NECESSITY OF INCREASED TOLERATION. 227 questions may be unpalatable to the present government of Sardinia, yet they cannot be suppressed—the voice of truth and candour will make itself heard in the present day; and the rapid communication between country and country, has opened so many inlets to knowledge, that no police regulations nor restrictions on the press, can shut it out. * The court of Turin cannot any longer retort to our representatives, by saying, “why do you not emancipate the Roman Catholics?” Religious restrictions they had none to complain of, and all their civil disabilities are now removed : whilst France has set the example of placing Protestants, once so cruelly persecuted by her, on an equal footing with their Roman Catholic fellow subjects. These facts are known and demand reciprocity and imitation. Let England firmly and conscientiously discharge that trust which she has taken upon herself, and watch over those interests which she has promised to protect. We know not what trials or triumphs may yet await this ancient branch of the Church of Christ. Long has she been preserved by the Almighty, like Israel of old, to bear testimony to his name among the nations; and has stood as a beacon through ages * The English language is at present studied at Rome, not for the sake of our literature, but to obtain a knowledge of passing events through the medium of the public journals. STATISTICAL TABLE OF THE VAUDOIS CHURCHES IN THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT—1844. (From a Pamphlet by Rev. R. Stewart.) 1. » Italy 1010 1715 3. Rora. 1813. Sept.29. 1838. July 29. 675 9 684 41 725 *In France 821 31 Villaro. Francoise Gay. 1778. Oct. 26. 1808. July 31. 2264 116 2380 395 2775 Switzerland 147 La Torre. Henri Peyrot. 1792. Feb.7. 1818. July 2. 2150 1652315 3325 24 » England 1 1798. July 29. 1822. July 27. 2045 79 2124 613 2737 Russia 17 2 1364 351 » Germany 8 Pramol. Jacques Vincon. 1794. June 17. 1821. July 22. 1358 34 1392 150 1542 Portugal Pomaretto. Pierre Lantaret. 1814. Nov. 6. 1838, Oct. 7. 1272 21 1293 222 1515 America 6 Villa Secca. Alexandre Rostaing. 1766. April 19. 1836. May 23. 1552 1676 800 2476 Africa 19 Maniella. Pierre Auguste Louis Jalla. 1809. Nov, 23. 1833. Dec. 29. 270 28 298 209 507 Asia 1 Massel. Jean Jacques Durand Canton 1812. Aug. 10. 1843. Sept. 27. 733 59 792 246 1038 „ Turkey 1 Rodoretto. Daniel Buffa.* 1815. Jan. 31. 1843. Sept. 27. 500 30 530 150 680 Prali. Mathieu Henri Gay. 1813. Aug. 10. 1840. May 28. 769 24 793 11 804 Total 10801 Turino. Josue Amedee Bert. 1807. Feb. 8. 1832, July. 500 500 124 * Since overwhelmed with his family by an avalanche. APPENDIX. The following extract from a letter, written by Mr. Pell to Secretary Thurloe, on the Ninth of June, 1655, describes the circumstances connected with the attack on St. Secondo, only a few days after the event. See p. 137. “ WHEN the army was gone out of the valleys of Piedmont, our brethren returned into them, but found that the army had burnt all that they could not carry away; wherefore the poor men were constrained to seek meat where it was to be had; and, for their own safety, to beat up the nearest quarters of their enemies, and to destroy the places where they had lodged garrisons. San Secondo being so near, was soon thought upon, yet the first time they ruined but a part of it, and killed not many of the inhabitants. Among them were two monks, whose dead bodies were carried in a cart to Turin, there to be shewn publicly, to provoke the citizens to revenge. Captain Jayer was sorry that they had killed them, but it was not in his power to hold the hands of all his enraged soldiers, who had not forgotten their kindred so lately massacred. But the next time that they came to San Secondo, they found that, after their departure, some of their fellows had been there cruelly crucified, I mean, nailed up to trees, and so let hang till they were dead. No wonder, then, the town suffered the effects of their fury. They plundered it quite empty. To the women and children they did no manner of hurt, but they killed all the men they found in it; then firing the town in all places, they made the castle too hot for the hundred Irish that kept it, so that they leaped down out of the castle-windows into the court, from whence not one of them escaped alive. They burned and utterly ruined the castle, knowing that it helonged to Count Aurelio, one of the principal authors of that massacre. If these men had more help, and able commanders, there were hope that they might dislodge the other Irish, and make themselves masters of La Torre, Bobbio, and the fort of Mirabouc. Money hath been sent them, which helpeth to maintain their widows, fatherless, and impotent, that they be not too burdensome to their friends; whilst themselves have no other subsistence but what they fetch from their enemies with extreme danger. And it is to be feared that, before any harvest be ripe, all will be consumed thereabout, so that a dearth will miserably pinch them, if a famine destroy them not: yet they desire to tarry there, and to run very great hazards, rather than to leave their lands and native country; and to give the papists cause to boast that now, at the last, they had driven them out of their nests in the rocks, which so many hundred years they had possessed.” — Protectorate of Cromwell, by R. Vaughan, D. D., p. 192, CORRIGENDA. Page 19, line 14;—for “700,” read “ 400” "sa barrière impuissante.” read “M. Bonjour.” Page 216, line 20;-add "and which” before “occurs.” |
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