The Sun.
London, England, 1821-11-10 00:00:00

INQUISITION AT LISBON.

" LISBON, OCT. 20.—1 send you a description of the In-
quisition at this place, which I have been to visit. At the sit-
ting of the Cortes on the 10th instant, Senhor Figueras present-
ed a letter from the Keeper of the Inquisition, stating, that on
the building being opened for public Inspection, the people had
behaved in a very disorderly manner, breaking open doors and
carrying away papers, &c. ; and that several persons had ac-
tually cried out that the building should be burned, whilst they
held lighted candles in their hands, as if about to put their
threats into execution ; which he stated they would have done
but for the interposition of the Guards. The Keeper therefore
prayed that measures should be taken to prevent the recurrence
of such scenes. Senhor Bastos said, that if any such disorders
as had been described had occurred, it was owing to the refusal
of the Keepers to spew the instruments of torture and the lower
cells of the prison to the visitants. In his opinion these Gen-
tlemen, the keepers, cherished a religious respect for the tribu-
nal, of which they spoke with apparent veneration. As it was
apprehended the people might set fire to the place, it would be
better to suspend lampS in various parts, and not allow the vi-
sitants to carry lights.—Senhor Fernando Thomas proposed
that an inscription, of which the fbllowing is a translation,
should be affixed on every place occupied by the Inquisition in
Portugal : •
" May eternal malediction follow every Portuguese, who
does not hold for ever in abhorrence an Invention so in-
fernal.'

" On the Bth of October, the Inquisition at Lisbon was
thrown open for the public inspection, and for the first four
days the concourse of people of all descriptions that crowded
to view it was so great that the pressure at the entrance ren-
dered it an enterprise of some risk. The building is a large
oblong, with a garden in the centre ; there are three floors,
with it number of vaulted passages, along the sides of which
are cells of different sizes, from six by seven feet, to eight by
nine feet. Each 'cell has two doors ; the inner one of iron, the
outer of oak, very strong. As there are no windows in the cells
on the ground and middle floors, no light is admitted when the
doors are shut." Che cells on the upper floor are larger
than the others, and each haS an aperture like a chimney, through
which the sky is visible. TheSe were appropriated to the
use of those who it was supposed might be liberated. In the
roof of each cell (for they are all vaulted) is a small 'aperture
of about an inch in diameter,
eand a private passage runs over
each range, so that the persons employed by the Holy Office
could at any time observe the conduct of the prisoners unseen, and
if two persons were confined in one cell, hear their conversation.
There are seats in these private passages so contrived, that a
person sitting might inspect two of the cells at the same time,
as by a turn of the head he could fix his eye upon the hole over
either cell at pleasure ; or he could hear what was said in either.
The persons appointed to listen to the discourse of the prisoners
wore cloth shoes; so that their footsteps could not be heard.
Frequently a familiar of the Holy Office was put into the cell
of a prisoner, as a person arresteue in order to entrap the un-
fortunate inmate of this horrible place into admissions that
might afterwards be used against him. I saw in several of the
cells human skulls and bones ; most of them appeared to have
lain there for many years, as I broke sonic of themeasily with my
ringers • others were hard and fresh. In a number of the cells the
names of the unhappy inmates were written on the walls : some had
strokes, apparently marking the number ofdays or weeks the vic-
' tims of this horrid tyr .nn y had been confined. On the wall of
one celtl counted upwards of 500 of these marks. On the wall of
another of the cells was written, Francisco Joze Carvalho,
entered here the last day of March, 1809, and remained as many
days as there are strokes in the. wall.' On the wall of another
cell was written, -4 John Laycock ;' the name had been covered
with white-wash, which had scaled off. There were a number
of strokes under the name, and the figures eighteen were easily
made out; the others were obliterated. 'Some of the cells which
had not been used for several years were locked up, but
the visitants soon broke them open. Human bones were found
in many of these. In oue was -found part of a friar's habit,
with a waist girdle .of rope and some bones. • The apertures
like chimneys in some of the cells were closed : and I have
been informed that it was a common mode of putting prisoners
• to death, and to place them in these apertures; which were then
walledup, and quick lime being poured in from the top, a speedy
end was put to their sufferings. • The furniture is very old; the
chairs in the halls'are covered with leather studded all round
with very large brass nails :-1 send you a piece of leather with
one of these nails, taken from one of the best chairs. The large
tables in the halls had drawers for papers; these the visitants
broke open, every one being desirous of obtaining some relic of
the once terrible Inquisition. In several of the cells there were
mattresses, some of them old, others nearly new: which proves
that the inquisition was no bugbear up to a very recent date.
Besides the three floors which 1 have described, there are a num..
ber of cells underground, .which have not yet. been. opened.
These it is supposed contain the apparatus for inflicting the
torture, &c.—lt is understood :that these will be shortly throWn
open to the public ; when they are 1 shall not fail to visit them,
and shall send you a description. The spot on which the In-.
"quisition stands was covered with houses in l7a.i, when the.
great earthquake happened. by which they were laid in ruins ;
so.that the present building liae not been erected inure than 60.
years ; and all ti 2 victims -ere immolated in it must lia-;
-been sacrificed :thin that