Anniversary Meeting of this Grand British Institution, at the London Tavern. Switzerland is busily opening schools for general education, under the patronage of the P. nipotentiary of that country to the Congress at Vieuna, a gentleman, to whose praise it should be known, that when offered a national recompence for his high services, he declined it; but prayed that the amount, with an addition from himself, might become the beginning of a national fund for a free-school, on the model of the British free-school.

The legislature of Halifax has voted £400 to the schools there, in token of approbation of the very manifest change for the better, in the character and conduct of the children.

Gazette) the same people. Formerly, as brutes, we bowed under the lash of a cruel and ignorant master-as men we were dead-our faculties all crushed; but we burst our chains, and, again erect, we look up towards Heaven-as men- as social beings! A new career is now before us-thanks to thee, O God of Heaven! Haytians! says the Chief, be it ours to shew, by our lives, that blacks, equally with whites, are the work of Omnipotence, and the objects of the kind regard of the Father of all!"

27. Protestant Dissenters' Charity School, Shakespeare's Walk, founded A.D. 1712. Anniversary.

28. London Welsh Auxiliary Bible Society: third Annual Meeting at Paul's Head Tavern.

29. Worcestershire Society, for the benefit of natives of that County, residing in London. Anniversary.

That part of the Report which regards Hayti was read. The Chief, Christophe, deeply penetrated with the benefit of knowledge, and diffusion of the Scriptures, invites among his people, all those who could contribute to their improvement. In a Proclamation in the Gazette of Hayti he says "I invite professors of all sciencesno difference of religion shall be deemed an exclusion. Merit and ability alone shall be considered, without regard to the nation which gave birth, or the creed which - may be preferred. After 26 years of Re-Rev. L. Richmond. volution, and 13 years possession of hard earned Independence, we are not (says the

30. Artist's Benevolent Institution : for relief of Decayed Artists, their Widows and Children. Second Anniversary.

- 30. London Electrical Dispensary. Sermon at St. Dionis, Fenchurch-street, b

* Parish Charities, Schools, &c. omitted. 2 A 2

647

Barnotin, St. Germain, Prancol, and Po-
THE PROTESTANT merat, in the valley of Perouse; Ville Se-
PRESENT STATE OF
CHURCHES IN THE VALLIES OF PIED-che, Maneille, and Pral, in the valley of
St. Martin; these three latter churches
having chapels of ease.

MONT.

These Churches maintained the longest resistance against the usurpations of the See of Rome, and were virtually Protestants, before the famous Protest against popish Corruptions was delivered and published in Germany. The support they had been accustomed to receive from Britain was an honourable testimony of mutual sympathy and regard.

Pomaret, near Perouse,
Province of Pignerol, in Piedmont,
the 31st January, 1816

Sir,
M. Rostaing, pastor of Ville Seche,
has received the letter which you did him
the honour to address to him, under date
of the 10th of December last. He deli-
vered it to me as his chief,-I having the
bonour to fill the same situation that I did
before the Revolution deprived us of our
princes, namely, Moderator of the churches
of the Vallies of Piedmont, known by the
name of the Vaudois Churches. We can-
not sufficiently thank you, Gentlemen, for
the proofs of kindness and Christian cha-
The
rity which you therein give us.
Protestant Society for the Protection of
Religious Liberty,' of which you are one
of the worthy Secretaries, has given plain
demonstration of the existence of the true
spirit of Christianity in Great Britain. To
that happy country, where law and order
prevail and govern, and which has pro-
duced a Bacon, of Verulam, Locke, New-
ton, Clark, Tillotson, Wake, and many
other eminent men, no less illustrious for
their virtues than their extensive know-
ledge to that happy country I say, it
was reserved to hold out to the world the
example of Universal Toleration, and to
make it in a manner a distinguishing sign
May honour and glory
amongst them.
attend that generous nation, which shel-
ters with its powerful protection the cause
of the unfortunate, and presents to all
Europe an example which cannot fail to
have the greatest influence upon the mea-
sures of all governments!

As the Society is desirous of learning
what passes in our vallies, we have the ho
nour to inform you, Sir, that the Vaudois
churches, living under the Government of
the Dukes of Savoy, Kings of Sardinia,
their lawful masters, are thirteen in num-
ber, situate in three vallies, bordering upon
the mountains, or the Alps, as we call
them, which separate France from Pied-
mont, on the side of Haut Dauphin, name-
ly Bobi, Villa, la Tour, Saint Jean, Roras,
and Angrogne, in the valley of Luzerne;

The pastors of these thirteen churches were formerly stipendaries of His Britannic Majesty, who, from a principle of charity, knowing that the people of these vallies were poor, and that their Sovereigns did nothing for them, was graciously pleased to permit them to feel the effects of his generosity, and had them each paid annually the sum of 400 livres of Piedmont: but since the year 1797 none has been received. They have attributed this loss of His Britannic Majesty's bounty to the long and a Government expensive war which Great Britian has wage against had to which appeared desirous of enslaving all Europe, and made a sport of the most solemn treaties; for the pastors are unconscious of having been guilty of any thing offensive to his Majesty, or to the magna. nimous nation to which you belong, for which, indeed, they in general feel a partiality approaching to veneration. We had the honour to address ourselves about eighteen months ago, to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, intreating him to do us the benefit of representing our sad and pitifully miserable situation to hiş Majesty. We do not know whether our humble petition reached him, but we have had no reply. While the French were masters of our country, the French Erecutive Commission of Piedmont, having conceived that the number of Catholic priests in the vallies was too numerous for the small number of Catholics resident there suppressed part of their livings, and ap propriated to us the little benefit attached to them for our support The wisest and most prudent of us would have wished other measures, less odious, to have been adopted, and measures by which we might have been less exposed to subsequent illwill; but we were obliged to accept what was conceded to us, or to die of hunger. The King our Master, was no sooner reestablished in his States, by the protection of Great Britian, and by the valour and perseverance of the generous English nation, than we found ourselves deprived of the little advantage that had been conferred It was pretended, contrary to all on us. reason, that the livings had deteriorated in our hands, and we were subjected to long and disagreeable law-suits. His Majesty, who is personally benevolent, advised by ministers devoted to the clergy of the Catholic church, had the temple of St. Jean shut up (it had been built at great expence

|

churches having been demolished, there were some communes in which they were interdicted from building more. That of St. Jean, in particular, which still possessed a church in 1704, was obliged to build one at nearly a league distance, in Angrogne, as well as a presbytery and a school for the children of the commune of St. Jean. The pastor of that church was forbidden to perform any of the duties of his ministry there, excepting the visiting of the sick, and all the children were obliged to be conveyed to Angrogne to be baptized. Moreover, this pastor was never allowed to pass the night or sleep in this commune. As a mournful example we can mention pastor Appia, who, being overtaken by a storm at his own farm in St. Jean, was obliged to pass the night upon a chair, and the next day he was accused by the Fiscal, and imprisoned; and was exculpated only by proving that he had not transgressed the law. These measures certainly principally affected the commune of St. Jean, but other persecu tions were also felt throughout the Vaudois. The vallies of Lusserne and Perouse, formed by the streams Pelis and Cluson, were not permitted to afford a tranquil asylum to the poor Vaudois: for they were prohibited from inhabiting or possessing land in the principal villiages and hamlets in several of the communes in these vallies; nor were they allowed to fill any civil offices. They were neither allowed to be Secretaries of the communes, nor Justices, nor Advocates, nor Professors of Medicine. Some few offices of no

within this commune) under a pretext that there existed an edict of the year 1632, prohibiting the Protestant inhabitants of that commune from having a temple, although in former times one had been erected. We were then without resource, we appealed to the known bounty and justice of the King, we implored him to be graciously pleased to put us upon the same footing with his other subjects-to admit the Protestants to fill all civil situations for which they were competent, and especially to grant to the pastors of the Vallies the means of subsistence. Hitherto all our representations, our humble petitions and supplications, have been vain and fruitless. We have been able to obtain nothing, owing to the power and influence of the Catholic clergy, who have not become more tolerant than in former times; and for these last eighteen months we have been with out any salaries. Such among us as have no fortunes, as is the case with those who have the honour to write to you, who are the poorest among the pastors, are in the most miserable situation, destitute of every thing, and utterly unable to send their sons to Geneva, or Switzerland, for study, so as to be able hereafter to officiate in our churches, which are consequently in danger of being bereft of ministers, unless, in the generosity of our powerful British protectors, we find some relief. Do us the favour, Sir, to present our most respectful homage to your respectable President, Mr. Mills, as also to your worthy associate, Mr. Pellatt; and believe us to be, with the sincerest and most lively gratitude and profoundest esteem, Sir, your very hum-tary were granted by favour, but upon ble, most obedient, and respectful servants, J. ROD, PEYRAN,

Pastor at Pomaret, and Moderator of the Vaudois Churches, ALEX. ROSTAING,

Pastor at Ville Seche, and Secretary

to the said Evangelical Vaudois Churches in the Vallies of Piedmont.

The following are further particulars of the condition to which these Churches, were reduced.-Is it possible under these accusations, the Catholic Church can wash her hands from the crime of persecution for conscience sake? The Pope ought to suppress all such violences, if no other Potentate will.

They were subject to rigorous conditions. Very confined limits were prescribed to them, and they became shut up in the vallies of Lusserne, Perouse, and St. Martin, with the adjoining con nunes of Prarustin and Rocheplate. They were permitted to exercise their religion; but their

condition that they only prepared deeds for those professing the Protestant religion. The municipal administration of the comthe same spirit. The Catholics always munes of the Vaudois was regulated in composed three-fifths or two-thirds of the municipal counsel; and as in some of the communes there were no Catholics, they either imported them from neighbouring communes, or else elected mendicants and vagabonds to occupy those situations, and excluded persons of property and charac ter, of hereditary fortune, and undoubted worth. This state of things lasted until the invasion of Piedmont by the French,

in 1798.

Other grievances more or less afflicting, they were compelled to undergo, at the caprice of some Catholic curates, or superior civil fanatics or ill-intentioned men, and by carrying off some children, and of a considerable number of young Vaudois females, whom their parents in vain reclaimed.

651]

too much, on the score of civil and religî-
ous liberty, not to be aware of our advan-
tages. The downfall of this too celebrated
man made us fear a relapse into our former
Yet one idea encouraged us: it
state.
was the certainty that our King, owing
every thing to the protection of the gene-
rous British nation, would have some re-

Such was the state of things when the French despoiled our King of his continental states, and made themselves masters especially of Piedmont. There was then no longer any difference between the Vaudois and the other Piedmontese: except that the number of the Protestants in our communes exceeded the Catholics in the proportion of about eleven to one.-It ap-gard for a population professing the same peared to some that then a partiality existed. We had justices and clerks of our own communion, and our boundaries were extended; and this novelty, so strictly just in itself, appeared to some an injury inflicted on the Catholics. How powerfully does the habit of authority subvert the judgment!

In 1806 the commune of St. Jean, composed almost wholly of Protestants, thought they might profit by the intentions of the existing Government, and build the church which they had so much and so long desired. A zealous proprietor gratuitously gave a spot of ground fit for the purpose, and permission having been granted, the church was erected, at the expence and by the labour of the inhabitants of that commune only, with some assistance they derived from some charitable foreigners.

faith with the British people, and which for many ages had only subsisted by the very protection which that noble people had afforded.

But his Majesty, our king, made his entry into his capital on the 20th of May, and instantly on the 21st he issued an edict, which put things upon the same footing they were during the year 1798. In consequence of these proclamations, our communal administrations retook their For old stations, and the former system was revived in almost every particular. want of Catholic resident inhabitants, our No more Protescommunes had for syndies and counsellors, beggars and coblers. tant justices. No more Protestant clerks; and the vallies of Luzerne, having already two notaries of our communion, and a third requiring to be admitted, he was rejected, because the number prescribed by law was already complete. The sale of

communes to foreign Catholics, and the Vaudois were deprived of every honourable and profitable employ.

The pastors were also obliged to deliver up the property they enjoyed. The new church of St. Jean was shut in November, 1814, by order of the court; and from this state of things others may be of course expected.

During this period the condition of the ministers was also meliorated. The Exe-salt and tobacco was confided in several cutive Commission of Piedmont, being informed that the Royal English Subsidy, which constituted part of their allowance, was in arrears for some years, and that the communes, which were already overburdened, were obliged to supply the deficiencies,-suppressed several Catholic curacies which were notoriously useless, pensioned those priests, and appropriated to the Protestant ministers, unsolicited and unasked for, the rents of a great number of small estates, which having belonged to the Vaudois before the persecution, and taken from them, had helped to form the funds for the pay of the Catholic curates and vicars. To this they added some other funds, which, with a boon granted from the treasury of the state, fixed the pay of the pastors at a thousand francs (or about £42.) each. By these alterations several Catholics were gainers, and the poor and the communes were relieved from the *support of their spiritual instructors.

But the scene has changed, and truth compels the avowal,Whatever subject of complaint we might have against the Government of Napoleon-complaints which we participated in common with the other subjects of Buonaparte-we had gained

Some lower officers are delighted at making us feel their power; and some priests, even in their homilies or discourses have forbidden, under pain of excommunication, any kindnesses being shewn to Protestants. But we have reason to believe, that the generous resolutions and protestations of your society, have already produced a happy effect; and on your continued kindness we therefore rely."

The total population of the churches of the Vaudois in Piedmont, which for the greater certainty in the calculation is perhaps underrated, is from 16 to 18,000, that of the Catholics is nothing in some communes, is varying in others, but always in a very inferior proportion.

*I am but a Gatherer, and Dealer in other these, 70,000 worlds; over these, 70,000