudices against it, I know. They say that it is a low, swampy, muddy strip of alluvial soil, infested with rattlesnakes, gallinippers, and mosquitoes as big as turkey-cocks; that yellow fever rages there perennially; that the heat is unendurable; that society there is as stagnant as its waters; that men always die as soon as they reach it; and when they live, are such wretched creatures that life is a misfortune. Calumny reports it to have been ruined by the abolition of slavery; milk of human kindness would forbid the further exportation of Europeans to this white man's grave; and philanthropy, for the good of mankind, would wish to have it drowned beneath its own rivers. There never was a land so ill spoken of, and never one that deserved it so little. All the above calumnies I contradict; and as I lived there for a fortnight-would it could have been a month!-I expect to be believed.

If there was but a snug secretaryship vacant there-and these things in Demerara are very snug-how I would invoke the goddess of patronage! how I would nibble round the officials of the Colonial Office! how I would stir up my friends' friends to write little notes to their friends! For Demerara is the Elysium of the tropics-the West Indian happy valley of Rasselas-the one true and actual Utopia of the Caribbean Seas-the transatlantic Eden.

The men in Demerara are never angry, and the women never cross. Life flows along in a perpetual stream of love, smiles, champagne, and small-talk. Everybody has enough of everything. The only persons who do not thrive are the doctors; and for them, as the country affords them so little to do, the local government no doubt provides liberal pensions.

The

The form of government is a mild despotism, tempered by sugar. governor is the father of his people, and the governor's wife the mother. The colony forms itself into a large family, which gathers itself together peaceably under parental wings. They have no noisy sessions of parliament, as in Jamaica, nor money squabbles, as in Barbadoes. A clean bill of health, a surplus in the colonial treasury, a rich soil, a thriving trade, and a happy people, these are the blessings which attend the fortunate man who has cast his lot on this prosperous shore. Such is Demerara, as it is made to appear to a stranger.

"As it is made to appear," is an admission that detracts largely from the author's honesty of purpose. The reality was somewhat different. The giant forests and indigenous primeval wood was found to be "a disagreeable, scrubby, bushy, sloppy, unequal, inconvenient sort of affair, to walk through which a man must be either an alligator or a monkey." The houses were rickety, ruined, tumble-down wooden erections; the mail phaeton that plies between George Town and New Amsterdam broke down; at the latter town three persons in the street constituted a crowd! But with all these drawbacks, Guiana thrives; labourers have been brought in freely from India and China; it beats all the neighbouring colonies in

the quantity of sugar produced, and it is only waiting for a further advent of Coolies to produce a million hogsheads. Hence are the people well to do, and the colony prosperous.

After Barbadoes, "a very respectable little island," which makes a great deal of sugar and pays its own way, comes Trinidad, where we knock our heads once more against the Anti-Slavery Society, that august and sapient body who, having emancipated the negro and ruined the colonist, would keep the latter in perpetual poverty, by precluding the immigration of Coolies or free labourers, upon the plea that the competition of labour would be hurtful to their pet free slaves, the most idle vagabonds on the face of the earth. These men are truly going beyond their mark; they have done their work, and might be satisfied, but they are not so, and will not be so till they have ruined some thousands more than they have already done.

Back again to St. Thomas, one of the hottest and one of the most unhealthy spots among all these hot and unhealthy regions, with its "Hispano-Dano-Niggery-Yankee-doodle population," a depôt for cigars, light dresses, brandy, boots, and eau-de-Cologne, and the central depôt of the West Indian steam-packets. Still, there is a certain amount of civilisation in all the West Indian Islands, mongrel as it may be in some. It is different in the Main, where the most magnificent appanages of the Spanish crown have been broken up into innumerable petty governments, the country has received the boon of Utopian freedom, and the mind loses itself in contemplating to what lowest pitch of human degradation the people will gradually fall.

Civilisation here is retrograding. Men are becoming more ignorant than their fathers, are learning to read less, to know less, to have fewer aspirations of a high order, to care less for truth and justice, to have more and more of the contentment of a brute-that contentment which comes from a full belly and untaxed sinews, or even an empty belly, so long as the sinews be left idle.

To what this will tend, a prophet in these days can hardly see, or rather, none less than a prophet can pretend to see. That those lands which the Spaniards have occupied, and, to a great extent, made Spanish, should have no higher destiny than that which they have already accomplished, I can hardly bring myself to think. That their unlimited fertility and magnificent rivers should be given for nothing, that their power of producing all that man wants should be intended for no use, I cannot believe. At present, however, it would seem that Providence has abandoned it. It is making no progress. Land that was cultivated is receding from cultivation; cities that were populous are falling into ruins; and men are going back into animals under the influence of unlimited liberty and universal suffrage.

Every one of my predecessors here died of fever," said the consul at Santa Martha, "and my wife has been down in fever thirteen times!" What a prospect! The place, indeed, was dead; so Mr. Trollope moved on to Cartagena, a city not quite so dead, yet in its decadence. Aspinwall, as the Anglo-Americans call it, or Colon, as it is called in England, was a relief. Here is the Isthmus of Panama Railway, upon which the amateur may travel to an fro free of expense. Yet, although the railway is a great fact, Aspinwall is but a wretched, unhealthy, miserably situated, but thriving little American town." Froebel, indeed, corroborates the fact of the unhealthiness of the spot.

66

MEDIEVAL DEMONOLOGY.

THE recent revivals in Ireland appear to indicate that religion is subjected to certain crises among us which return with all the regularity of the trade winds. Within the memory of most of us, certain strange manifestations have taken place which can hardly be referred to a superior agency, so curious have been the modes in which the victims have displayed their feelings. American camp-meetings and love-feasts were the predecessors of the spirit-rapping and table-moving, for the appetite of the patient grew with what it fed on, and excitement had to be kept up at fever heat. The wonderful scenes that have recently taken place at Belfast have been beneficial in so far as they have to a certain degree checked the consumption of whisky; but, on the other hand, the madhouses have been supplied with a large contingent.

During the middle ages the same scenes took place, and caused equal excitement, though from a very different motive. Religion was then regarded as an object of terror, and gloomy ascetics profited by this feeling to mould the people to their own purposes. It was a species of fetish worship, no better nor worse than now goes on in Africa, and the poor victims regarded Satan as the great arbiter of their destinies. They knew little, and were taught less, of that Divine charity which would have secured them from evil, and the consequence was, that any peculiar natural ailment was ascribed to the agency of Satan. How deeply this feeling spread will be seen in the fact that Luther himself firmly believed in the agency of Satan; and in his writings will be found repeated instances where he wrestled victoriously with the Evil Spirit. The consequence of this naturally was, that diabolical manifestations soon became quite common in the New Church; but Luther at length succeeded in inducing his followers not to pay so much attention to external apparitions, but to wrestle mentally with Satan. In the Old Church the idea of the Evil Spirit was combined with personal suffering and danger, while Luther taught that man through the original sin was the bondsman of Satan, and, unless he repented sincerely, he must fall eventually into his snares. Hence it came that, during the tenth century, those men who had formed a compact with Satan were generally assumed to have been fetched by him. In confirmation of this, we have the story of Dr. Faustus, but he was far from being the only instance. In too many cases men were murdered by their enemies, and the report was spread that the devil had fetched them. There is hardly one celebrated man of the sixteenth century whom one side or the other did not accuse of having entered into a compact with the demon. In the previous century, the compact which the Duke of Luxemburg, the opponent of William of Orange, subscribed was fully printed, and it is characteristic of the age, that one of the conditions was, that the demon should always appear before the duke in a "pleasant character."

It is comforting to find that in this gloomy age the Church treated possessed persons after the dictates of the Scriptures. Luther and his successors assumed that they had fallen into the clutches of Satan through some sin, and that it was the duty of the pious to expel the Evil One by

prayer and conjuration. Not every epileptic person was considered the devil's own, but as his presence was everywhere suspected, it was a satisfaction so frequently to find him: the most extraordinary manifestations of his presence were observed with credulous zeal. As a general rule, weakminded women fancied themselves tormented by Satan, and it was a natural result of their fancy that they should express themselves in very strong terms against clergy and ceremonial. How far a prejudice can carry the judgment, not merely of the erring, but also of healthy natures, we may find in the numerous reports of eye-witnesses who in other matters deserve the fullest belief. Thus, during Luther's time, a maid-servant at Frankfort-on-the-Oder was possessed by the devil in a very wonderful way: whatever she caught hold of at once dropped coins of various values. This story is vouched by many credible witnesses, and was at length referred to Luther. He was rather doubtful, wished to know were the money good, and at length gave his advice to take the girl constantly to church and pray fervently for her. Of course she was soon cured, and left off her tricks; but many an insolvent tradesman would like to have such a servant in the present day. He would be in no hurry to cure her. The most curious part of the affair was, that as one clear case produced a hundred others, the Protestant and Catholic clergy outvied each other in expelling Satan, and blowing their own trumpet. So soon as a case occurred, both confessions seized upon it, and there was often a scandalous quarrel as to which party should have the credit of defying the devil and all his works. The Protestants employed the prayers of the clergy and the parish, while the Catholics pinned their faith on exorcism. The saved soul naturally belonged to the conquering confession. Among the many cases that occurred, the following, which took place among the Catholics at Ingoldstadt, deserves honourable preservation, not merely for its detail, but also for some interesting psychological features. The original, which fell into our hands by accident, bears the title, "Erschröck liche gantz wahrhafftige Geschicht, welche sich mit Apollonia, Hansel Geisslbrecht's Bürgers zu Spalt inn dem Eystätter Bissthum, Haussfrawen, verlauffen hat, Durch M. Sixtum Agricolam, &c. Ingolstatt. 1587." The story begins as follows, and we shall supply suggestive extracts as we go along :

"Hanns Geisslbrecht, citizen of Spalt, after the decease of his first housewife, married Apollonia Francke, a widow, and lived with her several years. At last, however, the accursed marriage devil brought it to such a pitch that they quarrelled night and day, and, worse than that, much blasphemy and bad swearing took place. Now, the said Geisslbrecht came home one Friday, the 19th October of the past year '82, very tidily drunk, began his old games with his wife, and they went on cursing and swearing nearly the whole night, as the neighbours heard. On Saturday morning Apollonia comes to her neighbour, Anna Stadlerin, and says: Dear Stadlerin, did you not hear how my husband behaved all last night most disgracefully?' 'Yes,' replies the latter; I and my Stadler heard it all, to our sorrow; and the whole neighbourhood will be robbed of its peace if folk live so unchristian.' On this the aforesaid Apollonia fell into a tremendous passion, and said: Eih! if our blessed Lord will not help me from this savage man, I wish that the devil would come and do it.' 'Now, mark what happens! As the aforesaid Apollonia

comes home from the meadow the same afternoon with the cows, two birds like swallows come first, although at that season there are none left, and fly quickly round her head. All at once a tall man (it was, unhappily, the devil incarnate) stands by her side, and whispers in her ear, Dear Appel, how sorry I feel for thee; thy life is so hard and miserable, and thou hast such a bitter, bad husband, who treats thee so badly; he intends to spend everything, so that after his death nothing shall be left thee. Do one thing-promise to be mine. Lo! then I promise to lead thee this very hour to a glorious spot, where thou shalt have nothing to do but eat, drink, dance; in short, spend such happy days as thou hast never yet known. For Heaven is not so as thy priests describe it. I will show thee something different.'

"On this mighty promise of the incarnate fiend the wretched woman gives him her hand incautiously, and promises to be his. The aforesaid Apollonia is from this moment possessed by him, and then he suggests to her that she shall hurry with him to the loft, in the hope that she would hang herself there. As the said Geisslbrechtin springs up from her milking, and hurries to the house door, her neighbour sees her, and cries to her husband, 'Oh, Ulrich, come, the neighbour has lost her senses.' On this the two married folk run up, and before they reach her she lays herself full length in the trough, to drown herself in it. When she is taken out, and other neighbours run up and carry the poor possessed woman into the house, she merely desires the steps to the loft, and shouts, "Oh, let me go! Do you not see how gloriously I live? that I have plenty to eat and drink, and need only to amuse myself?' When Apollonia was carried into her room, four men had quite enough to do in holding her down. In the mean while, a messenger reached just at midnight the reverend and learned Master Wolfgang Agricola, dean and rector, bidding him come in all haste, as the Appel had gone mad. But the sensible dean fancied that the matter was not nearly so violent as described, would not go out so late on so sacred a night, but stated that he had expected the constant quarrelling would have such an end. He, however, ordered that if the Geisslbrechtin was so mad that she could not be held, two chains should be put on her; which was at once done.

"The next morning, after performing mass, the dean, as a man already experienced in such matters, took up a tablet in which was a piece of the true cross and of the pillar at which Christ the Lord was scourged; further, an Agnus Dei, blessed in the year of the Jubilee, and a piece of white wax, consecrated by the Summus Pontifex, which he placed about his person. When he reached the house, and Apollonia, with her treacherous inmate, who treated her so cruelly, perceived the dean, only those who were present could have believed the noise and disturbance that commenced. For, although the woman was kept down by two chains, four men had their work in subduing her. The dean began, and said, 'Oh, Appel, God in heaven pity thee that thou sufferest so much!' On this the wife said, in a masculine and unusual voice, 'Fie, priest! what do I care for thee and thy Christ? I have enough for life; dost thou not see how gloriously I fare?' To which the dean replied, 'I see, to my sorrow, how well thou livest. I would not wish such a life to a dog, let alone a human being.' And as a proof whether she were really possessed, or only mad, the dean produced the aforesaid relics, and, on her