the bystanders. Shortly after, she demanded
that her tongue should be pierced, which was
done with the point of a sword. Then she
desired that it might be slit; and she was obeyed.
Next, a woman of sixty years of age, named in
the sect Sister Sion, rolled herself on the ground,
pronounced a long unconnected discourse, and
prayed ardently. The "papa" (so they called
an elderly man who directed the performances)
then threw himself on her and trampled all
parts of her body, until she said, "Enough."
Very soon she cried out "Again!" and the
"papa" renewed his trampling with redoubled
violence. Then she had convulsions. They next
administered to her the "secours of the log."
It was a great log of oak-wood, about half a
foot in diameter, with which they struck her
with the whole swing of their arms again and
again. Then she called for the torture of the
"press." This consisted in violently compressing
the body with straps drawn together with
great force. During this horrible compression
they kicked her body so violently that the room
was shaken by it.

Upon another occasion, when Dr. Morand
was present, the police broke in upon the
assembly while the "secours" of the log was
being administered. On being ordered to cease,
the "papa" continued to strike his victim,
remarking that "the work of God must be
accomplished." Whereupon, he and six women
were taken off to the Bastille.

Yet it would seem that idle denizens of the
world of fashion, in search of a "sensation,"
would then, as they have since been seen to
frequent as questionable scenes, go to see these
revolting exhibitions as to a place of amusement;
for, in another account, we read of a
victim on the cross, breaking out into violent
invective against the rouge worn by a "princess"
who entered the room while she was being
crucified.

The increasing outrageousness of the fanatics

kept pace with the increasing vigilance and
violence of the police in its vain efforts to cure
a mental malady by bodily pains and penalties.
And the police, do what they would, were
beaten in the struggle. But the most striking
instance of their impotence, and, perhaps, one
of the most curious cases on record of the failure
of an organised and powerful police to act in
opposition to the feelings of a large portion of
the public, was seen in the regular appearance
of a periodical entitled the Nouvelles
Ecclésiastiques, which gave a detailed account of
these meetings and the scenes enacted at them.
Notwithstanding the unlimited power and
resources at their command, and despite all their
perquisitions unrestrained by any respect for any
man's rights or station, the police were never
able to discover the authors of this publication,
or the place where it was printed, or to stop
the regular appearance of it. A great number
of persons both clerical and lay were thrown
into prison on suspicion of being connected with
it; but the Nouvelles Ecclésiastiques
written, printed, and distributed, as regularly as
ever. Sometimes it was printed in the country;
sometimes in the city; now in the boats on the
river; now again between the stacks of wood
in the vast wood-yards, by printers disguised
as sawyers. It is related that on one occasion,
while the lieutenant of police, Hérault, was
making a perquisition in a house in the faubourg
St. Jacques, in the hope of finding the printing-
press of the ubiquitous Nouvelles, a number
of the sheets wet from the press were thrown
into his carriage.

An amusing account is given of the manner
in which Paris, when the authors wished it, was
placarded with advertisements of their work. A
woman, apparently a rag-picker, with one of
those large baskets which the chiffonniers of
Paris still carry, at her back, and apparently
filled with rags, would lean the basket against
the wall, as if to rest herself. Immediately, a
little child, concealed in the basket, opened a
trap contrived in the back of it, applied the
previously prepared placard to the wall, shut up
the trap again, the rested rag-picker moved on,
and the trick was done.

In conclusion, it may be observed that in this
case, as in many others of similar character,
it was abundantly proved that fanaticism and
imposture were mingled in a manner that made
it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to
separate them, or ascertain the exact proportion
of either element. It was, at all events,
satisfactorily ascertained, both that in several
instances girls were paid to become "convul-
sionnaires," and that there were persons, mostly
ecclesiastics, who gave instructions in the art of
becoming such.

For what motive did they thus spend their
money, and risk spending the remainder of their
lives in the Bastille? Doubtless the answer
given by them to their own consciences on this
point, was, that it was to secure the ascendancy
of their own party, and the consequent glory of
God, and maintenance of true religion.
Doubtless, too, the answer, strange as it may seem,
would have been a sincere one. For, the Jansenists
of the eighteenth century were unquestionably
as earnest in their religious convictions and
practices as the modern "convulsionnaires,"
whose feats fall short of those of their
predecessors, because they are deprived of the
invigorating and encouraging stimulus of persecution.

      THE FOO-CHOW DAILY NEWS.

THE Foo-chow Daily News is a fair example
of a Chinese newspaper. It is of about the size
and texture of a Bank of England note, only
of somewhat greater length, and, perhaps, a trifle
narrower. Its copies are multiplied by writers,
not by printers but it has a printed title and
the contents are supplied from a placard daily
affixed to the governor's office. The
intelligence mainly consists of reports of visits
interchanged between the two chief officers of the
province, the Governor and the Lieutenant-
Governor, and of the visitors received by them.