BR 845 .C6 1815 
 Cobin, Ingram, 1777-1851 
 Statements of the 
 persecution of the 
 
STATEMENTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 persecution of tiie Protestants 
 
 IN THE 
 
 SOUTH OF FRANCE, 
 
 SINCE THE 
 
 RESTORATION OF THE BOURBON FAMILY: 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A PETITION, 
 
 Addi-essed to Lewis the Eighteenth, by the principal 
 Protestants of Nismes ; 
 
 % Jl^arratibe 
 
 IN DEFENCE OF THE PROTESTANTS OF LOWER 
 
 LANGUEDOC, 
 
 Which was laid before the King; 
 
 AND 0THI?:R important DOCUMENTS : 
 
 TOGETHER WITH A 
 
 PREFATORY ADDRESS, 
 
 AND 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE PERSECUTIONS 
 
 J'^ndured hy this oppressed People from the earliest Periods 
 
 of authentic History to the present T'ime. 
 
 BY THE REV. I. COBBIN. 
 
 How loni, O T.oid, holy und true, dost thou not iiidt^e and aveiiij* 
 " our blood on theiu that dwtil on the earih ?" — Rev. vi. 10. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, 
 
 lieuisetl and currccted; with itnportaul Additiom 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 I'llINTED FOR OGLES, DUNCAN, A.VD COCHUAN, 
 
 37, PATERNOSTER BOW, AND 205, IIOLUOUN ; 
 
 J. OGLE, EDIKBUIIGH ; AND M. OGLE, GLASGOW. 
 1815. 
 
S. r.osnell, Printer, Little Queen Street, Londow. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 Had the following Pamphlet contained any 
 thing of political invective^ it certainly should 
 not have had the sanction of my name, how- 
 ever limited its influence ; for though, in the 
 circles of society, the Minister mingles the 
 Citizen with the sacred character, and claims a 
 right to deliver his opinions without being re- 
 sponsible to any for using the freedom of the 
 parlour or the drawing-room, it is widely dif- 
 ferent when he presents himself to the Public 
 either in the pulpit or from the press ; and he 
 forgets the dignity of his sacred office, if he 
 
 becomes the trumpeter of any party, and uses 
 t 
 
 the influence of his character, either to eulo- 
 gize the powers that be, or to declaim against 
 them. 
 
 I have obtained the most satisfactory account 
 
 r ( 1 
 
respecting the name of the writer of the Defence ^ 
 and all the circumstances which led to its publica- 
 tion ; but I should think myself highly censur- 
 nh]e, were I to gratify the public curiosity, and 
 confirm tlie truth of its allegations, at the ex- 
 pense of the liberties or lives of individuals, the 
 mention of whose names might be productive of 
 the most fatal consequences to themselves. 
 
 If I could be indifferent to the subject of the 
 Pamphlet, and leave it to die away in silence, 
 I should consider myself as undeserving the 
 names of Christian and Minister of Jesus 
 Christ : I should forget one of the most dis- 
 tinguishing features of the Christian character — 
 to " weep with those that weep ;" and, while 
 the voice of my brother's blood crieth from the 
 ground, I should consider myself more wicked 
 than Cain, to ask, " Am I my brother's keeper?" 
 
 Should this Pamphlet, and the remarks an- 
 nexed to it, lead to a clearer developement of 
 the truth of those facts to which it relates ; 
 should it stir up the friends of religious liberty 
 to increasing vigilance ; and be productive 
 
'bf any active measures for the future secu- 
 rity of our Protestant brethren in France, who 
 make but one ecclesiastical body with ourselves, 
 I shall willingly bear any censures which party- 
 tnen may bestow upon me for meddling with 
 the subject. 
 
 I hope it will be clearly understood that 
 this Publication is not designed to injure the 
 cause of Catholic Emancipation ; for that cause 
 I have always been an humble but zealous 
 advocate ; and, while I remain a friend to full 
 toleration, I must always continue so. It does 
 not form a part of the creed which I learn in 
 the Bible, "Let us do evil that good may 
 come." These pages are directed solely against 
 intolerance ; and against that, I trust I shall ever 
 continue a decided enemy, whether I behold it 
 in Catholic or Protestant. 
 
 I wish to add, that the Pamphlet was put 
 into my hands already translated and printed, 
 that I was only allowed a few days to draw 
 up the hasty sketch and preface which ac- 
 company it ; and that the first edition was hur- 
 
VI 
 
 ried through the press with so much rapidity as 
 not to allow time for a revisal. 
 
 The present edition appears in a corrected 
 form, and contains some further information of 
 considerable importance, for which the reader is 
 referred to the Appendix. 
 
 I. COBBIN. 
 
 Maida Hill, Paddington, 
 Nov. 6, 1815. 
 
PREFATORY ADDRESS. 
 
 The Pamphlet here presented to the Public was 
 printed in Paris, and suppressed : this is no 
 small argument for its truth: had it been false, it 
 would have been liable to prosecution ; but, as it con- 
 tains some unquestionable facts, this was all the remedy 
 that could be devised to prevent the knowledge of 
 them from spreading throughout France. Its credit, 
 however, does not rest upon mere inference : many 
 letters have reached this country which corroborate the 
 awful facts here detailed, and some of them from the 
 most credible authorities; were liberty granted, the 
 names of these correspondents could be stated, and, 
 from their Jcnown respectability, the public must ^ve 
 them credit. 
 
 Yet it is astonishing to observe how wilfully incre* 
 dulous some people are about the affair which it nar- 
 rates ; and when these respectable names are mention- 
 ed, they reply, that these are interested persons, im- 
 bued with the party spirit of the sufferers. But if 
 these witnesses are not to be credited, where is evidence 
 to be obtained, or, how can we arrive at the truth on 
 any subject? Is it to be supposed that the criminal 
 party will condemn themselves, and publish their 
 guilt to the world ? And are there not to be found 
 
VIU 
 
 among the sufferers, men of the strictest probity, 
 who have the remains of the spirit which influenced a 
 Du Bosc, a Claude, and all the celebrated champions 
 of the Protestant faith in France ? 
 
 It cannot, however, be denied, that great commo- 
 tions exist, or, at least, have existed, in the South of 
 France ; for the French Government attest the fact ! 
 and admit, too, that the Protestants have been princi- 
 pally involved in them ; but then they gloss over the 
 matter, as wholly of a political nature : were it so, 
 what would it serve to prove ? — That the Protestants, 
 for some reasons, not stated, and, probably, from a 
 consideration of the former sufferings which they cut 
 dured under the Bourbons, preferred even the military 
 despotism of Bonaparte, to tJie ecclesiastical despot- 
 ism of then* ancient rulers. 
 
 But it is very disputable whether the Protestants, as 
 a body, really are Bonapartists, and whether politics 
 has had any concern with the late sangviinary transac- 
 tions. A shght reference \.o jjast Jacts should make us 
 very cautious how \fe disregard the cries of the suffer 
 ers under any such pretext. It is well worthy of 
 ebservation, that there never yet has been a persecn- 
 lion of the Protestants in France^ whether partial or 
 general, in which the persecutors were not ashamed 
 to conjess their gndlty and have apologized Jbr them- 
 selves on the same ground. 
 
 t:rWhen Francis I. published a severe edict against 
 the Reformed, and the Protestant princes of Germany 
 remonstrated, he said that it was only issued against 
 some rebels, xvlio^ under cover of religion, had endea- 
 voured to disturb the veace of the kingdom. The Go- 
 3 
 
IX 
 
 vernor Oppeda, of Infamous celebrity in the annals of 
 persecution, excused himself for slaughtering the poor 
 Waldenses on the ground that they were in a state of 
 rebellion. When the Protestants first assembled at 
 Paris, under the countenance of the King and Queen 
 of Navarre, in 1557, the priests obtained an edict 
 against them on the usual pretence, that the Luther- 
 ans were raising a sedition at Paris. The Cardinal 
 Guise afterwards got permission to attempt the extir- 
 pation of all the Reformed, and pleaded, that they 
 had a plot against the state. When the Duke of 
 Guise committed the massacre at Vassy, he secured 
 Julse loltnesses to sign an affidavit in hisjavour, ac- 
 cusing the Protestants of being a factious set of 
 people, and cliarging them as the aggressors. Nay, 
 even the cruelties which preceded and followed 
 
 THE REVOCATION OF THE EdICT OF NaNTES WERE AU- 
 DACIOUSLY DENIED BY THE Catholics ! " In May 
 (1685)," says Robinson, " the clergy held an assem- 
 bly at Versailles. Their deputies, as usual, harangued 
 Bajazet (meaning Lewis XIV.), congratulated him 
 for the success of his design to extirpate heresy, ex- 
 tolled the glory he had acquired by oppressing the Re- 
 formed, above all the victories that he had ever ob- 
 tained. In defiance of all the blood flowing in the Ce- 
 vennes, and in ail the distant provinces, and in spite of 
 all the groans that issued from galleys, banishments, and 
 dungeons, they assured the tyrant, he had raised the 
 Church to the highest pitch of glory, and filled it with 
 joy, because he had done the great work without fire 
 or sword. However, to make neat fashionable work, 
 ^hey added eight-and-twenty little articles more, all 
 
 b 
 
despotic and ponal, which were yet to be done, to finish 
 off the exploit. This kind of orators liave a patent 
 for lying ; and death and the devil have a commission, 
 tlie first from Lewis, and the last from the Pope, to 
 silence all m ho dare contradict them *." When Claude 
 published his Complaints of the Protestants of France, 
 the same -writer remarks, that " he understood, that 
 Bossuet and the other French prelates had the con- 
 summate impudence to affirm, that the Government 
 had used no force toward the Protestants, but that 
 the Bishops had converted them by reason, and argu- 
 ment, and gentle measures. Shocked at the accumu- 
 lated impiety of the men, he stated the facts, painted 
 the bishops in their own colours, published the book, 
 and appealed to all Europe. All Europe (except the 
 Pope, and our James II., who caused the book to be 
 burnt by the hands of the common hangman) — all 
 Europe echoed, Everlasting infamy cover the bishops 
 of France -f* ! Sir Roger L'Estrange and others even 
 dared to contradict Claude's work when the English 
 translation appeared, and it was the French ambassa- 
 dor who procured the burning of the book, and the 
 ruin of the translator and publisher by fines and im- 
 prisonments 1." Laval corroborates these accounts || ; 
 but he gives further information, which throws addi- 
 tional light upon the schemes employed by the persecu- 
 tors to conceal their nefarious transactions: " Though," 
 
 * Life of Claude, p. 46 — 7. f Ibid. p. 51. 
 
 % Claude's Complaints of the Protestants, Preface, p. 2. 
 |[ Laval's History of the Reformation in France, Appendix, 
 p.9J. 
 
XI 
 
 s.ays this writer, " some of these facts have been called 
 in question, during Lewis XIV.'s life, by a certain set 
 of mercenary scribblers ; nay, though some of them 
 have carried their impudence so far as to deny that 
 there had been any persecution at all in France, or 
 that any other but fair means had been put in use to 
 convert the Reformed, or that any Reformed had suf- 
 fered on accovmt of religion, but only for being RE- 
 BELLIOUS TO THE KING, we have had since 
 the death of that prince the satisfaction to see the truth 
 of these matters of fact acknowledged, even by those 
 who had an interest to deny it. The Duke of Orleans 
 had no sooner taken upon him the administration of 
 the government, but the Court's sentiments were quite 
 altered, and even the Clergy themselves, tvTio com- 
 monly are not the most zealous assertors of toleration, 
 blamed the conduct of the late ministry, and owned, 
 that, considering- every thing' only in a jjolitical view, 
 the late persecution was directly opposite to the true 
 interests of the state ; and at this time wlioever should 
 deny, even in France, that the late King has violently 
 persecuted, without any just cause, his Reformed sub- 
 jects, would be deemed a lunatic." Bishop Gibson, 
 in one of his Tracts on Popery, says, speaking of the 
 revocation of the Edict of Nantes, " There seems to 
 be a kind of conspiracy among the French clergy to 
 deny this persecution, or at least to represent it as 
 neither so violent or universal as indeed it was, to 
 which purpose it is affirmed, in a discourse said to be 
 written by order of the Clergy, under this title, ' A 
 Letter from a Churchman to his Friend,' that there 
 were not forty churches of Protestants demolished in 
 
 b 9. 
 
tlie ten years preceding 1682, when it is notoriously 
 known that, in the province of Poitou alone, near that 
 number were pulled do^n, and the agent of the Clergy 
 had the May before said, at the opening of the as- 
 sembly, that tlie King had demolished an infinite num- 
 ber of them." 
 
 These extracts from such respectable authorities 
 should place us upon our guard when we hear the Ca- 
 tholics endeavouring to cry down the complaints of the 
 Protestants, and especially against the stale trick of 
 charging them with rebellion, when those complaints 
 are so loud that they must be heard. 
 
 Other means are, however, used to invalidate the 
 testimony which is given in this pamphlet ; and we are 
 gravely told, that Nismes is not the part where the 
 Protestants are chiefly to be found. But those who are 
 conversant with tlie history of the Reformed Church of 
 France, know that Nismes has always been celebrated 
 as a flourishing spot among that community. There 
 tlie celebrated Claude was once fixed as the pastor of 
 a large church ; there, for two centuries and a half, 
 the Protestants have been remarkable for their zeal and 
 devotedness to the Christian faith in its purity ; there 
 the blood of the Martyrs has often flowed in. torrents, 
 and its illustrious Ministers have as often received the 
 crown of martyrdom. Such a place is, therefore, a 
 very likely theatre on which to renew tlie bloody scenes 
 of persecution that disgraced the former ages. 
 
 Another fact is worthy of notice — that the Protest- 
 ants expected this persecution; and the re-restoration 
 of the Bourbons was a matter of dread to them for 
 some time before it occurred, as tlie Catholics had 
 4 
 
Xlll 
 
 sho^vii such a disposition to persecute on tlieir first re- 
 turn. 
 
 Besides, is there any thing new in these measures ? 
 They are such as the Papal power always employed 
 in France when it had the ability. Down to the pe- 
 riod of the expulsion of the Bourbons the French Pro- 
 testants laboured under some of the most cruel pro- 
 scriptions : is it, then, to be wondered at, if, on the 
 restoration of the Catholic power, they should be re- 
 newed ? The wolf long chained, on his release natu- 
 rally breaks in upon the lambs with greater fury. The 
 same Head of the Church that would restore the In- 
 quisition and the Jesuits, both of which have been 
 the greatest scourges to Protestants, would not hesitate 
 a moment to encourage measures so consonant with 
 their spirit 
 
 " But, then,'' say the disputants on this subject, 
 *' why is not the persecution universal ? If it were a re* 
 hgious plot, it would spread all over France," Perhaps^ 
 it yet may, if some means are not employed to pre- 
 vent it ; but a fire does not burn at all parts at the 
 commencement. Is there no persecution but what is 
 general ? Do not the pages of history state many in- 
 stances, in which the most cruel persecutions werej3«a- 
 tially inflicted on the French Protestants ? Was the 
 massacre at Vassy, for instance, no persecution ? And 
 in most cases, the persecuted have suffered, not in the 
 aggregate, but in detail. 
 
 *' But the times are altered, and all men think differ- 
 ently of persecution now to what they did at former 
 periods ; this cannot, therefore, be any thing more 
 than the suppression of some rebellious Protestants.'' 
 Yes, the times are altered, but Popery remains the 
 
XIV 
 
 mine ; and if an extraordinary spirit of zeal lias ap- 
 peai'ed of late in this country, it is to be feared that it 
 ■will all be wanted to stir us up to plead for the conti- 
 nuance of those blessings which we now so happily en- 
 joy. The last eighteen months have, however, throAvn 
 Europe considerably backwards towards those gloomy 
 regions of tyranny from which it was hoped that she 
 had escaped. The greedy cells of the Inquisition have 
 been re-opened, like so many Tophets, to receive their 
 wretched victims ; and the Jesuits, whom all Europe 
 had agreed to banish for ever from its soil, have again 
 been let loose upon society like ravenovis wolves. 
 The times are altered ; yes : but it Avill not be 
 long for the better, if that race of arch-fiends are 
 suffered to stalk abroad in the world ; we may then 
 soon expect to see the renewal of those arbitrary and 
 savage measures which have made humanity shudder, 
 and stamped the Christian name with infamy ! " If," 
 as that respectable periodical work, the Christian Ob' 
 server, has remarked, " if an instrument is wanted, 
 which may at once quench the flame of charity, throw 
 us back in the career of ages, sow the seeds of ever- 
 lasting division, lay a train which is to explode upon 
 the citadel of Truth, and overturn her sacred towers— 
 we venture confidently to aflSirm, that Jesuitism is that 
 instrument *."*' 
 
 Shame, shame, to the apologists for these measures ! 
 Some of them are, no doubt. Papists in their hearts, and 
 we cannot be surprised at them ; others are unwilhng to 
 confess the crimes of those whom they have always po- 
 
 * Christian Observer, March i8ij. 
 
XV 
 
 lltlcally supported with all their might ; but there are 
 some among them who ouglit to know better, or, if 
 they have been deceived, it becomes them to throw oiF 
 the veil of prejudice, and candidly avow their error.— 
 Humanum est errare. 
 
 It will, no doubt, be said, and in some of our daily 
 journals that seem to be destined to deceive us on 
 the subject, it has been said, that " so much notice of 
 so small an affair is exciting unnecessary alarms." To 
 this it may be replied, Is there not a cause ? If no- 
 thing else should rouse us, we ought at least to have 
 a regard foi;^ our own safety. Were the enemy not 
 within our territories, the demon of persecution lias at 
 least begun his march frdm the Vatican. His first 
 steps are marked with blood ; he is still pursuing his 
 career, and, beneath his Jesuitical canonicals, he carries 
 the torch of discord, the bolts and chains of the In- 
 quisition, and the deadly dagger of the assassin. His 
 secret emissaries have found their way into Ireland— 
 his Nuncio has dared to touch the sacred soil of Eng- 
 land, and his flattering insinuations have reached the 
 ears of a British Court, of whom it may emphatically 
 be said, " The words of his mouth are smoother than 
 butter — but war was in his heart: his words were 
 softer than oil, yet were they drawn swords." Surely, 
 then, it is high time to awake out of sleep. When 
 Popes and Cardinals begin to pass compliments upon 
 a Protestant Government, it is not without some de- 
 sign ! Will it be believed, that the Pope''s pleasure 
 originated merely in a political cause, when he ex- 
 pressed himself thus in his Allocution on the 4th of 
 September last : " How could we restrain the senti- 
 
XVI 
 
 ments of joy and gratitude with which we were pene- 
 trated on learning the manner in which our envoy was 
 received in the capital (London) of so great a kingdom ! 
 He then renewed what liad not been seen for two cen- 
 turies, the example of a Cardinal Legate appearing 
 publicly in London, with the permission of the Go- 
 vernment, decorated with the distinctive marks of his 
 dignity, in the same manner as he would have ap- 
 peared in the capital of the Cliristian world." Let 
 it not be supposed that we have no need to appre- 
 hend any danger. The Catholics are not indolent. 
 In 07ie district of Ireland only, they have lately made 
 Jive hundi'ed converts. A gentleman, who gives an 
 account of one of the monastic institutions in this 
 Country^ subjoins the following remark : " The num- 
 ber of persons at this place who, within a few years, 
 have embraced the Romish faith, is very considerable; 
 the contagion has spread, and is spreading, into the 
 neighbouring viUaores*.*" The Emi<n-ants have not been 
 idle diu-ing their residence in the United Kingdom. 
 There are no less iXxsca Jbnr hundred fhousayid Catho- 
 lics in England and Wales, and ^fi/ thousand of 
 these are in London and its vicinity. There is no 
 county in England which is now ^^^thout Catholic cha- 
 pels and congTegations. The number of chapels (most- 
 ly ERECTED WITHIN THE LAST TWEKTY-FIVE YEARs) 
 
 is about nine hundred, exclusive of the private chapels 
 of Catholic families. In the summer of 1813, there 
 were confirmed in the three towns of Manchester, Li- 
 verj ool, and Preston alone, 3000 children. Schools 
 
 * Gentleman's Mag. Oct. 1801. 
 
xvu 
 
 ane every where increasing. At Preston there is one 
 for a thousand children ; and near that town is the 
 great coUe^ate foundation of Stonyhurst *. They 
 have numerous schools well attended in London ; and 
 in Ireland their numbers are enormous, being three 
 and a quarter millions of Catholics to one and a quarter 
 millions of Protestants. Many of the great have at- 
 tended high mass in London, and subscribed hberally 
 towards the Catholic chapels. Who can doubt, theut 
 hut that Pcypery is increasing -f ? 
 
 When the Catholic leaven is, therefore, so seriously 
 spreading among us, and we behold the spirit that yet 
 actuates the professors of this faith, it is criminal for 
 us to be indifferent. Our own safety is involved in it. 
 We ought at once to check such measures in the be- 
 ^nning, and to take from the hands of our enemies 
 the weapons which give them an authority almost in- 
 vincible, while we have it in our power so to do. 
 
 Let us not trust to the gratitude of such men. It 
 is true that we have long fostered them in the bosom 
 of our country — that we have supported them when 
 in want — and that we have nearly exhausted our blood 
 and treasure to restore them to power : but a Catholic 
 feels no obligations to a heretic ! One of those base 
 priests who first took shelter in this land at the revolu- 
 tion, and who was pensioned by the bounty of its Go- 
 vernment, was overheard saying in a very large Pro- 
 testant place of worship, into which he entered with a 
 companion, " / should like to see this place streaming 
 
 * Sec A brief Account of the Jesuits, p. 41. 
 t Fashionable World Displayed. 
 c 
 
XVlll 
 
 with the blood of these heretics* T The spirit •£ 
 Popery is of that odious nature, that it quenches all 
 sense of obhgation, and all the feelings of gratitude. 
 *' Lewis XIV. is represented by his own friends as 
 having intended the repeal of the edict of Nantes at 
 his first coming to the throne ; that is, at the very mo- 
 ment when the Protestants had displayed the most un- 
 questionable loyalty, and rendered him and his family 
 the most important services, by ^^gorously opposing 
 the progress of his enemies, rejecting the great and 
 advantageous offers which were made them, kept 
 towns and whole pro\dnces for him, taken his servants 
 and officers into their bosoms when they could not 
 find safety elsewhere ; yea, they sacrificed their estates, 
 their hves, and their fortunes, to his cause *." 
 
 After such facts as these, it is not wonderful if the 
 Popish government, restored by the Protestant in- 
 fluence, should crush its own subjects, who are al- 
 lied to us in faith and interest ; nor would it at all be 
 surprising if we should shortly be at war with that 
 very power ; it would only be another illustration of 
 the fable of the serpent, who, when restored to \'igour, 
 bit the hand that had rescued it fi-om destruction. 
 
 But our own interest is not the sole cause for vi- 
 gilance. The peace of Europe is involved in these 
 beffinnino-s. The powers of Europe have thrown down 
 a monstrous political tyranny — let them bewai-e lest 
 they suffer a worse tyranny to replace it — an ecclesias- 
 tical tyranny! Let them, then, strangle the mon- 
 
 * The writer is well acquainted with the witness to this 
 
 fact.- 
 
 •}• Complaints of the Protestants, p. 140. 
 
XIX 
 
 ster in the cradle ! Let them give no countenance to 
 his first acts of barbarity ! Let them at least watch all 
 his motions with a jealous eye ! Why has the Pope 
 restored the Inquisliion, but to enslave subjects ? 
 why has he restored the Jesuits, but to enslave king's? 
 Is it forgotten who the Jesuits are ? what are their pro- 
 fessed principles ? what the crimes they have perpetrat- 
 ed ? Is it forgotten that they are a set of artful and in- 
 triguing priests, bound by oath to support the interests 
 of the Pope, to render Jiim imcoiiditional obedience in 
 every thing that may advance the prosperity of the Ro- 
 man church, and to go whithersoever he shall command 
 them to propagate its faith, without any expense to 
 the Holy See, looking for their reward from those per- 
 sons whom they may have made dupes to their prin- 
 ciples ? that they are under the absolute control of the 
 General of the order, who is the oracle of the Pope ; 
 who, by the most effectual means, is even acquainted 
 with all their secret inclinations, and applies them, 
 when it pleases him, to execute the basest purposes ? 
 that they often conceal their designs under the mask of 
 merchants, and, while they are accumulating wealth in 
 foreign countries, exert their secret influence to destroy 
 those governments which protect them, if they do not 
 meet their Avishes ? and that one of their objects is, es- 
 pecially, to root 02it the Protestants from the Jace of 
 the earth ? that they profess that the end of an act 
 sanctifies the means employed to accomplish it ; and 
 hesitate not to connnit the greatest crimes, if they 
 have any hopes that they will benefit the Church ? 
 that they have dared to publish such tenets concerning 
 the duty of subjects to oppose heretical princes, as 
 c2 
 
XX 
 
 must tend to dissolve all ties of fidelity between privices 
 and subjects? Is it forgotten that two kings of 
 France, Henry III. and IV. M'ere murdered suc- 
 cessively by their agents .'' that William, Prince of 
 Orange, fell by the same hands ? that the Hves qf 
 many other sovereigns have been attempted by them ? 
 and that the Popes themselves have not been spared 
 who resisted their spirit of domination ? Is it forgot- 
 ten that, after haying committed the most atrocious 
 actSj and embroiled Europe in many bloody conflicts, 
 these wretches were gradually expelled by all the 
 principal powers in Europe: — by England in 1604; 
 by Venice in lCi06 ; by Portugal in 1759 ; by France 
 in 1764; by Spain and Sicily in 1767; and at la^t 
 totally suppressed and abolished by Pope Clement the 
 Fourteenth in 1773 ^ } And now^ when the peace of 
 Europe is to be fixed upon a permanent hasis^ these 
 COMMON DISTURBERS are restored ! Now that tlie 
 legitimate rights of sovereigns are to be universally 
 recognised, these eegicides are tolerated ! ! ! If 
 the kings of Europe are not concerned for their 
 safety, it belongs to the people to be concerned for tlieir 
 own ; and, however these arbitrary m/Casures may be 
 borne by Catholic states, Protestant states ought not 
 for a moment to endure them. When the present 
 Pope restored the order of the Jesuits, he immediately 
 sent four of them into Ireland, for what purpose it is 
 not difficult to conjecture: perhaps time may fatally 
 show. And it is not accusing the Jesuits of more than 
 they deserve, to suppose that they may not have been 
 
 * See Account of the Jesuits. 
 
xxU 
 
 passive in the affair of Nismes, and in those atrocities 
 lately committed in other parts of France. 
 
 But, whoever were the instigators, it is hoped that 
 the fact wilj no longer be disputed, and that the cries 
 pf the unhappy sufferers will not be stifled by tlie cla- 
 mours of pohtical apologists. Every Protestant ijs 
 Europe ought now to raise his voice in behalf 
 OF the oppressed, so as to cause it to be heard, 
 before the monarchy of France is more firmly re-es- 
 tablished. Now we have it in our power to redress 
 their grievances, we sh))uld fence the Protestants 
 around as with a wall of brass, and for ever endear to 
 them our name and our country. We have a right to 
 some return for all our sacrifices : it is a boon that 
 must be granted. Nothing has yet been done to se- 
 cure the Protestants wherever the ancient Catholics 
 have been restored by our arms. They have been 
 forgotten in every treaty. The Pope 7io sooner re- 
 covered his territories, than he expelled them. 
 Ferdinand 7iq sooner returned to SjMin, than he 
 sent missio7iaries through the country to ROOT 
 OUT the BANEFUL HERESY with which our 
 Irave men might liave ivfected the provinces. Lewis 
 no sooner grasped the scepre than the PROTESTr 
 ANTS OF FRANCE WERE BUTCHERED 
 BEFORE THE EYES OF ALL EUROPE ! H 
 and a secret influence behind the French, throne now 
 prevents their Petition from even obtaining an answer ! 
 The spirit of persecution is perpetuating itself in for 
 pestry ; and a female of no mean rank feasts her 
 eyes, at the manufactory of the Gobelins, on the de^ 
 lighiful representation of the murder of the grea^t 
 
xxu 
 
 Admiral Coligni, the first victim of Bnrtholomew Day, 
 wliich is now in preparation for some humane Catholic Hi 
 Perhaps the French Protestants are partly to blame 
 for not raising the voice of complaint much louder. 
 Had the Catholics endured one half Avhich they have 
 been doomed to suffer, all Europe would have been 
 called upon to avenge their blood, and the hardships 
 under which they gi'oaned would have been re-echoed 
 from the shores of the Seine to the banks of the Ta- 
 gus, the Tiber, and the Danube. In the late remon- 
 strance of the Irish Cathohcs to the Pope, they com- 
 plain that their clergy are rewarded who change their 
 religion, that schools are established in which hosti- 
 lity to the Catholic faith forms the basis of instruc- 
 tion ; that the poor are proselyted; and that their 
 children's faith \s purchased ; and all this they sum up 
 in the word sakguinary ! Rczcards, instrmiion, pro- 
 sehjtmg, hrihery—2^ this is described by the term^ san- 
 GuiNARY ! Sanguinary ! it ill becomes Cathohcs to 
 use such language, if this is all they endure. It is to 
 be lamented that they labour under any Mud of pro- 
 scripthn ; but surely, while their community maintain 
 then- intolerant sentiments, while they show so much 
 ecclesiastical despotism in ever)^ country where they 
 obtain the rule ; while they are so cruelly treating the 
 Protestants in France; they ought to be the last 
 people in the world to complain that they are expos, 
 ed to " the most sanguinary and unrelenting pf.rse^ 
 cuTioN that ever aggrieved a Christian peopled Have 
 they been interrupted in their religious exercises? 
 Have their temples been destroyed, and their worship 
 prohibited ? Have tliey been driven from their habita- 
 
XXIU 
 
 tions ? Have their houses been consumed, and their' 
 property confiscated ? Have their children been drag- 
 ged from them to be baptized ? Have their person? 
 been seized? Have any of them been burnt and 
 roasted as heretics ? These have been the evils to 
 which their brethren have more or less subjected the 
 poor Protestants wherever they reign paramount ! Most 
 of these have been inflicted upon those poor creatures 
 whose cries our interested journalists are endeavouring 
 to siippress. And scarcely a Catholic state will tole- 
 rate the worship of supposed heretics ; or, if any do, 
 they guard that toleration by the most oppressive re- 
 strictions. In Portugal, Spaiii, Italy, and all places 
 where the immaculate successor of St. Peter sways his 
 ghostly sceptre, the Papal tyrant, worse than Pro- 
 erustes, would cut down the soids of all men to the 
 same standard, and his arbitrary mandate commands 
 that only ONE RELIGION should be aUowed in a 
 country ! 
 
 Would to God that the Protestants could enjoy that 
 liberty in every country whicli is enjoyed by the Catho- 
 lics of Ireland ! they would be content. Bkibery is an 
 unfair, but not a cruel weapon. It may be used again 
 in return, if the parties opposed think proper to employ 
 such a mean method to gain minds. But bribery is not 
 arbitrary violence ; this is not using the arms of the 
 state, nor the curses of the priesthood. A Protestant 
 may visit a Catholic place without danger of penance or 
 excommunication for the crime ; but a poor peasant 
 could not attend the sermon of a Protestant Minister 
 in Ireland, a few months ago, without being doomed 
 to go barefooted ten miles in the dead of night to a 
 
XXIV 
 
 churchyard, and to bring back a human skull, as an 
 atonement ! It is readily admitted tliat neither in- 
 fluence nor punishment should be employed about 
 affairs of conscience ; but it would be a truly happy 
 circumstance if every Catholic country would content 
 itself with employing no other means agamst the Pro- 
 testants. 
 
 If, however, such trifling grounds of complaint 
 have caused the Catholics to appeal to their Most Holy 
 Father, surely the Protestants will be chargeable with 
 a criminal indifference towards their suffering brethren, 
 and towards that sacred cause which they espouse, if 
 they can persuade themselves to stand by as silent 
 spectators of the miseiies under which they groan. 
 Whatever base transactions may have been perpetrated, 
 there are probably yet worse to be developed ; the 
 cloud, indeed, may seem to some no bigger than a 
 man's hand, but that is no reason why it should not 
 shortly cover the face of the whole heavens, and de- 
 scend, not like that seen by the Prophet, in showers 
 of blessings, but in desolating torrents, spreading ruin 
 and confusion over all Europe. 
 
 Let us, then, look at home, and guard our reli- 
 gious liberties -with increasing vigilance ! Let us be 
 exceedingly diligent in the instruction of our youth. 
 Let us teach them to abhor a religion of tyranny and 
 blood. The writer of this would here adopt the words 
 of a highly respected Minister whose name is above hia 
 praise, for he can find none better calculated to ex- 
 press his own views and feelings : " I am no friend of 
 persecution ; I would extend religious liberty, and the 
 rights of conscience, in the fullest measure^ to the 
 
X5fV 
 
 Roman Catholics : but I would also have Protestants 
 steady and zealous in their attachment to the Protest- 
 ant cause ; I would have them strain every nerve in 
 the use of legitimate and honourable means to obstruct 
 the increase of Popery, and to prevent the Protestant 
 population of the United Kingdom from going back to 
 that unscriptural and odious religion *." 
 
 Let us remember that Christians all over the world 
 form but one Church ; and not be mere passive spec- 
 tators of the sufferings of our Protestant brethren in 
 France, while it is in our power to do any thing in 
 their behalf. Let us respectfully call the attention of 
 the higher powers to the rights of conscience, and to 
 a guarantee for the security of our French Protestant 
 brethren. O ye British Christians, famed for your 
 philanthropy and zeal, show bowels of compassion to- 
 wards the wretched members of your denomination in 
 France, whose only crime seems to be, that they, like 
 you, are Protestants ! By the dilapidated temples of 
 France, that yet tell the tale of desolation, and seem 
 to cry out against the sacrilegious hands that pulled 
 them down ; by the venerable piles that once contained 
 their fugitive worshippers in this asylum of hberty ; 
 by the descendants of those illustrious men who yet 
 share of our bounty in right of their persecuted fa- 
 thers ; by the voice of the blood of millions of French 
 Protestants that stUl cries from the ground ; and by the 
 souls of the slain that call for vengeance from under 
 the altar of heaven — ^be entreated to hsten to the cries 
 of your suffering brethren, and to exert yourselves for 
 their rehef ! 
 
 — - I I IL.IMJ .I .III III I ■ I ■ . l i .- 
 
 * Townsend's Life of Claude, p. 74' 
 d 
 
XXtl 
 
 p. S. Since the above was selit to press, several 
 facts have transpired, all of which have tended more 
 strongly to confirm the mind of the %vriter in those opi- 
 nions which he has advanced. 
 
 He has met with a French merchant from Nor- 
 mandy, who, in a general conversation on popular to- 
 pics, most readily admitted the fact of the persecution 
 of th6 Protestants, as a thing now well known in 
 France ; and in a manner which deserves to be men- 
 tioned, while he owned that he vras a Catholic, express- 
 ed his great indignation at the treatment of those un- 
 fortunate sufferers, only because they happened to be 
 of a contrary relig'ioJi ! 
 
 He has also received undoubted information that 
 there is a stir am6ng some of the Catholics in Paris, 
 because Protestants are engaged in the establishment 
 of the schools there on the British system ; and a work 
 has just appeared in that city, accusing the agents in 
 those schools with \vishing to subvert the Catholic 
 faith. This is at least a proof that the intolerant 
 ppirit which formerly existed in that country, has not 
 been wholly annihilated during the events of the Re- 
 volution. 
 
 A further fact \vlilch has since come under his notice, 
 is well worthy of attention. There is a society of the 
 Friends in the vicinity of Nlsmes, generally kno\vTi by 
 the nacme of Quakers. When the news arrived in this 
 country of the persecution of the Protestants, the society 
 in England sent over to their brethren, to know if they 
 were involved in the calamity, and if they stood in need 
 of relief A letter was received in answer, which was 
 
xxvu 
 
 read at one of the public meetings of tlie Friends, stating 
 that the Friends had not suffered ; that there was a 
 great deal of politics in the business, with which they 
 avoided all interference ; but that the Reformed had 
 been great sufferers^ and the Bonapartists, who were 
 CatholicSy had joined in persecuting them. 
 
 The following statement in the Times of Oct. 27, 
 also throws additional hght upon the subject. In the 
 sittings of the Chamber of Deputies of Oct. S3, the 
 Marquis D'Argenson proposed an inquiry into the 
 state of the country ; but when he came particularly 
 to touch upon the Protestants, his motion was cried 
 down. 
 
 *' We are still in a confusion of interests," said the 
 speaker, " which we must preliminaiily disentangle. 
 The Protestants have been massacred in the South /"" 
 Here violent murmurs were heard ; many voices cried, 
 To order ! This cry became general. The President 
 had much difficulty in restoring silence. 
 
 " Gentlemen,'"' said the President, " if you will 
 call M. D''Argenson to order, you must permit him 
 to justify himself." 
 
 *' Gentlemen," said he, "I have not made an alle- 
 gation : J did not pretend to set forth any facts : I 
 spoke of reports which are in circulation — which I re^ 
 collect having read in the journals : reports which I 
 believe to be false, as you yourselves believe them to 
 be ; but it is important to tell you, that amid the re^ 
 ports which are current, it xcould he useful to the 
 Chamber to he officially informed^ 
 
 Scarcely had M. D'Argenson ceased speaking, 
 Avhen the same cries of Order ! order ! recommenced. 
 d % 
 
xxvm 
 
 " Read the words again,"" said a Member. 
 
 The President suggested, that the expression hav-, 
 ing produced a disagreeable effect on the assembly, 
 it was useless to reproduce it (The cries and murmurs 
 continue.) 
 
 On the invitation of the President it was put to the 
 vote by seated and upstanding', whether M. D'Ar- 
 genson should be called to order. The affirmative was 
 decided. 
 
 It is easy to perceive why all inquiry was stifled: 
 " For every one that doeth evil, hateih the Ught, nei- 
 ther Cometh to the hght, l^st hh deeds should be re- 
 proved r 
 
PETITION 
 
 ADDRESSED TO LEWIS XVIU. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Principal Protestants of Nismes, 
 
 SIKE, Paris, July 30, 1S15. 
 
 We lay our acute miseries at the 
 foot of your throne: in your name, in the 
 name of the most clement of princes, our fel- 
 low-citizens are plundered and assassinated. A 
 misled body of peasantry, in supposed obedience 
 to your orders, have assembled, at the command 
 of a Commissioner invested with powers from 
 your august Nephew : — although ready to at- 
 tack us, we received them with words of peace. 
 The example of the capital could not fail to 
 be followed by the chief city of the Department 
 of Gard. A convention, on parole of honour, 
 was agreed upon between the Deputies of the 
 IV^unicipal Council of ]^^ismes, and the Sieur 
 
Rene de Bernis, your Commissioner, and Field, 
 marshal Barre, commanding in your name. 
 
 On the J 5th we learnt Your Majesty's glo- 
 rious entrance into Paris, and the white flag was 
 consequently displayed on our edifices ; public 
 tranquillity was undisturbed, and ought to have 
 remained so. 
 
 When the armed peasantry entered our walls, 
 they attacked the garrison, consisting of 1 50 
 men, quartered in the barracks ; on being sum- 
 moned to surrender, they capitulated, and deli- 
 vered up their arms and artillery ; but they were 
 assailed on their departure, and nearly all mas- 
 sacred. The greater part of our National 
 Guard, which had hitherto preserved tranquil- 
 lity, was now disarmed. Strangers paraded the 
 city, and the houses of the principal inhabitants 
 of the Protestant religion were attacked and 
 plundered. We subjoin a list of them. The 
 disorder continued during the l/th, 18th, XQih, 
 20th, and 21st, and had not entirely ceased on 
 the 22d. Terror had driven some of the chief 
 inhabitants of our city from their dwellings. 
 
 It would be deceiving Your Majesty to con- 
 ceal, or to endeavour to diminish the horrors 
 which have rendered desert our good city of 
 Nismes ; arrests and proscriptions have takea 
 
^ 
 
 place, and difference in religious opinions is the 
 only real cause of them. 
 
 The Protestants, Sire, who are calumniated, 
 are defenders of the throne. Your august Ne- 
 phew has beheld our children under his banners 
 •—our fortunes have been placed at his disposal. 
 
 To serve with fidelity, to love Your Majesty, 
 we ask for nothing but peace and protection. 
 
 Although attacked without motive, the Pro- 
 testants have not, even Jby a just resistance, fur- 
 nished their enemies with a ground for calumny. 
 
 As interpreters of their sentiments, their de- 
 votedness, their fears, and their hopes, we 
 throw ourselves with just confidence at your feet. 
 
 Save us, Sire ; protect your children ; extin- 
 guish the fatal brands of religious and civil war. 
 A single act of your authority will suffice to 
 restore political existence' to a city rendered in- 
 teresting by its manufactures and population. 
 Demand an account of their conduct from the 
 chiefs who have brought about miseries, which 
 they should have foreseen, and yet have not 
 prevented. 
 
 We lay before Your Majesty an exact detail 
 of the facts, and all the documents which have 
 reached us. 
 
 The hearts of our unfortunate fellow-citizens 
 are paralysed, and their complaints stifled by fear. 
 
Placed in a more independent situation, we have 
 dared, in a respectful manner, to raise our voices 
 in their behalf; and to shed, in the presence of 
 the Father of the Country, bitter tears for our 
 present and our future situation. 
 
 We are, with profound respect. 
 Sire, 
 
 Your Majesty*s, &c. &c. 
 
DEFENCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROTESTANTS 
 
 OF 
 
 LOWER LANGUEDOC. 
 
 My fellow-citizens, my friends, and brethren 
 languish under the most atrocious persecution : 
 the barbarities of the Louvois * and Lachaises 
 have been rivalled. In the nineteenth century the 
 Protestants are plundered and assassinated in the 
 face of Europe, under the eyes of several SovC' 
 reigns professing the same faith, and during the 
 reign o/" Lewis the Desired. Such a paradox 
 plainly proves that the real motive for this in- 
 justice is concealed from that good King, from 
 those Princes, and from Europe. It must be 
 made known ; the curtain which covers this 
 scene of devastation must be drawn aside; the 
 
 * The son of Le Tellier, Chancellor to Lewis XIV. 
 and a chief instrument in the revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantz ; a son deserving of such a father, who, when he 
 signed the revocation of the edict, cried out : Nunc 
 dimittis servuni tuum, Doniine, quia viderunt oculi mei salu- 
 iarc tuum, 
 
 B 
 
6 
 
 men who imagined they had made sure of their 
 victims by calumny, and that, by changing 
 names, they could alter the appearance of things 
 —who, in this enlightened age, have placed 
 confidence in such dark means, must know that 
 all their crimes will now be exposed, that the 
 cries of oppressed innocence will be heard, and 
 that there will soon remain to the oppressors, 
 only the shame of their crimes, and the fear of 
 the punishment which will await them, when 
 the language of passion shall cease to be spoken, 
 and that of justice and reason shall be heard. 
 Do you, then, stand in need of defence, inno- 
 cent victims ! whose long sufferings have not 
 yet softened the hearts of your persecutors ? 
 Certainly not. Your wise and moderate con- 
 duct, even amidst the greatest violence, has 
 long since been proclaimed. Strong in your 
 innocence, I might confine myself to supplicate 
 at the foot of the throne of our King, and ex- 
 pect all from his justice and impartiality ; but 
 such confidence is but ill suited to the unfortu- 
 nate, who are pursued by calumny, and over- 
 whelmed by oppression. The odious imputations 
 of their enemies must be repelled ; the good spirit 
 of the Protestants of Lower Languedoc, for the 
 space of twenty-five years, must be made known ; 
 it must be proved that their conduct has never 
 
 3 
 
merited the cruel persecutions they have expe- 
 rienced, and that they are worthy of the pro- 
 tection and justice which I now implore fur them 
 by presenting to the public the following abridg- 
 ed recital of their sufferings. 
 
 Before the revolution of 1789 the misfortunes 
 of the Protestants appeared to be drawing to a 
 close : by a scrupulous performance of their du- 
 ties to the country and the Sovereign, by their 
 industry and riches, they had insensibly in- 
 gratiated themselves into the favour of the pub- 
 lic authorities. Public opinion seconded this 
 happy inclination, and all distinction was nearly 
 efFaced among the children of one father. 
 
 The executions, exiles, and dragoonings, of 
 which many of the Elders had either been wit- 
 nesses or victims, were nearly forgotten — all 
 had disappeared under the happy auspices of the 
 protection granted to an unfortunate people too 
 long persecuted. They were, however, still 
 obliged to pray in the desert, as did formerly 
 their Divine Master ; their religious assemblies 
 were still thought to infect the air of cities : fo- 
 rests and caverns were filled with the hearers of 
 the divine Gospel ; and, in those sjjots still 
 stained with the blood of their Martyrs, were 
 heard the evangelical Ministers, inculcating the 
 love and obedience due to the Monarch, and 
 
 B 2 
 
offering as examples to their faithful flocks, the 
 conduct of those who had already suffered for 
 their Maker. 
 
 A great revolution was preparing : it promis- 
 ed to restore to the Protestants all their rights, 
 to replace them in the class of citizens ; and yet 
 no one can accuse them of having anticipated, 
 contrived, or fomented it. The Catholics them- 
 selves first opened their arms to this proscribed 
 people, and exclaimed : " Let us embrace — we 
 are now to participate in the same rights — your 
 calamities, and the abuses of the country, are 
 terminated together — Vive la Liberte T 
 
 Yes ; the Protestants, like the immense ma- 
 jority of the French nation, embraced this flat- 
 tering hope of regeneration ; and what soul, 
 unless frozen by prejudice and interest, would not 
 have embraced it ? or what profound genius could 
 have foreseen its melancholy results ? From 
 that moment religion was no longer questioned ; 
 the equality of rights began to operate, and the 
 Protestants, as well as the other citizens of 
 France, concurred in the elections and in dis- 
 charging the functions of government. Several 
 of them occupied distinguished offices in the dif- 
 ferent administrations, and terrible events soon 
 proved that they had not been indebted for them 
 to any want of moderation in their principles. 
 
9 
 
 A reign of blood succeeded the mild reign of 
 wise liberty which had been hoped for ; from 
 that time the Reformed began to fall under the 
 swords of demagogues. Firm to the situations 
 in which the country had placed them, they did 
 not retire in order to save their lives ; no — they 
 knew how to die ; they compromised no prin- 
 ciple. Lewis was condemned to death : elo- 
 quent protests proceeded from our provinces ; 
 an administration, almost entirely Protestant, 
 dared to raise its voice when all else was mute 
 under tyranny. Horrible measures again ema- 
 nated from the centre of power ; resistance was 
 sealed by fresh blood — and by what blood? That 
 of the Protestants. Count the generous vic- 
 tims of the tyranny of Robespierre — count 
 them in the Department of Gard, and it will 
 be seen in what proportion those of the Reform- 
 ed religion were struck. Out of one hundred 
 and thirty-six victims, at least one hundred and 
 twenty were Protestants. The scaffold was then 
 honoured with the blood of the Meyniers, the 
 Cardonnets, the Rafflns, the Roquiers, the 
 Griolets, the Guizots, the Ahausits, the Berte- 
 zenes, &c. he. &c. friends of moderation and 
 order, whose severe principleswere never shaken, 
 and who were doomed to be the victims of 
 those who proclaimed terror and violence. 
 
10 
 
 Behold the men whom you dare to call Revo- 
 iutionists, dying to oppose the excesses of the 
 revolution ! But what, at that critical period, 
 was your conduct ? You, who, imitating to- 
 day the frenzy of the assassins that condemned 
 them, deliver their descendants to the fury of 
 the people — you, who, deprecating the atrocities 
 of those times, surpass them all at present — 
 what was then your conduct ? Concealed in 
 some obscure retreat, did you not purchase 
 your safety with gold, or triumph in the inglo- 
 rious merit of emigration, to which you were in- 
 debted for your lives? Who among you dared ap- 
 pear and sacrifice himself for the public weal ? or 
 oppose the factions at the hazard of perishing? 
 Were arms and opportunities wanting for patriot- 
 ism and despair? Oh ! doubtless you compensate 
 the inactivity of the past, by rendering to-day 
 great services to the Royal cause, in kindling the 
 ashes of parties that were extinct ; you can now 
 signalize with little risk the noble zeal that ani- 
 mates you, by persecuting those who were perse- 
 cuted before — it is their fate to be victims. Op- 
 posed alike to the wicked and the turbulent, the 
 rage of party and prejudice is sure not to spare 
 them; but history will record that they stood 
 erect amidst the outrages of tyranny, when you 
 were in your hiding-places ; that they died for 
 
11 
 
 the glory of France, when you had skulked 
 away. Ah ! it would have been too disgraceful, 
 if, in those times of atrocity, no good French- 
 man had bedewed the scaffold with his blood, 
 to prove the resistance of the virtuous, to con- 
 vince foreign nations that the country was the 
 prey, and not the accomplice, of these odious 
 oppressors *. 
 
 Calmer times succeeded. Fatigued by so many 
 convulsions, Languedoc appeared to breathe 
 again. Nismes, in particular, knew no re-ac- 
 tion, and was placed without difficulty under 
 the empire of a regular government. During 
 seventeen years, from 1796 to 1812, all party 
 spirit appeared to be annihilated — the most per- 
 feet order prevailed — the two religions existed 
 together without rivalry, and even with friend- 
 ship. In society and in business, men, professing 
 different doctrines, were united and associated 
 together without questioning each other's faith ; 
 every one appeared to have profited by the im- 
 
 * The persons alluded to in this passage, are evidently 
 those returned emigrants who form the Angouleme fac- 
 tion, and style themselves imre Royalists : men, whom no 
 experience can instruct, and who have carried back to 
 France the same inveterate prejudices of tyranny and su- 
 perstition, which induced them, at the commencement of 
 the revolution, to oppose the most necessary and mode- 
 rate reforms. 
 
12 
 
 provements of the age, and to have forgotten 
 former quarrels ; peace and happiness were 
 sought after from all quarters, and found at 
 Nismes. 
 
 But this state of peace and happiness, com- 
 mon to all, was frequently interrupted by the 
 unlimited ambition of the great Disturber of 
 the world, who, grasping at all that could fur- 
 nish him resources, spared neither Protestant 
 nor Catholic, but plunged all into the general 
 adversity. If, after his prosperity, any favour 
 was granted to a particular class, it was the no- 
 bility who were honoured by it : a great name 
 sometimes flattered his vanity. He fell. This 
 first fall was a subject of unanimous joy to the 
 Protestants, and presented to them the most 
 agreeable hopes. A King, whose wisdom was 
 admired ; a King, whose intellectual endow- 
 ments were on a level with the improvements of 
 the age, and who in personal goodness was 
 surpassed by no one ; a King, whose ambitious 
 views gave no alarm to Europe, came to seal our 
 reconciliation with the hostile Monarchs whom 
 Buonaparte had drawn to the capital. His first 
 cares were to conciliate all interests, to pro- 
 vide for the maintenance of all rights, to gua- 
 rantee religious liberty, and to put an end to alt 
 alarm ; his first words produced on all hearts that 
 
13 
 
 Sweet confidence which arises from persuasion : 
 he became the King of our choice, and we re- 
 vived with the hope of peace, and happiness. 
 
 Relate it yourselves, O you, who, animated 
 by a false zeal, are now so cruel towards us ! 
 relate with what joy the Protestants of Largue- 
 doc learned the restoration of their legitimate 
 King, An odious oppression was terminated. 
 The man who had caused the misery of France 
 was destined to end in exile an odious existence j 
 every mother wept for joy on embracing her 
 son, who was no longer to be torn from her. 
 We rejoiced at the prospect of finding the bur- 
 densome taxes which so rigorously impeded our 
 agricultural and manufacturing industry either 
 repealed or modified. One spirit animated our 
 brethren, that of love for the King ; every Re- 
 formed church resounded with prayers for the 
 enlightened descendant of the great Henry. In 
 no part, to diminish the confidence he inspired, 
 were heard the names of such of his ancestors 
 as had persecuted ours. Who then has first 
 recalled them to our memory, and disturbed the 
 happy confidence which animated us ? — Our pre- 
 sent persecutors and their vile accomplices. 
 
 Scarcely had a few days been spent in joy at 
 so unhoped-for a deliverance; scarcely had the 
 first words of the King engraved on our hearts 
 
 c 
 
14 
 
 the love which he so well merits, when sinister 
 rumours were heard on all sides. Accustomed 
 to see no distinction in the treatment of men of 
 different religions, we heard with surprise, what 
 was so new to us, the words rrotestant and Ca- 
 tholic used in a hostile sense. We at first re- 
 garded these distinctions as transient, and pro-^ 
 duced by a disordered effervescence, but found 
 too soon that the storm was thickening around 
 us, and that it received an impulse and direc- 
 tion. The Protestants were now openly insult- 
 ed in the streets and public walks ; inflamma- 
 tory songs were circulated, which became daily 
 more violent. Finally, one appeared, in which 
 certain cannibals expressed their eagerness to 
 wash their hands in our blood. In the streets 
 and public places the singers formed circles, in 
 which they enclosed the Protestants, whom they 
 cruelly maltreated. The extreme wretchedness 
 and constant intoxication of the subaltern agents 
 in these disorders sufficiently proved that they 
 were supported in their criminal enterprises, and 
 our alarm was accordingly redoubled. 
 
 But it may be asked. What is the end, the ob- 
 ject of sudi persecutions ? Are they not impro- 
 bable? How can it be believed that the Royalists 
 should wantonly seek to swell the number of the 
 King's enemies ? We can only reply, Would 
 
13 
 
 to God that this account were but a fiction ! 
 and that all the French had pursued the line of 
 conduct which the King's beneficent intentions 
 so plainly marked out! Every heart would now 
 have been united, and perhaps the fatal events 
 which a second time have impelled all the powers 
 of Europe against France would never have 
 taken place. But we must boldly declare that 
 the hopes of those who have thus degraded the 
 name of Royalists, were far from being satis- 
 fied by the re-establishment of the throne of 
 the Bourbons. Undo all that had been done since 
 the revolution ; destroy indiscriminately every 
 institution of this epoch, good or bad, without 
 heed of the convulsions that might ensue ; re- 
 place the feudal government in its monstrous 
 proportions — such was the object of this fac- 
 tion, and such it is slill. Bv the concession of 
 the Royal Charter, the King disappointed their 
 expectations. Hence it became indispensable 
 for the success of their system, to constrain 
 His Mnjesty to abandon his constitutional views, 
 and, since the counter-revolution was not likely 
 to begin'with the chief, to act in such a manner 
 that it must necessarily originate in the subor- 
 dinate members. It was then of importance to 
 expel from aJI public offices men whose attach- 
 ment to order, to the established laws, and to 
 
 c 2 
 
i6 
 
 liberal principles was known ; and the Protest- 
 ants were therefore represented as rebellious 
 subjects, unwilling to submit to the sway of the 
 Bourbons, mindful of ancient persecutions, and 
 apprehensive of new ones. 
 
 Such was the plan invariably acted on in the 
 South during the eleven months that followed 
 the restoration. The instructions emanated first 
 from another source ; but a Central Committee, 
 of which the ramifications were extensive, di- 
 rected the operations at Nismes. Thus during 
 this whole period the King's government was in 
 opposition with another active invisible govern- 
 ment, more powerful than the former, imped- 
 ing its progress both at Court and in the pro- 
 vinces. 
 
 The King conceived that it would be a great 
 benefit for the city of Nismes to give it a Pro- 
 testant Mayor, whose firmness, impartiality, 
 and administrative knowledge, might be a pledge 
 for public tranquillity. He was not deceived in 
 his choice. The wise administration of M. 
 d'Aunant was calculated to restore order, and, 
 notwithstanding the iinpediments thrown in his 
 way, he almost completely succeeded, through 
 the fear which his inflexibility produced in the 
 best -paid agitators. However, he could never 
 arrive at the source of the disorders, and entirely 
 
17 
 
 put a stop to tbem ; for the royal authority, 
 though sufficiently enhghtened and strong to 
 appoint such a Mayor, did not possess the 
 power of replacing four Commissaries of Police, 
 the agents of the secret Government, who, 
 sometimes acting in a sense contrary to the 
 chief magistrate, and sometimes not acting at 
 all, obliged him finally to take upon himself 
 their functions. During several months he was 
 fatigued with the labour requisite for superin- 
 tending a population of forty thousand souls, 
 traversing the city day and night, appearing un- 
 expectedly in the most secret places where the 
 guilty agitators concealed themselves, and dis- 
 ' concerting them by his presence. Thus, 
 through dread of this extreme vigilance, several 
 plots were adjourned, others which were under- 
 taken with too much timidity failed, and the 
 evil, though existing, and having extensive 
 roots at Nismes, was prevented from reaching 
 maturity. 
 
 But the agents of the counter-revolution did 
 not relax in their endeavours to accomplish 
 their plan. For that purpose, secret contri- 
 vances, falsehoods, insults, vexations, and arti- 
 fices of every kind, were resorted to. Their 
 laborious efforts were attended with some suc- 
 cess. A few of the lower class of Protestants^ 
 
JS 
 
 in Jannnry IS J 5, began to entertain fears for tlie 
 future : they were even persuaded that it was not 
 their interest to continue Royalists. However, 
 they still regarded the King as their only pro- 
 tection against the fury of their enemies. This 
 tendency afflicted the more enlightened class, 
 who foresaw all its danger. How often did they 
 deplore this fatal error, which every day made 
 fresh advances ! What efforts did they not op- 
 pose to it ! With what constancy did the Pro- 
 testant Ministers preach the love, respect, and 
 obedience due to the Sovereign! Thanks to 
 their zeal, the evil was arrested in its progress, 
 and the error was only that of individuals. 
 
 And by what other means than this horrible 
 oppression which hung over the Protestants 
 during a whole year, can we explain the incom- 
 prehensible mystery of a people, restored, in 
 common with the rest of the French nation, 
 to peace and happiness by the downfall of Bona- 
 parte, — a people essentially devoted to manu- 
 factures and agriculture, and therefore deeply in- 
 terested in the re-establishment of peace, ceasing 
 all at once to appreciate its advantages ? Had 
 this melancholy change taken place after a lapse 
 of years, it might have been attributed to po- 
 pular inconstancy ; but a few days onlv have ef- 
 fected it. There must then be a real cause for 
 
19 
 
 this event. This cause is no other than the 
 persecutions experienced by the Protestants, 
 which rendered odious the authors of their 
 ir.isery. 
 
 Being unable to deny the sufferings of the 
 Protestants during the year of the restoration, 
 their enemies attributed them to the Bonajjartist 
 party, which, they said, made use of that ar- 
 tifice to prepare a support for its plans. Awk- 
 ward stratagem ! Did there exist a Bonnpartist 
 party in France a few days after the fall of the 
 oppressor ? Did not the pretended Royalists re- 
 quire time to create such a party by their in- 
 conceivable conduct ? Are those men who then 
 excited so many terrors in the Protestants, and 
 who are still among the number of their per- 
 secutors, — are they not now recognised, or 
 have they received absolution for their Bona- 
 partism ? Do the chiefs who directed the per- 
 secutions, who were indignant at seeing a Pro- 
 testant in oiiice, who spread on all sides the 
 seeds of discord, still work, for Bonaparte un- 
 der the cloak of Royal ism ? 
 
 It is necessary to have been present at the 
 unfortunate period of the debarkation on Cannes, 
 to know the joy it excited in the pretended 
 Royalist party. Bonaparte in Paris, confusion 
 in the heart of the State, the King a fugitive. 
 
20 
 
 and brought back by foreigners, — these fright- 
 ful calamities were nothing when compared to 
 the happiness of seeing their enemies declared, 
 their victims marked out, and the counter-revo- 
 lution rendered certain, asbeing inevitably attend- 
 ant on the return which everyone considered near 
 at hand. Was it not indeed in their opinion evi- 
 dent that the King would relinquish those mild 
 measures, which had proved so unsuccessful*? 
 that he would attach himself to the only party 
 capable of protecting him, the pure Royalist 
 party t ? that he would crush all otliers to raise 
 it, and that Europe was about to prepare her 
 triumphs on the ruins of France ? 
 
 On the arrival of the Duke of Angouleme at 
 Nismes, he found every heart devoted to him. 
 A royal army was formed ; the Protestants were 
 eager to join it ; but, on forming the battalions, 
 the Catholic populace who came forward to enroll 
 
 * It certainly did prove unsuccessful ; the King had 
 »ot a single enemy in the State, and had it not been for 
 your absurdities and excesses, Bonaparte would not have 
 found an accomplice. Is it you, or the King, who have 
 been unsuccessful? 
 
 f Can it be supposed that the pretended Royalist party 
 could offer any protection to the King ^ They only aspire 
 to dictate lans, and to place the King and his family under 
 the yoke of the ancient aristocracy and parliaments. 
 
themselves, either through instigation or by a na- 
 tural impulse, loudly declared that they would 
 suffer no Protestant to enter the ranks ; the 
 latter consequently retired. What could they 
 do, on hearing a thousand times repeated the 
 cries of. We will have none of these Protestant 
 rascals f 
 
 However, they did not abandon the Royal 
 cause. Deprived of the honour of supporting 
 it in the army, they served it by the pecuniary 
 resources which they furnished almost entirely. 
 The generosity which inspired them with the 
 desire of serving the state, and preventing the 
 terrible convulsions into which we have been 
 plunged, was attributed to fear ; it was even 
 endeavoured to render their intentions suspect- 
 ed by the Prince ; their most simple transactions 
 were malignantly misrepresented : finally, the 
 inexperienced and rash councils by which the 
 Prince was guided, led him to an extremity 
 which had nearly produced a fatal commotion, 
 and which was only prevented by the good con« 
 duct and pure intentions of the Protestants. 
 
 Allied by blood to several of the principal 
 Protestant families of Nismes, distinguished by 
 his talents, his works, and his numerous acade- 
 mical associations. Monsieur V. S. L. was more- 
 over a member of the Consistory, and a Counsel- 
 
2% 
 
 lor of the Prefecture* Those who are acquainted 
 with the country know, that he never held with 
 the Protestants the credit which was attributed to 
 him by the advisers of the Duke of Angouleme. 
 Besides, the loyalty of his conduct towards the 
 King, and the frankness with which he declared 
 his opinions, had produced a general impression 
 of his being a Royalist. Yet this was the man 
 selected as a victim capable of intimidating by 
 his fall all the Protestants, who were described 
 to the Prince as being ready to rise against him. 
 For want of reasons they availed themselves of 
 a pretence. Monsieur V. S. L. had repeated in a 
 circle of friends the report of the entrance of 
 Bonaparte into Paris, which was current through 
 the whole city : he was accused of having been 
 the first to divulge this fatal event, and was ar- 
 rested. A great fermentation immediately en- 
 sued : the commanders of the troops, who only 
 Pv'aited for a propitious moment for commencing 
 the revolution, thought nt to take advantage of 
 it. Speaky said they t& Monsieur V. S. L. and 
 the Prince, whose prisoner' you now are, shall 
 immediately become yours. All was easy at this 
 moment, and all appeared justified by circum- 
 stances. Monsieur V. S. L. rejected this pro- 
 posal with horror. It required all the efforts of 
 his family to arrest the terrible catastrophe : 
 
23 
 
 they, however, succeeded : the Duke of An- 
 gouleme departed in freedom from Nismes, and 
 proceeded to commence that badly conducted 
 campaign, in which, by following the dictates 
 of an inconsiderate dourage, he fell into the 
 hands of his enemy. 
 
 This arrest, which had preceded the depar- 
 ture of the Prince, produced the worst effect 
 on the Protestants throughout the country, who 
 were well convinced of the innocence of the 
 prisoner. It was evident to them, that their 
 enemies only waited for the moment of triumph 
 in order to persecute them : a very melancholy 
 and discouraging supposition ! The chiefs of 
 the Royalist party, on learning the fermenta- 
 tion which prevailed in the cities, country- 
 places, and among the troops, finally began to 
 see the full extent of the danger into which 
 they had plunged themselves. They then made 
 tardy advances towards reconciliation, which 
 were justly regarded as nothing more than de- 
 ceitful pretences. It was too late to alter the 
 opinion of a people exasperated by a year of 
 suffering ; but yet what was the conduct of this 
 people ? 
 
 The whole of the Lozere had hoisted the co- 
 lours of Bonaparte ; a picquet of cavalry, partly 
 composed of Protestants, which marched to op- 
 D 1 
 
24 
 
 pose that department, was forced to fall back : 
 Montpelier joined the conqueror ; the half-pay 
 officers at Nismes declared themselves in his fa- 
 vour ; the troops followed their example ; and 
 this city was then forced to change its govern- 
 ment. The Protestants are at this tiine to be 
 considered as nothing, or at least merely as 
 useless accessaries in the great movement which 
 spread revolt in the rear of the army of the 
 Duke of Angouleme. It is certain that it com- 
 menced at a distance from Nismes, that that 
 city and this department only received the im- 
 pulse from the neighbouring departments, and 
 that the good spirit which animated the Pro- 
 testants at this disastrous period must be ac- 
 knowledged. 
 
 I know that armed bodies, in which were 
 several Protestants, gave at that time uneasiness 
 to the royal volunteers, and committed some 
 dt-predations. I know that five of these volun- 
 teers perished in a Protestant village, after hav- 
 ing spread terror around them. That village is 
 almost entirely destroyed ; so that it ill becomes 
 those who have confounded the innocent with 
 the guilty to stand forward as accusers. But I 
 ^m equally unwilling to dissemble or to exagge- 
 rate, and my adversaries must allow that the 
 fiigitive volunteers found refuge, assistance, and 
 
15 
 
 protection with the Protestants. For this I 
 call to witness the conduct of the Protestant 
 Commune of Ledignan towards the different 
 corps of royal troops which passed through it. 
 
 After the confession which we have made of 
 the errors of some of our brethren, we may 
 doubtless be permitted to exculpate the Pro- 
 testants as a body. It is besides well known 
 that the royal volunteers were attacked at Vans, 
 and one of their officers killed ; that at the Ca- 
 tholic towns of Avignon and Pont-Saint-Esprit, 
 their houses were pillaged ; and this conduct 
 could not be attributed to a spirit of religious 
 animosity. But it is only when the criminals 
 belong to the Reformed religion that the Pro- 
 testants are accused in the mass. Such is the 
 justice that presides at the judgments of our 
 enemies. 
 
 But let us inquire who were then the chief 
 authorities of the city of Nismes and the de- 
 partment, since to us are attributed all the 
 measures of the period. The Royal Court of 
 Nismes, composed of forty members, included 
 only one Protestant ; the Imperial Commissary 
 and chief Commandant, and the Prefect, were 
 Catholics. The Sub-prefect, who was a Pro- 
 testant, gave in his resignation ; the Mayor 
 alone continued to exercise his functions, and^ 
 
26 
 
 devoting himself for the safety of his fellow-ci- 
 tizens, passed the melancholy interval of the 
 interregnum in opposing measures of rigour. 
 He was daily denounced by the reigning faction 
 as a Royalist. It is, then, proper to remark, that 
 the two Protestant magistrates at Nismes were 
 at that time labouring under persecution : so 
 much for the oppression of the Catholics under 
 a Protestant administration. 
 
 The government of that time was doubtless 
 guilty of vexations and injustice : this cannot 
 be denied. But it is committing no error to 
 reckon among its declared enemies and real an- 
 tagonists a considerable number of distinguish- 
 ed Protestants. Their adversaries who were then 
 silent, tremblingly applied for passports, and 
 hastily departed or concealed themselves with 
 care. Thus, had it not been for foreign force, 
 the King's government would have perished as 
 at the commencement of the revolution, through 
 the pusillanimity of those who styled themselves 
 its warmest defenders, through their obstinacy 
 in refusing to distinguish the government de 
 facto from the government de jure, and doing 
 nothing to direct, modify, or arrest the action 
 of the former, under pretence that the latter 
 possessed a metaphysical existence; a principle 
 very convenient for cowardice, but calculated to 
 
27 
 
 plunge a nation irrecoverably into the chaos of 
 anarchy, or to bind it for ever in the chains of 
 despotism. Ah ! had the reign of tyranny con- 
 tinued and acquired strength, had scaffolds again 
 been erected, what victims would have ascend- 
 ed them 1 Who would have perished to testify 
 their inviolable attachment to the cause of their 
 country ? Doubt not, people of Europe, that 
 these victims would have been Protestants ! 
 You would have beheld their names written in 
 the list of blood ; while their enemies would 
 again have made appeals to your inexhaustible 
 charity. 
 
 I can have no object in defending any of the 
 acts of this period, unless it be proved that they 
 issued from a council formed of persons who 
 possessed an influence over the mass of Pro- 
 testants, or from an admmistration composed of 
 them. When a gentleman commits an action 
 derogatory to honour and virtue, he bears the 
 punishment of his crime, and his rank is not 
 for that reason considered less pure; but should 
 a Protestant, belonging to the dregs of the 
 people, without the education, principles, and 
 sentiments which a gentleman may be supposed 
 to possess ; should this Protestant, I say, com- 
 mit a crime, must we be responsible for it ? 
 must it form part of an indictment drawn up 
 
28 
 
 against a whole class of virtuous citizens ? — 
 What abominable logic ! what terrible responsi- 
 bility ! Where are those who express indigna- 
 tion at the law against suspected persons, and 
 yet do not shudder at this barbarous theory ? 
 
 But, with whatever horror I regard all oppres- 
 sors, I do not find, during this unhappy period, 
 any blood to be avenged. Ah! had executions 
 diffused sorrow among the pretended Royalists, 
 we might have pardoned the error of a son who, 
 transported by grief and rage for the loss of a 
 father, had been deceived in the choice of his 
 victim. Doubtless, had the reign of tyranny 
 been established, you would have suffered se- 
 rious misfortunes, and we should certainly have 
 been included in the persecution with which you 
 were threatened ; but that time did not arrive : 
 you have experienced nothing but alarm, and 
 those whom you now persecute cannot be re- 
 proached with having caused it. What ! can 
 your terrors only be removed by the blood of 
 the innocent ? Is that the only remedy for all 
 the afflictions produced by cowardice ? Did 
 conflagration give that agreeable light which 
 was alone capable of dissipating your fears ? Did 
 you imagine that you were to look only to the 
 fury of the populace for your future protection ? 
 
 3 
 
29 
 
 O deluded men ! men fatally blind to the inte- 
 rests of your country and your King ! ! 
 
 Finally, the battle of Waterloo exposed to 
 the world the weakness of the party which 
 sought to oppress France. The whole of the 
 South was thrown into commotion, with the 
 exception of Nismes, which was occupied by 
 General Gilly, and Avignon by General Casan. 
 Thus, the resistance of Nismes was totally un- 
 connected with Protestantism, since a principal 
 city in the neighbourhood, though entirely Ca- 
 tholic, continued under the yoke. It is there- 
 ^fore evident, that, had Nismes not contained a 
 sinirle Protestant, it would not have shown it- 
 self more willing to surrender. 
 
 A royal corps d'armeevvas assembled at Beau- 
 caire, composed of the elements of the former 
 force-of the Duke of Angouleme; every village 
 in the direction of the Rhone apjjcared disposed 
 to increase it by a detachment ; Nismes and 
 Avignon were consequently soon to be com- 
 pelled to acknowledge the authority of the King. 
 The whole army was ostensibly placed under 
 the direction of a Protestant General, and this 
 choice was as artful as perfidious. Those who 
 selected him were at once aware of his incapa^- 
 city, the facility of governing him by words, 
 ^nd the thick veil of prejudice in which his 
 
 E 
 
^0 
 
 mind was enveloped. An appearance was theft 
 assumed of intending no harm to those whose 
 destruction had been planned, while all the 
 power of inflicting injury was actually retained 
 by the employment of the Seide who had been 
 chosen. 
 
 General Gilly having at length yielded to the 
 entreaties of the inhabitants of Nismes, eva- 
 cuated the city, and a flag of truce announced 
 to the Royal army that the white cockade had 
 been hoisted. The commanders of that army 
 must have been aware of the dangers to which 
 the city was exposed by the introduction of 
 bands, which, for several days, had been studi- 
 ously incensed against it, and which were al- 
 ready practised in atrocities. A general mas- 
 sacre of the Protestants, and the destruction of 
 Nismes, might have been the consequence. 
 Why introduce such an army } The King was 
 satisfied, the authorities delegated by him were 
 admitted, and the submission was complete. 
 But the pretended Royalists were unwilling that 
 affairs should return to the state in which they 
 were during the preceding year. They wished for 
 a complete counter-revolution, and it could not 
 be cemented, except by the blood of the consti- 
 tutionalists and all the Protestants. The whole 
 horde of ruflfians was then conducted into 
 
31 
 
 Nismes. A slight combat ensued with the 
 troops of the line, who, being too weak to re- 
 sist the great number opposed to them, capitu- 
 lated ; and, after having laid down their arms, 
 were massacred. From this moment, from the 
 month of July, pillage and assassination deso- 
 lated the town and the neighbouring countries — 
 and desolate them still. 
 
 We must now divide a subject which has be- 
 come too diffused, for the sake of distinguish- 
 ing and embracing with more facility the vviiole. 
 
 J St. The plan of the chiefs ; that is to com- 
 plete the counter-revolution, to reduce the Pro- 
 testants to the oppression in which they existed 
 before the year 1787j by forcing the principal 
 characters among them to expatriate themselves, 
 and by murdering, by way of example, all those 
 who might venture to return. As this project 
 could not be executed but in contempt of the 
 royal authority, the Catholic Royalists suppress- 
 ed the King*s edicts wherein he speaks of cle- 
 mency, and refused to acknowledge the Prefect 
 nominated by the King, because he was direct- 
 ed to oppose their excesses. They even sent a 
 courier to the Due d'Angouleme to know how 
 far the orders proceeding from the Throne were 
 to be obeyed ; thus endeavouring to create a 
 schism in the state, .because the eastern and 
 £ 2 
 
32 
 
 central parts of France did not adopt the prin- 
 ciples of the South. Thus has the King heen 
 obliged publicly to reiterate his orders, to recall 
 expressly the Baron de Villeneuve to Paris, to 
 oblige him to give an account of his conduct, 
 of the prolongation of his authority, and of that 
 of his deputies, in defiance of the ordinances 
 which revoked them : thus did this country, in 
 open rebellion, add the green to the white cock- 
 ade; and thus troops, disbanded by a decree, were 
 preserved for the purpose of new disorders. 
 
 It certainly ill becomes rebels to accuse of re- 
 bellion those who wish to obey only the 
 King *. 
 
 * ThiS Avannage, the Gardonnenque, and the Ce- 
 vennes, were never in a state of rebelUon. These inte- 
 resting countries, rendered useful to the state by a nume- 
 rous, active, and industrious population, friendly to order 
 and peace, beheld with unanimous grief their legitimate 
 King compelled to quit his territories, and eagerly ranged 
 themselves under his tutelar iEgis, as soon as they learn- 
 ed his entrance into the capital. Whilst his delegated 
 officers were repulsed^ and his orders disregarded in that 
 part of the department, styled exclusively royalist, the 
 districts which we have mentioned, remained respectful 
 and submissive, refusing to acknowledge any other autho- 
 rity than that of the King, or to obey any but his orders. 
 Jn vain did their enemies endeavour to excite them to re- 
 bellion ; their artifices were useless, and they only suc- 
 ceeded in causing the arrival of the Austriaas to be re- 
 
 2 
 
33 
 
 Such is the plan of the chiefs laid open. Ik 
 will be observed that they stand at nothing ; 
 that they are men of principle ; and that by 
 THEiii MORALITY it is cxpcctcd that FRANCE 
 will be REGENERATED ! ! ! 
 
 2d. The plan of the agents of the atrocities 
 is simple : it is the enriching themselves during 
 a crisis. The few first days were devoted to 
 plunder. It v/as a libation necessary to popular 
 fury. Such houses were selected as presented 
 the richest booty. Thus, M. Vincent, a wealthy 
 banker, possessing great moveable property, was 
 the first to tempt cupidity, and his house and 
 furniture were abandoned to pillage. What was 
 his crime ? Having off^ered a considerable gift 
 to the Duke of Angouleme ; having enrolled 
 his son under the banners of that prince, and 
 being a Protestant. The rapacity of the popu- 
 lace being glutted, the next thing to be consi- 
 dered was the satisfaction of the principal agents, 
 who took no share in the general pillage, and 
 in which they even assumed the air of disinte- 
 restedness. The troops were divided into small 
 bodies. Some were distributed amono; the 
 houses of the Protestants, who, after a preli- 
 
 garded as the greatest happiness : these troops were re- 
 ceived at Alais, Anduse, Saint-Hypohte, &c. and, in- 
 deed, in every town and village, with cries of Vive le Roif 
 
34 
 
 minary pillage, were allowed to ransom the re- 
 mainder of their property, in order to save it 
 from destruction. Such wa.«j the treatment ex- 
 perienced for the space of two months by the 
 inhabitants of Nismes and the surrounding ci- 
 ties. The immense sums obtained by this sys- 
 tem became the prey of the principal agents, 
 who permitted their subalterns to seize the 
 linen, furniture, and all the inferior booty. 
 This band, which was most obedient in the exe- 
 cution of mischief, daily merited the indul- 
 gence of their chiefs by a few assassinations to 
 form an excuse for plunder. 
 
 3d. The plan of the Court ; which is to ap- 
 pease party spirit, and substitute the reign of 
 the law to that of anarchy : this plan has com- 
 pletely failed; for, when public declarations were 
 required, only confidential letters were written ; 
 and words were used, when arms alone could 
 have been efficacious. 
 
 From this combination of different actions, 
 a series of insupportable woes has resulted to- 
 the Protestants. 
 
 At Uzes, they were tried and executed by 
 the populace, as if the 2d of September, 1792^, 
 had been renewed. The streets, public places, 
 and roads of Nismes daily presented new vic- 
 tims ; all the country around these twounfortu- 
 
35 
 
 nate cities exhibits a dreadful picture of desola- 
 tion ; such property as was not ransomed by 
 money was destroyed ; and those who refused to 
 pay the required ransoms were immediately pu- 
 nished for their imprudent resistance. The 
 ]^rotestants of Gard had no other alternative for 
 escaping persecution than to fly from their 
 country, as in the days of the Medicis and the 
 Maintenons. These emigrations are daily un-? 
 dertaken, and, should an ill-placed confidence, 
 or a strong attachment to their homes, induce 
 any still to brave the dangers which surround 
 them, their absent friends never fail to erect 
 their cenotaphs and shed tears over their 
 empty urns. It might have been supposed that 
 the edict of Nantes had just been revoked. 
 But let us look back to even more terrible pe- 
 riods ! Who has not heard the town of Nismes 
 resound with these frightful cries: The King kas 
 proscribed all the Protestants! — He wishes to rid 
 France of them ! Let ns have another St. Bar- 
 tholomew ! Were not the bloody preparations 
 for re- acting that horrible massacre begun? 
 And was not the Prefect obliged to call in the 
 assistance of the Austrian troops, who arrived 
 on the eve of that anniversary so opprobrious to 
 France ? Thus, after having assassinated in de- 
 tail, in order to reap at leisure all possible ad. 
 
36 
 
 vantage from the crime, they wished to exter- 
 minate in mass all the lower order of the 
 people, who were destitute of the means of 
 purchasing their lives. And this was to have 
 been done on the EVE of SAINT LOUIS ! 
 on the BIRTHDAY of our good King, of the 
 mildest and most clement of princes ! ! ! 
 
 But these furious wretches will exclaim, The 
 assassinations of which you complain were not 
 authorized. 
 
 It is difficult to believe this. What ! those 
 assassinations unauthorized ! and amidst all the 
 victims who have suffered in this city alone, you 
 could not make an example of one of the assas- 
 sins ! Not one of them has suffered the punish- 
 ment due to his crimes ! What ! these atroci- 
 ties were unauthorized, and your police suffers 
 the circulation of pamphlets to excuse them, 
 viMthout appealing to the authorities, or citing 
 their unworthy authors before the Tribunals ! 
 What ! you take no part in them ; you endea- 
 vour to stop them, and yet you exert all your 
 efforts to prevent truth from reaching the 
 Throne! You seek to stifle the cries of the vic- 
 tims, while you pretend that scarcely any exist. 
 What! you were grieved at these excesses, and 
 endeavoured to prevent them, and when an as- 
 sassin of thirteen Protestants was brought 
 
^7 
 
 before you*, be was not only instantly released, 
 but obtained in the Natioiial Guard the rank of 
 Adjutant-major, which he at present fills! 
 These are facts, the evidence of which over- 
 whelms you. 
 
 Well! you will answer, it is true that a few 
 drops of blood have tarnished our victory ; but 
 you are wrong in supposing it to be a plan di- 
 rected against all Protestants : they are tran- 
 quil in Saintonge, in Poitou, in Dauphine, and 
 every where except in a few departments. Bat 
 does not this expose the plan of our ettemies? In 
 the taking of a town the outworks are first at- 
 tacked ; and the Protestants of Gard were per- 
 haps thus cruelly treated, only because they formed 
 the bulwark of the Protestants of France. It is 
 said that only such individuals as were accused 
 of Bonauartism were molested. Yes, doubtless, 
 had your plan been universally executed by agents 
 as skilful and profoundly hypocritical as those 
 you employed in certain places, you might have 
 said that all your victims were noted men, on 
 whom the sword of the law would have taken ven- 
 
 * Trestaillon. This blood-hound, it would appear, has 
 been again let loose, and massacred seven respectable in- 
 habitants of Nismes, on the 17th October. We shall see 
 if he obtains a further advancement in tlie army for this 
 meritorious service rendered to his King and country.— 
 See Morning Chronicle, Nov. 8. 
 
38 
 
 geance, had jt not been anticipated by your poig- 
 nards. But whom have you generally struck ? The 
 most faithful subjects of the King, and that only 
 BECAUSE THEY WERE PROTESTANTS! 
 You will deny it. But, at least explain then 
 why a considerable number of ministers, distin- 
 guished for their lo)alty, have been obliged to 
 fly ? why in many places the exercise of public 
 worship is suspended ? Why are the churches of 
 Nismes, Montagnac, Cournonteral, &c. &c. 
 plundered ? Why have we to lament the burn- 
 ing of the church of Pignan, near Montpellier, 
 and the church of St. Afrique, near Aveyron ? 
 If you wish to exculpate yourselves from all 
 these acts of violence, by which the Protestants 
 were directly attacked, declare what measures 
 were taken against their authors ; show us what 
 criminal processes were commenced ; if not, 
 confess the truth which presses upon you on all 
 sides. 
 
 But even under the supposition that you pur- 
 sue only the enemies of the King, shall I not 
 ask by whom you are invested with the royal 
 prerogative o.( executing justice ? 
 
 Yes, Sire, such is the extent of calamity to 
 which we are exposed. But think not that we are 
 totally incapable of repelling the outrages of our 
 
39 
 enemies, were we not restrained by a just re- 
 spect for your Majesty : but such is our misfor- 
 tune, that these wretches are called Royalists ; 
 and what name would be applied to us were we 
 to take up arms against them, since the public 
 authority seems unavailing to help us? Would 
 not they be considered as the dear but misguided 
 children of the holiest of causes, and should not 
 ive be branded as rebels? Resistance, there- 
 fore, has hitherto been abandoned. Those men. 
 Sire, who are described as your enemies, perish 
 without a struggle, in order not to seem to dis- 
 obey your sacred authority. Protestant Princes 
 surround them, and they have not proffered a 
 cry, nor taken any steps to engage them to be- 
 come their mediators, in the apprehension of 
 aggravating the deplorable condition of France, 
 Are such men rebels ? But, Sire, there is a term 
 when patience is exhausted, when it is difficult 
 to contain within the bounds of reason a 
 people cruelly persecuted. Anticipate, prevent 
 this dire calamity ; reorganize the national 
 guard, that true principle of public force ; recall 
 those bands, assembled in defiance of your au- 
 thority, and remove from their administrative 
 functions those who have seen and caused our 
 blood to flow with an unmoved countenance — - 
 
 F 2 
 
40 
 
 from that Instant anarchy will cease, and our mis- 
 fortunes be terminated. 
 
 But if we be reserved for continued persecu- 
 tion, at least let our fate be distinctly announced 
 to us. Ministers of Lewis XVIII., would you be 
 more inexorable than those of LewisXIV. against 
 whom Europe uttered such aery of execration ? 
 If so, satisfy the hatred of our enemies, but 
 give us time to assemble our dispersed iamilies, 
 to dispose of the property we have acquired, m 
 enriching the country which is still so dear to 
 our hearts in defiance of its injustice and cru- 
 elty. We will again find refuge on foreign 
 shores ; ue will once more implore your com- 
 passion, hospitable nations, which in other times 
 afforded an asylum to our forefathers, and in 
 which their names are still held in honour, and 
 their memories revered. We shall not come to 
 burden you with our indigence — we are a hardy 
 and laborious race. This new emigration will 
 cost you neither treasure nor blood. Your 
 p•,t^ , — some tears for our calamities, and that 
 fraternity which we shall endeavour to merit, 
 are all we shall ask ; while our ungrateful coun- 
 try, to which we never would wish to return 
 with arms in our hands, will still have our vows 
 for its prv^-^nerity. 
 
 Or rather, for we still cherish the confident 
 
41 
 
 hope, our country will at last avenge the injurres 
 of her most faitl*ful and devoted children : ge- 
 neral indignation has arisen against our enemies 
 and oppressors, who are consigned to contempt 
 and hatred ; their ephemeral reign will shortly 
 terminate, and we shall continue to dwell in the 
 land which gave us birth, under the auspices of 
 a revered Monarch, whose paternal intentions we 
 bless,, and amidst our'brethren of every persua- 
 sion, who have never participated in the criminal 
 errors of which we are the victims, and who 
 eagerly stretch forth their hands to us as a 
 pledge of union. 
 
 The preceding Address furnished grounds for 
 expecting a frank and solemti declaration on the 
 part of the King: he has, however, remained 
 silent ; and the disorders have consequently been 
 increasing. Plunder and devastation have been 
 committed even in the presence of the Austrians. 
 From the 10th to the 15th of September se- 
 veral children were torn from their parents, and 
 baptized in the Catholic Church, and several 
 Protestant families compelled to attend mass. 
 
 The Protestants at Nismes complained of 
 
42 
 
 being excluded from serving in the National 
 Guard. They have been permitted to enter it ; 
 but, by an unworthy perfidy, they are prevent- 
 ed from performing any service. They are, 
 however, compelled to pay dearly for the sub- 
 stitutes which are provided for them. 
 
SUMMARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 persecutions 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REFORMED CHURCH IN FRANCE. 
 
 Whoever reads the history of the Church of Christ 
 with impartiahty, can have no difficulty in applying that 
 portion of Holy Writ ; " And I saw a woman sit upon 
 a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, 
 having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was 
 arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with 
 gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden 
 cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of 
 her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name 
 written, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mo- 
 ther OF HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE 
 EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood 
 of the saints, and with the blood of the martyis of 
 Jesus : and when I saw her, I wondered with great ad- 
 miration." However this part of Scripture prophecy may 
 receive a partial illustration, in the perseeution which 
 the Church endured under Pagan Rome ; that persecu- 
 tion has certainly revived under Papal Rome, the reli- 
 
44 
 
 gion of which is indeed a mixture of Paganism and 
 Christianity; and all the characters attributed to the 
 subject of this vision, are most plainly injpressed upon 
 the Catholic Church. Her worship, and the titles of 
 her Popes, are marked by blasphemy; her rites and sa- 
 cramenis are distinguished by mystery ; she is a Baby- 
 lon in growth and in : pride; abominations, JiUhiness, 
 and fornication, are commitb d through the celibacy of 
 her clergy, and have been allowed by the sale of indul- 
 gences for the commission of the greatest obscenities ; 
 and there is not a nation, that has been within the reach 
 of her influence, where she has not rioted in the veins 
 of those Christians vflio have opposed her absurd and 
 unscriptural doctrines, and her monstrous usurpations : 
 most emphatically does the truth apply to her, that ghe 
 
 is DRITNKEN WITH BLOOD. 
 
 In vain have the modern advocates of the Church of 
 Rome endeavoured to apologize for her atrocities, by 
 pleading the spirit of past ages, and quoting the intole- 
 rance of other sectaries : where they have shed drops, 
 she has shed oceans of blood ; blood which, like that of 
 Abel, calls from the ground for vengeance, and on 
 account of which the souls of them that have been slain 
 for the word of God, and for the testimony which they 
 held, yet cry from under the altar of Heaven, " How 
 long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and 
 avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earih ?" 
 
 Nor is this persecuting spirit yet extinct ; it is still to 
 be seen in the arbitrary authority which the Church of 
 Rome exercises over consciences, in the disposition 
 which she manifests towards all heretics, and in the 
 recent massacres in the South of France. For five- 
 aiKl-tvventy years past her tyranny lias been checked, 
 
45^ 
 
 she has been called to struggle with infidelity for her 
 own existence ; but though she is so much indebted 
 to misguided Protestants for restoring her again to 
 the plenitude of her power, scarcely has she resumed 
 her seat before she discovers her old prejudices ; in 
 Spain, in Rome, in Naples, and in France, she is 
 crushing her benefactors, and using every means to ex- 
 tinguish the light and knowledge which the suppres- 
 sion of her authority has allowed to make progress in 
 the world. 
 
 During the lapse of a generation, both Christian states 
 and private Christians seem to have forgotten how much 
 the world has suffered from the oppressions of Popery. 
 It is foreign to the design of this statement to present 
 the reader with a general martyrology ; it is intended 
 merely to give the black catalogue of the persecutions 
 which have for many ages disgraced the kingdom of 
 France ; and which, before the allied troops have had 
 time to quit it, are again renewed there in all their 
 horrors. 
 
 It was in the valleys of Piedmont that pure and unde- 
 filed religion was maintained in all its simplicity, and 
 that the light of truth shone with undiminished lustre, 
 while Popery spread the gloom of superstition and ido- 
 latry among all the surrounding nations. Hence the 
 mother churches in the valleys of Piedmont very hap- 
 pily adopted for their arms, a taper huming in a golden, 
 candlestick, and scattering its glorious beams in a Jield 
 of thick darkness. The celebrated Peter Waldo 
 was their neighbour, and was indebted to their instruc- 
 tions for the knowledge he obtained, as well as for the 
 possession of the Holy Scriptures ; which, it is said, 
 they had carefully preserved, even from the days of 
 
46 
 
 the x^postles. Walter Lollard, by wliose name 
 truly tlevuut men \\ere dubbed in England five hundred 
 vears a'^-o, was also another of their converts. The 
 latter was burnt as a heretic at Cologne, in 13C2; the 
 former commenced his ministry about the year 1 160, 
 and, after having laboured long in France, escaped the 
 hands of the destroyer; though, as he opposed the 
 Church of Rome, vengeance pursued him at every step, 
 and torrents of blood were shed to prevent the spread 
 of his doctrines. 
 
 Pope Innocent the Third, to root out the followers of 
 Waldo from the earth, published his croisados, granting 
 plenary remission of sins to all persons that would go to 
 this holy war and destroy them. Those princes who neg- 
 lected his orders were considered as their abettors, and 
 exposed to the thunderbolts of excommunication ; they 
 were deprived both of their dominions and their lives. 
 The King of Arragon, and Counts of Toulouse, Be^ 
 zieres, and Carcassoue, were all cut off by prodigious 
 armies mustered against them, and myriads of their 
 subjects were butchered in the most horrible manner. 
 P. Personius asserts, that in the persecution of the Al- 
 bigenses and Waldenses no less than a million of persons 
 perished. 
 
 But the grand triumph of truth was reserved for the 
 period of the Reformation, and the spirit of the beast 
 had then an opportunity of more generally discovering 
 itself, while it belched out its malignant blasphemies 
 a^^ainst those Christians who would not be partakers in 
 the deeds of a corrupt church, and stirred up the princes 
 of every nation under Papal influence to murder their 
 best subjects, because they would not suffer human 
 edicts to direct them in matters of religion. 
 
47 
 
 The corruptions of the Church of Rome had become 
 so notorious, that all Europe seemed to feel the neces- 
 sity of a reformation. The Parliament of Paris began 
 to fix boundaries to the imperious usurpations of the 
 Pope. There were found some in the celebrated col- 
 lege of the Sorbonne, who ventured to dispute some 
 points with this infallible head of the church. Zidnglius 
 thundered against indulgences in Switzerland : a year 
 after him, Luther roused the world by his opposition in 
 Germany ; and, shortly after, Calvin entered the lists 
 against him i.i France. One singularity distinguished 
 these events, that they were not preconcerted among the 
 parties ; but, strangers to each other, they were all m- 
 spired at the same time, by the same spirit, and with 
 the most undaunted heroism rallied around the standard 
 of the Cross, to resist the slaves of superstition and 
 idolatry. 
 
 The progress of the Reformation in France has been 
 justly attributed to the revival of letters in that kingdom, 
 under the patronage of Francis I. The love which that 
 prince discovered for literature induced many learned 
 men to flock together under his government ; and, as the 
 rays of light concentrated among them, tliey gradually 
 chased away the darkness with which Popery had cover- 
 ed the land. Pure religion never shuns the light, it 
 challenges investigation, and the more it is explored the 
 more are its excellencies apparent ; but Superstition, 
 conversant only with the works of darkness, hates the 
 light, lest her deeds should be reproved. 
 
 Pope Leo's bull, granting the sale of indulgences, 
 and the magnanimous opposition which Luther made to 
 it, now became the general subject of conversation in 
 
4S 
 
 France, and the doctrines of the Reformation were em- 
 braced by great numbers, of all ranks. 
 
 The Reformed, in many parts of the kingdom, organ-? 
 ized themselves into churches, and regulated their doc- 
 trines, discipline, and worship, by the standard of the sa- 
 cred Scriptures, Olivetan, who was uncle to Calvin, and 
 a minister in the valleys of Piedmont, in the short space 
 of one year translated the Scriptures into the French Ian-, 
 guage, and ihey were speedily read in all the Reformed 
 churches, put into the hands of persons of all descrip- 
 tions, and taught to their children. David's Psalms were 
 translated and set to solemn tunes; and so much were 
 they admired, that they obtained admission into the court, 
 and were publicly sung on all occasions. The Cardinal of 
 Lorrni)te, fearful of the consequences, soon found means 
 to expel the psalm-singing, and obtained the translation 
 of the Odes of Horace, and the obscene poems of Ti- 
 htdlus and CatuUus, which he got set to music, and in- 
 troduced into the court. 
 
 The plain and zealous sermons of the Reformers were 
 attended with astonishing success, and the Papists took 
 the alarm when they saw their altars neglected, their 
 masses solitary, and iheir churches drained, while the 
 Protestant temples were filled with worshippers. 
 
 And now the work of persecution began, vihich has 
 continued more or less, in proportion to the influence of 
 the priesthood, down to the present moment. John Le 
 Clerc, who was the first founder of the Reformed church 
 at Metz, in Lorraine, after suflfering the most cruel 
 treatment, was burnt alive, in that place, in 1324; 
 and, the following year, Jame? Pavanes was burnt at 
 Paris. 
 
 Francis, who at first favoured the Reformation, hav- 
 
49 
 
 ing been made a prisoner of war at Pavia, and carried "^ 
 
 to Madrid, in 1325, was released in the course of the 
 following year, and restored to his kingdom. This 
 event was eagerly seized by the priesthood as a pretext 
 for destroying the Reformed, and as their numbers had 
 now astonishingly increased, the misfortunes of the king- 
 dom were ascribed to the progress of heresy; and, to 
 prevent the future judgments of the Almighty, Francis 
 was exhorted to extirpate the enemies of the Catholic 
 faith. The King obeyed ; and, being advised by his 
 chancellor, ordered that, for the future, the cognizance 
 of the crimes of heresy should belong to the civil ma- 
 gistrates. The Parliaments were now actively employed 
 against the offenders, and executions became common 
 throughout the kingdom. The ministers were obliged 
 to recant, or suffer imprisonment or exile ; and, in 
 1535, the King himself assisted in person, bareheaded, 
 in a grand procession at Paris, where he had the plea- 
 sure of witnessing the burning of six of his Protestant 
 subjects. So much influence had the priesthood now 
 acquired over his mind, that it is said, he solemnly 
 affirmed before the Parliament, great numbers of the 
 nobility, and the ambassadors of foreign princes, that if 
 he knew one of his arms to be infected with such a 
 corruption, he would cut it off, lest the other members 
 should be corrupted by it. He published, at the same 
 time, a severe edict against the Lutherans, which was 
 the name given to the Reformed, in which those who 
 harboured or concealed them were made liable to the 
 same punishment with them, and the informer was en- 
 couraged by the reward of a fourth part of their goods. 
 This severity attracted the attention of the Protestant 
 Princes in Germany, who remonstrated against it ; and 
 
50 
 
 *sJFrancis then needed their services, he found it ne- 
 cessary to frame an excuse. He said that his edict w as 
 issued only against some rebels, who, wider cover of re- 
 ligion, had endeavoured to disturb the peace of the 
 kingdom \ and they were satisfied with the answer. 
 
 An attempt was even made to take away the life of 
 the Queen of Navarre, w ho was Francis's sister ; and he 
 ■was persuaded to begin with his court and his nearest re- 
 lations, if he wished completely to deliver the kingdom 
 from heresy. But Francis had some humane feelings 
 remaining, and contented himself with apologizing for 
 his sister. She, however, perceived her danger, and was 
 obliged for a short period to conceal her views. 
 
 At this time a vast number of the Reformed were put 
 to death in France, in the Netherlands, and in England, 
 where Henry VIII. who had renounced the Pope's au- 
 thority, rather out of spite than from any principle of 
 religion, persecuted with the utmost rigour those who 
 adhered to Luther's or Zuinglius's opinions. 
 
 In 1536 and 1537 the work of persecution was still 
 going on in France, and the Reformed were cruelly 
 treated and dragged to execution ; but the Reformation 
 continued to spread and to take root in all parts of the 
 country. 
 
 A Dominican Friar was burnt at Agen in the year 
 1539, and was the first n)artyr of the Reformation iu 
 that city. At Nonuay, in Vivarais, a man was like- 
 wise burnt for having refused to kneel down before aq 
 image upon the highway, as he was going to the fair of 
 Lyons. In 1540 and 1541, many others also suflfered 
 death for the cause of religion. In 1543 the Parliament 
 of Rouen condemned one Constantlne, and three others, 
 to be burnt : they were executed together. That of 
 
51 
 
 Paris forbad, under severe penalties, the selling of any 
 book censured by tbe Sorbonne, particularly C<ilvins 
 CJtrhtian Institutes. At the instances of the Inquisition, 
 strict charge was given to every one, under pain of ex- 
 communication, to inform against those v^ho should be 
 suspected of heresy, within six days after the discovery. 
 Processions and burnings still continued. 
 
 About this period one Landri, curate of the Holy 
 Cross at Paris, ventured to declaim boldly against some 
 of the errors of the Romish Church, and especially 
 against purgatory. Vast numbers of people attended his 
 preaching, and his parish-church was too small to con- 
 tain the eager multitudes. The King heard of his fame, 
 and resolved to send for him, and to hear him, for he 
 was by no means satisfied about the doctrine of purga- 
 tory. The Cardinal de Tournon, the King's favourite, 
 took the alarm, and got one of his friends to frighten 
 the preacher before he entered into the presence of the 
 King. He was told, that if he said one word seeming to 
 favour the Reformation, he was undone for ever. The 
 trick succeeded — Landri was naturally timid ; he re- 
 sisted every inquiry of the King, though he received him 
 in the kindest manner, and lost an opportunity which 
 might have been turned to considerable account by the 
 Reformed Church. Landri died very uneasy in his 
 mind, some years afterwards. 
 
 The Sorbonne this year usurped the authority of mak- 
 ing new articles of faith ; these articles were published 
 in the streets of Paris by the common crier, they were 
 then printed by the King's command, and severe penal- 
 ties were decreed against all who should question their 
 legitimacy. In the mean time the Parliament of France 
 proceeded in their severe measures against the Reformed, 
 
52 
 
 and numbers, to avoid their fury, sacrificed their pro- 
 perty and fled into exile. Some were not so huppy. 
 Mr. Peter Bonpain, who had raised a congregation at 
 Aubigny, was arrested, tried, condemned, and burnt at 
 Paris ; and a number of the Reformed, who met together 
 for religious w orship at Sens, were put under arrest. The 
 Parliament of Rouen also condemned one Hussen, an 
 apothecary of Blois, to be burnt for having dispersed 
 some pamphlets on the disputed points of religion : he 
 suffered martyrdom with such astonishing constancy, 
 tliat many of tlie spectators were induced to examine 
 into his principles for themselves, and several, in con- 
 sequence, embraced the Reformed religion. 
 
 We come now to the inhuman slaughter of the Wal- 
 denses in Provence. These sprung from the Waldenses 
 of Dauphine and Piedmont, and, together with the 
 Calabrians, had emigrated from their over-populous 
 Talieys to a wild desert, which, by their industry and 
 the blessing of God, they soon rendered prolific in corn, 
 wine, oil, chestnuts, and other fruits. 
 
 These poor people had long been under the iron hand 
 of Popery ; for, at a meeting of Bishops at Avignon, in 
 1228, the Inquisitors reported that they had taken and 
 apprehended so large a number of them, that they were 
 not only at a loss to provide food for their subsistence, 
 but also to procure lime and stone enough to build pri- 
 sons for them. In 1506 an attempt was made to pre- 
 judice Lewis XII. against them ; but that truly illus- 
 trious Monarch, whose name deserves to be coupled with 
 that of Henry IV. would not condemn them without 
 first examining luto their characters ; and having sent 
 Monsieur Adam Fumee, Master of the Requests, to 
 obtain the necessary information, he returned so just & 
 3 
 
report of their harmless and industrious lives, that the 
 King took them under his protection, and bestowed upon 
 them the highest encomiums. 
 
 When the reign of Francis commenced, these people, 
 having lost their protector, were again subjected to the 
 enemies of true religion. Some member or other of them 
 was daily summoned before the Parliament of Aix, and 
 condemned to be hanged or burnt, or dismissed with ^ 
 brand in the forehead. At length, in 1540, at the in- 
 stigation of the ecclesiastics, one of the most exorbi- 
 tant, cruel, and inhuman sentences was passed against 
 them that was ever pronounced by any Parliament ; re- 
 sembling in all respects the edict of King Ahasuenas, 
 given out at the request of Haman against the Jews. Six 
 persons who ventured to stand forward to justify them- 
 selves and their brethren were condemned to be burnt 
 alive, and their wives and children banished ; their 
 country was doomed to be laid waste, and rendered im- 
 inhabitable. ; and all this was done without permitting^ 
 tiiera to say one word in their own defence. The King, 
 informed of the rigour of the sentence, sent an order to 
 the Governor of Piedmont not to suffer it to be put into 
 execution, and enjoined the Parliament to exercise more 
 moderation hi future. He also sent letters of grace to 
 the innocent offenders ; but these were suppressed. 
 
 But in 1545 the time of heavy suffering came upon 
 them. The Governor, Oppeda, accused them of hav- 
 ing raised an army of sixteen thousand men, with a 
 design to seize upon Marseilles, and having well ma- 
 naged his tale, obtained permission from the King to 
 execute the suspended decree. Having levied his troops, 
 fee fell in the most merciless maener i^on the unarmei 
 
 H 
 
o4 
 
 inhabitants. Twenfy-two towns and villages were burnt 
 to ashes, and four thousand men, women, and children 
 slaughtered. The most atrocious acts of cruelty were 
 comuiiited. The harmless labourers were slain with- 
 out pity ; their w ives and daughters were ravished ; 
 pregnant women and sucking infants were murdered ; 
 several women had their breasts cut off, who perished 
 in their agonies, and their children were starved to 
 death. Every thing was ransacked, pillaged, or burnt; 
 and nothing was reserved but those unhappy creatures 
 who were doomed to the galleys. The cruelties exer- 
 cised on this occasion almost exceed credibility. Some 
 women were shut up in a barn full of straw, and burnt ; 
 and when a humane soldier made a hole for some of 
 them to escape, they were forced back by pikes and 
 halberds. Some were taken into a meadow, where 
 Oppeda commanded that ihey should be hewn to pieces; 
 and their dexterous executioners tried their skill at cutting 
 off heads, arms, and legs. Some, who were found hid 
 in caves, were taken into the castle-hall of Cabrieres, 
 and barbarously massacred in the presence of the san- 
 guinary commander. The residue of the inhabitants 
 were pursued through rocks and mountains, and 
 forced to the greatest extremities. They only begged of 
 Oppeda to allow them to pass into Geneva, with their 
 wives and children ; but the bloodthirsty monster re- 
 plied, that he would send them with their wives and 
 children to dwell with the devils in the infernal regions, 
 so as to blot out the very memory of them from the facf 
 of the earth. 
 
 Some of these poor people, after the storm was 
 passed, ventured to return again to their oiuch-loved 
 
Valleys, and became the seed of several churches, which 
 afterwards flourished in great vigour. 
 
 When the King heard of the cruelties that had been 
 committed in his name, he was exceedingly angry ; and 
 on his death-bed he enjoined his son Henry to revenge 
 so much innocent blood upon the shedders of it. Court 
 influence, however, protected the chief aggressors ; but 
 Oppeda was visited by the Almighty, and died of a 
 horrid distemper, which consumed his bowels. 
 
 In the year 1546, fourteen of the Reformed were 
 sentenced to be burnt alive, in the great market-place at 
 Meaux, after having been cruelly put to the torture. 
 One of these had his tongue cut out before he was exe- 
 cuted. Another was condemned to be hung up by the 
 arm-pits, and then to be whipt and shut up for life 
 in a monastery, while the others were executed. Two 
 others were sentenced to be whipt for three difl'erent 
 days, having ropes on their necks, and then to be ba- 
 nished. Slighter punishments were inflicted upon many 
 others, who were all obliged to make the amende ho- 
 norable, which was a most ignominious punishment in- 
 flicted upon great oflfenders, who were to go through 
 the streets barefooted and bareheaded, vMth a rope round 
 the neck and a burning link in the hand, till they came 
 to a seat of justice, or some other public place, where 
 they were to confess their ofi'ences and ask for pardon. 
 The goods and estates of those who were executed were 
 all forfeited, and probably ih i priests and the church 
 shared pretty largely in die i.l-gotten spoils. 
 
 Two men were also taken and burnt at Senlis. One 
 Francis D'Augy was burnt at Nonnay, by the sentence 
 of the Parliament of Toulouse. In short, the burning- 
 H 2 
 
50 
 
 chambers which were established to receive informatlons- 
 against lieretics, made terrible havoc among the Reform- 
 ed, and sometimes burnt twenty of them together. 
 These good men often suffered death with the most 
 heroic constancy, and many were converted to their faith 
 by beholding their death. 
 
 Among tbe atrocities that were now committed, must 
 be enumerated the burning of John I'Anglois, an attor*' 
 ney and member of the church at Sens, who was con- 
 demned at the instances of his own uncle, Barville, 
 Archdeacon of the cathedral of Sens. 
 
 Francis I. died in 1547. Many circumstances men- 
 tioned in his life prove that he had an inquiring mind^ 
 and that he was rather favourable to the Reformation \ 
 but he wanted courage to i*esist the priesthood, and 
 persecuted more from policy, than from inclination. 
 He was, however, equally responsible at the tribunal of 
 tlie King of kings, for all the righteous blood shed during 
 his reign. 
 
 His son, Henry II. was' a bigot. While he needed 
 the aid of the Protestant princes of Germany, against 
 the Pope and the Emperor, he discovered a little mo- 
 deration ; but when their services were no longer neces- 
 sary, the spirit of persecution broke out with unrelent- 
 ing fury, and would have exceeded the barbarities of 
 Decius and Dioclesian, had not the unexpected death cf 
 that Prince put an end to all his malicious purposes. 
 
 Tbp burningrchambec was peculiarly active ; the 
 first year that Henry ascended the throne, a great num- 
 ber of the Reformed were executed all over the kingdom, 
 and he attended, like his father, in a solemn procession, 
 after which, many unfortunate victims were put to death 
 ou the Place de Greve. But the cruelties which were 
 
57 
 
 perpetrated were of a more refined nature tban those 
 committed in the days of Francis ; for, the poor 
 creatures were tied to a pulley, from which they were 
 let down by degrees into the fire, and when they began 
 to feel it, they were taken up again ; and this was repeat- 
 ed till they expired in the most excruciating tortures. 
 
 Shortly after, an edict was published against the 
 Reformed, and persecution raged more fiercely than it 
 had ever done before. Among the illustrious sufferers, 
 one deserves particularly to be noticed. Monsieur 
 Lewis de Marsac was a gentleman of great family, 
 and having been in the King's ordinance, the Lieute- 
 nant Criminal wished to excuse him from dying with a 
 rope round his neck, like the other sufferers. Marsac 
 perceiving that his rank had gained him this privilege, 
 and that he was to be more favoured than his brethren, 
 desired that no distinction should be made. " Alas 1'* 
 cried he, " don't deny me the collar of that most excel* 
 lent order." 
 
 Among other inventions, the gag was now used for the 
 first time. Its intention was to prevent the martyrs' 
 from singing psalms, or addressing the people on die way 
 to their funeral pile. 
 
 One Simon Lalve 'was executed at Dijon, and while 
 he was praying for his persecutors, his executioner was 
 smitten to the heart, and embraced the faith of the Re- 
 formed. 
 
 In 1557, a congregation having been discovered at 
 worship in Paris, was surrounded, and many of them 
 seized. Nine of them were burnt, among whom was 
 Philippa de Luns, a young widow of exquisite beauty, 
 who was in the twenty-third year of her age : she was 
 relict of the Lord of Graveron in Gascoiiy. Before her 
 
death her tongue was cut out, and her feet and face 
 parched ; she was afterwards strangled, and her corpse 
 burnt to ashes. 
 
 The King, and the Cardinal Lorraine, made an at- 
 tempt about this time to introduce the Inquisition into 
 France, but they were so strongly opposed by the Par- 
 liament that they relinquished it. 
 
 Many illustrious persons now united with the Re- 
 formed, and, among the rest, the King and Queen of 
 Navarre, who, with some distinguished families of the 
 nobility, joined them in their worship, and walked in 
 public procession, singing psalms with the people. The 
 priests took the alarm, and had recourse to the stale cry, 
 that the Lutherans were raising a sedition at Paris. The 
 Kiug immediately issued a proclamation and forbad 
 the meetings, and some persons were arrested, but after- 
 wards released. 
 
 The King now openly avowed his intentions in the 
 Parliament respecting the Reformed, and seized some of 
 its members, to bring them to trial and execution, be- 
 cause they favoured their cause ; but, before he could 
 execute all his sanguinary wishes, he was killed at a 
 tournament, and suddenly called himself to a higher 
 tribunal, where the righteous Judge maketh inquisition 
 for blood. 
 
 Notwithstanding the opposition made during this, 
 reign against the advancement of tiie Reformed religion, 
 upwards of fifty churches were established in some of the 
 principal towns and cities. 
 
 The Reformed hoped for some relaxation in their per- 
 secutions on the death of the late King, but they soon 
 found that there was a similar spirit in his son, Francis II. 
 Guided by many of the same counsellors, he continued 
 
5S 
 
 the career of blood which he had pursued, Tlie first 
 victim of his cruelty was Counsellor Du Bourg, one of 
 the members seized by his father in the Parliament, 
 When he ascended the place of execution he offered up 
 this prayer : O Lord my God ! do not forsake me, lest. 
 I should forsake thee ! He was strangled, and his bodjr 
 was then cast into the fire and reduced to ashes ! 
 
 A uew edict was published against the meetings of 
 the Reformed, and base persons were encouraged to 
 accuse them, with the promise of half their forfeitures; 
 while the curates and vicars of the respective parishes 
 thundered their anathemas and excommunications against 
 all those who, knowing any Lutheran, should not give 
 intelligence respecting him, and exhorted their parish- 
 ioners to use all their endeavours to discover the objects 
 of their vengeance, and to be watchful every one over 
 his neighbour, promising impunity, i?i case their in- 
 formation should be found faulty or even false. 
 
 The persecution began at Paris. The houses of 
 the Reformed were marked, and a Friday was the day 
 fixed to break in upon them, to see if they were eating 
 flesh or fish. The greatest cruelties were committed. 
 Paris was like a besieged city. Nothing was to be seen 
 in the streets but men and women of all qualities and 
 ages, whom the soldiers were escorting to gaol, while 
 their houses were plundered, or their goods sold by 
 auction, to reward their depredators. The streets were 
 so incumbered with carts full of furniture, that it was 
 difficult to pass ; and the poor children, deprived of their 
 parents, were left to starve in the streets, none daring to 
 relieve them for fear of being considered as heretics. — O 
 the humane spirit of Popery ! 
 
 The priests, too, must interfere in the business, for 
 4 
 
60 
 
 it could not be perfected without them. They stood in 
 the corners of the streets, and excited the rage of the 
 people, by telling them that the heretics fed upon 
 children's flesh, that they committed a thousand acts of 
 impurity, and they ate a pig instead of the paschal lamb. 
 The Parliament witnessed these violent proceedings, 
 instigated by the Cardinal Lorraine, but they employed 
 no efforts to check them. Other parts of the kingdom 
 suffered in the same manner. 
 
 At length, the Cardinal procured the interest of the 
 Queen-mother, and, by suborning false witnesses and 
 other methods, he made her believe that the Reformed 
 had a plot against the state, and obtained her consent to 
 extirpate the whole of them. The Cardinal and the 
 Duke of Guise, his brother, hastily embraced the favour- 
 able moment, and pursued their hellish designs like 
 worthy agents of the prince of darkness. 
 
 Seizures of goods, violences, extortions, imprisonments, 
 executions, and burnings, were the order of the day, 
 and the Reformed of Paris were the principal victims ; 
 but yet they forsook not the assembling of themselves 
 together, and heroically held fast their integrity. 
 
 The Sorbonists, and other preachers, availed them- 
 selves of the opportunity afforded them, to inflame the 
 passions of the people in their sermons, and carried 
 their ghostly fury so far that they dragged the persecuted 
 from the hands of the executioner, that they might vent 
 their rage to the last moment, by torturing them. 
 Images were set up in the streets, and those who would 
 not kiss them were sent to prison, and boxes were pre.- 
 sented to the passers-by to obtain money for wax-tapers 
 and lights, to which if they refused to give, they were 
 b danger of being killed. The cry of A Lutheran, a 
 
Gl 
 
 X.ullieran ! was enough to collect a mob ; and some 
 arch fellows actually obtained the destruction of their 
 creditors by this means, who fell under the fury of the 
 mob. 
 
 In 1560, the Admiral of France secured the aid of 
 the Prince de Conde, and endeavoured, by force of arms, 
 to rid the country of the Guises, who were destroying 
 Jts best subjects by their shameful depredations ; but the 
 eirterprise was unsuccessful ; Renaudie, the leader, was 
 slain, and his body hung on a gibbet and quartered. 
 Amboise, the scene of action, suffered dreadfully in 
 this affair, and the streets were streaming with the blood 
 of the slaughtered. Above twelve hundred noblemen, 
 gentlemen, or commoners, perished on the occasion. 
 One Captain Villemongey, being brought to the scaffold, 
 dipped his hands in the blood of those who had suffered 
 before him, and raising them to heaven, cried out with 
 his last breath. Behold, O God Almighty, here is the 
 hinocent blood of thy servants, zchich certainly thou 
 wilt avenge. 
 
 The Guises carried matters with so high a hand, that 
 the smallest attempt to check their power was punished 
 in the most exemplary manner; and a poor hawker 
 was executed for selling a pamphlet, called The Tiger, 
 which was intended to expose their cruelties j a mer- 
 chant from Rouen, who was also passing by, at the 
 time of his execution, endeavouring to appease the fury 
 of the mob, was conveyed to prison as an accomplice, 
 and suffered a few days after. 
 
 It would occupy more room than these pages can 
 allow, only to detail the acts of cruelty which were 
 committed durinsr this short reijjn of seventeen months. 
 One Antliony Richiend was seized by the mob at Fuy- 
 
6% 
 
 euse, who ripped him open and dragged his bowels 
 about the stieets, which they afterwards threw into a 
 common sewer. They then carried his heart and liyer 
 upon a pole in brutish triumph, and finally threw them 
 to the dogs ; but the animals refusing to eat them, they 
 cried out in their rage, What, are you Lutherans too ? and 
 killed die beasts upon the spot. 
 
 Various plots were formed against the life of the 
 King of Navarre, because he favoured the Reformed ; 
 and the young king Francis, only in his seventeenth year, 
 was tutored to enter into them all, but they happily 
 failed. The Prince of Conde, their friend, was also 
 sentenced to death ; but the King himself died before the 
 sentence could be executed, and he was afterwards set 
 at liberty. 
 
 1560. — Charles IX. was ten years of age when he 
 ascended the throne, and the affairs of the state were 
 committed to the hands of the Queen-mother. At 
 the commencement of his reign, she, fearing the 
 power of the Guises, who had a design upon the crown, 
 deemed it politic to keep them in check by leaning ra- 
 ther to the side of the Protestants. These had now 
 above two thousand one hundred and fifty congrega- 
 tions, many of which were very large, and they con- 
 siderably increased under the short repose with which 
 they were favoured. The King of Navarre was also a 
 powerful friend of the Reformed ; but having obtained 
 an enlargement of his kingdom, through the influence of 
 the Pope, he shortly after deserted the cause which he 
 had hitherto warmly espoused, and it would have been 
 left in a very helpless state, had not the Queen of Na- 
 \arre replaced her father, and persevered in her resolu- 
 tion to support the Reformed till the day of her death. 
 
Dispirited at the turn of affairs in favour of the Pro- 
 testants, the Guises retired to their estates, and waited 
 for a more favourable opporluinty to forward their 
 sanguinary and ambitious designs. 
 
 An edict was published by the Queen, granting to the 
 Protestants the privilege of preaching in all parts of the 
 kingdom, excepting in Paris, and in other walled cities. 
 This was carried in the Parliament with some difficulty, 
 and any thing like toleration sat very uneasy upon the 
 minds of the Catholics. 
 
 The Guises, impatient at restraint and breathing out 
 threatenings an^ slaughter against the Protestants, at 
 last found means to renew the horrors of persecution. 
 The dowager Dutchess of Guise was a resident at Vassy, 
 a small town in Champaign, where there Avas a Reformed 
 church of about twelve hundred members, who resort- 
 ed there from the adjacent places. Their meeting-house 
 was a large barn, and one Leonard Morel was their 
 minister. As liberty of conscience was gi-anted, ihey 
 openly engaged in the exercises of worsliip ; but this 
 woman having the blood of the Guises flowing in her 
 veins, looked at them with envy, and longed for a time 
 to vent upon them her superstitious rage. She first sent 
 the Bishop of Chalons, in whose diocese the place w as, 
 to interdict the minister, and interrupt him in his wor- 
 ship. But the Reformed divine boldly stood his ground, 
 and desired him to wait till he had finished his sermon, 
 and if he uttered any thing contrary to Scripture, he 
 would readily allow himself to be censured. The arbi- 
 trary monk then wrote to Pans, and complained to the 
 Parliament, that he had been insulted by a Reformed 
 minister ; but as he could not substantiate his charge, 
 the congregation triumphed and went on as usual, think- 
 1 2 ■ 
 
64 
 
 ing themselves perfectly secure under the protection of 
 the edict. 
 
 But the Dutchess, disappointed in her aims, provoked 
 the indignation of her sons-against this religious assem- 
 bly ; and with a body of armed men they fell upon them 
 in the time of worship, wounded two hundred, and left 
 sixty dead upon the spot. The minister was among the 
 wounded, and was sent into confinement as a prisoner^ 
 the pews and pulpit were broken, the Bible was torn to 
 pieces, and some houses in the neighbourhood plunder- 
 ed. To cover their atrocities, the murderers got soma 
 of their partisans to sign an affidavit in their favour, 
 accusing the Protestants of being a factions set of 
 people, and charging them with being the aggressors. 
 
 Guise having begun with success, was determined to 
 follow up his designs ; he therefore excited a commotion 
 in various provinces, and marched to Paris at the head 
 of a thousand horse. The Queen fled with her son, 
 and placed herself under the protection of the Prince of 
 Conde. 
 
 The Constable of France, leading on the genS" 
 d'artnes, in the mean time wreaked his vengeance upon 
 all the places of worship for the Reformed in the vici- 
 nity of Paris, tearing them in pieces and burning them, 
 and many of these oppressed people suffered from his fury; 
 the mob were so full of malignity, that one of the minis- 
 ters having escaped, against whom they had a great in- 
 veteracy, they actually carried his slippers in a procession 
 upon a pitch-fork ; a token of what they would have 
 done with the offender, had he fallen into their hands. 
 
 Now began a furious civil war, which lasted for a 
 ■whole year, in which fifty thousand Protestants perished. 
 
65 
 
 Guise was assassinated, and Navarre was killed at a 
 siege. 
 
 But who were the disloyal subjects here ? It was the 
 Catholic conspirators, who infringed upon the King's 
 edict ; who armed without royal authority ; who seized 
 upon His Majesty's sacred person ; and, for the sake 
 of a private revenge, deluged the country with the 
 blood of civil war ! 
 
 Many more atrocities of the most barbarous kind 
 were committed during this reign, and the mob and the 
 magistrates seemed to vie with each other in acts at 
 which humanity shudders. Three hundred Reformed 
 were shut up in their church at Tours for three days to- 
 gether, without eating or drinking ; then they were tied 
 two and two, and brought near the river, where their 
 barbarous executioners seemed to study to rival each 
 other in the most cruel methods of putting them to 
 death. The children were sold at a crown apiece. A 
 very beautiful young woman being brought to the 
 slaughter, he who was destined to destroy her relented 
 through pity, when another snatched her from his hands, 
 stripped her naked, and having violated her person, 
 murdered her. The President of Tours was tied to 
 two willows, and as it was supposed that he had swaK 
 lowed some money, they ripped him open alive, to 
 search for it in his bowels. The catalogue of towns is 
 large where these crimes against humanity were perpe- 
 trated. 
 
 In Provence these barbarities were carried still far-, 
 ther. About fifteen hundred men, women, and chil- 
 dren, were destroyed in that country in the year 1553. 
 Some men and women were hung up by the feet, and 
 ripped open alive ; others were unmercifully beaten. 
 
6G 
 
 and then burnt alive ^ others were tied to an ass's tail, 
 and dragged through the streets ; others were stoned to 
 death ; otiiers were scourged to death stark naked, with- 
 out any distinction of sex ; others had their eyes plucked 
 out, or their noses and their ears cut off, and were then 
 cast headlong from the rocks ; others were buried alive ; 
 others were impaled, women as well as men ; others 
 were chopped to pieces ; others were drowned ; others 
 were thrown half dead to the dogs and hogs ; others 
 were starved to death with cold and hunger ; and those 
 obscene acts of cruelty were committed which nothing 
 but Satanic malice could possibly have contrived. 
 
 At Toulouse some priests seized the body of a woman 
 who was of the Reformed religion, as it was going to 
 the grave, and carried it to a Romish church to 
 bury it ; they then set the bells ringing, and raised a 
 mob, who assaulted those of the Reformed that came in 
 the way, and wounded and killed many with stones and 
 swords. After this the Catholics were ordered to distin- 
 guish themselves by wearing white crosses, and to mark 
 their door-posts with the same sign, that they might 
 save iheir houses from plunder. The Reformed armed 
 for their own defence : the contest lasted four days, 
 during which time about four thousand persons perished 
 on both sides, and two hundred houses were burnt to 
 the ground. The Reformed at length escaped from the 
 tow n ; but many of them were butchered by parties ly- 
 ing in ambush on the roads, and their bodies were left to 
 be devoured by the wolves and dogs. Four hundred 
 who remained behind, were beheaded, and some were 
 first put to the torture. Two young boys were among the 
 sufferers, the one thirteen, and the other fifteen years of 
 age, who, because they would not renounce the Reform- 
 
67 
 
 ed religion, were both bung. One sentence pronounced 
 against a Monsieur Terond, an attorney, who had not 
 been involved in this contest, is well worth recording. 
 It is a proof of Catholic justice and Catholic omni- 
 science, which ought never to be forgotten. " Mon- 
 sieur Terond," said the Counsellor who read it, " the 
 Couit, after hearing your cause, do not find you in any" 
 wise guilty: nevektheless, as the said court 
 
 IS VERY WELL INFORMED OF THE INWARD DISPO- 
 SITION OF YOUR CONSCIENCE, AND THAT YOU 
 WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY GLAD, HAD THOSE OF 
 YOUR WRETCHED AND REPROBATE SECT GOT THE 
 
 UPPER HAND (and also that you liaie always counte- 
 nanced them), the said Court condemns you to be be- 
 headed, and your goods and estates to be forfeited 
 without any appeal." 
 
 Besides a number of other persons, many of them 
 of rank, who perished by beheading, hanging, and 
 quartering alive, and whose estates were confiscated and 
 their children beheaded, multitudes died in the prisons by 
 cruel tortures ; and four hundred were outlawed, and 
 their estates were forfeited. 
 
 But it would swell this w ork to a folio volume, were, 
 it to detail all the cruel sufferings to which the French 
 Protestants have been exposed. The affair of Black 
 Bartholomew Day, 1572, is an historical fact known 
 to every one. Never was there a more nefarious plot; 
 never was plot more successfully cariied into execution. 
 Relying on the faith of the Catholics, and thinking to 
 put an end to all further bloodshedding in civil war, the 
 Protestants had consented to an union between the 
 young King of Navarre, afterwards Henry IV. and the 
 sister of Charles IX, The marriage was celebrated, 
 
68 
 
 and the principal Protestants of the kingdom were as- 
 sembled in the metropolis on the occasion. Scarcely 
 were the rejoicings concluded, when all the leaders of 
 the party were cruelly assassinated in the dead of the 
 night, and on the approach of day, the savage Charles 
 was seen amusing himself with shooting at those who 
 nvere endeavouring to escape. Alas ! they were but 
 few ; but those few were pursued with unrelenting fury. 
 The massacre lasted seven days. Neither age nor sex 
 was spared : five thousand people perished in Paris. 
 The streets streamed with blood, and the coach-ways 
 were blocked up with dead bodies. The havoc spread 
 speedily through the whole kingdom, and never ceased 
 till the Popish tigers had glutted themselves with the 
 blood of one hundred thousand persons. The Pope was 
 delighted at this news, and public rejoicings at Rome 
 crowned these barbarous transactions. 
 
 In the reign of Henry IV. which succeeded, the 
 Protestants obtained some security under the Edict of 
 Nantes, which that good prince published while on a 
 visit to that place. But this was barbarously violated 
 by Lewis XIV. The celebrated Saurin, who was him- 
 self a sufferer at this period, has given a concise and in- 
 teresting statement of the cruelties which were inflicted 
 upon the Protestants just before this revocation took 
 place : " A thousand blows were struck at our afflicted 
 churches before that which destroyed them ; for our 
 enemies, if I may use such an expression, not content 
 with seeing our ruin, endeavoured to taste it. One 
 while, edicts were published against those who, foresee- 
 ing the calamities that threatened our churches, and not 
 having power to prevent them, desired only the sad con- 
 solation of not being spectators of their ruin ; anothdir 
 
69 
 
 while against those who, through their weakness, had 
 denied their religion, and who, not being able *o b^ar 
 the remorse of their consciences, desired to return to 
 their first profession. One while our pastors were for- 
 bidden to exercise their discipline on those of their 
 flocks who had abjured die trulii ; another while, chil- 
 dren of seven years of age were allowed to embrace 
 doctrines which the Church of Rome aliows are not 
 level to the capacities of adults. A college -was sup- 
 pressed, and then a church shut up. Sometimes we 
 were forbidden to convert infidels ; and sonietinies to 
 confirm those in the truth, v.honi we had instructed from 
 their infancy ; and our pastors were forbidden to exer- 
 cise their pastoral office any longer in one place than 
 three years. Sometimes die printing of our books was 
 prohibited ; and someliiiies those which we had printed 
 were taken away. One while we were not suffered to 
 preach in a church; and another while we were punish- 
 ed for preaching upon its ruins ; and at length we were 
 forbidden to worship God in public at ali. Now we 
 were banished — then we were forbidden to quit the 
 kingdom on pain of death. Here we s?"" the glorious 
 rewards of some who betrayed their rehgiou ; and there 
 we beheld others, who had the courage to confess it, 
 a haling to a dungeon, a scaffold, or a galley. Here 
 we saw our persecutors draw ing on a sledge the dead 
 bodies of those who had expired on the rack. There 
 we beheld a false friar tornienting a dying man, who 
 was tei*iified on the one hand with the fear of hell if he 
 should apostatize, and on the other with the fear of 
 leaving his children without bread if he should continue 
 in the faith. Yonder they were tearing children from 
 iheir parents^ while the tender parents were shedding 
 
 K 
 
more tears for the loss of their souls, thaa for that of 
 their bodies or lives." 
 
 It is impossible to meet with parallel instances of 
 cruelty among the heathens in their persecutions of the 
 primitive Christians. The bloody butchers who were 
 sent to them under the name of dragoons, invented a 
 thousand torments to lire their patience, and to force an 
 abjuration from them. " They cast some," says Mr. 
 Claude, " into large tires, and took them out again when 
 they were half roasted. They hanged others with large 
 ropes under their arm-pits, and plunged them several 
 times into wells, till they promised to renounce their re- 
 ligion. They tied them, like criminals, on the rack, 
 and poured wine, with a funnel, into their mouths, till, 
 being intoxicated, they declared that they consented to 
 turn Catholics. Some they slashed and cut with pen- 
 knives ; others they took by the nose with red-hot tongs, 
 and led them up and down the rooms till they promised 
 to turn Catholics." — These cruel proceedings made eight 
 hundred thousand persons quit the kingdom. 
 
 On contemplating these cruel transactions, well may 
 we exclaim, in the language of a worthy Minister, " O 
 Popery ! Popery ! how horrible is thy charity — how 
 cruel is thy benevolence ! Painters sometimes exceed 
 nature, and go beyond life ; orators make frequent use 
 of hyperbolical^ expressions ; and poets are often madly 
 extravagant ; but imagination labours in vain to portray 
 the malignant spirit by which thou art animated t A ser- 
 pent, whose poison is instant death, lurking undiscover- 
 ed until he hath inflicted the fatal wound ; a hungry lion, 
 sharp set and ready to seize his prey ; the vapour of pes- 
 tilence which depopulates an empire ; a fury entwined 
 with scorpions; an ideal monster, that is sour, livid. 
 
71 
 
 full of scars, wallowing in gore, disgusted with every 
 object around, and most of all disgusted with itself; is 
 harmless and inoffensive in comparison of thee. It is 
 too true, that, after thy example, and to the disgrace of 
 Christianity, Protestants have sometimes persecuted; 
 but their persecutions were a horrid perversion of their 
 principles ; whereas thy persecutions flow from thy 
 principles, as a natural and a necessary result. They have 
 tasted — thou hast drunk to intoxication of the blood of 
 martyrs ! Blood is thy aliment, thy element ; and dread- 
 ful has been, or will be, thy retribution. Their intole- 
 rance, the effect of mingled passions, spends itself in 
 the lapse of time, or is corrected by nobler sentiments; 
 but thy principles of persecution are established by in- 
 fallible councils, which lapse of time cannot alter — 
 zchich no tenderness of sentiment can correct *." 
 
 After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the 
 rights of conscience were long lost to France. The 
 Reformed that continued there only worshipped by 
 stealth; and to the last days of Lewis XVI. they laboured 
 under those oppressions, the bare recital of which in- 
 spires the hearts of all but Papists with sentiments of 
 
 pity- 
 Mr. Townsend says, in a note to his Claude, " I 
 could subjoin here a strong proof of the intolerant spi- 
 rit of the Catholic clergy in France, and of their great 
 desire of renewing the ancient persecutions against the 
 Protestants, even in the reign of Lewis XVI.; but it 
 would extend this note too much." It is a pity that the 
 fact has been suppressed ; but, as a work is in forward- 
 ness in the press, giving an Historical view of the Re- 
 
 * Thorpe's Speech on Catholic Emancipation. 
 
 f- o 
 
72 
 
 formed Church of France in a more connected form, as 
 announced at the close of these pages, every interesting 
 particular will be collected for that statement which it 
 is in the author's power to procure. 
 
 Whatever w ere the designs of the priests under Lewis 
 XVI. God was then pleased to check them in awful 
 justice, and, instead of re-acting the scenes of Bartho^ 
 lomew Day, they were called to answer for the shedding 
 of innocent blood by pouring out their own. But, 
 though the Almighty visited them with such signal judg- 
 ments, when nearly live hundred thousand of their com- 
 munity w ere massacred by the hands of the infidel revo- 
 lutionists, among whom w ere twenty-four thousand of 
 their own clerical body, they have not acquired wisdom. 
 Neither gratitude, nor experience, nor policy, can im- 
 prove their barbarous faith. May the angel of God speedily 
 announce the destruction of this intolerant church, and 
 his voice be heard saluting the glad nations — Babylon 
 
 THE GREAT IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN ! RejOlce OVCT her, 
 
 thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for 
 God hath avenged you on her f 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A MORNING paper, attached to the genuine principles 
 of our constitution, and whose pages are ever open in 
 the cause of oppressed humanity, without distinction 
 of country or rehgion, was the first to announce the 
 existence of a state of things in the South of France, 
 the continuance of which has tarnished, in our opinion, 
 the reputation of the King'^s Government, more than 
 any other since the return of that august family to the 
 throne of their ancestors. 
 
 On the 26th of August last the following Letter ap- 
 peared, addressed to the Editor of the Morning Chro« 
 nicle : 
 
 f* Sir, 
 
 ** It is with the deepest affliction that I call 
 your attention to the accounts brought by all travellers 
 lately retiu*ned from Paris, of the horrible persecution 
 carried on against the Protestants of the South of 
 France, by the PARTISANS of the HOUSE of 
 BOURBON ! Not less than 3000 victuns are said to 
 have perished in that country from the unrelent- 
 ing bigotry of fanatics, who have revived against 
 
74 
 
 our Protestant brethren the merciless cruelty practised 
 by their ancestors against the Albigenses. I cannot 
 believe that after the asylum they have enjoyed for so 
 many years in this land of religious liberty, the Bour- 
 bon princes can have been so ungrateful for the obliga- 
 tion, as to begin their reign with directions to their 
 adherents to persecute those who have no other crime 
 but that of professing the same faith that we do. And 
 yet it cannot be denied, that the perpetrators of these 
 iniquities plead in justification of their cruelties, a de- 
 claration falsely, I hope, attributed to the Duke of 
 Angouleme, that France would never be quiet till all 
 its inhabitants were of the same religion. If it is un- 
 fortunately true, that His Royal Highness is penetrated 
 with these sentiments, it is to be hoped that the King 
 at least is guided by principles more consonant to the 
 spirit of Clu'istianity. But if it should be otherAvise, 
 I trust the Allies -will employ the means which Provi- 
 dence has placed in their hands to stop this scene of 
 carnage and persecution, and that Protestant soldiers 
 will be stationed in the South of France, to check 
 those ebulhtions of frantic zeal, and secure for their 
 brethren that free exercise of their religion, and secu- 
 rity for their persons and property, v.liich the consti- 
 tution of their covmtry professes to afford them, and 
 which at any rate the ardovu' and victories of the Pro- 
 testant Alhes would have entitled them to impose, as 
 conditions of peace on. their vanquished enemies. 
 
 "a PROTESTANT.'* 
 
16 
 
 Eixtract from the Bulletin of Nistnes. 
 
 On the 5th July several domains belonging to 
 Protestants were burned, and on the 6th a still greater 
 number. The steward (Ger'isseur) of the estate of 
 Giraudin was stretched over a fire. After his death 
 they took him down, and exhibited the body to passen- 
 gers. The 7th, 8th, and 9th, were more calm days ; 
 there were only pillages. On the 5th they massacred 
 almost all the prisoners who were Protestants. A pre- 
 tended national guard, formed of all the malefactors, 
 and of all the worthless wretches of the environs and 
 the town, are accused of these crimes. One of thai 
 Captains is a person of the name of Toislajon, a 
 sweeper of the streets, who alone has killed fourteen 
 Protestants. They broke open the grave of a young 
 Protestant girl, to throw her into a common receptacle 
 of filth. Those Protestants whom they do not kill 
 they exile, and throw into prison, and yet there were 
 a great number of Royalists among them. 
 
 From the 10th to the 14th July no courier 
 from Paris arrived. On the 16th the King was pro- 
 claimed by the Urban Guard (composed of men be- 
 tween forty and sixty years of age) followed by all the 
 most respectable persons in the town, and the white 
 flaff was hoisted. 
 
 On the 17th, armed bands of brigands, and the 
 National Guards of Beaucau'e, came to disarm the mi- 
 litary, who sustained an assault in the barracks ; and 
 they were almost all massacred. Their numbers 
 amounted to 200. 
 
76 
 
 On the 18tli, many peaceable citizens were mas-^ 
 sacred ; tnany houses pillaged. On the afternoon of 
 that cruel morning, the mad wretches ran about the 
 town, calling out that they wished a second Saint Bai*- 
 tholomcw. 
 
 On the 19th, the Prefect published a Proclama- 
 tion, recalling the peaceable persons who had quitted 
 the to%vn ; they obeyed this order, and a great number 
 were assassinated. 
 
 From the 20th to the 29th, the pillages and assas- 
 sinations did not discontinue. Those who sought their 
 safety in flight were assassinated on the roads. Some 
 were conducted into prisons, where they are still 
 groaning. 
 
 On the 29th, the Prefect of the King arrived. 
 The other Prefect had been named by ■ ■■ ■ , the 
 Royal Commissioner. 
 
 On the 30th a Tc Deum was chanted. On the 31st 
 the new Prefect published a very prudent Proclama- 
 tion, but he quitted Nismes. 
 
 On the 1st of August, M. de Calviere, the per- 
 son whom the Royal Commissioner had named, re- 
 sumed the functions of Prefect, and sixteen Protest^ 
 ants were massacred. They went about seizing them 
 in their houses, and they cut their throats before their 
 own doors. Many were massacred in the fields. The 
 niffht between the 1st and 2d was the most cruel." M. 
 de Calviere caused an order to be posted up, which 
 seems to have somewhat calmed these pretended 
 RoyaUsts. On the 4th, several country-seats were set 
 on fire. 
 
77 
 
 Tlie peaceable citizens, the members of the Ur- 
 ban Guai'd, have been again forced to flee to save them- 
 selves from destruction. The Prefect sent an order to 
 them to return, under the penalty of having the laws 
 respecting emigration put in force against them. Those 
 who returned into the town experienced either death 
 or captivity. It is uncertain whether M. de Montcalm 
 or M. de Calviere is most guilty of allowing or causing 
 the commission of all these horrors ; but suspicion falls 
 principally on the former, who is Royal Commissioner, 
 and whom it is said the King had a considerable time 
 ago ordered to cease his functions. 
 
 Nothing promises any security to the friends of 
 order; for all the authorities, with the exception of 
 two persons, are composed of the most timid and 
 feeble men. 
 
 The attorneys (Notaires) and the Avocats have 
 formed resolutions not to retain or to receive into their 
 bodies any but Roman Catholics. 
 
 Nismes has already lost its rank among the com- 
 mercial towns. It is on the brink of complete annihi- 
 lation. 
 
 The Prefect named by the King was a M. d'Ar- 
 bot : he has done no good. The foreign troops have 
 been implored to force the brigands to repose, and to 
 assist the true Royalists, for the brigands abuse tliis 
 name, which they will render universally odious. 
 
 The number of deatlis is prodigious ; we have 
 not an exact enumeration. 
 
 Horrors of the same kind are continued in the 
 neighbouring towns. 
 
 I. 
 
78 
 
 Bulletin of Events ich'tch have ocnirrcd at Nisincs. 
 
 NismeSy Aug. 26. 
 
 The fermentation is renewed within these few days 
 in tliis town and its neighbourhood. The partisans of 
 Napoleon affect a mahgnant joy, and circulate rumours 
 of an approaching triumph. Some of tlicm liave even 
 the avidacity to raise the seditious cry of " Vive Napo- 
 leon II. !" The police have arrested some agitators, 
 but others could not be saved from the fury of the 
 people. 
 
 Information had been received that symptoms of re- 
 bellion had appeared in La Vaunage and La Gardon- 
 nenque, and that assemblages, consisting of countiy- 
 people, and the principal malcontents and Federates of 
 this town, had taken refuge there. These movements, 
 however, were far from being regarded as indicating the 
 plan of a combined revolt. But the events of yester- 
 day and to-day have defeated their projects by unveil- 
 ing: them. An Austrian column had arrived on the 
 24th, and the necessity of finding quarters for these 
 troops in the barracks, occasioned an order to be issued 
 for th.e removal of the regiment of Royal Chasseurs, 
 which was in^ garrison here, to Alais. Tlie advanced, 
 guard had reached Ners, a village five leagues from 
 Nismes, where it halted, when its Commander, Eu- 
 gene de Cabrieres, was informed by the Sieur Perieux, 
 the ]\Iayor of that place, that a numerous assemblage 
 was about to attack him. M. de Cabrieres, followed 
 by the Mayor, was of opinion that he ought to ad- 
 vance without distrust to the multitude, to represent to. 
 
79 
 
 them that hiz regiment had no intentions h.ostile to the 
 country, and that, in comphance with superior orders, 
 he Mas proceeding to occupy Alais in garrison. Two 
 sentinels immediately fired.- — Sieur Perieux, the Mayor, 
 was killed, and M. de Cabrieres wounded in tlie arm. 
 The latter retired with his company, having lost a 
 man, who was killed by a fire of musketry from the 
 houses of the village. It was, therefore, thought pro- 
 per to suspend the march of the regiment, and to give 
 information of what had passed to the authorities of 
 the department. 
 
 Yesterday the 25th, 800 Austrians marched to join 
 tlie Royal Chasseurs, and found the march of the re- 
 giment still stopped by the rebels. The Austrian 
 Commander summoned them to lay down their arms 
 and disperse ; upon which they dared to propose a ca- 
 pitulation, which could not possibly be reconciled with 
 the submission due to the Government. The Com- 
 mandant declared that he would not treat with rebels : 
 on receiving this answer, the latter fired, and four 
 Austrians were killed^ and nine wounded. The troops 
 immediately marched against them, and they were dis- 
 persed after an action of two hours' duration, in which 
 they had sixty killed and three taken. One of the 
 prisoners was a Federate of Nismes, and he and his 
 two companions were shot by order of the Austrian 
 General Stahremberg. 
 
 A second Austrian column marched tvvO hours aco, 
 and is about to be followed by a considerable detach- 
 ment of the National Guard. The object of this ex- 
 L 2 . 
 
80 
 
 pedition is to disai'm that part of the department which 
 is infected with the spirit of rebelhon. 
 
 We are assured that General Gilly, and Teste, an 
 advocate, formerly Lieutenant of the Police at Lyons, 
 have organized this insurrection, the ramifications of 
 which appear to extend into the Cevennes. Proclama- 
 tions, tending to encourage the people to revolt, are 
 even mentioned as circulating in these departments. 
 
 Extract of a Letter from Paris, Sept. 2^, 1815. 
 
 ****** besides, you will be pleased to see 
 that the King has at last published a Proclamation on 
 the disturbances of the South ; but I am soriy to say, 
 that it is what we call here de la moutarde apres diner. 
 The great object of those disturbances is now attained, 
 the Elections have been carried by the pure Royalists, 
 all Counts and Marquisses ; and the Due d'Angou- 
 leme is at last at the head of an army, composed of 
 those bands of pure and religious intolerants. The 
 Marquis de Villeneuve, recalled by the King''s Govern- 
 ment for having continued his functions as the chief of 
 the Government of the Due d'Angouleme, is now sent 
 back triumphant to the South, where the King has 
 appointed him to preside over the Department of 
 THerault (Montpellier). May God avert the dangers 
 of all kinds which now threaten that wretched coun- 
 try ! We anticipate nothing less than horrors of all 
 kinds; which the Court party consider as their triumph, 
 but which are considered by the good sense of the na- 
 tion 2U5 the precursor of their ruin. 
 
81 
 
 Extract of a Letter. 
 
 " Lyons, Sept. 20. 
 " Every post brings us letters from Nismes 
 or St. Cevennes — every day we hear the recitals of 
 the unfortunate people Avho fly this land of persecution. 
 If we suppress, however, every thing which indigna- 
 tion at the crimes committed, grief for their losses, 
 and the remembrance of their dangers, has made them 
 exaggerate in their accounts, the truth is at an end ; 
 that there neither have been, nor are, any insurgents in 
 the Department of the Gard, and that this denomina- 
 tion has been employed only to disguise the persecution 
 to which the Protestants are exposed, OUT OF JEA- 
 LOUSY OF THEIR NUMBERS, THEIR PRO^ 
 SPERITY, AND THEIR WEALTH. In the 
 midst of their horrors, scarcely two Catholic Bon;?- 
 partists have shared the fate of the Protestants, m hiie 
 all the Protestant Royalists have suffered more or less. 
 " It is false that there are towns in insurrection ; 
 tliat they have disregarded the authority of the Kino-; 
 that Gen. Gilly and others are at the head of qrmed 
 bqdies : it is false that there was a camp at Ners, and 
 that there \yere great blows to be struck. 
 
 " The Protestants have long since been an object of 
 envy ; diough, in general, they saw tlie restoration of 
 thp King with joy, they have been all represented as 
 Bonapartists ; and the word Protestant has unhappily 
 become synonymous with it ; it was a sure means of 
 marking them out. From the return of the King in 
 
83 
 
 18143 the Protestants have been ridiculed, threatenedy 
 insulted : they bore all in silence. On the appearance 
 of Bonaparte they were seen to be calm — attached to 
 their country — enemies to all disorder. However, 
 when the Duke of Angouleme mai'ched against the 
 Lyonese, thei/ were rejected from the army. At the 
 conclusion of this expedition, the soldiers of Bona- 
 parte committed some excesses. It is true that there 
 were observed among them some Protestants ; but soon 
 every crime was laid to their charge. Even now the 
 ■ persecution exercised against these unhappy people, 
 Avithout being a religious one, in the proper sense of 
 the term, has all its horrors and all its fanaticism. 
 
 " Placed in this dreadful situation, the inhabitants 
 rf the Cevennes have not attacked these hordes of as- 
 sassins, but they have defended themselves at home, 
 and have repulsed them ; and, after all, there is no 
 question but of a slight affair in a Protestant village 
 near Nismes; happily the Austrians, who marched 
 against them, soon perceived the whole truth. They 
 have traversed the Cevennes, have conducted them- 
 selves very well, and all resistance has ceased. How- 
 ever, only thi'ee days ago, two families were plunder- 
 ed ; and the people tremble lest the approaching de- 
 parture of the foreign troops shoidd be the signal of 
 fresh horrors," 
 
 The -writer of this letter deserves full confidence, 
 both on account of his personal qualities, and his pub- 
 lic character. — Morning Chronicle^ Oct. 16. 
 
d§ 
 
 Extracts from the French Secret Police Reports, re- 
 specting the Proceedings in the South of France. 
 
 Toulon, from the 22J to the Mth of August.-^ 
 (The Lieutenant of Police, and several private Let- 
 ters.) — Every day the list of suspected persons in- 
 creases. Eight hundred men are already in custody, 
 and fifty-live women are marked out for the same mea- 
 sure. The autliors of the disturbance have succeeded, 
 by stirring up the people to drive out the gi-eatest part 
 of the keepers of the prisons, and to fill the places 
 with their own relatives. They avail themselves of the 
 Marseilles Bands to drag the purchasers of the domains 
 before the authorities, where a Notary is always in 
 readiness to prepare a conveyance. The Royal Ordon- 
 nances, the instructions of the Ministers, the com- 
 mands of the Government, are not respected or obey- 
 ed ; all is conducted according to secret instructions : 
 this at least is the general opinion. A dealer in delft 
 ware and a saddler are the Presidents of a Committer 
 which is called Royal. This Committee acts in the 
 most arbitrary manner, and soldiers are placed in the 
 houses of those Vho fly. Such are the proceedings 
 throughout the whole of this part of Provence. 
 
 Nismes, Aug. 22. — (General Commissary of Po- 
 lice.) — Notwithstanding the zeal of the National Guard, 
 and the apparent tranquillity, we cannot calculate 
 much on its continuance. It has been found impos- 
 sible to prevent the plunder of several country-houses 
 in the neighbourhood. Contributions have been raised 
 
84 
 
 in Barln and IMilhaiid, on those who wished to save 
 their property from the flames. On the road to Mont- 
 pelher, M. Assoiitell, a rich proprietor, was murdered 
 with stabs of ba3fonets ; he had acted no part in the 
 revbhition, and his property was his only crime. His 
 murderers went aAvay laden with booty. Five of the 
 guilty were apprehended by the Police, but it was im- 
 possible to bring them before the Tribunals. The 
 Judges are all without authority ; the pretence is, Bo- 
 napartism — and the criminals of all parties remain un- 
 executed. The prisons are crowded, and yet even 
 prudence forbids the setting the innocent at liberty. It 
 is not to be doubted that their throats would immedi- 
 ately be cut, as has already been exemplified in several 
 places. 
 
 Upper Garonne. — Toulouse^ Aug. 25. — The 
 15th of this month, which ended in so melancholy a 
 manner with the death of General Ram el, so much de- 
 voted to the Royal cause, began with a procession of 
 the Clergy, of the Authorities, of the Staff of the 
 Guard, and several thousand devotees ; many women, 
 few men — the latter had another destination. They 
 were the agents of the Secret Society, who, after they 
 had instigated the populace, made the most of the 
 thrusts at the General. They drove out one of his 
 eyes, cut off his nose, and threw it to the crowd. The 
 formation and direction of the Secret Society is here 
 generally ascribed to the Priests ; but it is even added, 
 it goes still higher. To conclude from its actions and 
 conduct, it appears to possess unlimited power, and 
 
85 
 
 the internal organization of tlie Old Man of the Moun- 
 tain. Its members ai'e invisible, its leaders unassail- 
 able, and it must be powerful, as the authorities of the 
 place can neither restrain nor disperse its agents, and 
 as one of them, when taken up on account of excesses, 
 and brought before the Malre, on the mere exhibition 
 of his diploma, was at once set at liberty. The re- 
 fusal of General Ramel to arm and head these secret 
 Societies is stated to be the only cause of his death. 
 
 The inhabitants of the island Tonni, for the most 
 part strong and vigorous butchers, have set an example 
 to the city of Toulouse which it ought to have imitat- 
 ed. They refused all entrance to any of the tumul- 
 tuous bands into their island, arid no one has ventured 
 to penetrate there. 
 
 Herault. — MontpclUer, 22c? Aug. — Blood does not 
 cease to flow in Montpellier, but drop by drop and 
 not in streams, but with a sort of reservation which is 
 more cruel than the rage of a commotion. The num- 
 ber of persons imprisoned close beside us in Albi 
 is ever on the increase. In the country, in aU the 
 neighbouring departments, the purchasers of national 
 estates are unmercifully persecuted. 
 
 Gard, ^Ith Aug. — Several private accounts agree in 
 stating, tliat in many places the Protestants are nei- 
 ther allowed to wear the white nor the green cockade, 
 that they are subjected to a particular Police, which 
 orders them to leave or enter their houses at fixed 
 hours ; that the doors of their chuixhes have been 
 broken open, tlie door-keepers driven off, the seats car- 
 ried away, and every thing plundered which was found. 
 
 M 
 
86 
 
 Nismcs, Sept. 14. — The inhabitants of this city and 
 its neighb«urliood, wlio had retired to escape the poli- 
 tical agitations v hich disturbed this department, return 
 in crowds, now tranquilUty has been re-established. 
 Still in some situations slight dissensions prevail, but 
 they have no evil purpose, and are nothing more than 
 the last hcavings after a volcano. The last instance 
 was that of a woman returned from the Gardon- 
 nenque, whose furniture of the pavillion she occupied 
 they destroyed. They were about to pull down the 
 house also, when order was restored by the arrival of 
 a military force. 
 
 Gard. — N'tsmes^ 27t7i Jug. — (Letter of an old OiTice- 
 bearer ) — The movement which the Austrians, the 
 Royal Jagers, and the National Guard of Alais were to 
 take to occupy in common the Gardonnenque, and to 
 reduce Ners, has not taken place. The National 
 Guard of Alais were compelled to remain at home to 
 keep the Protestants of the town and the surrounding 
 country in order. The Royal Jagers returned to- 
 v.ards Uzes, and the Austrians towards Boncorian, 
 where they demanded a reinforcement. For this pur- 
 pose Count Stahremberg ordered fresh troops from 
 Provence. He \nthdrew yesterday evening at nine 
 oVlock towards Anduze in three columns, and he 
 imagined that he would become master of it to-day. 
 The report is, that General Briclie, who advanced from 
 Montpellicr against St. Hyppolite, has been compelled 
 to withdraw, in expectation of reinforcements. 
 
 In the midst of all these movements, Nismes is 
 pretty tranquil, which must be attributed to the arrest 
 
87 
 
 of several plunderers, who had been the most active 
 in the disturbances, and against whom they will at last 
 be obliged to proceed seriously. In no case however 
 can these wretches be brought before the tribunals, 
 still less is it possible to pass sentence on them. The 
 tribimal is here, as well as m many other departments 
 of the South, completely broken up. President, 
 Judges, Procurators, all have been obliged to flee, to 
 escape the horrors with which they are threatened. 
 
 Gard. — Nismes^ 2Sth Aug. Evening. — (The Pre- 
 fect.) — The Royal Jagers, on their falling back on Uzes, 
 were piu'sued and harassed by the insurgents, who kill- 
 ed eight men and wounded several. In an attack on 
 the front of the Gardonnenque the Austrians were 
 driven back with the loss of sixteen killed, and a much 
 greater nvmiber of wounded. But Anduze was in- 
 vested and taken by the Count von Stahremberg, who 
 committed, or permitted to be committed, a number 
 of cruelties there. The inhabitants and all the insur- 
 gents have fled to the mountains. 
 
 During this time, Nismes, without troops, was left a 
 prey to the plunderers, who availed themselves of these 
 movements to effect their return. They assembled on 
 the Cows neiif for consultation, and proceeded imme- 
 diately to plunder and destroy a number of houses. 
 The General Commissary of Police of the Department, 
 31. Vidal, appointed by the Duke d'Angouleme, has 
 reported that the Ex-General Gilly, and M. Teste, a 
 Jurisconsult, were at the head of the insurgents of the 
 Gardonnenque, and were labouring to create an insur- 
 rection in the Cevennes. But it appears certain that 
 M 2 
 
88 
 
 both were neither in the Department, nor even in any 
 of the Southern Provinces. Yesterday a report was cir- 
 culatec^, that M. von Mettcrnich has given INI. de Tal- 
 leyrand an assurance that the disturbances in Nismes 
 and the Gard department have been quieted by the in- 
 tervention of Count von Stahremberg. This General, 
 it is eaid, after adopting severe measures, has suc- 
 ceeded in tranquilHzing the Protestants, and inducing 
 them to break up their camp at Ners. This camp con- 
 tained from 7 to 8000 men. 
 
 Gard.—Uzes, Q8th Aug.— {The Mayor.)— A dreadr 
 ful crime has thrown this town into alarm, and added 
 to the irritation of men's minds. A certain person, of 
 the name Graffan, who pretends to the command of a 
 troop consisting of about thirty furious Avretches, who 
 call themselves Royalists, a band neither belonging to 
 the army, nor the National Guard, sallied out on the 
 26th against a party of insurgents of Gardonnenque. 
 In this irruption, Avhich he undertook without any au- 
 thority, he succeeded in making six prisoners, whom he 
 brought into Uzes, and there without trial or authority 
 ordered to be shot by his troops. 
 
 Lot and Garonne, — Agen, 30t7i Aug. — (The Pre- 
 fect.) — Bloody quarrels are continually taking place in 
 this Department, the cause of which is always differ- 
 ence of political opinions. The circle of Touniens is 
 in the greatest fermentation. It is hoped, however, 
 that the public peace ^vill not be seriously disturbed, if 
 agents for murder and disturbance are not sent 
 about^ as has happened in several other Departments. 
 
 Herault. — Montpellier, SOth Aug. — (The Prefect.) 
 — Since the murder of M. Vialla, mentioned in thg 
 
89 
 
 journals, other victims have fallen. Several houses 
 have been plundered. Order has been again restored 
 by the withdrawing of the mob, who occasioned the 
 disturbances. The soldiers of whom it was composed 
 assumed the name of Royal Mountain Chasseurs. In 
 consequence of higher orders they have taken their di- 
 rection towards Carcassone. The Department of the 
 Aude has hitherto been quiet, but if that multitude 
 spread disorder through it, then all the Soutliern De^ 
 partments will be more or less in commotion. 
 
 Ujyper Garonne. — Toulouse, SOth Aug. — (Report 
 by a Courier.) — The fermentation is at its highest pitch 
 in this city ; the minds and passions of men are equally 
 roused. We remark a number of individuals who, 
 hitherto unknown, now render themselves conspicuous 
 by the violence of their declamations, and, tinder pre- 
 text of avenging the cause of the King, indulge in 
 threats, and even overt acts, against respectable and 
 peaceable citizens, whom they stigmatize as ungodly 
 and Bonapartists *, The evening assemblies and 
 dances, which, instead of being prohibited, have been 
 
 * This has ever been the policy of Roman Catholics ; they 
 will not own that it is on account of their religion the Pro- 
 testants are persecuted ; no — they are Bonapartists, say they, 
 although these very men, who are now imhruing their hands 
 in their blood, were known to be the vilest tools of Bona» 
 parte, and would be again, if the opportunity should occur. 
 — Lewis XIV. massacred 300,000 of them as rebel's; but 
 never touched one of them as Protestants ! And yet this lor 
 gic finds apologists among British Piotestants ! ! ! 
 
90 
 
 promoted, afFoi-d daily opportunities for disturbances 
 and quarrels. It is feared that all this is only a prelude 
 to more violent movements, and the regular magistrates 
 are accused of not doing enough to satisfj' the wishes of 
 the true Royalists. A letter thus expresses itself on 
 the subject : " What do they aim at .'* At present every 
 body is attacked ; no official rank — no respectability re- 
 mains unassailed — no magistrate is respected ; nothing, 
 indeed, is regarded bid the secret power ivJiich (rr- 
 ganlzes assassins, and excites to murder. The shrieks 
 of the dying every where resound. Are we threatened 
 with a Royal terrorism, or a new St. Bartholomew's.'' 
 We liave no want of strength. Give us only upright, 
 firm, and intelligent ma^strates, and we will support 
 them. We wish for the King and the Charter, but we 
 also wisli our own security, of which, if matters proceed, 
 there ^vill soon not be a vestige left."" 
 
 Vaucluse. — Avignon, Sept. 1. — The Department is 
 continually desolated by fire and robbery. The deaths 
 ai-e fewer, but opinions nni still very high. To ap- 
 prove of the Charter is considered as a crime ; who- 
 ever ventures to mention it, passes immediately for a 
 Bonapartist. The proclamations and edicts of ^the 
 King, it is true, are well known, but they pretend that 
 they are accountable to God alone, and they give them-, 
 selves out as devoted to the Princes, while they set 
 aside the commands and the views of the King. Some 
 of the persons in confinement have been set at liberty, 
 though privately ; and for the sake of their safety, they 
 have been obliged to leave the town. 
 
 N. B. Private letters announce the flight of the 
 
91 
 
 Mayor, the Prefect, and all tlie authorities, and the 
 murder of 125 prisoners, the murderers shouting all 
 the while, Vive le Ro'i ! 
 
 Gard.—Nismes, Sept 2.— (The Prefect.)— On the 
 29th of August an Austrian Surgeon, standing before 
 the shop of a dealer in sculpture, looking at the figure 
 of General Blucher, said, before several witnesses, 
 *' There is a brave General, who gave Bonaparte a 
 proper dressing ! He is a Protestant, and I also. The 
 Catholics have massacred 400 Protestants here, but 
 they will repent it. You are also scoundrels, robbers, 
 and murderers, and deserve to be exterminated."" — A 
 proces verbal of this was drawn up and transmitted to 
 the Commandant of the Depai'tment, to be communi- 
 cated to the Austrian General. 
 
 Gard. — Nismcs, Sept. 2. — (Private Letter.) — The 
 proclamation of the Austiian General, in which he 
 announces the disarming of the country, has produced 
 the worst effect, and can only excite fresh disturbances. 
 What the Prefect has thought proper to add, by way 
 of showing that the measure announced is a proof of 
 the good understanding between the King of France 
 and the Emperor of Austria, has added to the irritation, 
 and excited new distrust. The Protestants say, there 
 is an intention of disarming them, that they may tlie 
 easier murder them, as they did those who, after 
 escaping the first affrays of Nismes, had the weakness 
 to listen to the proclamations, and return. Hence it is 
 more than probable, that, on the day when the disarm- 
 ing, if it is really to take place, begins, it will be the 
 signal for fresh disorders. Mention is made of a letter 
 3 
 
93 
 
 wrftten by Talleyrand, to prevent tliis disarming, biit 
 this is not believed, and it is even considered as et 
 stratagem. In general, the Protestants are convinced 
 that it is wished to massacre them. But who can wish 
 that ? 
 
 Var. — Toulon, ^tig. 31, — (The Lieutenant of Po- 
 lice.) — Lieutenant-general Partonneaux, commanding 
 the 8di division, has written to the Commandant of the 
 town and the Mayor, sharply censuring their proceed- 
 ings, and, referring to the paternal sentiments of Hi^ 
 Majesty, commanded them to put a stop to the seve-* 
 rities which, contrary to the laws, they have in- 
 flicted on several individuals. The arrests have in con- 
 sequence ceased, and several persons have been set at 
 liberty ; others were obliged to pay for their liberty, 
 or at least it was only given them on certain conditions. 
 A M. Esparon, a Notary, Adjimct of the Mayor, who 
 has a great influence on the Commandant of the place, 
 is generally considered as the secret instigator of all 
 these persecutions. On tlie Festival of the King in 
 this part of the country the greatest excesses were 'com- 
 mitted. Several persons were murdered, and many 
 houses were given up to plunder. 
 
 [We shall here close our Extracts ; but every day isr 
 likely to bring accounts of fi'esh massacres against our 
 Protestant brethren, under the pretence of Bonapart- 
 ism.] 
 
9S 
 
 Ccypy of a Letter from the Rev. President of the Re^ 
 formed Church of Nismes, to the Rev. G. C. 
 Smithy of Penzance : which, with that which fol- 
 lows, is given to show the State of the Protestant 
 Churches in the South of France previous to their 
 Persecution. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I received with inexpressible pleasure your 
 
 kind letter from Paris,, and some time after, by my 
 honoured brother, Mr. Martin, my successor at Bour- 
 deaux, a packet containing a copy of the stereotype 
 Bible, two copies of the New Testament in the Portu- 
 guese and French languages, with some little Tracts, 
 which he sent me from you; for which I sincerely 
 thank you. It was unfortunate for me that you did 
 not visit this place when you were in France, in conse- 
 quence of which, I am deprived of acquaintance with 
 a man whose reputation has reached me, and for 
 whom I feel the most perfect esteem and sincere affec- 
 tion. 
 
 I have had the satisfaction of seeing two Rev. bro- 
 thers in Jesus Christ, Messrs. Francois and Clement 
 Perrot ; their eminent piety and zeal for the spreading 
 of the Gospel in every part of the world, and espe- 
 cially in our too long oppressed and persecuted 
 churches, have inspired me with the warmest love and 
 brotherly affection for those worthy servants of Christ. 
 I have a very imperfect idea of your British and 
 Foreign Society, Sunday Schools, and of your Mis- 
 sionary and Bible Societies ; but I have learnt, with 
 great satisfaction, the admirable design of dispensing 
 
 N 
 
Bibles in every known language, and iho noble an(5, 
 generous sacrifices made by those Socielies, and pray 
 that He who is the beginner and finisher of our fiiith, 
 will favour them with his choicest blessiDg, and 
 prosper his w-ork in their hands. C) ! how glorious it 
 is thus to go on in the work of the Lord, and to con- 
 secrate that temporal prosperity which Heaven has be- 
 stowed on your happy country, to the advancement of 
 rehgion, and for the good of your fellow-creatiu'es, who 
 are our brethren in the flesh and in spirit ; for we are 
 all called to the same faith and hope by virtue of Him 
 who hath brought us from darkness into his marvellous 
 light. 
 
 I have received with a measure of respect and joy, a 
 fraoinent of the New Testament translated into the 
 Chinese language by the Rev. Robert Morrison. I 
 had it from Mr. Perrot. Notliing but apostolic zeal 
 eould have enabled Mr. ]\Iorrison to surmount those 
 difficulties he had to meet with in learning such a dif- 
 ficult lang\iage. May grace enable you all to go on 
 and continue to instruct our fellow-creatures with all 
 that spiritual might with which you are so abundantly 
 furnislied in your distinguished land! 
 
 You have manifested, my dear Sir, a desire of 
 knowing the situation of our churches, and their 
 spiritual wants, for the advancement of truth and 
 piety. It is not half a century since we were brought 
 from a state of slavery and op])ression into which the 
 unhappy revocation of the Edict of Nantes had preci- 
 pitated us , but you know the blood of the martyrs is 
 the seed of the Church. During the proscrijjtion, 
 
95 
 
 zeal for religion Avas unshaken ; tlie manners of the 
 persecuted, which was the fruit of their faith, were 
 most pure; the calm which succeeded the storm 
 towards the end of Louis the 15th''s reign, spread a 
 lukewarmness and indifference. 
 
 Anarchy, in consequence of the Revolution, pro- 
 duced ungodliness and immorality : so that divine 
 worship was entirely abolished, and there were no 
 longer faithful pastors, or the means of edifying their 
 flocks, and instructinfj their children bv their exhorta- 
 tion and example. Since the 18th Germinal, in the 
 year 10, worship being established every where, gave 
 us an opportunity of giving our churches a legal organi- 
 zation, which, in preserving our ancient discipline and 
 the synod, has not left it in the power of any one to 
 deprive us of it: but tlie difficulties we had in ob- 
 taining a convocation vmder the preceding goA^ernment 
 were great ; as we have no personal persecution at 
 present, and have no communication with synodical 
 assemblies, in consequence of which, we are fallen into 
 an unliappy insulated state, wliich renders each church 
 an independent consistorial, and at liberty to follow, or 
 not, the rules of our an<;ient discipline ; from which 
 results an easy introduction to difference in opinion in 
 the doctrines, v/orsliip, and the use of the sacraments, 
 and in the application of the canonical censures and 
 penalties i-elative to the abuses which often creep into 
 the faith and conduct of the people. However, Sir, 
 tliese inconveniences must necessarily be felt less in this 
 department, than in others not so favoured, where the 
 {>astors are less numerous and less united ; therefore 
 
96 
 
 we have the advantage of them. We conciliate and 
 endeavour to do what we can, but are far from being 
 able to do the good we wish ; power and aid are 
 wanting, our country churches are poor, the greater 
 part have neither temples, or zeal for the observance of 
 the Lord"'s day. The pastors cannot establish schools 
 for the religious education of children, for the want of 
 money. It is only the principal churches which have 
 been able to form them for the poor, and they are in- 
 sufficient : and we cannot dissemble that the two grand 
 obstacles that occur are, first, that the children of the 
 peasants and mechanics know not how to read, and 
 those are the most numerous of the people ; the second 
 is, the want of religious books, in those who know how 
 to read, which renders instruction painful and unpro- 
 fitable to the teachers. 
 
 I have seen by an extract of letters written by Mr. 
 Martin's son, who is now in London, which his father 
 has communicated to me, that you and your illustrious 
 co-operators are disposed to favour the efforts of 
 ministers in France, for the propagation of the Gospel, 
 and faith of Christ. Receive, my dear Sir, the expres- 
 sion of lively gratitude, and be assured, our prayers 
 will not cease to be offered up, that the Almighty may 
 deign to crown your labours, and favour you with hi« 
 blessing. 
 
 I am. 
 
 My very dear and Rev. Sir, 
 
 In Jesus Christ, 
 Nismes, J. O. D 
 
 January lOth, 1815, 
 
D7 
 
 Upon t^e return of the King it was to be expected 
 that many from this country would visit France ; and, 
 accordingly, the number who applied for passports was 
 very great ; but, while curiosity actuated most of 
 them, a far nobler object seemed to stimulate the writer 
 of the following letter : . - 
 
 From the Rev. Mr. P 1 to the Rev. Mr. 
 
 T y^ 
 
 Guernsey, Feb. 1, 1815. 
 
 Returned at last from our long and 
 very fatiguing journey, my first care is to communi- 
 cate, not a detailed relation of my travels, but a few 
 important facts, and some of the probable results. 
 We left St. Maloes on the 13th of November, and 
 proceeded to Rennes, Nantes, Napoleon (dependent 
 de la Vendee), La Rochelle, Rochefort, Saintes, Pons, 
 Blaye, and Bourdeaux. From thence to Tonneins, 
 Moissar, and Montauban. After a week's residence in 
 the Academy of the Protestants, we proceeded to Tou- 
 louse,' and thence to Saverdun and Mazieres in the 
 Ariege. We afterwards proceeded, by dangerous and 
 almost impassable roads, to Castelnaudary, on our 
 way to Montpellier, through Mere, Beziers, Pezenas, 
 &c. ; thence to the mountains of the Cevennes, where 
 we visited Gauge, St. Hypolite, and Sauves, and ar- 
 rived at Nismes, almost worn out with incessant fa- 
 tigue. On our way to Lyons, we visited Pont St. 
 Esprit, Montelimart, Valence, and Vienne. At Lyons 
 we stayed a few d;iys, and thence proceeded to Paris, 
 
98 
 
 through ancient Burgundy, by IMacon, Chalons, and 
 Auxerre. We left the capital of the finest country in 
 the world, the 10th of last month, for Caen, and I 
 arrived here the 27th. 
 
 I have preached during my tour at Bourdeaux, 
 IMontauban, Laverden, Mazieres, Montpellier, St. 
 Hypolite, and Nis:mes, to crowded congregations ; in 
 some places to no less than two and tliree thousand 
 very attentive hearers. At Bourdeaux, where tlie wor- 
 thy Mr. Martin is pastor, there exists a small society 
 of Moravians, who remain united to the church, and 
 who, although but ahandfvd, and nowise distinguished 
 by ntimbers or wealth, are the glory of the church. 
 At Montauban, on the Monday, by the desire of your 
 old acquaintance, Dr. Frossard, the Dean, I address- 
 ed the students in the lecture-hall, on tlie pre-requi- 
 sites to a student in theology, the manner of conduct- 
 ing their studies in our academies, and the great and 
 excellent men produced by the mode of instruction 
 pursued in our academical institutions. I humbly 
 hope that it will have some effect. I related to them 
 all the great things that were doing in England for the 
 advancement of religion, and the continued and suc- 
 cessful efforts of the Missionary Society for the evan- 
 gelization of the world. I promised, If jjos.siblc, to 
 procui-e a copy of the Chinese Testament for the li- 
 brary of Montauban, as a continual witness of mis- 
 sionary perseverance, and an excitement to missionary 
 zeal. Our endeavours to procure the establishment of 
 an Evangelical Magazine have, by the divine blessing, 
 been successful ; and the first man among the Fro-. 
 
99 
 
 testaats, Dr. Encontre, assisted by his friend and col- 
 league, Dr. Bonnard, will immediately publish a pro- 
 spectus. They are diligently employed in pi'eparing 
 materials. The plan has been hailed by all the minis- 
 ters in the South, as most likely to produce a revival in 
 their churches. ]\Iessrs. Chabrand, Gachon, Lessi- 
 gnol, Gautier, Armand, De Lisle, De Joux, Olivier, 
 &c. &c. will warmly co-operate. They are men no^ 
 less distinguished for their talents than for their piety. 
 
 The same persons 
 
 will superintend an edition of 2000 copies of Watts''s 
 Catechisms and the Assenibly"'s, nor will their influ- 
 ence be wanting to introduce them into the churches. 
 This measure is the more important, as many Minis- 
 ters appear to feel the necessity of Sunday schools. 
 At Toulouse we found a Spanish ecclesiastic, who has 
 abandoned the church of Rome, a very superior man, 
 who has translated several Protestant books for the 
 benefit of his countrymen. Him we have engaged to 
 translate Mr. Bogue's Essay into Spanish : an edition 
 of a thousand copies will cost 40Z. This will take 
 place under the superintendence of Mr. Chabrand, 
 who is the pastor. Mr. C. will also pubhsh proposals 
 for a new edition of the same work in French. At 
 NisMES, the metropolis of Protestantism *, the wor- 
 thy Mr. Olivier, the eldest pastor, will republish an 
 
 * We see the policy of these persecutors ; they begin not 
 with an obscure village — some isolated church, but strike at 
 the AeaJ, the capital, well knowing that the principle of life is 
 there. 
 
100 
 
 edition of Doddridge's Rise and Progress; fhre« 
 thousand for sale, at reduced prices, or gratuitous 
 distribution among the poor Protestants, from the 
 abridged copy printed by the Missionary Society. Mr. 
 Aniand Dclile, a very excellent and able man, who 
 imderstands English, has engaged to write a summary 
 of the history and success of the London Missionary 
 Society. For this pm-pose you must, if you please, 
 collect the materials, and send them to me. I know no 
 publication likely to excite more interest, and to pro- 
 duce more beneficial results to the Reformed Churches. 
 Mr. A. D. is one of the pastors of Nismes (there are 
 five). 
 
 At Montpellier Mr. Lessignol will translate tracts, 
 and circulate them, assisted by Messrs. Gachon and 
 Gautier, of St. Hypohte. All this will require as] 
 sistance : we must set them to work, and help them, 
 and soon they will help themselves. Mr. Frossard is 
 willing to reprint his work on the slave-trade, with ad- 
 ditions, but not at his own expense. In Spain 30,000 
 copies of the Bible have been sold during the revolu- 
 tionary troubles, translated into Spanish from the 
 Vulgate. When a Spanish Duke passed through Tou- 
 louse, he told Mr. Chabrand, that there were many in 
 Spain who, dissatisfied with Popery, assembled to 
 pray to God and read the Scriptures. — This accounts 
 for the infernal Inquisition, At Naples there is a large 
 Protestant church, that assembles in the chapel of a 
 convent, ceded by the Government. The worship is 
 generally in French. The IVIinister is about to leave ; 
 Mr. B. can go ; let a trial be made. One of the young 
 
 3 
 
101 
 
 men lately ordained at Montauban, Mr. Tachard, who 
 is now preaching at Nismes, a pious and able young 
 man, wishes to become a missionary ; ho would be 
 eminently qualified for Canada. He has the united 
 testimony of the pious ministers in his favour. A 
 missionary from France would interest the French, 
 and perhaps lead them to attempt something themselves 
 in the same important way. Mr. Portier, one of the 
 late prisoners of war, accompanies Mr. Bellot to 
 Gosport. 
 
 I am 
 
 Very affectionately yours, 
 
 Clement P— — t. 
 
 Since the First Edition of this Pubhcation, the Editor 
 has been favoured with the following interesting Let- 
 ter and Extracts : 
 
 Letter r-ereived hy the Rev. G. C. Smith, of Penzance, 
 from the South of France, hy a ship which arrived 
 at Foney, in Cornwall, on the \6th of October. 
 On account of the recent alarming events, the writer, 
 it will he seen, deetned it prudent, not only to omit 
 his name and residence, but to disguise his hand also 
 — a lamentable proof of the apprehensions which 
 still exist in that ill fated part of unhappy France. 
 
 " Sir and dear Friend, 
 
 " I should have answered your interesting and 
 friendly letter before, had I consulted the impulse of 
 my heart ; but as the packet I have addressed to you is 
 
 o 
 
102 
 
 too large to send by post, I have waited for a favourable 
 opportunity by sea. Though you will receive this writ- 
 ten in a strange hand, I flatter mjself you will easily 
 conjecture the motive, and will discover, without diffi- 
 culty, the author, by the sentiments and expressions 
 w hich it contains. Accept our best thanks for the in- 
 terest you have taken in tlie young Timothy : we were 
 much affected at the pleasure you express for his success 
 in the schools of Paris, and the prayers you present for 
 the favour of Heaven on this object. Continue, mj 
 dear Sir, to invoke the favour of Him who is the Fa- 
 ther of every good and perfect gift, and the God of all 
 consolation : the prayers of our English brethren will be 
 heard, and our young friend will obtain an abundance 
 of that grace he so much neeA> in his present difficult 
 and important situation. Indeed, he merits the love of 
 all good men, from his assiduity and perseverance during 
 the last terrible conflicts ; so that he has not only sur- 
 Tived the dreadful tempests, but comes out of them ud- 
 <^er the smiles of Heaven, having now five schools in 
 progress, assisted and patronized by your noble British 
 and Foreign School Society. May the instructions of 
 the Holy Ghost guide him through all his eventful la- 
 bours ! 
 
 " You kiiow, my dear friend, how nmch we hailed 
 the return of the august family of the Bourbons, once 
 more restoring peace and happiness to distracted France 
 ■—you saw our unfeigned joy — ^}'ou heard the breathings 
 of our souls in our temples, for the benediction of Je- 
 hovah on the head of Lev is the Desired. 
 
 " Brought out, as if by miracle, from the darkest 
 abyss, we respired freely, and began to taste the sweet- 
 
105 
 
 ness of tranquillity; when Heaven, to punish our crimes, 
 permitted the disturber of mankind again to pass our 
 frontiers, and to introduce all the calamities of war. 
 Happily, this second affliction has not been long; but 
 its fatal consequences will still be felt long after he has 
 ceased to agitate this globe with his presence. Alas ! 
 he has rekindled the fires of discord in a few weeks, so 
 that years will be required to allay them. It was hoped 
 that the justice and goodness of Lewis XVHI. and the 
 love he appeared to have for his subjects, whom he 
 professed to consider as his children, would tend to 
 unite the divided elements that abound in this distressed 
 country ; and the Protestants hailed his ascent to the 
 throne as the resurrection of our renowned Prince 
 Henry IV. We lament exceedingly the disappointment 
 which subsequent events have produced ; but still we 
 persuade ourselves that his wisdom and moderation will 
 at length tranquillize the boisterous passions of men, and 
 collect around his throne a noble phalanx of liberal- 
 minded senators, whose legislations may one day raise 
 France from her present degiadation and misery. 
 
 " Scarcely was Lewis arrived the second time in thd 
 capital of his kingdom, when some wicked persons at- 
 tempted to foment divisions between the Catholics and 
 Protestants, who had, generally speaking, lived in the 
 greatest harmony for many years. They began by spread- 
 ing false alarms, and asserting the most infamous things, 
 until they almost succeeded in making a general impres- 
 sion on the public mind, that the King would in future 
 suffer no religion but the Roman Catholic to exist in 
 France. You may form an idea of the terror this ex- 
 cited in the thousands of families, whom the providence 
 
 o ^ 
 
104 
 
 of God bad again settled in this line country since the 
 revocation of the Edict of Nautz : our children, our 
 property, our churches, and our h)cal comforts — all, in 
 one single moment, appeared at stake ! Protestants 
 trembled with dark suspicions concerning their neigh- 
 bours — the horrors of assassination, massacre, and ex- 
 patriation, whether sleeping or waking, were perpetually 
 before our eyes. Superstition and Fanaticism, taking 
 advantage of this alarm, came forth from the tombs, 
 where, for live-and-twenty years, they had been con- 
 cealed, and, alas ! were once more permitted, by a 
 mysterious Providence, to rekindle their expiring torches, 
 and march through the kingdom, spreading terror and 
 devastation on every side. The South of France was 
 soon thrown into the most horrible confusion — the old 
 cry of " Enemies to Church and State" was revived — ;• 
 the Protestants were stigmatized as Bonapartists ; and 
 the most abandoned wretches, having branded them, 
 with an opprobrious name, conceived that, by hunting 
 them down with unabated cruelty, the^ shou^ld merit 
 the name <f Bourbonists, and make their slaughtered 
 corpses the stepping-stones to fayour and to power. To 
 detail the base ingratitude, gross obscenity/, disgusting 
 superstition, and infernal crueliies, practised during 
 this shocking attempt to exterminate the Reformed 
 Churches from the soil of France, would, under present 
 circumstances, be as imprudent as unavailing. You will 
 iiud, in the Pamphlet* accompanying this letter, some 
 things ihat vyill shock the humanity of English bosoms, 
 Happy, happy Protestants of that favoured land ! No 
 
 * The foregoing Defence of the Protestants of Langi^edoc. 
 
105 
 
 rude, infuriated mob shouts through your streets and 
 villages, " Give us the blood of the Protestants — let us 
 tcash our hands in their blood — vive ia St. Barthilemir 
 May you iong enjoy those privileges, communicating 
 ypur principles and piety to every nation under the hea- 
 vens ! 
 
 " Nismes, that unfortunate city, where the Protest- 
 ants have so long flourished to the grief of their ene- 
 mies, has suffered dreadfully : our ears have been as- 
 sailed, and our souls wounded, with the afflictive iuteDi- 
 g lice of butchered families, pillaged houses, wandering 
 households, and of churches burnt to the ground. O 
 that such awful events may be sanclltied to us all! Bour- 
 deaux, where so many thousands of Protestants reside, 
 has happily escaped the fury of the tempest; Toulouse 
 and Montauban, wliere you have many friends, have not 
 been greatly disturbed. We were mueh concerned for 
 our University in the latter city, and especially fur the 
 promising youths there, who are training up as the future 
 supply of our churches. Mercy has indeed abounded 
 in ihe midst of judgment. 
 
 " It is as melancholy as afflicting, to think that, under 
 the reign of a Sovereign so naturally mild as Lewis 
 XVIII. and within the reach of so many Protestant 
 Princes, who have twice placed the august family 
 of the Bourbons on the throne of France, in the 
 nineteenth century, so many Protestants should have 
 been pillaged and massacred, and yet the audiors of 
 these crimes allowed to triumph with impunity over the 
 ; bleeding bodies of their innocent victims ! Your coun- 
 trymen will sympathize with, and pray for us. We do 
 hope that the justice of Lewis will yet bring to public 
 
106 
 
 condemnation the murderers of our brethren, and the 
 destroyers of our peace ; though we pray, with the mar- 
 tyred Jesus, in whose cause we have suffered — * Father^ 
 ' forgive them ; they know not what they do.' 
 
 " Many intelli£;ent persons in this country had long 
 feared that the iii/hieuce which the Court of Rome ap- 
 peared to jjosssas, would produce some fatal conse- 
 quences for the Protestant faith in this kingdom. The 
 caresses of the Pope to our Court have been too Matter- 
 ing and too frequent/i/ reiterated not to he mi'itrvsted. 
 The artful politics of the Papal Court have long been 
 well known : it seeks to gam by flattery to-day, those 
 ■whom it lost by tyranny yesterday. Let us distrust the 
 Greeks and t1)eir fatal presents — from the caresses of an 
 enemy every thing is to be feared * : 
 
 * Timeo Danaos et dona fcrentes.' 
 
 " I feel happy to turn from a subject so painful to 
 my heart, to one much more agreeable to every feeling 
 1 possess, viz. the establishment of schools on the Bri- 
 tish system. We do indeed rejoice that the plans which 
 you first proposed to many of us in the South have suc- 
 ceeded so much beyond our most sanguine expectations. 
 You have seen a report in our Moniteur, presented to 
 the Cx-emperor, of Izco millions of poor untaught 
 children, to whom this system has been applied with 
 every prospect of success. France needs, above every 
 thing, education. Without morals, without Bibles, and 
 almost without religion — infidelity, superstition, and vice 
 
 * See the compliments paid our Prinee Regent in the Pope'« 
 late Allocution. 
 
107 
 
 easii)' bear down the feeble barriers which the Protest- 
 ants raise against them. And we are persuaded that no- 
 thing will so etfectually jjropagate light, and implant 
 principles, as your excellent system in England. 
 
 " Were Frenchmen more enlightened, they would be 
 better able to estmiate the benetits of religion, and ac- 
 knowledge the excellence of the Gospel and the value 
 of true piety. O ihat the blessed epoch, which is to 
 introduce this dominion of the Redeemer, may be speedily 
 hastened! We look to Paris full of hope; and, as our 
 Sovereign has patronized the schools established there, 
 we pray for that tranquillity which will justify a com- 
 mencement in other parts of the country. Many of 
 your countrymen have visited France ; but it has ^ften 
 been said in our social circles, that if a few of your 
 rich and pious promoters of public institutions were 
 to visit our churches, particularly in the South, their 
 assiduity and piety in their several duties of religiori 
 would produce a wonderful effect on our infidel and su- 
 perstitious neighbours. In admiring the pitty of the 
 English, they would, we trust, determine to imitate 
 them, and we should liave the satisfaction, like iivany 
 other nations, «f learning from Britons to live and act 
 for God. The example of persons eminent by their 
 birth and fortune, would certainly be of great import- 
 ance in a country like tins : I' have often thought that 
 this w'ould be a most excellent mode, by the blessing of 
 the Almighty, of producing and establishing among us 
 the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and many, many 
 Protestants think with me. May not such an object be 
 worthy of the zeal and piety that so eminently distin- 
 guiah your privileged naliuu ? Several persons deisire 
 
108 
 
 their affectionate remembrance. May the favour of the 
 Ahnighty rest on all your labours — especially those 
 wliich aim to promote his glory ni France." 
 
 Extract of a Letter from a Protestant Minister in 
 France. 
 
 " We receive very afflicting news from the South of 
 France. The Catholics and the Protestants are much 
 inflamed the one against the other. Politics is the pre- 
 text, but it is religion which is the real motive. In 
 Nismes thirty-two Protestant houses have been pillaged 
 by the Catholics. The pastor, Desmond, has been the 
 victim of this fanatical insurrection. May God preserve 
 us fjom civil war 1" 
 
 From the same. 
 
 " Affairs go on badly in the South of France. The 
 Protestants are cruelly persecuted. Ten thousand per- 
 sons have been forced to fly from the town of Nismes, 
 and to take refuge in the mountains. The fanatical po- 
 pulace has pillaged the houses of the greater part of 
 them, and burnt the Protestant temples ; and the ravages 
 are still going on without the power of Government to 
 arrest their course. May God take pity upon us, and 
 regard us in his mercy I Every thing is tranquil at 
 Bourdeaux and Montauban. We have since heard that 
 six hundred Protestants have perished at Nismes, and 
 that sixteen thousand have fled to the mountains of the 
 Cevennes, where the mountaineers, who are Protestants, 
 have resolved to avenge their cause aarainst the barbarous 
 Catholics. The poor old pastor, Desmond, was a most 
 
 3 
 
109 
 
 worthy character, whose locks were covered with the 
 snow of eighty years. The Catholics have two objects 
 in view : plunder is one, as the Protestants at Nismes 
 are very industrious and rich ; and a strong inveteracy 
 against the religion of the Protestants, is the other, 
 which has beeji restrained from hreakijig out since the 
 first expulsion of the BOURBONS." 
 
 The following is a translated Copy of a Letter from a 
 Protestant Minister in France, to his Friend, resid- 
 ing in one of the British Dependencies. 
 
 " MY DEAR SIR, AugUSt 5, 1815. 
 
 " T AM persuaded that, notwithstanding your 
 silence, you will not refuse to render any service in your 
 power to the poor Protestants in France. — Ever since 
 the return of Lewis, they have not ceased to insult 
 them : they are mostly rich, and riches is a great crime 
 in the eyes of the canaille. They think they may assas- 
 sinate us, in order to enjoy- our property. In such a 
 manner is the spirit of Belial manifesting itself, that a 
 second scene of St. Bartholomew is not impossible — 
 certainly among many it is eagerly desired. 
 
 '' The Bourbons know not hozo to refuse any thing 
 io the priests. They begin by asking for an extirpation 
 of heresy — they will finish by obtaining it—and we shall 
 be ruined." 
 
 The following extract is translated from a Thanks- 
 giving Sermon on the General Peace, preached in the 
 Consistorial Church at Montauban, on the 3d of July 
 
110 
 
 1 B 1 4, &y the Rev. Dr. Frcssard, Dean of Montanhan, 
 It will serve to show the readuiess of the ["'reiich Pro- 
 testants to accommodate themselves to the cxis'ing Go- 
 venuiient, and that their Ministers, instead of being ob- 
 stinate Bonapartists, ventured boldly to stand forward 
 as the panegyrists of Lewis XVJII. and recoma.eiided 
 the warmest attachment to his government and person. 
 Many other sermons, of a similar kind, were preached 
 in the Protestant churches on the restoration of the 
 Bourbons. The language may appear fiattcrir.g ; but it 
 is well known that the French people, and even the 
 Protestants, in the midst of their greatest suli't rings, al- 
 ways displayed the most extraordinary attaciuneiit to 
 their legitimate Monarchs. — Editor. 
 
 " Peace will produce a second effect, of which our 
 hearts will know how to appreciate all the advantages ; 
 it will draw "closer the cords of respect and love, which 
 bind us to our excellent Monarch- — we have proved it. 
 By the supreme interposition of Providence, the virtues 
 of Lewis have been the means of delivering us from the 
 scourge of war ; they have induced the Allies to restore 
 peace to France. What a sublime prelude to liis august 
 functions ! w hat a high demonstration of the rectitude of 
 his understanding, and of the excellence of his heart! what 
 a guarantee for w hat we have to expect in future from the 
 influence of his virtues ! In fact, scarcely two months 
 have rolled away since his return into the bosom of his 
 people, and he has already effected the greatest things 
 to promote our happiness — he has delivered us from the 
 yoke of the Foreigner — he has disarmed the homicide 
 war— he has directed all opinions towards a common 
 focus, the love of the country, and of the King. Far 
 
Ill 
 
 from encouraging any animosity, or favouring any party, 
 he has caimec! every passion, p-cdoiijd every fault, forgot* 
 ten every injury, nnd submitted every elaini io the exami- 
 nation of impartial justice. He has done more, he has 
 laid the bases of a legislation, the more wise and paternal, 
 as it is the fruit of forty years of reflection, ^nd twenty- 
 five years of misforui-ses — he has discovered the greatest 
 firmness in the negotiations which have preceded peace 
 — he has laboured diligently to restore the finances, to- 
 gether with civil, military, and religious order — he has 
 occupi( d himself incessantly with succouring his people, 
 pressed down beneath the weight of so many arbitrary 
 requisitions — he has established the most severe economy 
 in his house — he has composed his councils of magis- 
 trates, equally praiseworthy, both for their talents and 
 virtues ; in fine, to render all his children comfortable 
 by his liberal provisions, he has proclaimed liberty of 
 conscience — " that domain of God ;" and in permitting 
 us to adoie the Lord in the most public manner, with, 
 the fervour of a worship majestic in its simplicity, he 
 has openly declared that he has done an act of justice 
 which even surpasses his wisdom and goodness. 
 
 *' In the midst of so many voices, which bless his return 
 into the bosom of his beloved people, could our hearts 
 remain cold and indifferent ? Our hearts r Yes : behold 
 the tribute which this race of good Kings always requires 
 from us — our hearts! and must we not wholly give 
 them to so much firnmess of soul, to so much clemency 
 and generosity? Our hearts! — and who deserves better 
 to conquer them than a Prince who returns to us, es- 
 corted by all the blessings of peace? Yes; our affec- 
 tion w^U be the more lively, as it will be the inspiration 
 p 2 
 
11^ 
 
 of a just gratitude ; it w ill be the more sincere, as it 
 will rest upon the sanctity of our religious principles. 
 Our Monarch, during so many years spent among Pro- 
 testant people, has had numerous opportunities of con- 
 vincing himself of their attachment to their Sovereigns, 
 and of their obedience to their laws. Besides, he knew 
 our sentiments — he pleased himself in giving credit to 
 their solidity : he has said as much to our Consistories. 
 Did we not ourselves hear His Royal Highness the 
 Duke d'Angoulerae answer us, when we^had the happi- 
 ness to offer him our homage, ' THE PRO FEST- 
 *ANTS PLACED HENRY UPON THE 
 ' THRONE— WE WILL NEVER FORGET IT! 
 Ah ! give to God the most ardent expressions of grati- 
 tude, that he has placed us under the government of a 
 Monarch, so enlightened, so religious, so benevolent. 
 Let us respect his laws ; let us carefully pay the public 
 contributions ; like him, let us extend all around us the 
 empire of religion and morals : and, since he reigns by 
 peace, and for peace— since the days of our felicity are 
 reckoned by those of his abode among us — since it will 
 henceforth be measured by the duration of his exist- 
 ence : all ! let us every day solicit heavenly benedictions 
 upon his sacred person; let us pray God to prolong to 
 the last term of human life, a reign celebrated by so 
 many wise laws — a reign, above all, immortalized by a 
 glorious and durable peace." 
 
 Tliis discourse was preceded by thanksgivings, and 
 followed by Te Deum, which was chanted in full choir. 
 After this holy song, the orator implored divine blessings 
 for the sacred person of Lewis XV IH. for his august 
 family, and for the generous projects formed by him for 
 
 $ 
 
lis 
 
 the happiness of his people. He prayed for his worthy 
 ministers, for the administrative and judicial authorities 
 of that department, for the establishment of civil and 
 religious liberty in all countries of the world, for the 
 pastors of all Christian churches, for the professors and 
 students of the university ; and concluded by soliciting 
 the divine mercy for the support of the poor, for the 
 healing of the sick, for the consolation of the afflicted, 
 and for the salvation of all men. 
 
 A very numerous auditory, several respectable magis- 
 trates, a detachment of the Urban Guard and the gar- 
 rison, and several brave officers in service and retire- 
 ment, repeated these prayers and songs of praise with 
 the most enthusiastic ardour. 
 
 Extract jTro/w Miss Williams's Present Stat* 
 of France. 
 
 *' The disorders that have taken place at Nismes, and 
 in the Department of the Gard, show how dangerous 
 it is to suffer the people to exercise sovereign authority. 
 In that province, the Protestants, naturally the most 
 zealous defenders of liberal principles, became the vic- 
 tims of a licentious armed populace, under pretence 
 that they were Bonapartists. This re-action in the 
 South is so much the more to be lamented, that the 
 malignity of faction has sought to injure the Royal cause 
 by insinuating that the commissaries of the Princes fa- 
 voured these acts of hostility against the Protestants. 
 It would be an offence to the French Government to 
 justify it against such calumnies." — p. 373. Paris, Oct. 
 JSL5. 
 
114 
 
 editor's remarks. 
 The foregoing extract is of no small importance to 
 confirm a part of the question now under discussion. It 
 conies from the pen of a Lady, once known as a Re- 
 publican, but who has become a decided Royalist. Her 
 evidence must, therefore, have some weight with the par- 
 tisans of the Bourbons. Now, she admits that the Pro- 
 testants have become the victims of an armed populace, 
 under pretence that they are Bonapartists. This must 
 strengthen the evidence as to the massacre of the Pro- 
 testants being a persecution on account of reli- 
 gion. She, however, endeavours to shelter the Go- 
 vernment from blame : but does she really think it is 
 innocent? She knows that she dare not say it is guilty, 
 or her liberty might be in danger ; at least she could 
 not expect to be allowed to remain in France after such 
 an avowal, under the present severe measures which are 
 adopted. But if she really thinks the Government 
 wholly free from blame, her opinion will not acquit it. 
 Had the friends of the Bourbons been " the victims of' 
 a licentious armed populace" would the Government 
 then have remained so long passive ? Would not some 
 steps have been instantly taken to crush the assumed 
 power of that populace which had presumed to rise up 
 in defiance of its authority ? Let facts answer. A man 
 cannot mount a tri-coloured cockade, or wear a Jiorcer 
 that is in opposition to the lily, nor wWex one icord that 
 is against ilie powers that be, but he is sent directly to 
 prison, while the Protestants may become " the victims 
 of a licentious mob" and that for weeks and months to- 
 gether, and though, they petition the King for rtiitf, 
 still continue exposed to their unbridKd fury, and have 
 no means of defence but their own courage ! 
 
il5 
 
 This Lady says, that " a licentious armed populace," 
 that is, the mob, have done the mischief. True ; but 
 WHO IMPELLED THE MOB ? In such cases the mob 
 must always perform the dirty work ; but let it not be 
 supposed that there are no tnain springs to move this 
 great machinery. Miss Williams admits that it is a 
 persecution from principle. " The Protestants, natu- 
 ralli/ the defenders of liberal principles, became 
 the victims of a licentious armed populace, under pre- 
 tence that they were Bonapartists." Their liberal prin^ 
 ciples have then endangered their safety. This is wor- 
 thy of notice. But their liberal principles did not 
 endanger their safety under the late government, but 
 only under that of the Bourbons. Really this is a 
 poor compliment which this Lady pays to her new 
 friends. 
 
 Extract of a Letter from Lausanne, in Switzerland, 
 Zihere manj/ of persecuted Protestants have fed. 
 
 " Lausanne, Oct. .■;i. 
 *' The letters from Nismes, which had been for some 
 time satisfactory, announce that the most deplorable 
 agitations have again disturbed its tranquillity. The 15th 
 related melancholy scenes — detachments from Bouilliar- 
 gues, and the neighbouring places, had advanced to the 
 gates of the tov.n, to second the factious. The Pro- 
 testants WERE insulted MENACING AND FERO- 
 CIOUS CRIES WERE HEARD ABOUT THEIR HOUSES. 
 
 On the l6lh these symptoms of insurrection became 
 still more alairaing. At last, in the night of the l6tb, 
 
116 
 
 the explosion was dreadful. One Trestaillon * com- 
 manded the brigands. Blood flowed in many houses in 
 the city. Mr. Lafond, father of the colonel of that 
 tiame, a respectable old man, after having defended 
 himself for above an hour, was basely murdered. The 
 fiext day the assassins divided the fruits of their plun- 
 der. Several houses had been demolished — ^several vic- 
 tims had been sacrificed. 
 
 " Trestaillon was taken just as he had fired on the 
 tommandant of the place, and conducted under an es- 
 cort to Moutpellier with three or four of bis principal 
 confidants." 
 
 SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE EVIDENCE. 
 
 Whoever carefully examines the evidence which is here 
 collected must be convinced of the facts it is intended 
 to establish. No endeavour has been used to make it 
 speak the sentiments of the Editor, by giving detached 
 statements. The facts are too strong to need mere ex 
 parte evidence for their support ; and could some fur- 
 ther information be added, which is now in the posses- 
 
 * This is the blood-hound, who the author of the pre- 
 ceding Defence asserts was rewarded with the rank of Adju- 
 tant-major in the National Guard, for assassinating thirteen 
 Protestant* <u)ith his oivn hand! Will he now be advanced a 
 step higher? It will not be a matter of surprise to hear of his 
 CANONIZATION at RoME. It is true that he is arrested; but 
 his second arrest will probably terminate like tbejirsti by rclcas. 
 ing him without punishment ! 
 
117 
 
 Rion of several Ministers of various denominations, tlid 
 fnost incredulous must be convinced. If a few parts of 
 these statements seem contradictoiy, tiiis does not affect 
 the general statement. It is not necessary, in any case, 
 that all the witnesses should agree in the minutia of a 
 story, to substantiate its truth. The wise judge, in sum- 
 maig up die evidence, regards those paits which unite 
 together, and directs a corresponding verdict. 
 
 It is now admitted, on all sides, that the South of 
 Trance, and especially Nismes, has been the seat of thd 
 most violent proceedings, and diat the Photestants 
 have been the sufferers. The came of these proceed^ 
 ings is the only point to be ascertained. The question 
 then is, Is it politics, plunder, or persecution ? 
 It is not POLITICS : for, though some witnesses have 
 conceived that polities are mingled with these transactions, 
 the general evidence is, that this is only a prelence ; and 
 Miss Williams is decided on this point. It is not plun- 
 der ; for, though plunder has been committed, had this 
 been the object, would the Protestants have been the onlif^ 
 and the principal sufeiers? In such a city as Nismes 
 there must be some wealthy Catholics; and why have 
 they escaped ? If any of these have suffered, nothing 
 has been said about it. And it may be asked, Do plun- 
 derers pursue the plundered, and hunt them' down like 
 wild beasts .? they want the property only, and^not the 
 fugitives. Do plunderers roast their victims alive, and 
 commit excesses which are only common to infuriated 
 principle ? 
 
 It is then just to conclude, that the whole of thi* 
 black affair is to be summed up as a persecution ; and 
 if PLUNDER has been one object to ^^hich the mob have 
 
 9 
 
118 
 
 bent their attention, by directing their atrocities solely 
 against the Protestants, they have deemed themselves 
 more secure in their crimes, and have, with too much 
 reason, relied upon the indifference of a bigoted go- 
 vernment, which has at least disregarded the bitter suf- 
 ferings, the groans, and the persecutions of thousands of 
 its best subjects, because they were not of the reli- 
 gion OF THE STATE ! 
 
 The more this business is investigated the worse it ap» 
 pears. These statements have convinced many, and 
 the fresh evidence here adduced will, it is hoped, con- 
 vince many more. Some have called for facts of a 
 more direct nature, but it is almost impossible to get 
 more direct facts, unless the cruelties w^ere perpetrated 
 nearer home ; and as for names, common sense must 
 dictate the danger which would arise from their expo- 
 sure. It is this difficulty which prevents many more in- 
 teresting details ; but fresh evidence is accumulating so 
 fast, on all sides, that, like a mighty rushing torrent, 
 it must soon bear down all before it. The Petition to 
 Lewis XVI II. has indeed been received in silence — the 
 Defence suppressed — the proposal of inquiry in the 
 Chambers cried down — and writers are forced to furnish 
 facts in disguised hands ; but blood has a voice so loud 
 that it zvill make itself heard, nor shall the most exalted 
 criminals escape the just punishment which the Almighty 
 will inflict upon the heads of all tyrants ! 
 
 It is lamentable, that there are to be found some who, 
 after all this evidence, think that our Government have 
 no right to interfere in a matter of persecution, which 
 transpires under another Government. Humanity, reli- 
 gion, and POLICY, all plead for an interference. The 
 
IID 
 
 two first are probably admitted ; but the last is a ques- 
 tion. Let it, however, be recollected, that religious 
 persecutions in France have more than once involved 
 neighbouring countries in political conflicts ; and, should 
 the Protestants be driven to despair, the peace of the 
 Continent may again be disturbed, the partisans of Bo- 
 naparte join the oppressed, forced to resist by incessant 
 insults and cruelties ; and all those scenes which we have 
 so long been attempting to terminate, once more renew- 
 ed on the old theatre of war. Such an interference will 
 be a lasting honour to any Government that wishes 
 
 PEACE ON EARTH, AND GOOD-WILL TOWARDS MEN. 
 
 — Editor. 
 
 th:e end. 
 
 rrintcd by S. Go»nell, Little Queen Street, London. 
 
Speedily will be publislicdj b}^ Subscription^ 
 
 IlSr ONE VOLUME OCTAVO, 
 'Price, to Subscribers, IQs. Gd, — io Non-sulscrilers, \.2s. 
 
 THE 
 
 J"RENCII PREACHER; 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 SELECT DISCOURSES 
 
 MOST EMINENT EIIENCH DIVINES, 
 
 CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT; 
 
 %VITH 
 
 EIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF THE AUTHORS, 
 
 And a hrief Character of t/iosc iclikli are omitted,,. 
 
 TO WHICH WILL BE rP.EnXKD, 
 
 An Historical View of the Reformed Cluirch of France, 
 from its Origin to the present Time. 
 
 li.^'^^VW'* 
 
 Stlcctcdy trunslatcdy and cotnpUcdy 
 
 B Y I N G R A M C O B B I N. 
 
 Subscriptions received by J. Blact, York Street, Covent' 
 Garden; J. Conder, St. Paul's Churchyard; T. Ha- 
 milton, Paternoster llovr ; and Ogic?, ' Duncan, an<l 
 Cochran, Holborn, , 
 
I'HE CAUSE 
 
 OF THS 
 
 FRENCH PROTESTANTS 
 
 DEFENDED 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 THE ATTACKS 
 
 Off 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER, 
 
 BY .y 
 
 THE REV. INGRAM COBBIN. 
 
 *• We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw thd 
 anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear." 
 
 Gen. xlii. 21, 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED FOR OGLES, DUNCAN, AN^D COCHeTaN, 
 
 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND 295, HOLBORN; 
 
 Williams and Son, Stationers' Court; W. Walker, Strand* 
 J. Black, York Street, Covent Garden; J. Conder, St. 
 Paul's Churchyard; and J. Burton, Cornhill: J. Ogle, 
 Edinburgh ; and M. Ogle, Glasgow. 
 
 1815. 
 
 Price One Shilling, 
 
Printed by S. GosNtLi-, Little Qucun Street, London. 
 
THE CAUSE 
 
 OF 
 
 %f)t jfrenc!) Protestants 
 
 DEFENDED. 
 
 A MOST illiberal attack has been made by the 
 Christian Observer* againstthe " Statements" — 
 so illiberal, that, had it proceeded from a work of 
 minor talent and influence, it would have been 
 deemed beneath the writer's notice. This work 
 is indeed mostly confined to the friends of The 
 Velvet Cusfiion; and while its political prejudices 
 are so strong as to induce it rather to sacrifice 
 truth than to admit facts which militate directly 
 against them, the more limited its circulation 
 the better. 
 
 An antagonist always discovers his weakness 
 when he is reduced to the low expedient of de- 
 fending his cause by scurrilous epithets. The 
 term Jacobin is now employed by the malignant, 
 cunning, and feeble antagonist as a most effectual 
 method of silencing an opponent in every argu- 
 ment which bears any relation to the cause of 
 liberty; but as political discussion is carefully 
 
 * Vide Christian Observer for November. 
 A 2 
 
avoided in the " Statements," such an allusion, 
 to say the least, is highly indecorous. It was, 
 indeed, impossible to make the Statements with- 
 out tacitly involving the Government of France 
 in the crime of persecution; but the strongest 
 passage employed with reference to that Govern- 
 ment, attributes the existence of the cruelties 
 inflicted on the Protestants in the South of 
 France, and their long continuance, not to the 
 Throne itself, but to a secret hifluence behind 
 the Throne. However, nothing seems to have 
 run in the head of this writer but Jacobinisfn; 
 and so effectually has the Anti-jacobin mania 
 seized his brains, that it has quite destroyed 
 every degree of feeling for the unhappy French 
 Protestants. Scarcely a column can pass with- 
 out introducing the subject. Speaking of the 
 Bourbon throne, he says, " Every art of mis- 
 representation will be employed to render the 
 possessors of it odious in the eyes of their own 
 people and of other nations. IVe know by ex- 
 perience how skilful in the use of this weapon 
 is that Jacobin party, still so numerous both in 
 France and England ; for, so successfully has this 
 country been assailed by their misrepresentations 
 and calumnies, and so ineflicacious have been our 
 efforts to repel them, that the name of Eng- 
 land is, even at this moment, most strangely 
 
associated, by the general population of France, 
 we may even say, of the continent at large, 
 with whatever is insincere and hypocritical in 
 profession, and selfish and base in policy." A 
 few words about this by and by. " It was to 
 be expected," observes the writer, " that the 
 partisans o{ Jacobinism would leave no means 
 untried to bring the Bourbon race into general 
 discredit. They have accordingly laboured, and 
 in this effort they have been but too successful, 
 to connect the atrocities which have recently 
 taken place in the South of France, with the 
 Bourbons, and to ascribe them to the perse- 
 cuting spirit of the French Government, as their 
 orisrin." Alluding to the introduction of the 
 Summary of the Persecutions of the Protestants, 
 the angry writer concludes that it is done the 
 more effectually to bring down the odium of the 
 present persecution " on the devoted head of 
 Louis XVIII." and asks, " Is not this a striking 
 exemplification of the usual artifices of the 
 Jacobin school ?" Again he says, he cannot but 
 deeply regret the unjust clamour against the 
 Bourbons, " which has been excited in this coun- 
 try at the present moment — a clamour tending 
 to weaken the hands of the French Government, 
 to diminish the just influence to which the 
 voice of the British Public is entitled, and to 
 
serve the cause of Jacobins and Revolutionists." 
 " They" — " those benevolent individuals who 
 have seen it their duty to publish a series of 
 strong resolutions on this delicate subject" — 
 " have lent themselves, as we think, without 
 due consideration, to the designs of those who 
 have ou\y factious and patty purposes to serve, 
 by implicating the French Government in the 
 guilt of persecution." Here are specimens 
 enough on the subject of Jacobinism by the 
 Anti-jacobin Christian Observer, and the sooner 
 8uch rant is dismissed the better. No man can 
 answer epithets unless he chooses to degrade 
 himself by bestowing epithets in return. It 
 would be easy to convince the world, that the 
 Christian Observer, if not a Jacobin, resembles 
 much something not less odious, and that is a 
 Jacobite. But epithets are neither arguments 
 nor reasonings. It is, however, no very high 
 compliment which the gentleman passes upon 
 several highly respectable bodies who *' have 
 seen it their duty to publish a series of strong 
 resolutions on this delicate subject," to charge 
 them with " lending themselves ivithout due 
 consideration^ to the designs of such as have only 
 factious and party purposes to serve," and to 
 intimate that they are so easily to be led astray 
 by Jacobins, If tliose respectable bodies do not 
 
 2 
 
think it beneath them to notice such a libel 
 upon their judgments and prudence, it must be 
 left with them to vindicate themselves from so 
 foul a charge as being accessories to the crimes 
 of a set of Jacobins. Yet one thing must be 
 said in this place — that there never was a ques- 
 tion more seriously discussed, or deliberately 
 weighed, than the question of the persecution 
 of the Protestants in the South of France ; and 
 that, after many hours spent in reading docii. 
 ments, and viewing it in all its bearings, the 
 resolutions were adopted in the fullest assem- 
 blies almost una voce. 
 
 Finally, to dismiss the subject of Jacobinism, 
 the Editor pleads not guilty to the charge. — • 
 This term is applied to republicans, but he is 
 a warm admirer of a limited monarchy ; it is 
 applied to those men who wish to oust the 
 King's ministers, but he has not the smallest 
 wish upon the subject ; it is applied to those 
 who dislike their country, but he loves it as the 
 nursery of toleration— the asylum of liberty — ■ 
 the Goshen of Europe. He venerates its very 
 dust ; for it contains all that is dear and pre- 
 cious to him as a man, a Christian, and a mi- 
 nister. Nor can he view the attack on its cha- 
 racter in the Christian Observer, and in this 
 very article, in which the writer would make 
 
tlie world believe, that he, Mr. Observer, i'^ 
 the most loyal of men, without feeling a degree 
 of indignation which he cannot express. With 
 ivhom has the Christian Observer associated, 
 that he has presumed to say " that the name of 
 England is, even at this moment, most strangely 
 associated, by the general population of France, 
 we may even say, of the continent at large, with 
 whatever is insincere and hypocritical in profes^ 
 siofi, and seljlsh and base in policy^'''' Could the 
 blackest Jacobin have given a more artful and 
 malignant description of the character of this 
 country ? However, the statement is not justified 
 hy fact. The Editor has had frequent intercourse 
 with foreigners of all nations, a:nd talked freely 
 on this very subject ; but he never heard such 
 disgraceful reflections cast upon the English 
 character. They have indeed condemned its 
 policy in the affair of Copenhagen, which the 
 Christian Observer warmly vindicated, and in 
 the taking of the Spanish galleon ships, and 
 ridiculed its liberty because of the existence of 
 the press-laws, and the law, that truth is a libel: 
 but with these exceptions, all foreigners admit 
 that the English character is distinguished by 
 all that is brave in a soldier, all that is virtuous 
 in the Christian, and all that is benevolent in 
 the man. The prowess of their arms, their gene- 
 
9 
 
 rous zeal for the conversion of the heathen 
 world, and their readiness to stretch out the li- 
 beral hand to relieve the wretched in all coun- 
 tries, have raised the name of Englishmen 
 to a proud eminence, from which, the re- 
 marks of a Christian Observer can never cast it 
 down. It is true, an ugly picture of the British 
 people has been lately drawn by a fellow at Paris, 
 who, having broken his parole,^was confined for 
 many years in a prison-ship in this country; but 
 it would argue little respect for the British fair 
 to quote such an authority, when the libeller 
 will gravely tell the French nation, that the 
 British ladies are all drunkards, and that they 
 imiformly make it a practice to retire after 
 dinner, and drink a sly glass of brandy ! How- 
 ever, let this gentleman be left to Miss Wil- 
 liams at Paris. If she will vindicate her country- 
 women with the same zeal that she displays in 
 vindicating the Bourbons from any concern in 
 persecution, they cannot commit their cause 
 into better hands. CnATEAUBraAND is a man 
 of discrimination, refinement, and learning : 
 his sketch of the English shall suffice to vin- 
 dicate the national character from this shame- 
 ful charge of the Christian Observer: " With 
 German simplicity, sedateness, good sense, and 
 deliberation, they combine the fire, impetuosity, 
 
 B 
 
lo 
 
 levity, vivacity, and elegance of mind, which 
 distinguish the French." If any other opinion 
 is entertained of the British character of an un- 
 favourable kind, it must either be attributed to 
 the causes which have been above stated, as the 
 grounds of complaint made by foreigners, or to 
 the irritated feelings of people yet surrounded 
 by British bayonets, and not to the efforts of 
 any individuals to bring the name of their coun- 
 try into disrepute. Nothing would tend more 
 to do it, than a number of writers broaching 
 such sentiments as those published by the Chris- 
 tian Observer. 
 
 Now for the Statements. 
 
 In this wonderful age things that would for- 
 merly have excited astonishment almost cease 
 to be wonderful, or it would seem ** passing 
 strange** to find a work like the Christian Ob- 
 server pleading the cause of persecutors, and 
 endeavouring to hoodwink the public in spite 
 of the clearest evidence on the subject of the 
 suffering Protestants in the South of France : 
 evidence which has so fully satisfied every body 
 of men who have seriously discussed the mat- 
 ter, that they have acted upon it without fur- 
 tl er delay, and respectful!} :arried their remon- 
 strances, and their earnest entreaties in behalf of 
 the sufferers, to the highest authorities. And 
 
Jl 
 
 let it be recorded to the honour of our Govern- 
 rnent, that their feelings are widely different 
 from those of the Christian Observer, and they 
 have neither thought it contrary to policy, nor 
 beneath their dignity, to listen to the combined 
 voice of humanity and reason, pleading for the 
 miserable ; while such conduct must secure to 
 thern the approbation of every liberal mind and 
 every feeling heart. They are not to be deterred 
 from doing an act of justice by such bugbears 
 as the Christian Observer has presented to 
 frighten them, of remonstrances on the Ca- 
 tholic business from France, and Italy, and 
 Spain, and Portugal, and Austria. But, were 
 the danger such as they have insinuated, shall 
 British Christians shun to meet difficulty when 
 summoned into action by such loud calls as 
 those of a brother's blood crying from the 
 ground? Fiat justitia mat cctlum ! 
 
 The Christian Observer indeed admits that 
 the Jacobins have been but too successful in 
 this business. " So effectually, indeed, have 
 they succeeded in filling the public mind with 
 the persuasion that these acts of violence and 
 blood have emanated from the bigotry of the 
 Bourbons, that it has become unsafe to ques- 
 tion the truth of the position. We, however, 
 shall not be deterred by any degree of popular 
 s2 
 
12 
 
 clamour — even though that clamour should be 
 heightened by the voices of many whom ive love 
 and venerate — from declaring, that, after having 
 examined with impartiality much that has been 
 said, and we believe all that has been published, 
 on the subject, we remain of the opinion, not 
 only that there is no evidence to prove that 
 the Bourbons have had the remotest share in 
 exciting or encouraging the atrocities in ques- 
 tion, but that even the evidence adduced by 
 their adversaries, as far as it has any weight at 
 all, goes directly to their exculpation." 
 
 This is indeed strong language, but it is all 
 assertion without proof. As for the Editor oi 
 the Statements, he solemnly disclaims all inten- 
 tion of attacking the Bourbons as he would at- 
 tack an adversary : he repeats again, that he is 
 only an enemy to intolerance, and hopes ever to 
 remain so, whether he finds it in Catholic or 
 Protestant. But it is too barefaced an assertion 
 to say that there is 720 evidence to prove that 
 the Bourbons have had the remotest share in 
 exciting or encouraging the atrocities in ques- 
 tion. Was not the Petition for royal inter- 
 ference treated with neglect ? Was not the 
 pamphlet suppressedhy the Government as soon 
 as published ? Has not another since appeared 
 in reply to the suppressed pamphlet, of which a 
 
13 
 
 second part is promised, which is allowed free 
 circulation ? and was not the Marquis d'Argen- 
 son cried down in the Senate when he attempted 
 to bring the question only under discussion ? 
 Would any Government labour under the odium 
 which now attaches to the Bourbon Govern- 
 ment, were it not implicated in the guilt of the 
 persecutors, and not try to justify its character 
 from such strong accusations made against it 
 before the eyes of all Europe ? Could the Due 
 d'Angouleme, who has so often visited the South, 
 remain ignorant of the horrible atrocities which 
 were committed there ? And yet for many months 
 the same evils continue to be perpetrated, with- 
 out any effectual interposition in behalf of the 
 oppressed by the new Government. No cri- 
 minals are brought to justice. Trestaillon, one 
 of the worst, has been tivice seized^ but to this 
 day we have not heard of his being consigned to 
 punishment ; and in a country where the vigi- 
 lance of the police can discover the most secret 
 hiding-places of the Bonapartists, and where it 
 is almost omniscient, the assassin of La Garde 
 yet remains undiscovered. And with all these 
 facts before his eyes, the Christian Observer 
 tells the world that *^ there is no evidence to 
 prove that the Bourbons have had the remotest 
 share in exciting or encouraging the atrocities in 
 
 4 
 
14 
 
 question." Credat Judceus Apella ! If the pub- 
 lic could believe this, they must have a most 
 luicommon share of weakness and credulity. 
 
 But it is not enough for the Christian Ob- 
 server that he should exculpate the Bourbons; 
 he must also accuse the poor French Protestants 
 already sinking under a weight too heavy to be 
 borne. ^' We admit," says the writer, '' that 
 great atrocities have been committed at Nismes:''* 
 wonderful concession indeed ! " and we are dis- 
 posed to believe that religious rancour has had 
 a great share in instigating them. The Protest- 
 ants, indeed, are anxious to prove that their 
 sufferings have been in no degree connected 
 with their political delinquencies. But by the 
 very attempts they have made to account for it, 
 their advocates have admitted the fact that thej/ 
 ivere generally favourable to the cause of the 
 Usurper, and averse to the return of the Bour- 
 bons.'''' How is this proved? Not a word is said 
 by the Observer about the loyal sermon of Dr, 
 Frossard, the Dean of Montauban, with the 
 comment on that sermon as given in the second 
 edition of the Statements, long before the expi- 
 ration of the month, so that he must have seen 
 it, as he had read all that was written on the 
 subject — a sermon which plainly proves, that. 
 
15 
 
 whatever the Protestant Ministers] thought^ tJieij 
 did not preach Anti-Bourhonism : and indeed 
 other sermons might have been quoted for the 
 same purpose. But mind the logic here em- 
 ployed : the writer continues: " Even Mr. Cob- 
 bin says, the Protestants expected this persecu- 
 tion, and the restoration of the Bourbons was 
 a matter of dread to them for some time before 
 it occurred, as the Catholics had shown such a 
 disposition to persecute on their first return ! 
 But when, cr where, had this disposition ma- 
 nifested itself ? We call for evidence,'''' Here it 
 is. Sir. 
 
 " It is with grief we learn, that some of the 
 
 Catholics of France, among the Royalists, are 
 
 accusing the Protestants of having effected the 
 
 late revolution, and talk, very loudly of satiating 
 
 their revenge on the return of the King, so that 
 
 those unhappy sufferers are once more dreading 
 
 a persecution. Louis could do nothing better 
 
 than calm their fears, to conciliate their favour. 
 
 We trust that, should he regain his power, his 
 
 reign will never be disgraced by the scenes of a 
 
 Bartholomew Day." Insteuctoe, July 5. 
 
 When this article was written, Louis was driven 
 
 from his throne, on which he had sat only a 
 
 few months. It seems, then, that the Editor of 
 
 the Instructor had either an uncommonly pro^ 
 
16 
 
 phetic eye, or had found out that such a dispo- 
 sition did exist, " during the summer and au-^ 
 tumn of 1814," though the Christian Observer 
 denies that such a disposition had at that time 
 shown itself. So that the slanderous accusation 
 of this Christian Gentleman must fall to the 
 ground, that the charge was ^^Jirst heard of 
 when it became necessary for certain persons to 
 blacken the character of the reigning family, in 
 order to extenuate their own disloyalty." And 
 were it safe to mention names, authority more 
 direct than this could be quoted by the Editor 
 of the Statements. 
 
 An article has this moment come to hand, 
 which is a complete reply to the Observer, and 
 proves that as long ago as the spring of 1814, at 
 the time of the overthrow of the Imperial power 
 in France, indications of the revival of an in- 
 tolerant spirit filled the Protestants with the 
 most lively apprehensions. It is an extract 
 from a letter written by a Minister resident in 
 England, but visiting France at that period, 
 containing the following accurate account : — 
 ■ ' The disasters of Napoleon were followed by 
 his abdication. At that moment I was in the 
 principal city of the South of France, — I heard, 
 — I saw, — I trembled for the consequences ; I 
 mixed with both parties, and earnestly prayed 
 
17 
 
 that God would avert the evils I anticipated.-— 
 The Protestants naturally sunk into the utmost 
 despondency: terror and alarm filled their breasts. 
 I heard it from Nismes : I saiv and felt it at 
 Toulouse, Montauban, and Bordeaux, and many 
 other places. I know that such was their con- 
 cern, that they even supplica ted inferior officers 
 in the common Restaurateurs', to use all their 
 influence through a chain of friends, that their 
 state might reach the Duke of Wellington, 
 whose head-quarters were then at Toulouse, in 
 hopes that, through his representations, the 
 new dynasty might tolerate and protect them. 
 Was it not natural for a people, whose very 
 furniture, and libraries, and children, so forcibly 
 reminded them of their persecuted fathers, — 
 was it not natural for them to dread the return 
 of the ancient family to the throne ? Not but 
 that, as a body, they would have cheerfully sub- 
 mitted to their reign, and have respected their 
 laws ; but they dreaded the influence of their 
 religion, and the spirit of revenge too likely to 
 be exhibited ! Never did I behold fears more 
 operative, cr real. 
 
 *' The Roman Catholics, on the contrary, 
 .manifested the most unbounded joy ; — they 
 could scarcely confine themselves within the 
 bounds of common decency in some places, 
 
 c 
 
18 
 
 particularly at Nisines ; but publicly declared, 
 that the temples of the Reformed would be 
 closed, and their preachers silenced, when Louis 
 returned !— This, of course, applies to the more 
 bigoted part. — Before Louis arrived at Calais, 
 I saw a letter delivered from Nismes, on the 
 Lord's Day, which filled me with horror ; — 
 they then dreaded a massacre, and kept watch 
 night and day. A circular letter from Louis, 
 announcing free toleration to the Reformed, si- 
 lenced their fears, — and, in common with every 
 Protestant Minister in France, I read it with 
 real pleasure from the pulpit at Bordeaux. 
 
 " I saw the tear of gratitude burst from the 
 eyes of assembled multitudes, and I joined them 
 in ascriptions of praise to the Father of all spi- 
 rits. — Disappointed, but not in despair of fu- 
 ture success, the Roman Catholics proceeded to 
 re-establish, in all their splendour, the proces- 
 sions of their Church. — I saw the revival of the. 
 FHe de Dieu, — and heard the insulting demand, 
 that the Protestants, in common with them, 
 should hang tapestry before their houses in ho- 
 nour of the host ; — this they nobly refused, 
 saying, if we begin to concede in little things, 
 greater demands will follow preparatory to a 
 final subjection. The latter part of Louis's 
 reign last year, sufficiently proved the influence 
 
19 
 
 of the priesthood, in the processions that filled 
 the streets with pompous ceremonies, to which 
 France had been unaccastomed for 25 years." 
 
 Let not the Christian Observer boast any 
 more, after this, of his information^ or tell the 
 world that " every part of France was travers- 
 ed during the summer of 1814, by English 
 travellers, many of them deeply interested in the 
 religious state of France^^ but, " as far as our 
 information has gone, not one of them ever 
 intimated that such a disposition (a disposition 
 to persecute) had shown itself." 
 
 After denying the above facts, which must 
 now be evident to every impartial mind, the 
 writer condemns the Protestants for expecting 
 persecution. Was it not natural for them to 
 dread the storm when they saw the clouds ap- 
 pearing ? How would the Christian Observer 
 have acted in a like case ? 
 
 " But we are asked," says the Observer, " why 
 did not the French Government reply to certain 
 memorialists and pamphleteers, who accused 
 them of favouring persecution ? They did what 
 was much more becoming their dignity, — they 
 sent a military force to restore quiet, and ordered 
 their courts to bring to justice the actors in these 
 tragedies. What can be a more convincing proof 
 of the earnest desire of the French Government 
 
 c2 
 
20 
 
 to vindicate the right of the Protestants to the 
 fullest toleration, than that their own comman- 
 der was shot by a miscreant while carrying into 
 execution their orders to that effect ?" But it 
 may be asked in reply, why was not this com- 
 mander sent before ? Why was he not better 
 supported with troops ? How has it happened 
 that the persecution has always raged worse 
 when the Due d'Ano-ouleme has been in the 
 South of France ? Where are the criminals that 
 have been brought to justice? Where is the 
 army appointed to protect the persecuted, when 
 at this very time nearly all the Protestant places 
 of worship in the South of France are shut 
 up ? It may be replied, and it has been said, 
 that this has been done to pacify the mob. A 
 fine protection truly I An army to yield to a 
 mob ! Perhaps it will too clearly appear that 
 the temples have been shut up hy orders which 
 they could not resist ! Let the Christian Ob- 
 server talk no more of the protection of the 
 Government, when the poor Reformed can no 
 longer meet for worship. This is a strange 
 kind of protection, and too much resembles 
 that of Charles IX. and Louis XIV ! 
 
 Every apology is used for these persecutors 
 which the Christian Observer can devise. It 
 is attempted to blend the business with the 
 
21 
 
 London and Nottinghamshire rioters, to give 
 it an insurrectional or political aspect, and then, 
 when the tardiness of the new Government is 
 accused, it is vindicated on the ground of the 
 distracted state of the King's Council, or per- 
 haps the wish of the King's Jacobin Ministry 
 to bring the Royal Family into disrepute. 
 
 In reply to some observations in the State- 
 ments, relative to the jealousy of the Catholics 
 about the schools in France, and not as a proof 
 of the bigotry of the Bourbons, which the wri- 
 ter in the Christian Observer falsely asserts, he 
 asks, " should ive like to see a Catholic 
 Clergyman at the head of the Central School 
 of our National School Society?" Why not, 
 if he had the merit of first importing the 
 new system of education from another coun- 
 try ? if he abstained, as Mr. Martin does, 
 from teaching his own creed, and does not in- 
 terfere with the religious instruction and wor- 
 ship of the children ? and, if he taught lessons 
 selected from one of our own translations of 
 the Scriptures, as, in the schools at Paris, 
 the lessons are taken from a Catholic Trans^ 
 lation, reasoning very properly, that it was 
 better to give the Scriptures in any form 
 than in no form at all > Who could object to 
 a Catholic teacher on such a plan as this ? 
 
 3 
 
22 
 
 Where would be the danger ? The British Sys- 
 tem of Education widely differs from the Na- 
 tional, so warmly supported by the bigoted 
 Observer;, and its glory consists in its adapta- 
 tion to persons of all creeds and all nations, be- 
 cause it has nothing to do with sect or party. 
 Away, then, with the imaginary alarm about a 
 Catholic Clergyman at the head of a National 
 School. On this system it would be equally 
 safe, whether under a Catholic, a Pagan, or a 
 Turk. " We can remember the alarm," says 
 the Christian Observer " (an alarm even now 
 in active operation), which the idea even of 
 Quaker superintendence diffused over the whole 
 kingdom.'''' This is the first time that ever the 
 idea of alarm from the spread of Quakerism 
 reached the ears of the Editor of the State- 
 ments. Mercy on us ! the rising generation will 
 all be turned into Quakers ! Mother Church is 
 going to be plundered of all her revenues, to 
 buy broad-brimmed hats and straight-breasted 
 coats for the children. " Alarm is even now 
 in active operation.'''' O the wicked Quakers, to 
 spread such terror throughout the whole king- 
 dom ! Really this will not admit of a grave an- 
 swer. However, it would furnish a very grave 
 apology for the Bourbons, were they to think pro- 
 per to suppress the British System in France; for 
 
23 
 
 they might say In vindication, Your own journal- 
 ists have argued, " Should we like to see a Ca- 
 tholic Clergyman at the head of the Central 
 School of our National School Society ?" This is 
 nothing but the blow of jealousy at theprosperity 
 of the British System on the Continent ; and 
 though Mr. Martin's name is mentioned in 
 terms of respect, it is only like the kiss of a 
 Judas ; for it is evident to every person of 
 common sense, that the whole design of the 
 writer is to undermine the noble fabric which 
 that worthy man has reared, in the midst of 
 the dissipated metropolis of France, with so 
 much industry and prudence. 
 
 As for the liberality of the Royal Family of 
 France, since the Christian Observer will drag 
 them into the discussion, all that can be said for 
 them is, that they have not opposed the System, 
 and here they deserve some credit. Yet, why 
 should they oppose it? for the system could do 
 them no harm. What support they have lent 
 the deponent saith not, but he knows that if 
 the British and Foreign School Society had not 
 liberally aided the cause from their funds, it 
 
 MUST HAVE SUNK FOR WANT OF SUPPORT*. 
 
 * It must not be forgotten, wi$h all the gasconade 
 about the Royal patronage of the School and the Bible, 
 that when the proposal of educating the poor of France 
 
24 
 
 The Christian Observer prints In italics, " The 
 Bible is now read in all the Schools."" Does he 
 know another fact, that, as soon as the Bour- 
 bons returned the first time, a large quantity of 
 Bibles that were sent over to France by some 
 of the Methodist Society, jvere burnt at Rochelle 
 by the orders of the Government? This was as- 
 serted at a public Bible Meeting, by a very 
 worthy Clergyman of the Establishment, who 
 laid the blame not to the new Popish Govern- 
 ment^ but to the infidel peopk, and concluded 
 the statement with, " Shall not God be aveng- 
 ed on such a nation as this ?" A Reverend Se- 
 cretary of the same denomination attempted to 
 gloss over the matter by observing, that he had 
 
 was first laid before the Royal Government, it remained 
 dormcmt for a considerable length of time, and would, in 
 all probability, still have I'emained so, if the Government 
 of the Usurper, on discovering it among the neglected 
 papers, had not taken it up. 
 
 Louis maj^ perhaps be excused on account of the dis- 
 tracted state of affairs ; but Buonaparte's Government 
 found no such apology as a sufficient reason for neglecting 
 so good a cause. The motive of this good action may in- 
 deed be questioned by some, as originating in a design to 
 render the Usurpers Government popular, but such a 
 motive would readily have been excused by the friends of 
 education, if Louis's Government had had the wisdom to 
 have adopted it. 
 
25 
 
 not received any official account of it, and he 
 thought it could not have happened without his 
 knowing it officiallij. The writer of this reply 
 was assured by a French Protestant minister, 
 that it was a fact ! 
 
 These remarks are unwillingly extorted by 
 those of the Observer, which are just quoted. 
 
 There is one paragraph near the conclusioa 
 which most strongly implicates the French 
 Government, because, in connexion with yac^^, 
 it shows a breach of faith which is most unpar- 
 donable, *' The Constitutional Charter," says 
 the Observer, " promulged with the privity, 
 and sanctioned by the express approbation, of 
 all the allies, makes it, in the most explicit 
 manner, a fundamental law of the state, that 
 all Frenchmen, of whatever faith, should be 
 equal in their civil rights ; that perfect liberty 
 of religious worship should he enjoyed by all de- 
 nominations ; and that not only the Catholic 
 ministers, but the ministers of other churches, 
 should receive salaries from the state. What 
 more could be desired than this ? And this is 
 the law of France, solemnly instituted by the 
 concurrent voice of the three states of the realm, 
 universally promulged and known as such, and 
 even recognised as such in tlie new treaty.'* 
 Now let the- Observer be condemned out of his 
 
 D 
 
26 
 
 own mouth; for, in defiance of the stipulation that 
 perfect liberty of religious worship should he en- 
 joyedhy nil denominations, theProtestant places of 
 worship are nearly all shut up throughout the 
 South of France ; and, in defiance of the engage- 
 ment that the ministers should receive salariesfrom 
 the state, no salary has been paid to them for nine 
 months pasty and their college, suppressed by the 
 ancient Bourbons, and re-established by Bona- 
 parte, is in danger of again perishing for want 
 of support ! Are these facts questioned ? They 
 come from a man who is one of the brightest 
 luminaries of the French Protestant church, 
 and who, if driven out of the ministry by dire 
 necessity, will be a loss bitterly deplored by all 
 who desire the prosperity of that church. 
 
 These facts come in the most unquestionable 
 shape; and yet, in the face of such evidence, the 
 Christian Observer pleads like a good Catholic 
 in behalf of the persecutors, and even dares to 
 vilify the poor sufferers ! 
 
 We are also reminded of the virtues of 
 ^' Louis XVI. the mildest of monarchs," though 
 the writer had a passage from the Rev. John 
 Tovvnsend's edition of Claude before his eyes, 
 stating the great desire of renewing the ancient 
 persecutions against the Protestants, even in the 
 reignof Louis XVI,, '' and though he could not be 
 
27 
 
 ignorant that all the children of the Protestants 
 were deemed illegitimate till the latter end of his 
 reign, when, to conciliate the people whose pe- 
 cuniary aid was wanted to recruit the exhausted 
 coffers of his treasury, he ventured to take off 
 the odious penalty, but even till the last hours 
 of his reign the Protestants could not worship 
 in safety under the eyes of the government of 
 *' the mildest of monarchs /" 
 
 But now let the reader observe the strange 
 conclusion : " After all, we cannot too highly 
 honour that warm and generous ardour which 
 has called forth that expression of feeling, on 
 which we have taken the liberty to comment." 
 Why, then, abuse all the actors in this business 
 as Jacobins, or abettors of Jacobins ? Either 
 the censure or the praise must be grossly mis- 
 placed. 
 
 The conclusions at which every inquirer on 
 this subject must arrive, unless he will obsti- 
 nately shut his eyes against facts, are, 
 
 ] st, That a cruel persecution has existed for 
 some time against the Protestants in the South 
 of France, which did not exist under the fallen 
 Government, 
 
 SA, That no speedy and active measures were 
 taken by the French Government to stop this 
 furious persecution. 
 
29 
 
 Bd, That, instead of decreasing, it has arisen 
 to such a height as to oblige the Protestants to 
 shut up their places of iv or ship for want of due 
 protection in peaceably worshipping God, ac- 
 cording to the dictates of their own consciences. 
 
 4th, That, to add to their sufferings, the Pro- 
 testants have no prospect before them but the 
 ruin of their college and the breaking up of their 
 churches by the dispersion of their friends, and 
 the withholding the salaries of the ministers, in 
 express violation o/" the Constitutional Charter 
 promulged with the privity, and sanctioned by 
 the express approbation, of all the allies.'* 
 
 And, finally. That the Christian Ob- 
 server, IN STANDING FORWARD AS THE APOLO- 
 GIST OP THE PERSECUTORS AND THE SLAN- 
 DERER OP THE PERSECUTED, HAS DISGRACED 
 ITSELF IN THE EYES OP EVERY HONEST MAN, 
 DISCOVERED A PREDILECTION FOR THE POPISH 
 HIERARCHY HIGHLY INJURIOUS TO ITS REPUTA- 
 TION, AND SHAMEFULLY INSULTED ALL THE 
 BENEVOLENT MEN, WHO, AFTER THE MOST MA- 
 TURE DELIBERATION ON THE FACTS BROUGHT 
 BEFORE THEM, HAVE NOBLY STOOD FORWARD 
 AS THE PROTECTORS OF THE OPPRESSED AND 
 T'UE ADVOCATES OF THE UNALIENABLE RIGHTS 
 OP CONSCIENCE. 
 
29 
 
 P. S. An allusion has been made in the fore- 
 going pages to the painful information furnished 
 by a French Minister, whom the writer has de- 
 nominated one of the brightest ornaments of 
 the Protestant Church. Perhaps the extract 
 quoted in the Third Edition of the Statements 
 may escape the notice of some who may read 
 this pamphlet ; if is therefore inserted here, for 
 their information : 
 
 " Places of worship are shut up throughout 
 nearly the whole southern provinces of France. 
 The flourishing churches of Nismes and Uzes 
 are nearly annihilated. — Although we enjoy a 
 state of comparative tranquillity as citizens, we 
 fear that the Professors of the College cannot 
 long hold out. They have received no salary 
 for nine months, and the time when any part 
 of this may be expected is very far distant ; and 
 sooner or later they must look, out for some 
 other means of subsistence, and labour in a less 
 offensive profession. 
 
 ^' We have yet much reason to be thankful, 
 that we have been hitherto spared and strength- 
 ened. So many provinces laid waste — so many 
 houses in flames — so many of our brethren 
 mercilessly murdered — so many pastors without 
 
30 
 
 asylum and without bread ! Alas ! alas ! Still let 
 us adore the incomprehensible, but always wise 
 ways of Providence, with resignation. Let us 
 hope, and let us pray.'* 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by S. Co*n«U, Little Queen Street, London. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 ^amm^ 
 
 '€ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 CAYLORO 
 
 
 
 PRINTEDIN US A.