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

_ •
e!;:- ArDINNIRGII .PAUTAIT/INT marrow.
Thur,clr, 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 openitk!ry; 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 who 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
bad suffered injustice and vieleace—it gave an account-
of the cause of those evik which carried• its own
irefutation in its very bosom—stad, sbettfore, all
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 Bonaparte-driven froth the throne than•be became
as prodigious a flatterer of the Bourbons; sod in short,
be aossoad to be s complete Vicar of Btey, who had