Leaves from a Madeira Garden 



already in shadow, but the sunlight still lingers 

 on the hill, and the "Angelus" rings from the 

 tile-clad Campanile, you may indeed feel that 

 here, if anywhere, the Church is still " whisper- 

 ing from her towers the last enchantments of 

 the Middle Ages." 



At various times certain well-meaning, but 

 misguided, British subjects have striven to 

 make converts among the people to some form 

 of Protestant religion. Much ill-will was for- 

 merly engendered by these attempts, leading 

 to serious riots. Perhaps the small amount 

 of success which has attended them has led 

 to the indifference and toleration which now 

 prevail. As far as I know, the ministers 

 of the English Church have been blameless in 

 this respect ; and it would indeed be idle to 

 expect that the ecclesiastical compromise of the 

 Tudors, which on historical and other grounds 

 has so strong a hold on us, should have any 

 meaning for these people. Still less do the 

 tenets of other Protestant bodies, however well 

 they accord with the comparative simplicity 

 and directness of the Northern character, seem 

 fitted to satisfy the emotions of warm-blooded 

 Southerners, with their strong tendency to 



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