To the Binder:-Portrait of Dr. Toulmin to face the title.

French Protestants.

Proceedings of the Committee of Ministers of the Three Denominations,

resident in and about London.

IN accomplishing the important objects confided to them by the General Body, the Committee of Dissenting Ministers of London, have had to encounter unexpected opposition from various quarters, and especially from certain Journalists, who have attempted to invalidate the statements that have been published, and to misrepresent the motives by which the Committee have been actuated in the whole of their proceedings.

With undiminished zeal, and undaunted by the clamour of their op. ponents, they have, however, persevered in the plain path of duty; and they now record with pleasure and grati. tude, the support and approbation they have received from a very large portion of their enlightened countrymen, and particularly from those with whom they are more immediately connected, the Dis

senters of various denominations.

In addition to the Congregational Collections which have already been contributed, the Committee have information of many others which are in progress, to a considerable amount; while public meetings have been held and subscriptions commenced in several of the largest cities and towns of the Kingdom.

The eloquent, liberal, and Christian appeals, which have been addressed to assembled maltitudes, and reported by the press, cannot but intimidate persecutors abroad, and excite benevolence at home: nor will they be less beneficial in diffusing those sentiments, which the ignorant ought to learn, the instructed should never forget,—and all should frequently hear.

At Hull, the Rev. Messrs. Bromley and Dykes, Clergymen, and the Rev. Mr. Birt, and Dr. Alderson, Mr. Sykes, and others of the dissenting body, took a distinguished part in the discussions of the day.

At Newcastle, the proceedings were conducted by the Rev. Messrs. Turner, Pringle, McIndoe, Clarke, Syme, and Pengilly and also by Mr. Alderman Reed, James Losh, and Joseph Clark, Esqrs.

At Glasgow, the Rev. Drs. Dick and Mitchell, and the Rev. Messrs. G. Ewing, R. Brodie, and J. Carment, were the principal speakers.

At Gosport, the Rev. James Collins, of the Established Church, and Messrs. Minchin, B. Goodeve, Cruickshank, J. Beasley, and J. Hoskins, displayed equal zeal and ability.

At Plymouth, the Rev. Messrs. Worsley and H. Mends, with Messrs Prance, Collier, &c. submitted Resointions, and

addressed the assembly.
and Sheerness, Meetings have been like-
At Berwick
wise held; and at Edinburgh and other
places, they have been summoned.

The propriety of these continued and extended exertions, is confirmed by the information which the Committee are constantly receiving, and which convinces them that the disposition to persecute is more general and systematic than many persons have supposed.

While the storin has raged with signal, but unexhausted violence in the Depart ment of the Gard, containing 322,000 inbabitants, a portentous gloom has overspread the Reformed Churches in general; and in towns far distant from the south, the sound of vengeance has been heard, and the most offensive treatment has been experienced, by the Professors and Ministers of the Protestant Religion.

On the 19th of November last, on the assurance given to the pastors of the Reformed Church, that they might reopen their Temples, which had been shut about five months, that they had nothing to fear, and that all necessary measures were taken for their security, they determined to open the smallest of their Temples; but scarcely were they assembled, when a great multitude of men and women, armed with stores and sticks, and other weapons, began to menace them, and to pour forth against them the most horrible imprecations. The faithful assembly dispersed, and even as they ret.red they were so overwhelmed with insults and blows, that many are since dead. The assassins entered in a crowd into the sanctuary, turned out every thing they could find, tere in pieces the Bible and prayer-books, &c. They went with full intention to mascertain death, when eight officers sursacre the pastors, who were expecting rounded them with drawn sabres, to repel the attacks of the murderers: they escorted them into their houses, but not without having heard a thousand times, these barbarous words, “Kill, kill, these chiefs of Brigands!" During with some troops; he began to employ this tumult, General le Gard arrived his force to disperse the traitors, when a soldier of the national guard fired im and has not yet been discovered.' mediately at him. The assassin escaped,

Le Garde, a Royal Proclamation was After the attack on the Royal General issued against the assassin and his abetinhabitants till he should be surrendered tors, and soldiers were quartered upon the no justice. That the intentions of the head of the Government must have been per

A

French Protestants.

verted is however evident; for the assassin has not yet been arrested, and the soldiers who, by a Royal Ordonuance of the 10th inst. were removed from Nismes, were quartered during their stay in that city, principally, if not solely, on the Protestant inhabitants. The weight of the extraordinary contributions, by the most partial and arbitary exactions, has been also made to fall on the Protestants, though equally protected and assessed by the Charter promulgated by the King. Thus out of 940 thousand francs, the contingent of the Gard, 600 thousand were laid on the Protestants, 200 thousand on the Jews, 140 thousand only on the Catholics; though these last form nearly the two-thirds of the population of the department. The Marquis de Calvieres, a Catholic gentleman, enjoying a landed estate of 60,000 livres a year, is assessed at 600 livres; while M. Brosse de Pierdon, a Protestant, whose income amounts to about 10,000 livres, has paid within this last year the sum of 15,000 livres towards those contributions.

The following facts, on which full reliance may be placed, will prove that in the order of time, up to the date of our latest accounts, the Protestants have been the victims of bigotry and persecution.

from Uzes, near Nismes, of the 10th of December :

The chief persons of the Protestant families have fled from their habitations, which had considerably suffered. Our church is now in the most deplorable condition: no public worship is celebrated. Ministers of our persuasion at Paris, who are so near Government, forget not your brethren of the South-We have lost M. Ricourt, President of the Consistory. The late events have hastened his end;-he had been obliged to desert first his house in town, and then that in the country: the latter has been pillaged.' From Uzes, same date :--

B. informs us, that his son settled at Arpaillargues, near Uzes, after having fled, and wandered in the woods for two months, has been arrested, and conducted into the prison of Uzes, where he still remains. A great many other Protestants continue in the same predicament,'

The efforts of the people, and the press of this country, aided by the additional energy of the French Government, caused the temples at Nismes to be opened, by order of the anthorities of that city, on the 21st December; but it was necessary to the possession of this boon, that the Protestants should comply with terms directly contrary to the spirit of the Constitutional Charter. The following is the Notice of the Mayor, so remarkable that it is worthy of a careful perusal. It acknowledges that Europe accuses the Catholics of great crimes, it endeavours to charge them on a few women and children, and it acknowledges that the worship of the Protestants is to be resumed, less as a consequence of the Royal authority, than the result of a negociation pacifying to the Catholics :— NOTICE

In consequence of the King's Ordonnance of the 21st November, which was promulgated at Nismes on the 29th, several of the murderers of the Protestants and depredators of their property, were taken into custody; but on the 6th of December they were all set at liberty. On the 7th they spread over the neigh, bouring country. A party of them repaired to the house of a Monsieur Peyron, a rich farmer at Brossan, who, from the beginning of the persecutions, had been greatly exposed to the fury of the fanatics: not finding him, they commanded his three sons either to give up the father, or pay a sum of 50,000 livres. To the Inhabitants of the City of Nismes. As the young men could not comply with either demand, they were dreadfully beaten by these villains (one of them being left for dead) and both house and farm were pillaged.

On the same day, another party, of the same description, went to a country house inhabited by three respectable old men, brothers. After having offered them every indignity that fanaticism could suge gest, they proceeded to acts of violence, Upon these unfortunate men attempting to resist, they were instantly charged with rebellion to the King; and, upon this pretence, seized, and carried by these fanatics before the King's Attorney General; who, indignant at the outrage, refused to commit them. They were then dragged before the Prefect, who ordered them to prison, par mesure de suretè, which was immediately executed, amid shouts of Vive le Roi !'

The following is an Extract of a Letter

1

"Nismes, December 19, 1815.

The laws of the realm and the will of the King, secure the exercise of the Protestant worship. I tell you so.-I, who am your Magistrate, your Mayor1, who have surely some claims to your confidence. The Protestant Churches will be opened on Thursday next; and that day will prove to the King, to France, and to Europe, who are our accusers, that the blindness of a few women and children is not the crime of the city of Nismes, which has distinguished itself on so many occasions, and even recently, by its fidelity and devotion to the King.

Women, who are blinded by your zeal, and perhaps, excited by your enemies, you will not once more ruin your city, and gratify by your errors the enemies of the royal cause.

I am assured, and for that reason I have a pleasure in informing you, that conferences are opened, and nearly ter

French Protestants.

minated, with the Consistory of the Pro-
testani worship. Their object is to re-
store, by common consent, to the worship
of the State, the churches which have
been conceded to the Protestant worship,
Two churches will be built, and that
very shortly, in lieu of that concession.
During that short interval, the Protestants
may enjoy undisturbed the churches thus
conceded. The people of Nismes need
only know the will of the King, and
hear the voice of the Royal Authorities,
to do their duty.
(Signed)

Marquis de VALLONQUES, Mayor.' The Temples which the Protestants relinquished, were not parochial churches, but conventual; and as all the property of Abbeys and Convents had been confiscat ed at the Revolution, one of these was purchased by the Protestants twenty years since, and the other was given to them eleven years back, by the Head of the then existing Government.

At the very time that apparent security was given to the Protestants, they were actually exposed to fresh injuries.-The Royal troops which infested the environs of Nismes, exercised continual vexations on the Protestants. On the 22d of December, a detachment of about fifty men broke into the house of M. Mourier, a gentleman of property at St. Blancard, lately returned from emigration, who had just time to effect his escape. Failing in their main object, these brigands completely pillaged the premises, and daily continue their depredations in the neighbourhood.

At Sommieres, the Protestants have attempted to celebrate their worship on the 24th of December, the power of which they had been deprived of since the mouth of July. They met with the most barbarous treatment on that ac

count.'

The persccution at Sommieres is mentioned by two more Correspondents. A letter from a distinguished Protestant of the Department of the Gard, dated so late as the 28th of December, states, that tranquillity was not esta blished. He says,

'I have seen the Letter and the Resolutions of the Nonconformist ministers, who have had the true Christian charity to interest themselves in the disasters of the poor unfortunate people, devastated by the popular persecutions at Nismes and elsewhere.

I have received, with singular consolation, your letter. This town is at present quiet; but we cannot say that furious persons have returned to chari-. table and Christian sentiments towards the Protestants. The troops only restrain them; but if they should be re-. moved to other, places, no one would be safe from the return of disorders.

Sunday again, the 24th of this month, there were fresh troubles at Sommieres, four leagues from Nismes. I must suppress details for the reasons I have mentioned. Many persons, pillaged and injured at Nismes and other places, have great need of the succours which you have offered in so Christian a manner.

Blessed be God, who has put our ingratitude to shame by the love of our respectable brethren of England. The comfort we derive from it is as indescribable as our gratitude. I embrace with affection all our dear benefactors.'

One of the most fearful symptoms in the more recent events, is the public notification, in the papers of Le Gard and Paris, of the abjuration of the Protestant faith, by many families in the south. The Journal des Debats of the

10th instant, contained the following article, extracted from the Journal du Gard, published at Nismes :

An interesting ceremony took place on the 26th ult. in the church of St. Paul, at Nismes. Two Protestant families, forming altogether about 20 persons, made a public abjuration between the hands of the curè of the parish, and returned to the bosom of the Romish church.

Some families had al

ready given an example of this in the parish of St. Baudille; and others are, it is said, preparing to follow.'

Paris papers of the 18th inst. contain also additional notice on this subject. They say, Many Protestant families of the south embrace the Catholic religion.'

On this subject we have authentie accounts, which must demonstrate to the most incredulous and prejudiced the prevalence of a religious persecu

tion.

One letter has the following passage: 'Several families at Nismes have abjured their religion, the motive of which is evident. They are families of mechanics and workmen, who are without bread in consequence of the persecutions they have undergone. The Protestant manufacturers have for the most part fled, and the Catholics will not employ Protestant workmen ;- besides which, the looms and frames of the latter have been destroyed, and they are reduced to the alternative of recanting or starving.

This system of persecution has extended to Bourdeaux and its neighbourhood. Its effects have also been felt at Nantz, the President of the Consistory of that city having been sent into exile.' The following Extract of a Letter from

Nismes, received from a most respectable Protestant Lady, and on which the utmost confidence may be placed,

A 2