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

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
continents its Ambition will not rest there.

Vol. VII. No. CCGCXVII.

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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 ,spur
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

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THE N

still reluctant in their submission to the Bourbons,we must
believe that our brethren of the reformed religion, after 12
months experience of the paternal tenderness of the re.
turned emigrants, aie driven to absolute despair, and prefer
instant martyrdom to a lingering oppression.
But this cannot be ; we confidently feel, that no religion
is so little hostile to a good government as the Protestant.
Give protection to worship interfere not with private de.
votion, with the tranquil meeting, and the pious unpretend.
ing psalmody of out brethren, who ask no pomp of proces.
lion, and no splendour of decoration,—no theatre of gaudy
mummeries, for their offering to the most High ; and their
religion Emphatically teaches them submission to the powers
that be. Protestants are, by religion, good subjects every
where ; for it is of the very essence of their religion, to
preach peace, and to spread its doctrines by preaching, and
by prayer and exhortation ; not by whips and scourges,
and faggots and buntings.

We are not ashamed to say, for our own parts, that we
feel alarmed at the present progress of Popery. When the
revolution first appeared, we were in hopes, that if it should
be subdued for the preservation of legitimate thrones, it
would not be used as a means of raising au impenetrable
barrier for the support of that most illegitimate of all
thrones, the Papal chair ; uniting temporal power in one
of the fairest portions of the globe, in one of the most re_
nowned cities of all ancient and of all modern times, with
a vicarious, secret, inquisitorial authority, over the better
part of all Europe.

To judge from recent events, Popery, far from being
extinguished, or in its wane, is reviving with furious strug-
gles, and hastening to march firth rapid strides ; and if the
modern Charlemagne hath fallen, his fall is the signal, not
merely for the deliverancelbut for the spiritual and Catholic,
that is universal, supremacy of the Church of Borne.—
Eight thousand emigrants have lately, it is s'id, returned
to France. With their return, the protestants in that coun-
try are expelled; their temples are closed ; 4he general, who,
under the authority of the king, protects their worship, is
assassinated ; their ancient priests are murdered. In Ire-
land, the power of the Pope is acknowledged by a majority
of the people, in all things spiritual ; and negociations are
entered into with him, to ax the nature of his authority over
them, upon which he iNnwillitig to come to an explana-
tion, awaiting the chances of his reviving power. In Eng.
land, a Cardinal Legate (the first4iince'the days of Ban.
tier and the buntings in Smithfield) has been received at
London, with the permission of the Government, deco.
rated with the distinctive marks of his dignity, " in the
same manner," says the present Pope, " as he wouid have

appeared in Rome, the Capital of the Christian World.'
n one district in Ireland only, the Papists have lately
snide 500 converts ! The number of public chapels erected
bete in the last 2Nyears by the Papists,is 900; and we have
monastic illgitUtioll3 in 'Eaddatd) and a great collegiate se.

L REGISTER.

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. 24,

minary at Sto. neyhurst. Who can doubt, then, but that
Popery bath increased, is increasing, and ought to be
diminished.

The Powers of Europe have combined to throw down a
monstrous imperial and political tyranny: let them beware
that they do not assist in the replacing of a pontifical and
spiritual tyranny.
Far from thinking it indecorous or unnecessary for be
Protestant Governments to inteyfere with the internal go.
vernment of France, as far as respects religion, after-giving
its sanction to the Charter, we think it the bounden duty.of
all true Christians, to prevent the extinction of the light of
Christianity in France, by supporting and protecting the
Protestants, by guaranteeing to them the liberty of Wor.
ship, and the liberty of the Press.
We have not time to pursue the subject furtherat pre.
sent ; but after reading the note that accompanied the late
treaty, and which faintly recognizes the Charter, and boldly
denounces vengeance against all actual insurrection of the
people ; we, as friends to our religion, cannot but regret,
that, in this re-spect,:we appear to have actually interfered
with the Protestant part of the people of France, to subject
them to the dominion of the Pope ; and, if it so please the
King of France, to the power of the inquisition, without
the opportunity of an appeal to reason, and to the public
of Europe.
Looking at the present state of the Press in France, and
particularly to the instance given in suppressing the defence
of the Protestants, we are compelled to say, that we have
no hope of our divine religion extending itself, in the spirit
of truth and of peace, over Europe, unless a free press 15
established wherever the Papal authority is set up ; and
wherever English blood has been shed, we hope it will be
compensated by the recovery of freedom; the establishment
of free worship, and a pres. 4; without which, in the shape
of cheap tracts, and repository pamphlets, little hope can
be now had, for the support of the Protestant Church
abroad.

We write on the eve of Christmas, and we feel the awful
sanctity of the approaching hour. The Birth of Christ, we
trust, was not for the suppression of all choice in matter
of religion. His blood was shed by a cruel persecution
and we pray to God, that the blood of Englishmen may
nu•ver he again shed, in maintaining the horrible system of
that violence and terror by which the Papal tyranny is sup.
orted.

The commissioners for ascertaining the boundarsr line be-
tween Carolina and the territory of the Indians of the South
West were about to commence their journey. It has, however,
been deemed necessary that they should be accompanied by a
strong military force. The English residents have taken into
consideration, a plan for making new roads to extend to the
Lakes St. Lawrence and Champlain ; this is done with a view
to encourage a commercial intercourse with the Americans in
that quarter. The completion of the scheme would reduce
considerably the prices of American articles, compared with
what is now paid. The jlrojeet for a canal from Albany to
I ..aloe Erie is revived, 'which is expected to prove of great ;tau-
lAnctit.

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