The Protestants were formerly reproached for making no exertions to spread the Gospel among heathen nations. That reproach has been done away. Within the course of thirty years, I have seen the unpromising commencement of the Protestant missions, their patient progress, and the success with which God is blessing them. Thirty years hence, this other reproach may also be effaced, and England have its Beguines and its Sisters of Charity. It is grievously in need of them! There is nothing Romish, nothing superstitious, nothing fanatical in such associations; nothing but what is righteous and holy; nothing but what properly belongs to that Ignσxela, that religious service which the Apostle James, the brother of our Lord, has told us is pure and undefiled before God and the Father. They who shall see such societies instituted and flourishing here, may have a better hope that it may please. the Almighty to continue his manifold mercies to this island, notwithstanding the errors which endanger it, and the offences which cry to Heaven*.

*I will add here an account of the Beguinage in Ghent, extracted from a journal written in 1815.

The most interesting object in Ghent to me, and indeed the most remarkable, is the Beguinage, which is the principal ' establishment of the order, and very much the largest. It is

at one end of the city, and entirely enclosed, being indeed a 'little town of itself. You enter through a gateway, over which there is an image of Queen St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the Patron Saint, or Saint-Patroness of the institution. The space inclosed cannot be less than the area of the whole town of Keswick; but the Beguinage is unlike alms-house, college, 'village, or town. It is a collection of contiguous houses of 'different sizes, each with a small garden in front, and a high ' well-built brick wall inclosing them all. Upon every door is 'the name, not of the tenants, but of the Saint under whose ⚫ protection the tenement is placed; there is no opening in the 'door through which anything can be seen, so that in this re'spect the clausure is complete. There are several streets

thus built, with houses on both sides. The silence and soli'tude of such streets may easily be imagined, and the effect is

very striking upon entering there from the busy streets of 'Ghent : you seem to be in a different world. There is a large 'church within the precincts; a burial ground, in which there are no monuments; a branch from one of the many rivers 'or canals wherewith Ghent is intersected, in which the washing of the community is performed, from a large boat; and 'a large piece of ground planted with trees, where the clothes ' are dried.

Our appearance here, and the evident curiosity with which 'we were perambulating a place seldom visited by strangers, ' attracted notice; and we were at length courteously accosted 'by a sister, who proved to be the second personage in the 'community. She showed us the interior, and gave us such " explanations as we desired. It is curious that she seemed to 'know nothing of the origin of the order, nor by whom it is 'said to have been founded; nor could she refer me to any 'book containing either its history or its rule.

'According to this lady, there are at this time about six

⚫ thousand Beguines in Brabant and Flanders, to which coun

tries they are confined; six hundred and twenty of these are ' resident here. They were rich before the Revolution; then, in the general spoliation, their lands were taken from them, ' and they were commanded to lay aside their distinguishing 'dress; but this mandate was only obeyed in part, because 'public opinion, even then, was strongly in their favour, and 'they were of such manifest utility to all ranks, that very few, however otherwise malignant, were disposed to injure them. 'They receive the sick who come to them for succour, and they 'support as well as attend them as long as the case may re'quire. They go out also to nurse the sick, when their ser'vices are asked for. They are not bound by any vows, and 'Madame Devolder (this was the name of our obliging in'formant) assured us with an air of becoming pride, that no 'instance of a Beguine withdrawing from the order had ever 'been known. The reason was obvious; the institution is in ' itself reasonable and useful, as well as humane and religious; ' no person is compelled to enter it, because there is no vow, 'no clausure, and no person who wished to withdraw could be 'compelled to stay: and I suppose their numbers are generally, if not wholly, filled up by women who, when their youth is 'gone by, seek a retirement, or need an asylum, from the world. Madame Devolder herself entered after the death of her husband. The property which a Beguine brings with her, reverts to her heirs-at-law upon her decease.

• During the Revolution, the church of this Beguinage was ⚫ sold, as being confiscated property belonging to a suppressed ' order. The sale was a mere device, or, in English phrase, a job, to accommodate some partizan of the ruling demagogues ' with ready money. Such a person bought it for a nominal ' price, and in the course of two or three weeks sold it for 300 'Louis-d'or to Madame Devolder and another sister; who, as VOL. II.

'soon as they could, made it over once more to the com⚫munity.

The sisters dine in the Refectory, if they please, but any 'one who chooses may have dinner sent from thence to her ⚫ own apartments. We were taken into three of these cham'bers; they are small, and furnished with little more than necessary comforts, but those comforts are there, and they ' are remarkably clean. In one, a sister who has been bed‘ridden many years, was sitting up in bed, knitting: we were ⚫ introduced into her chamber, because Madame Devolder said 'it amused her to see visitors, though she could not converse with us, for she spoke no French, and there was no Flemish

tongue in our party. Two sisters were spinning in another 'chamber, one of whom was 83 years of age, the other 85.

The habit of the Beguines is not inconvenient, but it is abominably ugly; as the habit of every female order is, I believe, without exception.'

Ryckel ( 71, p. 315) says, this Beguinage was founded about the year 1234, by Joanna and Margareta, countesses of Flanders. None of the present buildings appear to be as old as his own days; the former edifices were probably destroyed during some of the sieges which Ghent has sustained. Before the religious wars, he says, it had sometimes contained 700 inhabitants, when he wrote they did not exceed 400. Est locus amplissimus trium et amplius bonariorum terræ. Additus et amplitudini decor; adeo ut qui multa viderunt, faleantur se pulchrius nullum vidisse. Olim à prima sua origine fuit extimum civitati, nunc intra pomæria conclusum est.

243

COLLOQUY XIV.

THE LIBRARY.

I WAS in my library, making room upon the shelves for some books which had just arrived from New England, removing to a less conspicuous station others which were of less value and in worse dress, when Sir Thomas entered. You are employed, said he, to your heart's content. Why, Montesinos, with these books, and the delight you take in their constant society, what have you to covet or desire?

MONTESINOS.

Nothing,.. except more books.

SIR THOMAS MORE.

Crescit, indulgens sibi, dirus hydrops.

MONTESINOS.

Nay, nay, my ghostly monitor, this at least is no diseased desire! If I covet more, it is for the want I feel and the use which I should make of them. Libraries,' says my good old friend George Dyer, a man as learned as he is benevolent, libraries are the wardrobes ' of literature, whence men, properly informed, 'might bring forth something for ornament,