the valleys, that there is considerably more distress in such parishes as Le Torre and San Germano, than in the higher and more sterile districts of Prali and Rodoret, where there is no temptation for strangers to make themselves masters of the little inheritances of the Waldenses. The Vaudois, who is reduced to the necessity of alienating his property, has no resource left. Public employments, and official stations of the lowest kind, must be given to Roman Catholics : and the law not only prohibits his making any purchase of land on the other side of the limits, but even imposes a penalty (in violation of the 16th article of the edict of 1561, which permits the Vaudois "to stay, go, and come, to buy, sell, and traffic, in any of his highness's dominions,") at the will of the sovereign, if he carry on any trade or handicraft out of the boundaries. This law is not rigorously executed, but still it exists, and cramps enterprise and industry. The farms and vineyards are for the most part too small to require the labour of more than the owner's family. Under these circumstances, every acre of land within the Vaudois limits, which passes into the hands of a stranger, is an injury to the Protestant part of the community of a most serious nature.

While I am speaking of Vaudois landscapes and cultivation, I cannot withhold an observation which occurred to me on the day of our walk to Pralebroué. We passed through several meadows

ness.

gay

where they were making hay. But nothing out of England is like the haymaking of our own country. There is not the same fragrance or exhilarating effect. With us it is more like a field-sport than a labour. Whether the grasses abroad are coarser and less odoriferous, or whether the mode of spreading and drying the herbage is different, certain it is that nowhere as in England, is the hay-field a field of such perfume and freshNeither is it elsewhere that we see the and blithesome gang of haymakers, who cheerily ply their work as if every load they secure were their own property. The Vaudois peasants, whom we saw occupied in cutting or gathering the produce of their meadow lands, looked resigned and contented, rather than cheerful and light-hearted; and when they accosted us, it was not with the arch smile, and humourous joke of " merry England," but with the "bien bon jour" of softened and subdued spirits.

In the course of one of our rambles, a poor man, who was engaged in some work in the fields, begged that we would assist him with a small gift, and pleaded the urgency of his wants. Mr. Amadée Bert, the pastor's second son, who happened to be with us, expressed great indignation at this act of mendicity, and declared that he had never before witnessed any thing of the kind. Upon mentioning it to his father, the worthy pastor himself was evidently vexed that such a circum

stance had occurred, but upon stating the petitioner's name, he confirmed his tale of distress, and assured us that the poor peasant had a large family, and had suffered greatly from indigence, which no industry could prevent. He added, that the indiscreet generosity of some of our countrymen had taught several of his flock to beg, who, before they saw almsgiving, as Englishmen sometimes give, had never practised or imagined such a mode of seeking relief.

CHAPTER III.

Church service of the Vaudois. Comparison between Sunday services of the early Christian and Waldensian Churches. Remarks on the Liturgies now used in the Valleys. Observance of Lord's day. Pastoral duties of Vaudois Clergy.

JUNE 28th. I was impatient for the first Sunday in the valleys, and was desirous of observing in what respect the Vaudois appear to have abided by, or departed from the customs of the Primitive Churches, in their manner of keeping the Lord's day, both in the place of public worship, and otherwise. The nominal hour for the Church service to begin was nine o'clock, but there did not seem to be any great punctuality as to time, and when I entered the church, or temple, as the Vaudois sanctuaries are called, to distinguish them from those of the Roman Catholics, I found the master of the central school officiating and reading a chapter of the Bible to a very small congregation, and the pastor not present. In the mean time many people were loitering in the church-yard, or in the approaches to it, and individuals kept dropping in, but the seats were not fully occupied till Mr. Bert made his appearance,

which he did when the Scripture reading was about half finished. The same practice prevails in other Vaudois parishes. It may proceed from two causes: from the distance which many of the people have to come, and the desire that some sort of devotional exercise should be going on with the earliest attendants, before the commencement of the more solemn duties of prayer and thanksgiving; or from the little interest which is taken in a service not always well performed. The unseemly habit has at all events become too general, and the difference of attention when this functionary is engaged, and when the pastor takes his part, is very perceptible. The readers are in fact very often incompetent to the task of doing justice to the sacred passages, which it is their office to recite: but the appointment to such office is as old as the earliest establishments mentioned in ecclesiastical history, and we recognize traces of the antiquity of the Waldensian Church in this, and other peculiarities, which somewhat offend our prejudices. In old times, before learning was as common as it is now, congregations listened with marked attention to the word of God, when it was rehearsed in their ears, and had no rigid criticism for the voice, or the manner, or the ill-placed emphasis of the reader. But now, when almost every one can read for himself, fastidiousness comes into action, and an unbecoming delivery of the sacred text offends, and the halfinstructed schoolmaster, or catechist is thought