The National Register. — London, England, 1815-12-24 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTJER. I .1 ~~ ~~..~ *II. I t ants Zatui. -R ~ twi , `,4*(f PUBLISHED AT NO. 89, ANCERY-LANS ) LONDON. ;%: art e t but tto. 417. SUND IBER 24, 1815. .' 14: ,• •marl Pale* PP- POLITICAL DISQUISITION. 4M.P.01 PERSECUTION OF THE PROTESTANTS, And the Right and Duty of British Interference to Sup port a Free Press in Prance. THE cry of persecution is gone abroad; and we are lappy to say that in this country, at least, our brother Pro testants in France have been heard with ready attention, and eager alacrity to fly to their aid. We would gladly have presumed, that those who in the early days of the revo lution escaped from the guillotine to take refuge in England against the violence of those of an opposite party, whether In religion or politics, had learned, in their exile and pilgti mage of twenty years, to feel the injustice of all violence upon matters of sentiment and opinion; but we cannot shut our eyes and ears to the truth. The return of the emigrant royalists hag given loose to the powers of darkness in the form of popish bigotry ; and we, who remember what in London, even in modern times, was the effect of a religious cry amongst an unbridled mob here, with all the power of the country eager to suppress it, may readily picture to , ourselves the excesses which a similar spirit of enthusiasm may produce, when either secretly abetted, or even coldly denounced, by the party of the greatest influence in the state. It appears an indisputable fact, that the Disk. of Angouleme is in modern times one of the most zealous supporters of the papal authority in all its ancient rigour; that while Ferdinand the Seventh is embroidering garments for the Virgin, and restoriugthe Inquisition as the best sup. port of his own authority, raised like Lazarus from the dead, and the Pope himself is reinstatini, the Society of the Jesuits ; this Prince of the blood royal of France is giving eclat to the procession of priests and monks in the Southern provinces; while those priests and monks, in violation of all public authority,are instigating murders and proscriptions of the protestants, not merely from all places of trust and office, but from the free exercise of their industry, whether in professions or in service. We shall endeavour weedily to lay before our readers the details and proofs upon this momentous subject ; we shall watch over the protestant church in France, as ne. cessarily connected with our own; for we are well con vinced, that if it be ever permitted to the spirit of popery• by the means of persecution, by the engines and tortures of Vie iouisition, or the intrigues of the Jesuits, to suppress the reformed church in France, and the other countrieson the continent s its Ambition will not rest there. Vol. VII. No. CCGCXVII. - r~ ,~ nor merely by preaching, but by violence, is manifest in all the proceedings of the Romish Church when in power; and the recent bulls, by.which the Jesuits are re-established, the inquisition snpported, and the pure Freemasons sup _ pressed, are plain indications of its early sense of its revkin.4 energies. It is said, that the disturbances at Nismes are merely political; that they arose out of the rebellious spirit of the protestants, who are enemies to the house of Sour.. bon. That protestants owe any gratitude to tliat house we shall never pretend ; and we can well believe, that when the question was, whether they should live under the pro tection of their late Emperor, who had defended them so many years from internal dissension, they would at least not be anxious in the support of another claimant to the throne. The protestants in their defence, the publication of which was suppressed by the government, with uo markable regard for the satisfaction of justice, deny that they have been the defenders of Bonaparte, and declare the% they are calumniated ; that they are the friends of royalty, and that their sons have bled in the ranks under the Duke of Angouleme. For some time the Government of France turned a deaf ear to the complaints of the protestants; their petition to the King, of July 30, 1815, excited no attention ; and when, Oct. 23, the Marquis D'Artensol stated the reports in the house of Peers, that " the protestant c• have been MASSACRED in the South," and merely wished for enquiry, he was absolutely hooted down by violence, and the President himself was incapable of procuring him a hearing, to defend himself from the charge of malignity...—. Yet shortly after issued a tardy decree, interdicting the interference with the protestant worship ; and no sooner does the decree appear, than a French General, endeavour. ing to enforce it, is assassinated in the town of Nirmes, and the perpetrator of the outrage escapes. In the mean while, pamphlets are published by the King's printer against the protestants; and a memorial is presented to the Duke of lington, confessing the disturbance, but attributing it en tirely to political dissensions. This memorial we have recently perused, and venture to say that it increases , s pur alarm ; since, if it. could be credited, that the protestant§ of the South, now that the French army is as a body des troyed ; Bonaparte secured in an Islam' formed by nature fur a prison; his adherents, some under sentence of banish- ment, others shot ; and all Europe combined,..vith 150,000 men as their vanguard, quartered upon France, threatening vengeance against the slightest revolutionary movement ; if, we say in this hopeless state, we sho_nld (Lad.tile,protetaitut =