And mingle in their thrilling shout
Charge, havoc, break, recoil and rout,
And panic and dismay!! p. 4.

Again a flourish in anaposts.

Yet moved not old Albyn an inch from her ground
No! though the fire-shower fell thickly around,
And carried death wide through her desperate ring,
Still dauntless she stood and unwavering!! p. 28.

Mr. Haskins has one very amusing couplet, in which he refers to La Haye Sainte:

A broken fence precedes the British line

Weak for protection, 'tis O "Holy" thine."

and a no less amusing note upon a line in which he adverts to the Muse of Addison.'

The "Campaign" written by Addison, has been attempted to be ridiculed under the appellation of a "Gazette in Rhyme"; it is, however, if not of the very highest order of poetry, far superior to many, I might almost say most, of modern productions.'

From the specimens before us, we might almost be tempted to subscribe to Mr. Haskins's remark.

Art. XV. Sketch of the past and present State of the Vaudois or Waldenses, inhabiting the Vallies of Piedmont. Translated from the original Manuscript, by the Rev. T. Morgan, Secretary to the General Body of Dissenting Ministers of Three Denominations, and published by Order of the Committee. pp. 20. 8vo. Price 6d. 1816.

THIS

HIS small and very cheap pamphlet contains matter of very great importance, and possesses more real worth than many of the splendid and costly quartos of modern times.

Its value consists, indeed, rather in the development of truth, than in the communication of pleasure; and it is calculated not merely to inform the mind, but to rouse the best emotions and principles of the heart to virtuous conflict with the worst, and to engage compassion and benevolence to attempt at least to lessen the miseries inflicted by inhumanity and intolerance.

It might have been wished, if not expected, that the sufferings of the devoted Waldenses should henceforth have been only the tale of other times, and that a degree of veneration for the memory of their ancestors, would have procured for their children, a general charter from civilized Europe, to worship their fathers' God, unmolested by the edicts of princes, or the bigotry of priests.

It is however too true, that the same generation which is collecting and arranging the history of former persecutions, is also preparing materials which the future historian must add

to the melancholy and heart-rending narratives of past ages. Our present Number will unhappily prove, that reason and religion have as yet too little influence on human affairs.

Without going into the details of the horrid murders and cruelties to which they were exposed before the commencement of the 17th century, the sketch before us presents a succinct account of the edicts which were framed subsequently to that period, for the oppression and extermination of the Vaudois.

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By the edicts of 1602, 1603, and 1609, A status quo was re-established, which prohibited them from any acquisition beyond Du Cluson, and Du Pelis, and confined them to the 'thirteen churches, which exist to the present day.'

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Marriages could not be contracted between catholics and 'protestants, without a promise from the latter of a change of religion with the least possible delay.' There were always to be a majority of Catholics in the administrations of the communes; so that in those consisting of five members, three were Catholics; in those of three, two were Catholics; and where there were no Catholics, beggars or persons from a neighbouring commune have been nominated.'' The Catholics were permitted to employ heretical work-people, but on condition that they should not live together, nor be treated as domnestics.' In 1617, the Vaudois were prohibited from suffering any strangers of the reformed religion to enter their temples.' In 1618, they were forbidden to bury their dead in cemetries surrounded with walls, or with hedges of quick or 'dead wood, and to assist at the funerals of their relations in greater numbers than six persons, and those without arms.'— In 1622, they were only permitted to attend fairs and markets, on the condition that they should not possess any shops, houses, or chambers, and should not be permitted to pro'pagate their opinions.' In 1665, their children might be taken from their relations, if the boys had not completed twelve years, and the girls ten.' In 1672, the Commune of St. John was prohibited from having any temple or minister to reside there, or to exercise any part of his function, so that they were obliged to take their infant children from 'the centre of that Commune in the winter at great risk, to be 'baptized at a distance in the Commune of Angrogne.'*

After this enumeration, it is very naturally asked, Who could have imagined that in the nineteenth century, these

* In 1653, they were prohibited from having more than six no'taries, and these must not draw up any Catholic wills; those who held the places of notaries in perpetuity, were compelled to sell them; they could only hold them for their lives, or rent them for ten or twenty years.'

abominable edicts should have been carried into exccu'tion?'

Since the year 1800, when Piedmont submitted to France, till the year 1814,

The Vaudois were placed on the same footing with other subjects, and emerged from the state of slavery under which they had groaned for ages. This event was the dawn of their happiness; for the government abolished several Catholic cures, which were only an expense to the state, as well as evidently unnecessary by the small number of Catholics in those communes,* and granted the funds which supported them for salaries to the Protestant pastors, whose means of subsistence were reduced exceedingly low, by the cessation of the royal grant from England, in 1796.'

These days of peace and prosperity were not to be continued,

and

The Vaudois, foreseeing by the events of 1814, what was likely to be their condition, thought it necessary to depute M. Paul Appia,

*The following is a sketch of the population of the Vaudois communes, which measures are taking to render still more exact.

then judge of the peace, and M. Peyran, pastor of Pramol, to wait on his Excellency Lord Bentinck, commander of the British forces at Genoa; to request that he would take us under his high protection, and recommend us to the king on his return from Sardinia, that we might receive the same good treatment from him with his other subjects. The king arrived at Genoa while the Vaudois deputies were in that city, and Lord Bentinck had indeed the goodness to speak of us to our sovereign, and to recommend us to his favour. This was about the eighteenth of May. Victor Emanuel arrived at Turin on the twentieth, and on the twenty-first, he published a manifesto, by which he put in force all the edicts which his predecessors had issued.

So fully were these edicts carried into execution in the nineteenth century, that

The inhabitants of St. John, having availed themselves of the liberty which the French government granted them, at length buirt a church in the centre of their commune; and by the patents of the thirtieth September, 1814, among other things, the king ordered the Intendant of the province to compel us to shut up the church of St. John, as built beyond the strict boundaries to which we had been confined, by the edict of 1672.'·

The Syndic of Bobbi, appointed May, 1815, is an apostate who cannot read or write, and not worth a denier, and one of the counsellors is a stranger. At St. John, one of the counsellors is a beggar, who has been clothed out of the pockets of the poor, and the other not of the age required by law; but the king has rejected the request presented to him by the inhabitants of St. John on this subject.'

In the same year, a vice-judge of the government of la Tour, a man devoid of shame, who owes his existence to the benevolence of the Vaudois, has had the impudence to put in force, by a proclamation of the sixteenth March, the edicts of 1626, and 1730.'

Immediately after the return of the king to his dominions, the Vaudois were deprived of all their employments, such as receiverships of the contributions, the places of collectors of the salt duties, secretaries of the communes, judges, &c.'

Of such importance did Victor Emanuel consider the recommendation of Lord Bentinck, the representative of a great and generous nation which had replaced him on the throne of his ancestors! He rather chose to be influenced by the perfidious insinuations of his ministers, or his fanatical confessors, than to comply with the request of Lord Bentinck.'

In a manly and ingenious declaration,

The Vaudois avow their having favoured the principles of liberty of conscience, and of breaking the fetters by which they had been bound for ages. Posterity will judge, say they, whether this be a crime before God, or even before men :'

and it appears their humanity and good conduct have obtained for them friends among the various Powers who have carried their destructive armies into their sequestered valleys, and VOL. VI. N. S.

I

over these tremendous mountains. Suchet, in the name of the French, Suwarrow (who it seems could receive mercy, if he did not shew it) on behalf of the Russians, and Niepperg for the Austrian armies, have acknowledged the assistance and hospitality they experienced at the hands of these injured pe ple.

Unsuccessful as Lord Bentinck had been in his application to Victor Emanuel, Count Bubna, and Mr. Hill, (the English envoy,) presented

A short list of requests in behalf of the Vaudois, of which we give the substance:

I. That they may have secured to them a perfect liberty of conscience, and of situation, in common with the other subjects of his Sardinian majesty.

II. That their religion may be no obstacle to their employment in civil and military offices, according to the scale of promotion.*

III. That they may keep the property acquired beyond the limits to which they were confined, and that they may be permitted to make further acquisitions, should they meet with a fair opportunity.

IV. That they may be permitted to settle in any part of his Sardian majesty's dominions, where they may find it their interest so to do.

V. That the support of their pastors may be insured by the enjoyment of the property granted to them under the French government, (that of a salary of one thousand francs to each of the thirteen pastors) or in such mode as shall please his Sardinian majesty.†

VI. That they may be permitted to keep open the temple built at St. John, beyond the ancient limits, as well as to build others, and to keep schools where it shall be found necessary for the pastors to reside.t

VII. That they may have liberty to print, within the dominions of his Sardinian majesty, such books as are necessary for conducting their public worship, or to bring them from abroad.

• VIII. That persons educated in their religion may have perfect liberty to practise as physicians, apothecaries, surgeons, advocates, and notaries.

IX. That in forming the municipal councils, regard be paid in each commune to the proportion of the mixed population, and that

* All, without exception, were dismissed: the sub-prefects, judges, secretaries, &c. &c.

† All of them were displaced, and compelled to give up what they had received from the time of the disembarkation of the king. Great numbers of pastors are positively reduced to misery.

This temple is shut up, notwithstanding that it is situated in the centre of a commune containing more than two thousand Protestants, while the Catholic temple is opened, though the number of that per suasion is not more than forty.