The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-04-21 00:00:00

THE CEDAR OF LEBANON,

(From Sharpe's London Magazine.)
I am going to give the history of what was, perhaps, the
first ced4r of Lebanon brought over to Eu'ope.
It pew in the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris, and was
such a loved and favourite tree, that people I ked to repeat
the story of its first being planted, the adventures it hail
gone through, and the changes it had seen, and these I am
to tell you.

now goinz

A Frenchman was travelling in the Holy Land, and
found a little seedling among the ce lars of Lebanon, which
he longed to bring away as a memorial of his travels. lie
took it up tenderiy, with all the earth about its little roots,
and, fur want of a better fluwer-pot, planted it carefully in
his hat, and there he kept it and tended it. The voyag.
home was rough and tempestuous, and so much longer
than usual, that the supply of fresh water in the ship tell
short, and they were obliged to measure it out most care-
fully to each person. Tile captain was allowed two glass -s
a day, the saihrs, who hail the work of the ship .on their
one glass each, and the poor passengers but half a

glass.- In such a scarcity you May suppose th it the poor
cedar had no allowance at all. Bat our friend the travel-
ler felt for it as hia child, and each day shared with it his
small haliglass of preciou4 water; and so it waq, that
'lad drunk

when the vessel arrivt
so little water that he was almost dying, and the young
cedar so much, that, behold, it was a noble and fresh little

t the Dor

tree, six inches
At the custom-house, the officers, who are always sus-
picious of smuggl-ng, wished to empty the hat, for they

not believe but

that slmething more ydluable lay
ould. They thought of lace or of
thrust their fingers into the soil.

But our p.nor traveller implored them so-arnestiv to sp ire
his tree, and talked to them so eloquently of all that we
read in the Bible of the cedars of Leb anon, telling them of
David's house and Sollmon's temple, that the men's hearts
were softened, and ih-y suffered the young cedar to remain
undisturbed in its strange dwelling.
From thence it was carried to Paris, and planted most

carefully in the Jardin des Plantes. A large tile was set
up against it as a protection and a shade, and its name was
written in Latin and stuck in front, to tell all Oa world
that it was something new and precious. The soil was
good, and the tree grew—grew till it no longer needed the
shelter of the tile, nor the dignified protection of the Latin
inscription ; grew till it was taller than its kind protector
the traveller; grew till it could give shelter to a nurse and
her child, tired of walking about in the pleasant gardens,
and glad of the coolness of the thick dark branches. Soon
these branches spread so far on every side that other nurses
and other children could ass-qnble under the shade, and
play their little games together.

, • _ _
The cedar grew larger and larger, and became the no-
blest tree there. All the birds of the g rrden could have
assembled in its branches. All the lions and t gers, and
apes and bears, and panthers and elephants of the great
menagerie close at hand. c,uld have lain at ease under its
shade. It became the tree of all the trees in the wide gar-
den that the people loved the best; there, each Thursday
when the gardens were open to all the city, the bind peo-
ple from their asy'uart used to rt:lt to be brought under the
cedar; there they would stand together, and measure its
great trunk. and guess how large and wide must be its
branches. It was a pleasure to see them listening to the
sweet song of the birds over-head, and breathing in its
fragrant eastern perfume. They thmight of the distant
east—the east from whence comes the true light, their
only light. They could never hope to see it with their
mortal eyes, but here the east seemed to visit them, and
they could touch it.

The blind seemed to call the dumb there ; for the deaf
and dumb, too, chose the cedar for their friend. The blind

the murmur of its branches; the deaf thought that they
heard the song of the birds as they saw them fly from
branch t' branch.

Not only on Thursday were the blind and the deaf and
dumb to be seen there, but the poor foundlii,gs—thos.
desolate children whose fathers and mothers have deserted
them, and who are abandoned to the charity of stranizers
—round it thrir greatest treat to collect under the cedar,
and dance round it ; or, perhaps, with sadder thoughts,

they would sit to rest and watch the happier children pass-
ing, with fat hers and mothers and r•iiters by their side, all

the celar was a-kind of father. Year by year they mea-
-ured their growth by it. At their earliest recollection
they were not higher than this little proj?ction of rough
hark ; now they can almost touch the sweeping branch

dark. a dismal. and ierribie ;Lice, where the unfortunate
and the guilty were all mixed together in one wretched
The building was a lofty one, divided into

conlubion

many stories, and by the time you reached the top you
were exhausted and breathless. The ce:ls were as dt vary
and comfortless there as in the more acce-sible ones be.
low ; and yet those who could procure a little money by
any meets gladly paid it to be allowed to rent one of those
topmost cells. What was it that made them value this
weary height ? It was that, beyond that forest of chim-
neys aid desert of slates, they could see the Cedar
of Leb anon. His ch,eks pressed against the rusty b rs.

HORRORS OF THE INQUISITION,
(From the Union Magazine.)

Dellon, who was one of the sufferers from the cruelty
of the Inquisitors at Goa, describes the tribunal of the
holy office, as an apartment hung with blue and yellow
taffeay ; at one end was a large-crucifix in relievo, placed
against the hangings and reaching up almost to the ceil-
ing. In the middle of the chamber was a large alcove,
in which was fixed a table, and near the crucifix was the
secretary, seated on a folding chair. The prisoner was
olaced opposite to the secretary, and at his right hand
was seated the great Inquisitor of the Indies, Francisco
Delgado e Maros, a secular priest about forty. The ac-
cused was led, barefooted, before the judge, and ordered
to take the oath of secrecy upon the Mass Book. After
having been severely interrogwed, he was ordered to kneel
down, to make a sign of the cross, to repeat the Pater-
noster. the Ave-Maria, the Creed, the Commandments
of God and the Church, and the Salve Regina. He was
then remanded, but such was the severity of his confine-
ment. that in a paroxysm of despair he attempted suicide.
He was immediately ordered before the inquisitors, wbo
severely reproved him ; and though he was too weak to
stand, and was laid on the floor during the audience, they
had the barbarity to order handcuffs to be rut upon him,
to prevent him forcing off the chains with which he was
bound. An iron machine was then placed round his
neck, which was. fixed to the handcuffs by an iron pad-
lock. lie was reduced to such a state of desperation by
this treatment, that his persecutors found it necessary to
employ gentler measures—his irons were struck off, and
he was atlowe I a companion, a black, who was ordered
to watch him narrowly. After having been eighteen
months in this confinement, he was allowed another
audience. lie was then accused of holding heretical
tenets respecting the wors'iip of images, but he replied
that he had advanced nothing on the subject, but what
he had borrowed from the holy Council of Trent, and he
quoted the twenty-fifth §. " Imagines Christi, Deiparte
Virginia et aliorum sanctorum retinendas usque debit=
honorem et venerationem impertiendam ; ita ut pfr
gine: coram quibus procumbitnus Christum adoremus et
sanctos quorum Woe similitudinem gerunt veneremus."
The jadge appeared much surprised at this quotation,
with which he seemed wholly unacquainted ; and, indeed,
his ignorance was conspicuous throughout the whole exa-
rdnation. The proctor then declared that the prisoner
had been clearly convicted of ape +king contemptuously of
the Inquisition. and of the Pope and his authority. and
that as he had designed to teach (a somewhat uncertain
charge) heresy, he had become obnoxious to the major
excommunication ; that his goods and chattels were to be
forfeited to the King, and himself to be burned in the
flames. He was remitted to a long and painful impri-
sownent, during which he describes " his ears as being
wounded with the cries of the prisoners who were put to
the torture, no regard being had to age, sex, or condition."

At length he was surprised by the entrance of the turn-
key into his dungeon, who left there a lighted lamp, and
a suit of black and white linen, in which he was ordered
to attire himself; after which he was led into a long gal-
lery, where a number of his fellow-sufferers were already
assembled. The women, dressed in similar array, were
assembled in an opposite gallery, and in an apartment
close to hand were pris-'ners. in black rAes, wilt their
confessa s : these had been condemned to be burned.
Each prisoner was then ordered to take in his hand a
yellow wax taper; and garments of yellow cloth, with the
red cross of St. Andrew, were also brought them, ca!led
san benitos.. The relapsed were clothed in the samarra,
or grey scapulary, and tie criminal was depicted thereon,
standing on fire-brands, and surrounded with demon=,
and at the bottom the name and crime of the victim waa

written. On the heads of some of the prisoners, carro-
chas, or pasteboard caps, similarly painted, were placed.
They were then marched to the church of St. Francis,
accompanied by the officers of the holy office, bearing
the trunks containing the bones of the departed, who had
d ed in prison, and of those who, after death, had been
accused and convicted of heresy, and whose graves had
been violated. and their remains dug up to be burned at
the auto da fe ; for the Inquisition dors not confine its
process to the living. The usual ceremonial already de-
scribed was then gone through. and when the sentences
were read, that against Dellon was c ,nfiscation of goods,
banishment from the, Indies, and --rs' labour as a

owe yedi... 46,
The prislners condemned to death w.