Star. — London, England, 1816-05-24 00:00:00

. illi...144.1•••••4••••••=••••••••••• were inhibitants of the Cevennes. After the Refor mation, a communication had taken place between them and the followers of Luther. It was then that blond was shed. The Parliament of Aix undertook to punish the Heretics, and its 'President, Daugay, and the Advocate-General, 3beriii, signalized their zeal by desolating those countries. Thin first ap--, peered those . massecres in the name of religion which afterwards s pread over the world in the wars with the Hngonets and the horrible hatchery of St. Bartholo mew..•thieler King Henry IV. the Protestants en. roved all their rights. They resorted chiefly to Nem s, which then almost contained a majority of Proteetart population.' In 1685 came the revocation, of the Edict of Nantes. through the, superstition of Louie XIV. and the ambition of his Minister, Lou vres: Then too those dm:gone:As were invented, the, teentien of which must cause every one to shudder. lV nil. piovinces were to be converted- by regiments of dragoons, and the Minister dared to represent to his' King that be had effected an object most agree able in the sight of•Gon, and that all France con tained nothing but Catholics, and no Heretics. In those times Protestants were proceeded against-not as Protestants, het as Heretics, or, as they were called, 44 let nouveaux Convertir." What was their condition till 1757, two years previons to the Revolution ? If any persons were found attending Protestant service, they vete punished with the gallies for life. The Minister was sentenced to die, and if any persons liar., booted him in their house, or facilitated his escape, they were condemned to the gallies for life. Such was the state of the laws respecting the Protestants up to that period. French legolators also said that how ' ever severe in their enactments, they were mild in their administration ; and what did they adduce as a proof of the leniency with which they were adminis. wred ? that in the period that elapsed between 1745 and 1770, only eight Protestant Ministers heti been hanged !—(Hear, hear, hear.) The marriages of Pro. testants were illegal ; their children were bastards, and the Government might take . them away to edu cate them in the Catholic religion. At seven )ear's of •age a Protestant child was authorized to become a Cathelic. In a particular instance, forty marriages had been annulled, the husbands sent to the gallies, and the wives to hospitals, as common prostitutes.— These tales remained in force ti.l 1787, when Louis XVI. softened them, desirous to make Iris subjects • happy, and surrounded by Ministers disposed' to 'se. cond his disposition. Among his papers had been found a memorial from his Secretary of Stara., the Baron de Breteuil, in favour of the Protestants, and letters from the celebrated M. de Malsherbes on the same subject. Unfortunately, the reform was carried too far; yet all the calamities that ensued arose from the good intentions of the King, who wished to give to his subjects a degice of freedom which be thought them capable of enjoying. The first act of the Re volution was to relieve the Protestant,, and in a short time a Protestant was elected President of the Na. l tional Assemble. The Protestants would therefore ; not pos.ess the feelings of men. if thty had not no- I mired that Revolution which had rescued them from the condition of wretched utiles:es, a:id restored them to the common rights of society. But this was not used against them, and they were branded with the appelistion Bonapareists, but without foundation. They were, and must have been, naturally attached to the Revolutien, but when it degenerated into acts of tyranny, no Protestant was found an actor amongst them. Not one Protestant had voted for the death of the King, without adding that appeal to the people which was the only way left to members of tee Assem. blyto save him. N Protestant had ever held a scat in • the Revolutionary Tribunals of the Deputation of the Gard. Under the reign of Robespierre, 130 'persons had been guillotined at Nismes, and of those above le° were Protestants- The population of the De. putation of the Gard consisted of 320,000 persons, of whom 100,000 were Protestants. At Ni.mes, the proportion was still higher. The whole population that city was 40,000 souls, and the Catholics :amounted to 23,000, and the Protestants to 1.5.hu1h They were all on the side of moderation and of jus tice. In May, 1790. some murders had taken place, Lac from that time ell distinctions between Catholics arid Protestants had ceased to exist. In 1602, Bona parte, then First Consul, bad proposed and passed a law that had raised the Protestants still higher, and. had placed them exactly in the same state as the Ca tholics. This was a real benefit, and they felt it as such; and yet were they to be considered criminal, because they , were grateful to the man who had con , Jetted it 'you them ? It was known that be had pro cured them those advantages; it was thought that they must be attached to him, and on that account they were viewed •with detestation, and marked out' . as persons who deserved to be persecuted by those' who would prove that they- held Bonaparte in abhor. rence. Yet, under his reign, no Protestant had cent mantled in the departe.ent, or filed a seat in their tribunals. Indeed, the latter could only be done by a man who bad been educated in the law, and Pro testants had, till then, been proscribed from that pro. fessiorn They were, however, in the full enjoyment of their rights when_ Louis XVIII. was restored.— Bonaparte was then become as odious at Nismes as • in other parts, as the inhabitants were worn down with taxes, and • irritated by repeated conscriptions, more cruelly felt where families lived retired. The if,y of all parties at the first restoration of the Xing WAS sincere and unanimous. Unfortunately in the course of the ten months which elapsed before Bona parte's second appearance, very considerable change of opinion had taken place. Many ancient Nobles bad rettioned after a long absence, and brought back their former distrust c: Protestants. The IQwer or. tiers of the Catholics caught the flame, and reports were spread in every quarter of o speedy return to the ancifn regime. The Protestants had hitherto con. . sid.ercd themselves completely secure, although the King's Charter did not leave them on the.footing to which Bonaparte had raised them, but gave . a full and decided preference to the Roman Catholic reli gion as that of the State. They could not forget that Louis XVIII. returned from amongst us, a Pro. teetent country, where he had received, be would not call it protection, but all the offices of friendship,. and *hey looked torward to the peaceable enjoyment of all the benefits which they still retained. By degrees, liewever, a different feeling arose. From the begin ning of 1814, they were insulted by the populace, who threatened them with a renovation of the Saint Bat tholo'mew massacre, and told thew the tinwwould *own come when the, 11110014 ave the satleia l anon of .washing their handl ieetbelsiocal of Protestants, and that only one religion Wouliebe suffered in trance-- Spirits were in thetatate of anxiety when Bnnaparte suddenly re-appeared, notwithstanding the Peotest ants expressed their determination to support the King with the same teal as the Catholics. On the 13th of March a declaration was made by the Muni cipal Body, the chief inhabitants, and the Clergymen of both religions, at Nismes, expressing the warmest attachment to the King, and pointing uttt the danger and impropriety of listening to the invitations of the disaffected. It was signed by Mr. Donuts, the ' Mayor, a Protestant, the five Catholic Clergymen, and the three Protestant Ministers, besides all the respectable inhabitants of both persuasions. Shortly after the Duke of Angouleme established his head quarters at Nismes, and it was made a grievous charge against the Protestants that they did not join him. This. he believed, was partly correct. They had been alarmed and deterred by all those reports circulated before the appearance of Bonaparte, and it was not astonishing that they should nut join the Duke of Angouleme in great numbers. But the rich Protestant inhabitants of Nismes contributed largely, and offered their sons to the Duke. As the number was but small, it was deternsined, however, not to receive them, and not one Protestant was ad mitted. It was not till the .sth April that Bonaparte's authority was proclaimed and acknowledged, and en the King's second restoration they displayed the white standard on the 156 July. It bad been repre sented that between the sth April and the 15th July acts of the greatest violence had been committed by the Protestants on the Catholics; and that after the return of the King the latter had only retaliated.— The fact was, that no act of violence had been com mitted during that period; not one house had been destroyed, and only one man had been killed, and in a manner entirely unconeecred with political or reli gious differences. This he had on information which be thought was entitled to full credit, whilst on the other side nothing but assertii ns were advanced.— The town had all the time been commanded by a Catholic, General Gilly. On the 15th in July, when the white standard was hoisted, and Nismes had once more become a Royal City, numbers of men flocked in, armed themselves, and required the garrison left by General Gilly to surrender. It consisted of 200 Protestants, who capitulated, laid down their arms, and, in defiance of all honour and justice, were mur dered in cold alood, very few only escaping by flight. Nismes was teen plundered, the habitations of the Protestants broken into, their furniture destroyed, and individuals carried away in carts, concealed from their friends and the public. Houses were burnt, villages destroyeil, vineyards torn up by the roots, and all manner of horrible excesses committed.— In the streets of Nismes thirty women were subjected to the molt shocking cruelties ; and if the statement he had received was correct, no less than 200 persons were murdered, and 3000 persecuted in various ways, such as must be revolting to the feelings of every ci vilized nation even to hear of. One man. far ad vanced in life, who had never meddled with politics, was thrown by them over the ballustrades of his house, dragged by the mob from his own door till he expired; in another family five brothers were mur. demi, and in another seven. The leader in all these outrages was a wretch named Trestaillen, who, though he had been twice i,, custody. h ad never bees brought to punishment.—( (Isar, hear, heart.)—He was one of the National Guards, and the first time he was apprehended he was released. In these Guards no Protestant was admitted, and by a Proclamation that had been issued, all persons were to be disarmed who were not capable of belonging to those Guards. The Learned Gentleman went on to eelate a number of other cruelties that were committed at the times ' and places to which he alluded, amongst which he instanced a fact of the digging up of the body of a young Lady, which had been buried three days, and asserted, that all these crimes were suffered to be committed with impunity. When these things were known, could any man say that he believed the French Government had done every thing in its lower to protect the Protestants ? The Learned Gen tleman then entered into a detail of the events which occurred at Nismes previous to and atter the 21st of August, the day appointed for the Meeting of the Electoral College, describing them in the same terms as they appeared in the public papers. He read a number of Proclamations issued by the French Go vernment at that period, and contended that it was impossible the disorders could not have been imme diately pat a stop to, if the Prefect and other Civil Witten. had not been actuated by the most violent spirit of animosity towards the Protestants, as there were at Nissnes, reviewed by the Prefect, no less than 24 companies bf infantry of the. National Guards, foi ming tin ee battalions, and one company of cavalry. This force the Prefect bad armed on the day pre ceding the election, and yet on that very night many murders were committed ; and in one of the Procla. mations that were issued, the people, on being ex horted t 3 remain tranquil, were reminded that these excesses were not novel ; that crimesot the same kind were committed before the King recovered his authoel titer, under a power which was blasted by HEAVEN and detested by man.— (Hear, hear. hear.}—The inure ders were continued till the 24th of August, when the Austrian troops marehed in, and tranquillity was restored. The National Guard was then sent out of the town, and ordered to remain in the Cevennes, where theycreated similar disturbances, representing the pro. plc as being in a state of rebellion, which required the presence of the Austrian troops the same as at Nismes. On the very night that they quitted Nismes, Tres taillon was taken into custody again, but he was not brought to justice, nor was one mats' apprehended for the murders that had been committed. The Lear ned Gentleman here read another proclamation of the Prefect, tending to guiltily the outrages, by stating that the popular indignation had not been disgraced by a spirit of robbery. The House, be said,.sbould recollect, that it had been asserted these disturbances were entirely political ; but the fact was that they were entirely religious, and the people suffered 'on account of their religion. To say that it was a poli tical contest was merely a pretext, .and many of the persons who were promised safety and protection by the proclamations of the Government were fnardered in could blood. Oa the 12th of November the Pro testants, in the confidence of this proffered protection, assembled it their Church, and many were murdered.' the whole being either wolgadod or grossly ill•treated. a • Thektftnatte or hia Malraq, on hearint4 Nibs via. Woe othit former Ordinances, was that dfileakneess 'being merely expressive of regret, and a perinadve to moderation. In bbort, the dfficulty o* publishing any thing against the murderers had been screened by the French Government itself ; but every at tempt was made to suppress_truth, and it could never be learned through the medium of the French press. He was himself in the Chamber of Deputies, when it was stated by M. D'Argenceaux, that Ines- Liens had been committed in the South, and instead of desiring . a Committee of Inquiry, as would have been done in this House, several Members called him' to order for having dared to assert that such events had occurred, and yet this was only a fortnight be fore the atrocious outrage took place in which Gene. ral Legarde was nearly murdered. An Honourable Member of this House was present at the same time in the Chamber of Deputies, and could bear testi mony that the affectation of disbelief =the part of the Deputies was exactly as he related it. Sir G. NOEL here rose and called the Right Hon. and Learned Gentleman to order. He thought it must be considered as highly improper, that any Member of this House, who was present by courtesy ' in the Legislative Assembly of another nation, should take notice of their observations, with a view to ground any motion upon them. He thought it not consistent with propriety that any Gentleman in such an important situation, as a Member of the-British House of Commons, should take upon himself to unsure the conduct of. persons in situations equally great, in their own country.—(Loud cries of No, no, Go on, go en.) Sir SAMUEL ROMILLY resumed. He fancied he could remove the scruples of the Hcn. Member, that there was the least breach of confidence on his part, by stating that what he had related, as having beard in the Chamber of Deputies, was published the next day in all the Paris Papers. Four Deputies of the Assembly enured a sort of protest in the paper called La Quotidintne, against the Proclamation which stated that the rioters in the South consisted of no thing but a mob of women and children. He read .1 Proclamation issued on the 4th November, relative to the attack on General Lagarde, in which it was said, that nothing but the punishment of this init. crews assassin could save the 'country—it offered a reward of three thousand banes for his appreh.n• sion, and said to the peo i sle6 4 you know him well, and can immediately bring him forward." Yet no steps were taken to bring the person guilty of this crime to punishment. Why did not the Na tional Guard march out to suppress these outrages, which were said to be only those of women and children ? What had all this to do with Bonaparte The temples of Protestant . worship were at length opened, and he was ready to admit that no excesses had been committed since December. The animo sity, however, had net ceased, and he was credibly informed that the Protestants were continually in sulted and driven away from the public walks; they were informed against for utiering such or such words and were imprisoned and exposed to the pillory on' charges of having sung improper songs. It was an extraordinary picture of the administration of justice that crimes of this magnitude should pass unpunished, and offences of the most trivial nature coMmite d by Protestants, be visited by vengeance. Every thin g , 'however, sheaved that the Protestants were insecure, as no assailant of them had yet been brought to jus tice. Thus the time might come for letting loose en the Protestants of Nismes all those persons who hod marked them for victims. The Right Hon. Gen tleman, in conclusion, observed that any proceedings on the subject should take place on the part of the House; he only wished the aovernment ef France should know what was the feeling upon it in this country, and he asked for information, that. it might be understood the Protestants had suffered on ac count of their religion, and not for their political opinions. It had been said that they were I.l..ml partists, merely because they were Protestants; and that all the Catholics were Bonaportists.— This he had shewn was fallacious, and he wished it io be seen whether Government had done all in their power to stop these excesses. We had a precedent for our :interference in the case of the natives ea Africa, on which the strongest expression was maul. felted in an I out of the House on behalf of our fel low creature a There were two Protestant armies at Paris, at the time these excesses took place,, and his Cathelic Majesty could not hack out of his palace, without seeing cannons loaded and matches lighted; a deep responsibility would, therefore, rest upon us, if it should appear that at that moment we bad not interposed. It could not be denied that even now troubles and disorders of the-most serious nature ex isted in the South of France; and what might we not apprehend would be the situation of the unhappy Protestants of Nismes ? We ought to consider what .sort of resp osibility would fall upon us if we ne glected to ask for information, and refused them the pretectien whi:h it was in our power to hold out. He concluded with moving that an humble Address be presented tea the Prince Regent, praying him to direct that there be laid before the House copies of all communicatians that had taken place between his Majesty's Gover tment and that of France relative to the sufferings of the Protestants in the Soul of that Kingdom. Lord CASTLEREAGH said, it was with deep pain he felt that there had existed those troubles which should give rise to any invidious degree of re proach towards a Government with which we were in a state of cordial amity, as such a feeling was ' likely to do great harm. The Right Honourable and Learned Gentleman had placed him in a most' ' embarrassed s nation, by stating a number of local feels to the House, as if it were a body that had either the right or power to inquire into them. He felt it his duty to protest against that false policy of the Honourable and Learned Gentleman, which he would invite the House and the country to adopt Were we to be embarked hy the Honourable and Learned Gentleman in a system of interference with the internal affairs of other countries ? If such policy were adopted as he had most unnecessarily and un wisely dwelt on to-night, what could be expected but that the most black and bloody scenes of the most unenlightened centuries would be revived, and all those passions re-excited which had subsided for ages ? The Honourable Gentleman had said he did not mean to charge his Majesty's Government with y on this subject; but surely he did not expect = Ministers would intake with the internal regu. ' - tatH et;te i; iu nt n e ng u i c b dp h f l a v e n sv i th e sai w i e Tl r s eEd G a h, s iis o m h nLep v i e j e : sea e te n tr o zdsi t i: a t ,( l n i ; : .at t d kr o itle . ief, c ic H rnt n ic :e :: : :: ;; l: a ,; 4 til d he :pti. i .i nl c; n l:,n s : in ute te lid; u l).at.,, e .:,i x inetliti t. :.,,t,if: t G ha o t ver a om st e )r o t t of to c ti o ie un e t t e c n e a s n se c s e w la )t i li be h e e a d : oo • re e l, : gee n y this h he av e the part of his Majesty's Go vern ment tii their horror at whet had occurred : but if the R e a: Ministers Ho nourable were an d d policy adopted by certain persons in this comitry, was egregiously mistaken—Wear, ,;;;; were convinced that by such a rdicy they would have done more harm titan good ; and unless the prudence of such persons arrested them in their pr o , press, he had no hesitation in saying they mend e e crease the calamity they were desirous re sein e —The fact was, that there were particular elecss : I France which had been disgraced by locel enie e tee, AS had heretofore disgraced ceitain pints ef ties Ee l . pire, and which all the wisdom and ener g y c ,f tee Government had not : been able to put down i er 4 length of time. It was within his own rectlieciea that in the county of Armagh two sects wee. t e ep • e e war against each other for the sp a c e o f two leers ' , and the arm of the law was not able in All teh e ke to prevent their excesses.—(Hear, hear).—lirliat would the Honourable Gentleman say if Any eireign pop cr were to apply to this Government, and insist that we should euppert the Catholics against the PunCstatits, —(Near, Lear).— Would such interference b e ee e . rated ? He trusted that there would only he er e common feeling in the House on this •tittjeet, lie regretted that such a state of thiess base existed ; but it was singularly mateereess, that the Hon. and Learned Gentleman seould admit that none of the circumstances should h ere taken plac e since December, and now come to harms/ up nar feelings with tales of the severity of religious perste). don exercised on one side. He ought at least to tette coloured the picture as highly pa the ether, mid h. we corrected the errors of both, and not to have fltt ered the passions of one religious sect, while tart ware tearing each ether to pieces. He felt that he seeele not act consistently with his duty, if he did net •d. vise Parliament to be silent on site!) a topic. Ile would not deny, that the communicant.:, led taken place between the two Governments to which the Honourable and Learned Gen slime alluded, and the result had satisfied tsliniaers, that his Catholic Majesty had been most sinsersly desirous to pat an end to the disturhanees.— The Noble Lord then, to shew that the Preiestene in the South of France were hostile to the interests the Bourbons, re..d a long series of extracts trout le t , tern he had received irom an able and cot& ientia! person who had been in that part of the country fit the purpeee of ascertaining the real causes of the du turbances and the senaiments of both parties. noel described the Presestents to be inflated with the re volutionary ascendancy they h:td acquired, and u .have succeeded in ptocuring for themselves a znej‘i rity of the public offices and places of emolument.— ' (Loud and In continued lausliter.) The restoration the Bourbons led to their dismissal on account of thei known principles, on which they became the enereir of the Government, and were most zealous in beitel of the Usurper at the time of his return from EN: When the Duke of A ngoulame, who was in the Suet of France, heard of his landing, he hastened t Nimes and used every exertion to check his es vance; bet his design was clue. kted•by the atrocieu desertion and treason which welt place amongst h forces, and the rest of Ids followers Fleeing dispersed about '2OO of them fell victims to the fury ut the Punts, tants. The Noble Lord, after reciting this impala:lt fact, for the authenticity of which be vouched, reeinia reading 'the communications he had received, w:tit'l detailed a number of particulars represent* 01 hostility of the Protestants to the present systems Government, and the writer of which asserted the most of the accounts which had appeared in th English Newspapers of the disturbances in thot ,,,arts, were either sltogetlter false, or extremely exact Aerated. He added, that the number of lives lost the department of La Garde, tell considetably s!eit • lthiO, and not more than 300 persons were Lille at Liters in all the disturbances diet had take place. Tranquillity, however, he (Lord Cestlereagli thought had been much in dereeer from the senate in which the silleisct had been taken up by the iht. testaut Societies, whose exertions on the occasion ti ferred to, though dictated by the best possible motive. had, in his, opinion, been calcol tted rather to extva the ravages of intolerance, than, to check the ev which had been so much deplored.—(Ther, k•ar.)- lie commented oa the injurious tendency of bringie tcrward a motion like that of the Honourable all Learned Gentleman on this suaject, live mouths Ate the Department of Le Garde had been restored to state of tranquiiiity and with respect to the clusee ofoilicers, SllggeAt'i as essential to the peace of th. •Depaitinent, he apprehended it would not he 35AZ - I ted that it was for the English Government to dicta to the King of France the course proper to be V ' sued in the choice of his officers. p05i , ..0 the letter described the Protestants of Fiance to L greed, alas stied at the proceedings of the Is'eeiety i England, which, whiles grateful :Or the :noises thein e they could not but view with deep regret. II believed he had now communicated to the tleuse honest a picture of the late transactions as any ms could furnish. From this it would be seen that tt King ot -France had shewn no disposition to indele a spirit of pet secution against the Protestants, an that the disturbances had seen of a partial and not ta general nature, and appeared to originate in loss I causes. He maintained no good could result Intl trumpeting to the world exaggerated statements an highly canoucing one side of the picture to SI in odious contrast to the other. (Bear) It wig! not to•be assumed that all the faults were on one zed , Ott these iv:stands, feeling that every thing had bee done that could wisely he-dune; believing the Neat :Government to be sincerely anxious to put a stop ; the evil (and what interest could they have not to d so), and protesting against any right that we migi •be supposed co have, from cur present relations wit 'France, to intermeddle with its Government, or 1 take any step which one independent country migl not take without offence to entailer, he must oppes this motion. He knew the Honourable and Learnt Gentleman would not wish to shake the Frencit Gi vernment ; but there were yet many spirits abroa who, if encouraged, would be ready to . do this, b an appeal to the benevolence of I:oglislunea for yt,