his colleagues, and to request their speedy in terposition-their important advice-and their permanent, renewed, and much-needed relief. Mr. JOHN WILKS, the other Secretary, gratified the Meeting by presenting them with an analysis of those proceedings, to which the attention of the Committee had been devoted. cult to extenuate and impossible to deny. Respect for the applicant had induced compliance with his request; but it was expected that those trials must finally occur, as the Committee intended to insist on the repayment of the enormous costs which they had been compelled to incur, and on such The results of the measures which other terms as justice to the general were depending at the LAST Anuiver- interests of religion, as the promosary he detailed. Those measures tion of future and general security,― consisted of the BILL for the Exemp- and as consequent attention to real tion of Places of Religious Worship humanity appeared to the Committee from Parochial Assessment; and of to require. THREE PROSECUTIONS for the disturb- The NEW objects, which had attracance of the numerous and respectable congregation of the Rev. John Carter, at BRAINTREE, in Essex; and of the BAPTIST Congregation at PRINCES RISBOROUGH, in the county of Bucks; and for the atrocious riots and assaults on the Rev. W. Seaton, and the friends of piety at ABBOTT'S ANN, near ANDOVER, in the county of Hants. As to the BILL, it was explained that, after the Committee had procured the support of the Earl of Liverpool and Mr. Vansittart, as well as of the principal Members of Opposition in Parliament, their efforts were frustrated by the mismanaged interference of another Committee,by the exertions of the violent Tory and High Church party- and by disunion among the Members of Administration, which the utmost labours of the Committee could neither counteract nor prevent. Two of the PROSECUTIONS had terminated in the conviction and pnnishment of the offenders, notwithstanding the utmost endeavours to prevent those results, by persons whose magisterial and official situations demand at least impartiality, if not favour, towards Dissenters and Protestants, if they would honourably execute, according to the intention of the legislature, those acts for toleration, which it is their duty to administer and to enforce. The THIRD PROSECUTION, for the Riots at Abbott's Ann, remain ed undetermined. A gentleman, the brother of the clergyman of that parish, being the Chairman of the Quarter Sessions for the county of Hants, and who has recently been appointed a Judge of one of the superior courts, had applied, previous to the last as sizes, and had requested the postponement of the trials, that some proposals might be made on behalf of the persous whose guilt it would be diffi ted the labors of the Committee during the past year, he then attempted to explain. Those objects again comprehended, the demand of tolls at Turnpike- Gates on Sundays, from persons entitled to exemption under their particular turnpike acts; — the refusal of Clergymen to read the burial-service over the bodies of those who had not received episcopal baptism;—the appli cations of clergymen for fees on the interment of the dead in burial places belonging to Protestant Dissenters;the excessive assessment of the apartments of the Rev. Dr. Simpson in Horton Academy;--absurd and illegal objections by country magistrates to administer the oaths, when required, by any Dissenter or Protestant, pursuant to the New Toleration Act, obtained by the Society-and to register places of worship notified to them;- as well as the numerous turnpike and local acts annually submitted to Parliament, and which often contain clauses prejudicial to Dissenters;- and to all which objects the Committee had devoted their attention, not only with benefit to local sufferers, but for general and permament advantage. Persevering attempts to assess places of public worship to the Poor's Rates had also been continued, and bad required to be resisted with equal perseverance. Another immemediate application to Parliament the Committee could not recommend. Previous and conclusive decisions of some Courts of Law they apprebended must be pronounced before such application could be prudently renewed. Efforts for extending such assessments they intended firmly to oppose, whenever their opposition would be justified by any probability of advantage. The amount of the assessments they did not consider the most ob noxious part of those attempts, although to some poor congregations, in parishes where the rates were high, and the assessments were excessive, the additional burden might be great. The principles and the vexatious tendency principally produced their antipathy and inspired their opposition. The exposure of the trust deeds, the developement to vulgar curiosity and to hostile magistrates, of every part of the receipts and expenditure of Dissenting and Methodist congregations, were evils hitherto unknown, and not to be permitted with unresisting acquiescence. Two further attempts, in addition to four previously made, to compel the assessment of Surry Chapel, had been therefore repelled by the Committee at considerable expense, but with continued success. They had again availed themselves of the legal ignorance and professional inaccuracy of these domestic persecutors, who, in April last, for the sixth time, had been again defeated; and although their unworthy efforts would be renewed, the Committee hoped that such antagonists would not even finally prevail. A cheap but able pamphlet, entitled Religious Freedom in Danger by Parochial Assessments," published on the subject by the Rev. Rowland Hill, and the profits of which he had dedicated towards the reimbursement of the large expenditure of the Committee, it was therefore their duty, from interest as well as from inclination, to recommend, and thereby to add their tribute of praise to the plaudits which upon that publication the Evangelical and Eclectic Reviewers, and other enlightened men, had not delayed to bestow. 66 DOMESTIC PERSECUTION had, in another form, also required the Committee to interpose. At the request of" The Association for the Counties of Hants and Sussex," prosecutions against some rioters at MIDHURST, in Sussex, had been commenced. Under the patronage of that active and useful Association, public preaching had been beneficially introduced into that populous, but ignorant and neglected town. Opposition attended on their labours. They adopted usual and wise precautions, to prevent public disturbance. Their precautions were ineffectual. Public worship was interrupted, and at length, they were compelled to apprehend five persons, who, on March 27, were excessive in their violence and tumultuous proceedings. They then entreated the protection of the Committee. Against those five persons the Committee, therefore, preferred an indictment at the Petworth sessions, in April last. The indictment was found;-four defendants entered into recognizances, to appear for trial at the next sessions. One, who was in custody, was immediately tried, was convicted, scntenced to pay £40, and being unable immediately to pay the amount, was committed to the county prison until the same be discharged. Other and more remote PERSECU TIONS had also awakened the sympa thy, and the zealous exertions of the Committee. He alluded to the sufferings of the PROTESTANTS in the South of FRANCE. But, as all the Resolutions of the Committee and their statements upon that subject, had been extensively circulated, and had excited some difference as to the extent and nature of the conduct to be adopted, even among those whom habit, and principle, and affection, usually united in opinion and in efforts; that was a topic on which it would be superfluous and improper to enlarge. It was only requisite to correct the conclusions of any persons who supposed that the Committee were destitute of information, as they had received communicatious, expressive of ardent gratitude, from more than one hundred Protestant Congregations throughout France; or that, because the Committee did not approve of immediate and extensive collections, they were disposed to abandon those whose protection they had most usefully assisted whose affectionate acknowledgments they had received-whose situation they continued vigilantly to watch, with a solicitude that could not be surpassed-and for whom they were ready to make any exertions and any sacrifices which necessity could require, philanthropy and Christianity could suggest, discretion could permit, and the sufferers should really invite. The PERSECUTIONS equally remote, most distressful, and admitting not. only of commiseration, but of certain relief, of the VAUDOIS or WALDENSES, had also appealed to the hearts of A 2 - under the Government of the Dukes of Savoy, Kings of Sardinia, their lawful Masters, are thir teen in number, situate in three vallies, bordering upon the mountains, or the Alps, as we call them, which separate France from Piedmont, on the side of Haut Dauphine, namely Bobi, Villa, la Tour, Saint Jean, Roras, and Angrogne, in the valley of Lazerne; Barnotin, St.Germain, Prancol, and Pomerat, in the valley of Peronse; Ville Seche, Mancille, and Pral, in the valley of St. Martin; these three latter churches having chapels of case. the Committee, and deserved the ever, the satisfaction to state, that the attention of every friend to human- Committee bad, on the preceding ity, to the Protestant faith, to day, received a written assurance from the rights of conscience, - to the religion of Jesus CHRIST. The Resolutions of the Committee, already communicated to the Meeting, superseded the necessity of much further explanation. The History of the Ancient Waldenses, from whom the present Vaudois claim to be descended, from their origin, many ages before the general Reformation, to the close of the 17th century, had been recently published in two valuable volumes, by Mr. WM. JONES; and their modern History and the Situation of the afflicted Vaudois, in the autumn of 1814, a brief Memoir, by a Clergyman of the Church of England (the Rev. Mr. SIMS) had, with much energy, pathetically detailed *. - He had, how For more general information, the following extracts from letters, received from respectable Ministers of the Vaudois churches, are selected from other most interesting letters, received by the Committee; but which, by their length, are unavoidably excluded from this Report. Copy of a Letter addressed to Mr. JOHN WILKS, from the Rev. Messrs. PEYRAN and ROSTAING, Moderator and Secretary to the Evangelical Vaudois Churches, in the Fallies of Piedmont. Sir, Pomaret, near Perouse, Province of Figuerol, in Piedmont, the 31st January, 1816. Mr. Rostaing, pastor of Ville Seche, has received the letter which you did him the honor to address to him, under date of the 10th of December last. He delivered it to me as his chief, I having the honor to fill the same situation that I did before the Revolution deprived as of our princes, namely, Moderator of the Churches of the Vallies of Piedmont, known by the name of the Vaudois Churches. We cannot sufficiently thank you, Gentlemen, for the proofs of kindness and Christian charity which you therein give us. The 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 produced a Bacon, of Verulam, Locke, Newton, Clark, Tillotson, Wake, and many other eminent men, no less illustrious for their virtues than their extensive knowledge!- 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 amongst them. May honor and glory attend that generous nation, which shelters 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 measures of all governments! As the Society is desirous of learning what passes in our vallics, we have the honor to inform you, sir, that the Vaudois churches, living bnt The pastors of these thirteen churches were who, from a principle of charity, knowing that formerly stipendaries of His Britannic Majesty, 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 annu ally the sum of 400 livres of Piedmont: since the year 1797 none has been received. They have attributed this loss of His Britannic Majesty's bonity to the long and expensive war which Great Britain has had to wage against a Government 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 magnanimous nation to general feel a partiality approaching to venerawhich you belong, for which, indeed, they in tion. We had the honor to address ourselves, about eighteen months ago, to his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, intreating him to do us the benefit of representing onr sad and pitfully miserable situation to his Majesty. We do Hot know whether our humble petition reached him, but we have had no reply. Whilst the French were masters of our country, the French Executive Commission of Piedmont, having conceived that the number of Catholic priests in the no vallies were too numerous for the small number of Catholics resident there, suppressed part of their livings, and appropriated 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 ill-will; but we were obliged to accept what was conceded to us, or to die of hunger. The King, our master, was sooner re-established in his States, by the protection of Great Britain, and by the valour and perseverance of the generous English nation, than we found ourselves deprived of the little advantage that had been conferred on us. It was pretended, contrary to all 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, ad vised 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 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 supplica tions, have been vain and fruitless. We have been able to obtain nothing, owing to the power and influence of the Catholic clergy, who have LORD LIVERPOOL, that the Lords of ribute to their aid; the Treasury had directed the investi- invite all wise and good men to they would gation of their complaints, and of imitate the conduct which the best the reasons why the allowance which, and wisest of their forefathers have for a century, had been transmitted displayed, and to collect a fund from British liberality, had been with- which should permanently mitigate drawn. The result of that investiga- their ills,-should tion he could not permit himself to widows from famine, and their Minispreserve their doubt. The restoration of pecuniary ters from despair,--and should cause aid from the British Government he their children and their children's would venture to anticipate; and children, amid their glens-and dellsbe would also cherish a hope, that and rocks, scarcely pervious to a fosuch patronage would promote their reign foot,-in their humble churches enjoyment of all those civil and religi- and their hours of prayer, long to contious rights of which by ignorance, in- nue to repeat the praises and the praytolerance, and injustice alone they ers which their parents had so often could be deprived, But if those hopes uttered, that God would ever bless should be disappointed, the Committee with peace and with prosperity our would then redeem the pledge which native, but to them this distant and they had given: they would con- protecting land! not become more tolerant than in former times; and for these last eighteen months we have been without any salaries. Such amongst us as have no fortunes, as is the case with those who have the honor to write to you, who are the poorest amongst 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 favor, 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 humble, most obedient, and respectful servants, J. ROD. PEYRAN, Pastor at Ville Seche, and Secretary Another Letter from the Rev. P. BERT, Minister of La Tour, dated Feb. 9, 1816, after relating the Ancient History of the VAUDOIS, and the benefits which they had derived from the interference of Cromwell, and the liberality of William the Third and Queen Mury of happy memory,' thus states the situation in which they were compelled to exist. 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 communes of Prarustin and Rocheplate. They were permitted to exercise their religion; but their churches having been demolished, there were some communes in whici. they were interdicted from building more. cular, which still possessed a church in 1701, was That of St. Jean, in partiobliged to build one at nearly a league distance, in Angrogne, as well as school for the children of the commune of St. a presbytery and a 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 Angrogue to be baptized. Moreover, this pastor this commune. was never allowed to pass the night or sleep in mention pastor Appia, who, being overtaken by As a nonrnful example we can to pass the night upon a chair, and the next day a storm at his owir farm in St. Jean, was obliged and was exculpated only by proving that he had he was accused by the Fiscal, and imprisoned; tainly principally affected the commune of St. not transgressed the law. These measures certhroughout the Vaudois. The vallies of Lusserne Jean, but other persecutions were also felt and Perouse, formed by the streams Pelis and Cluson, were not permitted to afford a tranquil hibited from inhabiting or possessing land in the asylum to the poor Vaudois: for they were proprincipal villages 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 notary were granted by favour, but upon condition that they only prepared deeds for those professing the Protestant religion. The municipal administration of the communes of the Vaudois was regulated in the same spirit. The Catholics always comcounsel; and as in some of the communes there posed three-fifths or two-thirds of the municipal were no Catholics, they either imported them mendicants and vagabonds to occupy those situfrom neighbouring communes, or else elected ations, and excluded persons of property and character, of hereditary fortune, and undoubted sion of Piedmont by the French, in 1798. worth. This state of things lasted until the inva Other grievances more or less afflicting, they tics, or ill-intentioned men, and by the carrying were compelled to undergo, at the caprice of some Catholic curates, or superior civil fana off some children, and of a considerable number Pied despoiled our King of his continental states, and Such was the state of things when the French made themselves masters especially of But because the number of the Protestants in mont. There was then no longer any difference between the Vaudois and the other Piedmontese: proportion of about eleven to one.-it appeared our communes exceeded the Catholics in the justices and clerks of our own communion, and to some that then a partiality existed. our boundaries were extended; and this novelty, injury inflicted on the Catholics. How powerfully does the habit of authority subvert the judg so strictly just in itself, appeared to some an ment! We had Whilst such efforts were made as to all these objects by the Committee, it was impossible to conceal that the general state of circumstances in In 1806 the cominane 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 labor of the inhabitants of that commune only, with some assistance they derived from some charitable foreigners. During this period the condition of the minis ters was also ireliorated. The Executive 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 427.) each. By these alterations several Catholics were gainers, and the poor and communes were relieved from the support of their spiritual instructors. England, and throughout France, Italy, and Spain, did not permit the abandonment of this Society, or the relaxation of their vigilance and their us fear a relapse into our former state. Yet one idea encouraged us: it was the certainty that our King, owing every thing to the protection of the generous British nation, would have some regard for a population professing the same 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 old stations, and the former system was revived in almost every particular. For want of Catholic resident inhabitants, our communes had for syndics and connsellors, beggars and cobblers. No more Protestant justices. No more Protestant clerks; and the vallies of Luzerne, having already two notaries of our communion, and a third lequiring to be admitted, was rejected, because the number prescribed by law was already complete. The sale of salt and tobacco was confided in several communes to foreign Catholics, and the Vaudois were deprived of every honorable 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. Some lower officers are delighted at making us But the scene has changed, and truth impels feel their power; and some priests, even in their the avowal,-Whatever subject of complaint we homilies or discourses, have forbidden, under might have against the Government of Napoleon pain of excommunication, any kindness being -complaints which we participated in common shewn to Protestants. But we have reason to bewith the other subjects of Buonaparte we had lieve, that the generous resolutions and protestagained too much, on the score of civil and reli- tions of your Society, have already produced gious liberty, not to be aware of our advantages, a happy effect; and ou your continued kindness The downfal of this too celebrated man mad ewe therefore rely. To one of these Letters many authentic and interesting documents were subjoined, and the following Statement of the Protestant Population in the 13 Vaudois Churches in Piedmont. The total population of the churches of the Vaudois in Piedmont, which for the great certainty in the circulation is perhaps under-rated, is from 16 to 18,000, that of the Catholics is nothing some communes, varying in others, but always in a very inferior proportion. |