"Earth groans beneath religion's iron age,
And priests dare babble of a God of Peace--
Even whilst their hands are red with guiltless blood,
Murdering the while, uprooting every germ
Of truth, exterminating, spoiling all,
Making the earth a slaughter-house."

[Footnote C: I refer to the abominable outrages perpetrated a few
months ago at San Miguel, Panama, where popular preachers were forced
by the ecclesiastical powers to foment rebellion by violently
denouncing the State authorities, who had refused to allow a pastoral
of the Christian Bishop of San Salvador, hostile to the laws, to be
read in the churches. Having been put into a state of frenzy by one
Palacios, a canon of the cathedral, a fanatic mob revolted, liberated
prisoners, murdered generals in command, massacred numbers of the best
citizens, set fire to the city with kerosene, and destroyed over one
million dollars' worth of property. After this theological revolt had
been put down, passports, couched in the following terms, and sealed
with the seal of the bishopric, were found on the bodies of some of
these holy murderers;

"PETER.--Open to the bearer the gates of heaven, who has died for religion.

(Signed), GEORGE, Bishop of San Salvador."

Similar attempts were made by the Christian hierarchy in Brazil
against the Masonic body; but, fortunately, the emperor, a liberal and
an enlightened savant, crushed the attempt under foot, and
unmistakably proved, to the satisfaction of humanity, that he was not