mons on Luke xxii. 39-41. (4) "Christ's Last Supper," in 5 Sermons on 1 Cor. xi. 28, 29, 1620. (5) "A Christian Task; Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. John Lawson, Gent., at Prittlewell," on Psalm xc. 12, 1619. (6) "The Great Assize; or the Day of Jubilee, in which we must make a general Account of all our Actions before Almighty: in 4 Sermons on Rev. xx. 11, 15. Printed 31st time, 1684. * (7) "A Fold for Christ's Sheep" in 2 Sermons upon Canticles i. 7, 8. Printed 32 times, the last, 1684. (8) "The Ethiopian Eunuch's Conversion;" the sum of 30 Sermons upon part of Acts viii. 1632.

"The Christian's Guide, with Rules and Directions for leading a Holy Life:" printed several times. "The Chief Shepherd; or an Exposition on Psalm xxiii.," 1625. "The admirable Convert; or the Miraculous Conversion of the Thief on the Cross," 1632. "Moses his Prayer: or an Exposition of Psalm xix.," 1656. Looking Glass for Saints and Sinners; or an Exposition of Psalm xix.," 1656.

He hath written other things which I have not yet seen, and was living an aged man near Dudley, in Worcestershire, in 1663. † (Athen. Oxon.) LIGNARIUS.

to the newspaper report of his speech, the right of combating established opinions is expressly denied. Thus after all the shifting and perversion of language and common sense by the lawyers in the course of the former trials, and their awkward attempts to confound legal restrictions with religious freedom, Mr. Justice Bailey has let the cat out of the bag. He at least speaks intelligibly, and tells us what we have to trust to in future. The degree of religious liberty left us appears to be limited to just so much as is independent of human power, and, according to my comprehension of his speech, not a whit more. this should be recognized as a principle of legal administration in religious matters, then I think most of your readers will concur with me, that established opinions are the greatest curse that ever civilized man endured. For this candid exposition, however, Mr. Justice Bailey is entitled to our thanks. And now, Sir, a word or two with respect to this unfortunate family who have shewn so determined an opposition to the national Creeds. I am aware how unpopular it is to become the apologist of persons in the situaThe reasonabletion of the Carliles.

If

ness or unreasonableness of their theological speculations is wholly beside my present purpose, which is merely to inquire how far the characters, conduct and fate of this suffering family will bear a comparison with those who the diffusion of opinions. have heretofore become martyrs to Report

says, that Mr. Carlile became a convert to infidelity at the instigation of his wife; and the sincerity of her opinions may be inferred from the fact of her not hesitating to impart them to her nearest and dearest connexions, and her voluntary suffering in their support: her constancy and firmness are unquestionable, foreseeing, as she did from the experience of her husband, her own inevitable fate. The conduct of the sister appears to have been equally courageous and persevering, and it would be difficult to find

instances of similar determined sacrifices of liberty and comforts in a cause which appeared to the sufferers to be founded in error, or to involve known If it be obimmoral consequences. jected that "gain, sordid gain," has been the actuating motive, I am not

prepared to deny the influence of gold; but in candour let us compare the loss with the gain, not only of property, but of liberty and health, and judge on which side the balance stands; let it be remembered also, that many of the most renowned Christian martyrs lived by the diffusion of their opinions, yet who, for that reason, presumes to tax their honesty? I confess I see much to respect in this devoted family and much to compassionate; whether their opinions are taken upon true or erroneous grounds does not abate that respect and compassion a tittle, and I cannot discover the slightest reason for suspecting their sincerity. My esti-mate of Mr. Carlile is founded in part on a circumstance which truth and justice require should be known. day or two previous to his trial it came to my knowledge accidentally that the tradesman with whom he had served his apprenticeship, and I believe worked for some time afterwards, was a resident in my own neighbourhood, and that he had spoken highly of his integrity. Feeling the force of the Christian precept, (do as you would have others do to you,) I waited on this person in the expectation that a good character might be of service to Mr. Carlile on his trial, and received the following account as near as I can recollect:

A

"During the many years Carlile was with me, I found him an honest, faithful servant; the hours of business were early and late, but he never failed in diligence and industry, and although we did not always agree, I never had the slightest reason to suspect him of a falsehood."

He attended the trial at my request, and his evidence was to the same effect. Of this man's religious and political opinions I am in total ignorance to this day, and of Mr. Carlile I had no other personal knowledge previously to his trial than once seeing him in his shop; but to this day I have never heard of an attack on his moral character, which certainly would not have escaped the virulence of his had it been vulnerable.

persecutors

I do not hesitate, therefore, to be

No. CCCLXXXIV. Anecdote of Judge Jeffries. (From Chatterton's Works, by Southey, 3 vols. 8vo. 1803, III. 93.)

A few months before the abdication

of the dastardly tyrant James II., Lord Chancellor Jeffries, of detested memory, went to Arundel, in Sussex, in order to influence an election. He took his residence at the castle, and went the day fixed for the election to the Town-hall, where Mr. Peckham, who was then mayor of Arundel, held his court.

Jeffries had the imprudence to shew his bloody face there: the mayor ordered him to withdraw immediately; and in case of refusal threatened to have him committed. the guardian of our laws, and of our You," said he, "who ought to be sacred constitution, shall not so audaciously violate them. This is my court, and my jurisdiction here is above yours." "Jeffries, who was not willing to perplex still more the king's affairs, and to enrage the populace, retired immediately. The next morning he invited Peckham to breakfast with him, which he accepted; but he had the courage to scorn to take a place, which the merciless executioner offered him. (Taken from the records of the town of Arundel.)

ART. I.-History of the Persecutions endured by the Protestants of the South of France, and more especially of the Department of the Gard, during the years 1814, 1815, 1816 &c. Including a Defence of their Conduct from the Revolution to the present Period. By Mark Wilks. 2 vols. 8vo. pp. 626. With a Map. Longman and Co., and Westley. 1821.

UR former volumes (XI. and XII.)

O have registered both the persecu

tions of the French Protestants and the generous efforts of the Protestant Dissenters of England, at the instance of the Ministers of the Three Denominations, for their relief; and our readers cannot have forgotten that attempts were then made to throw suspicion upon the statements of the Dissenting Ministers, and even to expose them to political reproach for their interference. * The Duke of Wellington wrote a letter to justify the French government at the very moment that the department of the Gard was reeking with Protestant blood; [Mon. Repos. XI. 58;] Lord Castlereagh palliated the enormities of the Catholics, and maintained, in order to disparage Sir Samuel Romilly's too forward humanity, that not more than 300 persons had been murdered at Nismes, and not more than 1000 in the neighbourhood, and that the victims had been unfriendly to the legitimate government of the descendants

of Louis XIV.; [see the Debate, Mon. Repos. XI. 357 and 428;] and Mons. Marron, as the head of the Protestants of Paris, wrote an official letter to the Dissenting Ministers disclaiming and rebuking their unnecessary and mischievous interposition, enclosed in a private one to the editor of this work, in which he stated that the French Protestants were consoled and gratified by that very interposition, and that the result was likely to be very beneficial. [Mon. Repos. X.

780, XX. 59, 229 and 130.1

Truth is the daughter of Time, and not many months had elapsed before the persecution was universally allowed, and the only object of the friends of the Bourbons was to vindicate them from the charge of exciting or conniving at the foul deeds that could no longer be concealed. With what success they pleaded, may be determined by Miss Williams's specious pamphlet. [Mon. Repos. XI. 228, &c.] Then came the Eulogium of M. Benj. Constant on Sir Samuel Romilly, in the Royal Athenæum of Paris, pronounced at the end of the year 1818, in which he asserted the truth of the representations made by the English Dissenting Ministers, and ascribed to them and Sir Samuel Romilly the cessation of the horrors that had so long stamped the South of France with infamy. At first, the Chamber of Deputies would not permit any Frenchman to name the atrocities perpetrated at Nismes; the mention of them was an act of disloyalty; but in the course of time, the Protestants received the poor satisfaction of having their sufferings acknowledged and detailed in legislative speeches and official documents. Power may thus triumph for a time over humanity and truth, but the latter will in the end prevail and overwhelm their impotent enemies with ignominy.

In order to lay a sure foundation for their proceedings, the Dissenting Ministers deputed Mr. Clement Perrot, an intelligent and respectable minister of their persuasion in the Island of Guernsey, on a mission to France, that amongst the Protestants them

selves and in the spot where the persecution raged he might ascertain the true state of affairs. With great labour and at no small risk, he visited Nismes and the neighbourhood, and his report, on his return, shewed that but a small part of the outrages committed upon the Protestants was known to the European public. To obtain further particulars at a later period, and also to superintend the distribution of the fund raised for the persecuted, Mr. Wilks likewise made a journey to the South of France, under sanction of the committee of Dissenting Ministers. His information corroborated Mr. Perrot's report, and the interval between their visits had allowed the suffering Protestants to make a more ample and correct estimate of their losses and bereavements. It was at first intended to present to the public, Mr. Perrot's report with Mr. Wilks's corrections and additions, and the work was carried some way through the press; but the difficulty of blending two reports into an uniform narration, led the committee to abandon the design, and to commit the manuscripts and papers to Mr. Wilks's hands, with a request that he would, in his own name and on his own responsibility, lay before the public a connected history of the persecution.

This was the origin of the work, the title of which stands at the head of this article; and it is but just to the author to say, that he has executed his laborious task with much ability, and we doubt not also with entire faithfulness. His preciseness as to names, dates and places, numbers of persons and sums of money, vouches for his accuracy, since it furnishes opponents with the ready means of detecting mistakes and exposing misre presentations. He might have made the work more interesting, if he had not adhered to that dryness of detail which is the best pledge of its authenticity. He purposely keeps down his own political opinions, though it is impossible that he should have hidden from the reader his views with regard to the secret influence which in spite of royal proclamations and official assurances continued for so long a time to fan the fire of persecution; all Europe in the mean while crying shame upon the country in which

such wickedness was suffered to rage almost unobstructed. The narrative of the principal facts is precise though animated, and there are passages glowing with the strong feeling on behalf of injured freedom and humanity that is so natural to an Englishman, and especially an English Protestant Dissenter.

Mr. Wilks's avowed design is to relate and establish the fact of the persecution, and to prove that it was religious and not, as has been pretended, a political persecution. In both these points he has succeeded: but we must refer the reader to the work itself for satisfaction, not being able to lay before him more than a few striking particulars and some interesting extracts.

The "History" commences with a view of the condition of the Protestants of France from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes to the Revolution. This is a dark and melancholy picture. The reader inquires whether he be really perusing the story of Europe in the 18th century, when he surveys the account (pp. 4—6) of "twenty-four innocent females, who, seized in their youth, had passed, some of them, twenty years between the walls of the Tour de Constance"! Persecution

produced its usual effect upon the objects of it; and we fear that the period in question must be reckoned the brightest in the annals of our French Protestant brethren. In vain shall we now look amongst them for that firmness of principle and that unconquerable spirit which they displayed when they were one day occupied in concealing themselves from the king's dragoons, and the next employed in finding out their brethren in some desert or cave, for the sake of enjoying the consolations of Christian worship.

It was not till the Revolution began to dawn, that the Protestants had a legal existence in France. The way had been prepared for their emancipation by the efforts of Turgot, Malesherbes, Rulhières, and Bretueil; but to the Marquis de la Fayette, yet living in a venerable age to enjoy the honours due to half a century of generous labours in the cause of liberty

We do not distinguish the yolumes, as the paging runs through both.

in both hemispheres, the happy event is to be ascribed. After many conferences with the Protestants, and particularly with the lamented Rabaut St. Etienne, he brought forward in the Assembly of the Notables, an address to the King in their favour, which was followed by an edict of toleration, the registering of which was accompanied by the tears of the fanatics and the declamation of Despremenil, who apostrophized, rather in anger than with piety, the crucifix which adorned the chamber of their sitting." (P. 20.)

The Protestants hailed the Revolution as the epoch of their complete deliverance, but they appear not as a body to have taken any active share in it. As, however, their enemies and those of liberty were the same, they were from the beginning contemplated in all the intrigues carried on by the Royalists in the South of France. A civil war was begun by the priests and the accredited agents of members of the Bourbon family, and had not the new government promptly interfered, the same scenes would have been act ed in the year 1790, that we have seen four and twenty years afterwards. It is remarkable that the very individuals that have figured in the recent persecutions, were the agitators of the troubles of the former period. One of these, Froment, to remind the present dynasty of his services, or rather to reproach them for their ingratitude, has published a memoir of his attempts, for a quarter of a century, to convulse the South of France with religious dissensions. He has given to the world copies of the instructions under which he acted, signed by the hands of the Bourbons, and nothing is now wanted to set in a true light the principles on which those princes wish to govern, and the character of the late persecution in the department of the Gard. Others of

This sanguinary ruffian was, before the Revolution, receiver to the Chapter of the Cathedral of Nismes, an office to which, in reward no doubt of good services, he has been restored. He avows that he was a pensioner on the British government up to the period of the Restoration; and he, or his partisans, were on one occasion served with ammunition from the British fleet in the Mediterranean, to enable them, (as the event

these worthy Catholics were preparing themselves for service, in the interval between the two commotions, by first practising as furious Jacobins at the guillotine, and by then employing themselves as tools of Buonaparte in enforcing the conscription and the other bad measures of his reign.

When Louis XVIII. re-entered France in 1814, in the rear of the allied armies, these savages set about the work for which they had been in training. They caused to be carried to the foot of the throne, the declaration, which the king did not disdain to accept, that there must be in France but "One God, one King, and one Faith." The fooleries of Popery were exhibited in open day to inflame the zeal of the populace; and the conspirators of Nismes engaged the people of that city to make a solemn vow of dedicating to God a silver child, if the Duchess d'Angoulême should prove the mother of a boy. Monsieur, the King's brother, made a visit at this period to Nismes, and smiled upon the Protestants, while they who have since boasted of having been in correspondence with him were plotting their destruction: and our author states it as "a curious fact, that however kind the disposition evinced, and the more powerful the protection promised on these royal visits, the enemies of the Protestants invariably became more hostile, more furious and more audacious" after them.

(Pp. 120, 121.) At this juncture, the monsters of 1790 gathered mobs and warned the Protestants of their doom by inscriptions on

shewed,) to pursue their pious project of exterminating Protestant heretics: yet this protégé of Mr. Pitt's says, in one of his recent publications, "For more than twenty years I have maintained, that it was not in Paris, but in London and Petersburgh, that the foundations of every throne were sapped, and the fetters for every nation forged, and this, even when an opinion prevailed that jacobinism would make the tour of the world; that there was always a design to ravish from the Bourbons the crown of their ancestors, and o dismember our unhappy country; and, unhappily for Europe, from Pitt to Castlereagh, the English ministers have not had intentions more noble, more profound, or more humane than the Jacobins." P. 53.