The Press. — London, England, 1854-03-25 00:00:00

MARCH 25, 1854. Yittraturt. History of the French Protestant Refugees. By Charles Weiss, Professor of History at the Lycee Buonsparte. London : Blackwood. THE story of the Huguenots, expelled from France on the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, abounds in the romantic episodes, and suggests the deep principles, which to a com petent historian afford the grand realities on which he may exercise his art. Rather than bend their knees to what they looked on as a false god, hundreds of thousands of the most virtuous of French citizens abandoned a sunny clime, with all the endearing recollec tions of home, and transplanted themselves to lands with cloudy skies and grosser forms of society. From Languedoc with its genial temperature and its spreading landscapes, and from the picturesque banks of the Garonne, they sailed fur the gloomy Irish province where the Banu and Slaney roll their dismal waves. From Bordeaux with its brilliant society, and from the Touraine with its histo ric memories and its joyous presence of a po pulation living amidst scenes of beauty, they departed to seek for resting-places in murky Bristol or in reeking Norwich. From the very finest parts of France, from the .poetical vicinage of the Rhine, and from the beautiful Gironde, they went forth with their untamed and unsuperstitious souls, and exchanging, not without emotion, the banks of the Rhone or the Loire for those of the Avon or the Lee, they carried their arts, their valour, their vir tues, and their rational spirit of liberty to cheer and to vivify the societies of strange lands, to improve English manufactures by a subtler spirit of invention and a more graceful variety of design, or, by their cul tured natures and refined manners, to elevate by their examples the coarseness and stolid vulgarity of those Cromwellian colonists, who with the exaggeration of Puritanism caries. tured the spirit and marred the progress of Protestantism in Ireland. Never did nation lose more material and moral wealth than France when, on that dark day in her history (the 18th of October, 1685), her bigoted Sovereign revoked the edict which the gene rosity of the greatest of her Kings had dic tated, and which the policy of her greatest Minister (Richelieu) had not disallowed. Then was England enriched, and France en foebled, by an exodus of virtue, genius, and trained talents. Cowley, in his lines on the death of Cromwell, enumerates the races whose tributary streams have swelled the so cial progress of our island : Rattier let Roman come again, Or Saxon, Norman, or the Dane, ]n all the bonds we ever bore, We grieved, we sighed, we wept, we never blushed before. But the "race " of the Huguenots, as dis tinct in ethnological idiosyncrasy as the Jew, or the Saxon, or the Norman, came into these islands to help in civilisation, and the story of their blending with British influ ences, without the extinction of their identity, is one of the most curious social facts of which we are aware. The number of celebrities, who trace their pedigree and derive their genius from Huguenot sources, is quite extraor dinary, and would be worthy of detailed illus tration. It is now fifteen or sixteen years since we had the pleasure of listening to an eloquent speech at a forensic debating society at Lyon's Inn-hall. The subject was Russian aggres sion in the East, and the youthful speaker was completely master of his subject. His manner was genial, his style fervid, and his deportment manly without undue self-asser tion. An ethnologist might have seen in his beaming countenance, his sparkling eyes, and his olive. complexion the traces of a more fervid conformation than is common to our sturdy Anglo-Saxon type; and the charac teristic enthusiasm of the speaker might tell Dot only of his own genius, but of the warmth of his hereditary temperament. It was the honourable member for Nineveh, Mr. Layard, a descendant of the Huguenots. The Church, the Senate, and the Bar--Literature, Com merce, and the Stage —all p oint in their an- THE ES S.. mils to a variety of to their Huguenotic race. The subject has often had for ourselves a special interest, and we were deeply disap pointed in finding the present work so de fective in indicating the extraordinary number of persons' names associated with the French Protestants who settled in Britain. The greatest actor of any age, Garrick, was the grandson of a Huguenot (Carrique) ; and even iu Goldsmith's characterisation of him in " Retaliation " it is amusing to observe the fidelity with which the French points of his nature are seized upon. The brilliant parlia mentary orator of the last century, Colonel Barre, was the son of a Huguenot refugee. In that part of the empire where most of the Huguenots settled—lreland—their social pro gress was extraordinary. Even at the present day a fourth of the Irish Bench is of Huguenotie extraction—Chief Justice Lefroy,* Judge Per rin, and Baron Richards (Richard), being Huguenots by race ; and, in defending O'Connell, that late accomplished rhetorician, Mr. Shell, dextrously alluded to the descent of Judge Perrin :—" In the land of the Dra " gonades and the St. Bartholomews—the land " from whence the forefathers of one of the " judicial functionaries of this court, and the " first ministerial officer of this tribunal, were " barbarously driven, &c. &c." So also, in past times, the most statesmanlike of Irish lawyers, Saurin, and one of the most bril liant advocates of the Irish Bar, Duquery, were Huguenots ; and in commerce, fur gene rations, the Huguenot Latouchis have held the first rank as bankers ; while other fami lies, like that of Lefanu, have been eminent for a century in literature and eloquence. The work before us records that the first newspaper established in Ireland was by the Pastor Droz ; and we have not space to enume rate the fertile proofs of Huguenotic supe riority which the annals of Irish society record. The characteristics of the Huguenotic de scendants, even of the seventh generation, in whatever lands they settled, are truly de scribed by the writer of the work before us : To this day it is still easy to trace the decendants of the Huguenots in all the provinces of the United States Republic, and particularly in New York, Maryland, Vir ginia, and the two Carolinas. ThPy are distinguished from the English colonists by their greater sociability and frankness of manner, and by a certain vivacity of character and language that contrasts with British stiffness. It is less easy to recognise them by their names, which have been translated into English, or altered by a vicious pro nunciation. As in England, Holland, and Germany, and from the same causes, the descendants of the refugees gradually blended with the society that had welcomed their fathers. Their congregations successively attached them selves either to the Presbyterian, the Episcopalian, or the I)utch Reformed Church. In its turn, the French tongue disappeared, and with it one of the last reminiscences of the country of their ancestors. Nevertheless, in towns where they were sufficiently numerous to possess distinct churches, they adhered longer to the use of their national language. At Roston there still was French preaching at the end of the eighteenth century. At New York, in divine service was celebrated both in French and in English, although this congregation bad long previously joined the Anglican communion. In a letter addressed in that year by the deacons and elders to the French Church iu London, which the American Huguenots regarded as a mother church, they particularly asked for a pastor who could expound the gospel to them in both languages. The colony of Charlestown has alone retained, to the present day, the Calvinist liturgy in its primitive purity, and the exclusive exercise of public worship in the tongue that its first founders spoke. To these instances we could add of our own knowledge Bristol, and some other cities of Eng land. It is held by ethnologists that races which are not intermixed have a tendency to decline, from the same physical causes that produce stunted growths from " breeding in and in." But the history of the Jews (humanly con sidered) seems to refute the unqualified state ment about the decline of self-supporting races; and though supernatural reasons can with truth be alleged for the marvellous con tinuance of the Jewish type, yet the long continued existence of the Huguenotic ele ments amidst the various nations amongst which they have been scattered is one of the most interesting ethnological facts with which we are conversant. From our own personal observation of many of their descendants in several countries, we would say that no race • It to said, however, that the Lefroya are of Flewii4 Hague. notic extraction, and that they fled from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva.. 279 -of any kind is mere strongly marked than the descendants of that Huguenotic " exodus." Dark eyes, large eyebrows, olive complexions, a certain fervour of temperament, high intel lectuality, and a love of pleasure and socia bility of disposition, characterise, even to this day, nearly all of their authenticated ex traction. It is not impossible that a history of the Huguenots in England and Ireland may one day be given to the world. Materials exist for the purpose ; and in one of our public offices there is a most curious manuscript narrative of their leading families, compiled in the last century by one of their descendants. In the volume before us we are compelled to record that there is much bookmaking, and that the author is not sufficiently original in his matter. M. Weiss goes over the old and well-known story of the persecution of the French Protestants before and subsequent to the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The greater part of the work is taken up with a detail of the lives and actions of the most celebrated Huguenots, such as Schomberg, 'lapin, Bayle, and others. The Biograpioal Dictionary has been called in too often for the supply of matter, and the contents might with advantage be published in half the space. On the other hand, while we note the absence of curious original matter, we must observe that the author does not rise to a level with his theme. He is an essayist and a compiler rather than a historian, and his talents are more suited for the didactic than the descrip tive. We are no friends to historical colourists ; and word-painting, in consequence of the popularity of Mr. Macaulay and M. de Lamar tine, has been carried by their imitators to a faulty excess. But the episodical character and the romantic vicissitudes of the story of the Huguenots would demand more eloquence of style than is displayed by M. Weiss. The services rendered by the French Pro testants to the Revolution of 1688 have scarcely been sufficiently noticed in the historical page. But we have no doubt that their brilliant ex ploits will receive the tribute of some of Mr. Macaulay's glowing passages in the next volumes of his history. While M. Weiss re cords the advantages gained by England from the skill and industry of the refugees, ho truly observes: — Of all the services rendered to England by the refugee, the most important was the energetic support they gee to William of Orange against James IL When the prince embarked at the port of Naerden, anti sailed to de throne his father-in law, his little army consisted but of eleven thousand infantry and four thousand horse. But these troops comprised a chosen body of three regiments of infantry and one squadron of cavalry, composed entirely of refugees. Each regiment numbered seven hundred and fifty fighting men. Moreover, seven hundred and thirty six French officers, for the most part veterans, accustomed to conquer under Turenue and Conde, were dispersed through the battalions of the prince's army. Left in in ferior grades, notwithstanding the most brilliant merit, a great number of them had found themselves compelled, in Itiri.s, to become nominally Catholics, in order to avoid the shame of being declared unworthy to serve under the flag of France, in whose shadow they had so long fought. Reconciled with the Protestant religion in the French churches in Holland, their resentment was bitter, and they burned to wash out their dishonour in the blood of their persecutors. William of Orange had no partisans more resolute and devoted. He had placed fifty-four in his regiment of horse guards, and thirty-four in his Ludy guard- Of the influence exercised by the refugees upon our commerce the author records: — The war over, their influence ceased, or assumed a new character. That exercised by the refugee manufacturers and traders was more durable. They imparted to Engli sh trade and manufactures an immens e im p ulse, whose ellbets are felt to the present dsy. It appears certain that the revocation of the edict of Nantes sent into the three kingdoms about 70,1100 manu facturers and workmen, most of whom proceeded from Normandy, Picardy, the maritime provinces of the west, the Lyonnais, and Touraine. A great number settled In London, in the districts of Soho and St. Giles, thee suburbs, and in lonely Spitalfiekls, which they entirely p e opled, and which their descendants still inhabit. 'f he English were indebted to them for the introduction of several new manufactures, which soon contr a the public wealth, and for the improvement of in their infancy. Before that period the paper ' England was of common description and greyi sh and the better qualities of glass-ware, hats, and a n of other articles of every-day consumption, were im from the Continent, and especially from Frans* refngees taught the English to manufacture these qualities for themselves, and, moreover, showed to produce silks, brocades, satins, velvets, light ties linen and wool, clocks and watches, glass-ware, Cucu hardware, French locks, surgical instruments. The of Rights, which, in 1680, consecrated the liberties el U • ■