Star. — London, England, 1816-01-31 00:00:00

_ • e !;:- ArDINNIRGII .PAUTAIT/INT marrow. Thur,cl r , the 15th Instant. a ndmerons ainil sir epecttible Meefng was held in the 'Merchants' NIA on dte subject of die Persecutions of the Proteetiolo in thr South'of - Franee. The Chair,,nas take* b 7 the Rev. Mena cam's WitzWoon, Bart: • - •• • The hodness was openit k ! r y ; the Rev.. ARDasw TeolgsON, Minister of St.' e's, who entered at considerable length into the *rasa the question.", He began with adverting 'to the attestptikWhieb been made to prevent this sad similar meetings from taking'plaee, onto bring diestedit on their proceedings, by attributing their all to the feelings of party. :This . *induct he condemned and reprobated. and considered as elf , rding a nselittchedY sign Of the times. No sooner did. we mow an . hisy institution and enter. rise that was oft rs*. to certain Gentlemen, than, en spite of its extension and Usefulness, it gas intone. diatrly branded by them with the odious title of a party eseasure. And this despicable niodes4 injoring a gbod cause hkd been soot Industriously practised on the present occasion. It had bememployed to drier Ds from doing what we thought ourselves bound, to do, both from a senseot duty, and from feelings of pity and he supposed they had flat:ered - themselves with the hnpe,aince they could not Made 'atom taking place. of rendering icat least very thitiand Seryfrqit• le-s. He was happy . hoive ver, to perceive from the mat ber tind reiPectability of those now present, that these alarmists were in the fair way of beingdisappointed. He, for his part. , disclaimed' all- patsy politics in the case. But if to please those gentlemen they must be party men, he would tell them to what party be be. loNied. He belonged to the party of those who loved stiW wank! protect and cherish the plant of religious liberty, ii:liether it grew in our 01,11 land or its *land of foreigners. He was of the party of thole who pi. tied the self rings • of their 'fellow-creatures in every country, and would - be always 'ready to sueteh forth to them the nand of sympathy end relief. He Was of Vie party of the British Government, who bid exercised tut pity that we were now told to repress, and were wing their hest endeavoera.to put a step to the perm cuticos in euation. He was of the party of the French Or.veriiment, so far as they had exerted themselves for accomplishing the same object ; and finally, he was of the party of chowh en who w engaged in the cause of freedom, religion, and hurmanity, and, conscious of the purity and uprightness of their motives, would dis. d .in and trample upon all the imputations which could be brought against them, by whomsoever they were adduced, in whatever terms, or through whatever channels they were conveyed, and with Whatever eon. s'quences of personal obloquy and loss they nsightula timately be attended. After noticing the absurd de. Dial of the fact that had been at first attempted, Mr. Thomson proceeded to consider the allegation that the persecutions in the south of France were not religious bat political. This, he begged leave to remind the Meeting, was an ancient and a stale pretext ; it hair been used from the first ages of Chrisvanity down to the present day; it had been much used in our own country, where - those men to whom we owed ru: c;vil and religious liberties nem perpetually stigmatized as rebels and traitors ; it had been used in every one nt the persecutions that had formerly taken place in Fr.:nce ; and therefore such an accusation was to be retarded in the present instance with the greatest jeJ.• lousy and distrust. He begged the Meeting to consi der who the persons were with whom the pretext ori ginated. It did not originate with disinterested spec tators—with those who are free from all suspicion - of inisrepresentation.—No ! but with the very men who were guilty of the persecution. They pillaged, and murdered, and committed every possible outrage on the Pt otestants ; :end then; besmeared with the blood of innocence, and laden aids the ' spoils of the poor . victim* of their malice, they come forward, confess their enormities, 'and vindicate themselves by saying, it is not because they are Protestants that we' have rubbed and butchered them, but because they ate Bo napartist:. Was it possible, he asked, for one moment, to give credit to these inhuman monster: ; or to believe that if they inflicted spun the Protestants the greater injury, they would - not, to palliate their own ir.B:ct upon them the less; that they would sot readily, in such circumstaaces, calumniate those whom they bad murdered in cold blood.— Neat came the evidence to .support this theory,' borrowed, let it not be forgotten, from the per lecutors themselves--and that evidence seemed to consist chit fly of two documents—a letter from the Ditke of Wellington, and• a letter from M. Moron, the President of the Protestant Consistory at Paris. Mr. T. quoted a passage from the Duke of Wel. lingten's letter, to 'hew that his Lordship's testi. •mony was by so means conclusive. The passage was this, that * the religion of every individual ts, in general, the sign of the , political party to which he belongs." If hit Lordship meant • this posi tion to • be of general application in every coun try, he would ask if every man wh o beard him did aor repel it os a gross insult, both an his ntulerstand. ing and on his conscience ? And if it was twat to • apply only to the Protestants in France, then lie would • web, if the Meeting were prepared to believe, even on his Grace's authority, that their Protestant brethren at Nismes . and" its neighbourhood were not actuated by any good religious principles; or that being Pro lestants, they were conseqeently adherents oaf Zona. isatte ? Was this credible a priori or was it consistent with fact? Wts Bonaparte supported by Protestants stone, or chiefly ? Or was it not notorious, that Car . 'holies and Protestants indiscriminately supported him ? What then did Lord Wellington's letter amount to It acknowledged 'that the Protestants b a d suffered injustice and vieleace—it gave an account of the cause of those evik which carried• its own irefutation in its very bosom—stad, sbe tt f or e, a ll that is left behind is his Lordship's testimony to the bet-itself, on which we are prepared to reason as well os the noble author, and to draw our own independent onaclusions. The nest document, M. Moron's let ter, Mr. , T. observed, was, if possible, still more in. • conclusive and upsatisfactory on the side of our opponents. He did not like, to speak disrespectfully any man situated as Moron woe, but be could not pass by a ;labile fact, 'whicb went CO impair that gen. tieman's testimony very much.' It was notorious that • he wags a prodigious flatterer of Bonaparte. No sooner was B o naparte-driven froth the throne than•be became as prodigious a flatterer of the Bourbons; sod i n s h ort , b e a ossoad to be s complete Vicar of Btey, who had ._ • • jdst Watipled.ast of standing WI *kb th - b seignintfamily ; and surely be was not man to ewe all the ins Beet credit which had been el for him on the neldeet of the persecution. But there -was anothelfactrof importance.. This M. Mason vres in Landes de lice as November last ; and though he did not come for the purpose, yet he took occasion in every company to excite the compassion of chi; coun try for the offering French Protestants, and to stir ns up to exenion in their behalf. This, indeed, is Very unlike the strain of his But then, let its be remembered, that' after he returned to Paris, he was sidled before the Police, questioned and tutored, or influenced In such a way, that be wrote the letter which has been so triumphantly produced. True, he sent,soth a letter to the Secretary of the London Society, but true it is also, that he sent it id these sus,' picious circumstances ; and he had no sooner sent it, than he wrote another letter to another correspon dent in .London,decliring that he had acted under tandnt controul. But granting that all this statement were incorrect, Mr: Thomson would go to the letter itself, and 'hew, id * * few words, that it really made a great deal m ire Meal; than for our opponents. Here he *ould press upon the Meeting an important dis tinction. M. Mahon': letter goes to vindicate the French Government from the charge Of persecution. Now, that may aptly to those irho had advanced' such a charge. but it.clid hot apply to us, by whom no such charge was advanced. The resolutions to be • submitted to the Meeting, and which, bi trusted, would be adopted, did not contain the roost distant insinuation against the French Government, but 'rather acknowledged their exertions in repressing the persecutions. Oa this point, therefore, all that Mat ron says in his letter is quite inapplicable to our pro ceedings. But then he doesa great deal more than we opponents could have wished him to do en another point : he confesses the fact of the persecu tion ; he says expressly-- The sufferings at Nismes are great, doubtless"—that is, the sufferings about which the correspondence bad taken place—the suf ferings inflicted by the Catholics oa the Protestants. Here, then, the persecntion.is :acknowledged by M. Mason to be great, undoubted, and, as appears from the conclusion of the sentence, to - have been otiOng a duration." Macon adds—" but they are local :" there is nothing wonderful in this, for almost every persecution has been local ; and in the present in startee, there is an important and alarming reason for the locality. Ni , mes is the head-quarters of Protes. tantiun—it is very heart of the system in the South o: France ; destroy the system there, end its destruction will soon and easily follow in all other parts. M. Mason goes on to say, that is local causes may have contributed to provoke and to prolong the duration" ni the Protestant sufferings. Here, said Mr. Thomson, it was important to observe, that Ma. I ron's statement is extremely hypothetical; be does not assert, but only supposes--and this proves nothing; :old Viet: his supposition is the most harmless pos. sibl , —lor he only supposes that local i. e. political 'causes, :tray have remelt:ord to the sufferings of the Protestants. He does not venture to allege they ion dowithem,-eithcr wholly or in any great degree, but only that they 44 contributed to provoke them, and to prolong their duration." Mr. Thomson could not leave 'hi% precious document without noticing bow easily its kevvrend Author seems to take die suffer ings of his brother, and what a very trifling recom pense he is disposed to be contented with. He is quite satisfied and delighted with what be calls a very nattering distinction that had been conferred by the Royal favour On the Protestant Pastor of the Ce vennes—and what is that distinction-64 the decora tion of the Legion of Honour." Thus far for the letter of M. Karon, of which so much had been said, and to which so much importance had been attached. Mr. ThoMson next considered the alleged fact by which it had been attempted to support add explain the political theory of this case, and spewed that they were either false or irrelevant. He dwelt particu larly on the resentment and jealousy said to have been excited by the Protestants having purchased the church lands. He maintained that, granting this fact in its utmost extent, it just rendered our inter ference the more neceisary, and our alarm the more reasonable. How came it to pass that these lands had been purchased by Profeitants More than by Ca tholics ? It was in consequence of the superior ex cellence of the Protestant faith. It was there uit was in every other place, accompanied with more in. telligence—more industry—more prosperity, and more wealth ; and as it was in consequence of the opetation.of Protestant principles that the Protestants had acquired more wealth and purchased more land, then the vengeance directed against them by the Ca, tbolics on this account was directed against them as Protestants ; and consequently-it was a religious per secution of the most dangerous kind, and called kindly for our interposition. After adverting to the pretext that the Catholics were only resenting what they 'had .suffered from the Protestants in the year 1790—an allegation which he deemed not to have any good foundation, and the argument resulting from which destroyed. itself.' inasaucit As the Prow" tants might have said, in 1790, this is only avenging the massacres of St. Bartholomew.itc.—and also ad ' vetting to the. tion that the Protestants bad been not only attached to Bonaparte, but cruel to the adherents of the *Due d'Angouleme, and *hewing that Catholics were as guilty as they and that on one occasion they even protected and befriended them whom they are accused of maltreating. Mr. Thomson stated some particular circumstances which Operated directly against the political theory. Not one Catholic holder of the church lands, or Catholic adherent of Bonaparte had suffered.- The PrOtattaids were attacked indiscriminately, whether they were holders of church lands or not—whether they were Bourbonists or Bonapartist. The Protestant chards were attacked, and public worship, prevented--an assault and hued-option of a purely religious kind: And finally, what was mostalanning of all, ay the comproinise into which the Protestants had been obliged, for peace sake, to enter; their new places of worship are to be built without the walls of the town, and thushad affixed td their faith and theircause; a stigma of the most degrading atid*peruicious kind. —Mr. Thomson apologized to the Meeting for having detained them so long.. Bat he could not sit•down without expressing his hip satisfaction at the appear. ante of the present Meeting and his ardeht hope that theiiefforts would be attended with the happiest ef fect. - He had 'heard, from . good authority, of a a‘, rims purpose fora comic& meeting. But lie had' no - • . • • übjeillon ; he would only Padua thole Who made t piwipos4l, that it might happen In this case at it h penal% music, cosimer *vim were the most shlrssu to be procured. He had put great conedencein heart and understanding and was perstiaded. that though they differed in Minor points from 'Mil Meet ing, they agreed with ns perfectly in the substadce of the question.—Let them meet then—the roomer the better—they could not but protest against the atrocities that had been perpetrated—they could loot but sympathize with the suffering Protestants—tley l could not but offer to them such rciiniary relief as their circumstances required. Very well; this isust what we *ere going to do ; and by thus joining our sympathies and our purses, though in different meet ings, we might anticipate an excellent result, and attain the object which we all profess to have in view. Mr. Thompson then read a series of resolutions, and moved the Meeting to adopt them. The Reverend Dr. MiCate seconded the Regain lions.—Although unwilling, he soli, to obtrude himself upon the Meeting, ~e felt so lolly Convinced of the - propriety of the resolutions, and so deeply in terested ou the subject to which they related, Ow he could not refrain from expressing :is sentiments. Not could he deny himself the pleasure of paying a me rited tribute to the Reverend Gentleman whit) had just sac down, and who on this occasion had displayed' his usual ability, decision, and 'independence, egard less of the clamour of those who have ascribed all meetings of this kind to the operation of party spirit. Besides, those who were decidedly hostile to all decla ration of public feeling on the late suffetings of the French Protestants, there were others who hesitated its to the propriety of the measure. They were stag gered by the contradictory statements that had ap peared respecting certain facts. Now, for the great body of the facts there was unfortunately too good, evidence; and considering the nature of the case, it was no matter of wonder that there should 'be a d.s• crepancy in the accounts of some of the particular cir cumstances. In how many instances, during the late war, had the death of some of our countrymen been reported, not only in private letters, but els.) in the official dispatches, and yet it had afterwards turned out that they were alive. It deserved particular no tice, that those Newspapers which had most keenly opposed public meetings for expressing sympathy wish the persecuted Protestants of France, had, be lore these meetings were held, declared their full be lief of the atrocities committed at Nismes and its vi cinity, imputed them chiefly to religious bigotry and tanaticiarn, and excuipatet: the :'‘Jtestants from the charge of being more attached to Bonaparte than the Catholics were. In confirmation of this statement, the Doctor read a variety of extracts from one of the London journals. He then entered at length into an examination of the evidence upon which it has been alleged that the Protestants have suffered on account of their political principles and -:onduct since the Re volteiun. That they took a share in the political transactions of that period, and that some individuals among them might be guilty of very improper con duet, he did not mean to deny. But be most posi tively denied that any evidence had been adduced, which proved that they as a body had done any thing to merit the forfeiture of civil or religious privileges, much less'exposure to pillage and massacre. He ani madverted with severity upon a paper which was said to have been communicated to the Duke of Welling ton, and had been extensively circulated in this coun try, under the title of " Accurate and Authentic De tails relative to the Affairs at Nisnieb;" in which it is averred, that the Protestants, at the commencement of the Revolution, massacred and pillaged the Ca tholics, and viewed with satisfaction the completion of the rigicide. The only proof produced for this was, that they thereby anticipated the speedy accom plishment of their favourite project, the establishment of federal republics, having, in one of their General Synods, laid down a plan for the division of France 'into 81 Federal Republics. What must. the Meeting think of this accusation, when they understand that these Federal Republics were—Presbyteries! In the tribunal which arraigned and condemned Louis XVI. were a number of Catholic priests ; in the list of sur viving regicides, lately published, were two of this class, a Bishop and an Abbe ; but nut a single Pro testant. In the southern provinces, where the Pro testants are most numerous, eloquent protests were taken against the regicide, while the rest of Dance either approved of the deed, or was silent. In the department of Garde, during the bloody reign of Robespierre, out of one hundred and thirty-six victims who fell under the strokeof the guillotine. one hundred and twenty. were Proteitants. The only tie whi:ll at tached them as Protestants to the government of Bo naparte was, the security which they enjoyed under it for their religious liberties.. The only consideration which could indispose them to the restoration of the Bourbons, when' this came to be contemplated, was the natural dread that their religious liberties would be exposed to hazard under them.--When these fears were removed by the assurances of that family, guaranteed by the Allied Sovereigns, they submitted with the greatest alacrity to the .sceptre of•the descendant cif Henry IV. TO illustra• tion of the causes which produced alarm in the breasts of the Protestants, as well as other classes in France, and which contributed to. the astonishing return of Bonaparte to the throne, Dr. bliCrie read an extract from " Paul'; Letters to his Kinsfolk," a work which had just eadde its appearance, which (he said) was ascribed to the pen of a celebrated poet of this city, and evinced no ordinary degsee . of impartiality upon subjects which had -of late so Much interested the feelings and the passions of men. The Garde only received the impulse from•the neighbouring de partments. The Magistrates of Nismes, stmounting to upwards of forty persons, were all Catholics but two; so that whatever vexations were committed, during the time that Bonaparte overspread the king dom, could not be imputed to the Protestants of that city. The white flag was displayed by the inhabi tants as soon as the troops who kept themin awe had quitted the town. After an• illustration of this and similar topic', he concluded that there was nothing in the conduct of the Protestants io that place which ought to diminish our sympathy for them, and that the cruelties which they had suffered proceeded from the rancour of the bigotted part of the Catho lics, and of an Ultra-Royalist faction, whose object it was to depiive the natioit'of both civil and reli gions libtrty. On the subject.of British ioterference with the Government of France, in behalf of the Protestants, be made another quotation from the St - • • Lett rs totrlstri; flit nlioned, irn,i y t o terference might. have infittence,u per manner; that the security an p gion abroad is a defence t. ) i t at ! mu all times when this country fiat hern ed. she has claimed and ectcised tlk te k e , s i nn in behalf of the teformtsl British people had a right to nitres, a on this subject ; and when en many of vernments of Europe had been restor e and treastue, without any stipulathr religious or potitical liberty, it %maid just to refuse or grii •!e us the rxercisi in a case where ouch stipul .. e It is alledged that this *lli have a i f tate the Government and the p:ople 4 ma y b e ao for it is extremely difficult approbation of the conduct of tubers, ing them. Bat the irritation will be a an.' 'kill soon ab.tte, while the rood p temperate, hut firm expression 111 t h e this country, may be expected to be M'Crie conclu fed by expressing hi the complexion of the assembly, and the gre•st nunib-r of the ustabhshed c pn.sent, and sshu, from the active al which they had already taken in tl ' cut off every occasion of representing having originated in any views that peculiar to the dissenting interest. The Resolutions, which br”athed of humanity, were then react over after some friv.al alterations, unania l .A Committee was appointed to obi and to ciil another general mewin found necessary, either for the pur mending a subscription, or giving 5 , the information they shall procure n The Meeting was attended by Cierg ligious persuasions. On quitting thanks of the Meeting were unanir Sir HENRY MONCRIEFF. . Monday sennight the first trial Causes, in Scotland, took place at 1 Ri i - s fit Hon. Witt-um Anise pre.si.le missioner, and Lord . 4 ie-toov.samt, ',CUT as assistant Judges. The L missioner, betcre proceeding in clic the Court, made a suitable Address, palmed on the advantages ut the tr first cause related to a Stearn-Enl grinding flour at Stockbridge, n which the neighbouis complained of The Jary revarned a verdict, final Engine was useful, and not offensiv, BIJRGLARIRs.—NI - )nday morning warehOuse of Mr. Masnows, in Pnn fields, was entered by thievei, who t perty to the amount of 4100, with ceeded to get clear off. The same el shop, in Houndsditch, was robbed carpeting. Another warehouse, Mawr&lds, was broken into, and Spanish wool stolen therefrom. nee the LORD M, the prostitutes it: the City to be apprt to 136.1ga:e11, the envitoas have bee with unfortunate creatures of that terday several of them were brougl neightxmrhooti of the Strand, by tl Clement's parish, an 1 committed to Gark; a as committed for tion, charged with robbing the hoe mond, diamond and glass-m innfactu Accimi,NT--Yesterday iu Black/rine tleman was driving a one - horse chaise his wife .and daughter, a ch'l.l thin age, the horse took fright at Abe b. which Was 'drawing a buteber's.barr went. and became wholly unmanag rushing forward on the pavement, t, chaise came in contact with the iro area, when by the shock the child wa area and taken up senseless. The L man were alio throws out, the last broken, the former fortunately escape chaise was broken to pieces. LANGsDORFF'S VOYAGE ROtTND THI Second and concluding Volume of tf celebrated Naturalist: has at lengt 'contains the Narrative of his VoyA chatlna-to the Aleutian Islands and of America, and return by land ovc part et Asia, through Siberia to Peter never before performed. The tabs this distinguished Traveller has bad of making, possess great claims to his principal object has been to dew Land customs of the different nations I. diction of the countries, state of con Gentlemen and others who have tad are about entering into conjugal armed that Dr. Coors,, and tia: great and long experience in Strictur , bilities arising front warm Climates, ( actions, &c. &c. have established a at Charlotte-house, Great Charlotte the Rev. ROWLAND times Chap , road, by whom the public are cure ' , aim air confinement. The Medic the attention of those who have atte or who have consulted men ignorant a branch of the profession, whose Dint have ruined thousands. Blotc face, and body, sore eyes, throat, me vertigo, noise in the ears, deafness, pains to the head and limb;, frequet: rheumatism ; weakness in the knec,, bones, swelled ankles, &c. are sy.iir pear years alter, and too often embed mai state. Messrs. Cool ca and Cc daily by all ranks ()I peuple, from tv or by letter, incloing a tee (ftir nr swered), stating their case, why . 'n n: best advice is sent to all pats tit the cure' the piles aild fistula, wo . t:hiitit hut and give advice gratis, on Tuesday, Sunday mornings, till 12 6'ctl;Fic private mitts lw lemales.--MetLa/ tad evitAthor Patiaar, are proaa Jur Wll list 70.440AKU* A • Morning 5U 1' Afternoon - S M LONDON: Printed by Laves KENT, published there, and at the star (Nike,