State of Public Affairs. language is countenanced by it, it misunderstands entirely the nature of our con-, stitution and our country. But the insinuations thrown out in the French papers against our countrymen, will be circulated without the means of refutation. The press in that country is in the most slavish state, and the government has paid the greatest compliment to ours, by refusing admission into theirs of the English newspapers. Though written in a language, which very few Frenchmen can read, the truths contained in them are of such a nature, that the government dreads their being made known to any. The free discussion which prevails here, is a most horrible thing in the eyes of superstition and despotism: and we cannot but be astonished at the servile minds of the French, with whom a change of government makes no change of system. The same plan of espionnage and censorship continues, whatever party holds the,wire by which the puppets are moved, Whether a Bourbon or a Bonaparte gains the ascendency, it is the lot of the French to be in terror, and the only difference is, that in the one case there was a degree of splendour to flatter their vanity, whilst in the other they are subjected to the caprice of a party, which they cannot but despise. Their legislative bodies continue to deliberate. Their great object is to save as much for the clergy as they can, and their vengeance is now directed to those who are married Our countrymen in confinement have not been brought to a trial. The regicides have quitted France, and numbers of persons engaged in the active scenes of the last twenty-five years have emigrated to America and Russia. The latter country opens its arms to all classes, and will benefit greatly by the event. The national institute has been purged also by the King's authority and the celebrated Abbé Maury, the staunch advocate of the Bourbons in the early part of the revolution, ceases to be enrolled among its members. Germany seems likely to be soon in motion, and the proceedings in Prussia will lead to eventful changes throughout the whole of the empire. The great blow struck against Bonaparte, was occasioned chiefly by bringing into action against him the force of the people, and in this the Landwehre of Prussia was particularly effective, In this body men of all ranks enrolled themselves, with little inquiry whether they were to serve as officers or common soldiers, In exciting them to come forward, great use was made of secret societies, and the spirit which prevailed in them, has not subsided. This has led to the circulation of a variety of publications, in which the principles of liberty have been laid down in a manner by no means suited to the military despotism by which that country was governed. The return of the army 127 animated by their success, diffuses an energy over the whole kingdom, and it is by no means clear what will be the result of it. The same spirit in a degree pervades the other armies, which will carry into their respective kingdoms new principles of action, and in this general agitation one is naturally anxious for the fate of our own armies, lest in their combination with the others, they may have acquired more of a foreign military spirit, and lost somewhat of the sentiments peculiar to our constitution. A new turn has taken place in Spanish America. Carthagena oppressed by famine, has surrendered to the Spanish troops, which on taking possession of the place displayed its usual cruelties. In Mexico also the royal cause has had some successes, the prolongation of the conflict is now certain, the eveut doubtful. At home the meeting of the parliament has been attended with the communication of voluminous treaties on the settlement of Europe; which gave rise to animated discussions. The minister had a considerable majority in his favour, but the conduct of the Bourbons in France and Spain met with severe reprehension. The intended measures of finance, however, created a greater interest, and the country heard with horror and astonishment, that in spite of repeated promises the Income Tax was to be continued, and a standing army kept on foot, quite incompatible with all the maxims of our ancestors on this subject. It was warmly urged, that the confederacy of the European powers overthrew the greatest and most horrible military power that ever tormented mankind; but if every kingdom was to carry on the same military system, the danger to Europe and the distress to each country were rather increased than diminished. There can be no liberty, no security to a free constitution where there is a large standing army. The men successively enrolled in it will gradually imbibe sentiments agreeable to the esprit du corps and inimical to freedom. The continuance of the Property Tax has excited also no small alarm, not merely on account of the evident inequality in its assessments, in making a man with a precarious income, derived from personal exertions, pay the same sum annually as an other whose income is derived from per. manent property, but also from the vexations attending the collecting of the tax, and the injury that morals will suffer from the spirit of espionnage, that will be gradually diffused throughout the country. In fact, when such a tax is established, the consequences will be the same in this kingdom with respect to property, as attended the inquisition in Spain with regard to religion. The class of inquisitors, familiars and others connected with the inquisition, will become uumerous; every one will look 128 New Publications.-Correspondence. with a jealous eye on his neighbour. Nothing will escape the scrutinizing eye of of the searcher, and no honesty, no integrity, will preserve a man from vexation. The latter part of the question, as it affects the morals of a country, deserves a most serious consideration; and it may be asserted, that if a Standing Army and an Income Tax become perpetual, the English will in a very few years be a very different people; the spirit that has animated its agriculture, its manufactures and its commerce, will vanish, and its riches will make to themselves wings and flee away. NEW PUBLICATIONS IN THEOLOGY AND GENERAL LITERATURE. A Unitarian Christian's Statement and Defence of his Principles, with reference particularly to the Charges of the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of St. David's: A Discourse before the Annual Meeting of the Welsh Unitarian Society. With Notes. By John Prior Estlin, LL.D. 8vo. Two Essays; one on the Effects of Christianity, the other on the Sabbath. By the late Rev. John Simpson. 8vo. 4s. 6d. boards. An Essay on the Principles of Dissent. By Richard Wright, Unitarian Missionary. 12mo. 6d. 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The first part of the Review of Wilson's Dissenting Churches in our next. The Proof Prints of SERVETUS are nearly all sold: such as wish to possess copies are requested to apply immediately. Price of the Print, as also of each of those of Dr. PRIESTLEY and Dr. TOULMIN, 5s. ERRATA. Page 16, col. i. 1. 26, for "Such conduct would do honour to Britons," &c. read "Such conduct would do no honour to Britons," &c. - 38, col. i. 1. 22, for "horrible" read horribile. - 45, col. ii. I. 1, for "thirty" read twenty. - 49, col. ii. 1. 14, from bottom, for "S. Evans" read J. Evans. Brief Memoir respecting the Waldenses, or Vaudois, Inhabitants of the Valleys of Piedmont; the result of Observations made during a short residence amongst that interesting People in the Autumn of 1814. By a Clergyman of the Church of England. Thas been often powerfully ex HE sympathy of the Christian cited by a description of the sufferings of disciples of an earlier day in the cause of their Lord and Saviour. Among these persecuted disciples the Waldenses, it is on all hands acknowledged, are entitled to very high respect, since they were eminently our Redeemer's witnesses, and advocates for the purity of Christian doctrine and worship, during those emphatically termed the dark ages, when the introduction of unscriptural tenets and ostentatious ceremonies had so much contributed to seduce people in general from the simplicity of the gospel. They were, in short, if the expression may be allowed, Protestants be. fore the Reformation took place; and some have even supposed that the morning-star of that bright day, Wickliffe himself, derived some portion of the light of religious knowledge from them. The writer of these remarks had, in common with others, long revered *the name, and often read with interest the history of the Waldeuses, when a tour on the Continent afforded him an opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with them: and he will esteem it a happy circumstance if this brief Memoir, the fruit of observations made whilst in the valleys, should induce benevolent persons in England to make some efforts in their behalf. The ancient history of this people being far more generally known to British Christians than more recent VOL. XI. events and their present condition, it shall be my object to present a series of remarks under the following heads: 1. Modern History. 2. Description of the Valleys. 3. Character and Manners of the Waldenses. 4. State of their Schools. 5. Number and Condition of their Ministers and Churches. 1. The pathetic details of their sufferings during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, when the malice of the Court of Rome, the fury of the Inquisition, the weakness at one time, at another time the perfidy of their Sovereigns the Dukes of Savoy, couspired to render them, if in this life only they had hope, of all men most miserable, have been already rcorded by their historians. The wolves that infest the neighbour, ing Alps were, in fact, less cruel to their defenceless prey than the brutal soldiery employed to lead these sheep of Christ's pasture to the slaughter they massacred those whom age and infirmity compelled to remain in the valleys, pursued others who had fled for safety to the hills, plunged the steel into their bosoms, threw them down precipices; in short, committed outrages of various kinds, at which humanity recoils. Their more recent history may be said to commence at the last dreadful persecution of 1686. Louis XIV. not content with destroying and banishing his own subjects, (at the wellknown revocation of the Edict of Nantz) instigated the Court of Turin to adopt the same cruel measures. A minister of the valleys has been so kind as to make me a present of an affecting relation of the sufferings of the Waldenses at that period. It is a manuscript of about one hundred years old; like Ezekiel's roll, full of lamentations and mourning; and the truth of its contents is attested by ten Memoir respecting the Waldenses. 130 ministers, assembled in synod, the 19th Oct. 1716. As it refers to a persecution subsequent to the age of some of the best historians of the Waldenses, I will here insert the substance of the manuscript, premising, however, that whilst every thing material is extracted, there are circumstances connected with the sufferings of some of the martyrs, refinements in the art of cruelty, of so horrid a description, that I forbear to relate them. On the 3rd of January, 1686, appeared an edict forbidding religious worship, requiring their temples to be destroyed, their ministers banished and their children baptized and educated in the Roman Catholic Church. Shortly afterwards the troops of Savoy attacked the valley of Luzerne, and those of France the valleys of St. Martin and La Perouse. The Vaudois made at first considerable resistance, but, deceived by a false promise, that their persons and families should be safe, they threw themselves on the Duke of Savoy's clemency. This, however, proved no security. Their enemies still breathed threatenings and slaughter, and events continually occurred to remind them that they must take up their cross, nor love even life itself, if they meant to preserve an unshaken attachment to "the truth as it is in Jesus." The following cruelties, amongst others, were exercised : J. and Marguerite Maraude, of St. Jean, were murdered while defending Marguerite Maraude, a child aged fourteen. Susanne Olivet, of St. Jean, and Marguerite Belin, of Latour, each, in resisting brutal violence, lost her life. Jos. David was first wounded, then conveyed to a house and burnt. Four women and three children, of Prarustix, were murdered in a cave where they had concealed themselves. Marie Roman, of Rocheplate, a young person promised in marriage to J. Griot, lost her life in defending her honour. At Pumian were found numbers of little children cut in pieces, aud wo men who had been massacred. In the village of Perouse six men were killed in the presence of their wives. Jean Ribbet, of Macel, refusing to change his religion, had his legs and arms burnt. A poor infirm man was tied to a horse's tail, and dragged till he expired. An aged blind woman was hanged before her own house. Four women were violated and hewn in pieces, after first_seeing their children massacred, at Fontaines; where also a great number of sick children were murdered, because they could not follow others to prison. Twenty-two persons, chiefly women and children, were thrown over precipices at Mount Pelvon. David Grand, of Bobbi, was hanged, and sang praises to God whilst led to execution. Daniel Negrin, aged eighteen, and Pierre Mentinat, aged fifty, (of Bobbi) were led to the Alp of Pra, but so ill-treated because they would not change their religion, that they died on the way. Their dead bodies were then hanged and burnt. Anne and Madeline Victoria, and several others, were burnt. Daniel Moudon, elder of the church of Rora, after seeing his two sons beheaded, the wife and child of the one, and the two children of the other, massacred, was compelled to carry the heads of his sons upon his shoulders, to walk two hours barefooted, and was afterwards hanged. Mr. Leydet, Minister of Pral, hid himself in caves, but was at length taken, and conveyed to Luzerne, to the palace of the Marquis D'Angrogne, where the Duke of Savoy was also at the same time. He was imprisoned and fed on bread and water; and, in addition to other hardships, was constantly assailed by the Monks, over whom he as constantly triumphed in argument. When threat. ened with death if he did not abjure his faith, he replied, that he could not be justly put to death, since he was not armed when taken prisoner; besides, the Duke of Savoy had promised a pardon to all his subjects: "Still," said he, "I am ready to die for the name of Jesus Christ." His example and exhortations exceedingly fortified his fellow-prisoners. When the sentence of death was pronounced, he heard it with Christian resignation. Although he begged to be left alone, in order to pray with freedom, the Memoir respecting the Waldenses. Monks still harassed him 'with disputes till the time of execution, which took place at Fort St. Michael, arrived. On quitting the prison, he said, "it was a day of double deliverance, that of his body from captivity, and that of his soul from imprisonment in the body; for he cherished the expectation of partaking shortly in full liberty of the joys of the blessed." At the foot of the scaffold he prayed in a manner that very much affected the bye-standers, and on the ladder said, “My God, into thy hands I commend my spirit."-A martyr worthy of the best ages of the church of Christ-Even his enemies were compelled to admit that he died like a saint. About fifteen thousand of the Waldenses, men, women and children, who threw themselves on the Duke's clemency, were confined in fourteen castles and prisons of Piedmont, with a scanty allowance of bread and water; and various means were used to render this bread and water unwholesome. They always lay upon bricks or rotten straw, and so many together that the very air was infected seventy-five sick have been reckoned in a single room at one time. Eight thousand persons died in consequence of these barbarities. After suffering nine months, those who survived were permitted to retire into Switzerland; but not before threatenings and allurements had been artfully employed to induce them to forsake their religion-in general without effect: and those who did apostatize, instead of recovering their houses and property, according to a specious promise made to them, were conveyed to the distant province of Verceil. A great number of children, however, taken away and dispersed in Piedmont, were not allowed to accompany their relatives to Switzerland; and the nine pastors were removed to Verrue, Nice, and Montmeillan, deprived of the privilege of imparting religious consolation to their beloved people. Eighty of the men were forced to work in chains for three years in the citadel of Turin. Even those permitted to seek refuge in Switzerland endured great calamities. One company was required to set out late in the evening, and walk five leagues on the snow and ice: more than one hundred and fifty died in the way 131 without succour. Another company, foreseeing dreadful weather, entreated the officer who conducted them to stay till after the storm; but he obliged them to set out, and eightysix persons perished in consequence on Mount Cenis. Their friends were not suffered to remain and bury them. Others of the Waldenses, who followed, found their bodies amidst the snow; several women with their infants still in their arms. Many expired by the time they reached the gates of Geneva, and all exhibited marks of peculiar suffering. These poor destitute fugitives, while they remained in Switzerland, were supported by the charitable contributions of the English and Dutch, which were administered with so much fidelity by Isaac Behaghel, Minister of Frankfort, that he was afterwards presented with a gold medal by William III. Through the generous interference of M. Valkenier, they obtained grounds in the dominions of the Duke of Wirtemberg, on the estates of the Margrave of Dourlach, the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, and the Count of Hanau, where they established fourteen churches, naming their villages after the beloved spots they once inhabited in the valleys. Seven ministers and schoolmasters were there supported by his Britannic Majesty. Others of the Vaudois went to the marquisate of Brandenburg; others settled in the county of Neufchatel, at Bienne, and at Schaffhausen. In 1689 a party of somewhere between six and nine hundred, joined, I believe, by three hundred French exiles, resolved to re-occupy the houses and lands of which they had been so unjustly deprived. For this purpose they met by agreement in a wood between Nyon aud Rolle, towns situated on the lake of Geneva; and on the 17th of August, at ten o'clock at night, crossed the lake and landed in Savoy. They then directed their course through Cluse, Maglau, and Salenches; forced their way at the point of the sword; took hostages, in order to secure a free passage through the towns where they met with opposition (yet paid for the provisions they took on their journey); and in this manner passed through Lutigne, Tegue, Mont Marienne, Bonneval, Bexas, Mont Cenis, marching over snow, climbing up rocks, sustaining |