2 FRENCH PROTESTANTS. Nismes, Aug. 13, 1816. "Yesterday was a day of triumph for all the fanatical and bigotted populace of Nismes. The famous brigand, TROIS-TAYONS, returned to his home at ten o'clock in the morning. His accomplices, who, like him, have escaped the justice of the laws, were about to erect triumphal arches before his house, and form a procession throngh all the city, accompanied with hautboys and tambourines; but it is believed that the authorities interfered to prevent these public transports, and these things did not take place. Nevertheless, this brigand received the visits of more than twelve hundred persons, who cried with acclamations, which almost split the head (à tue tête,) "Lou rey deis Bourgades es arriva," "The King of the Bourgades* is arrived." "The arrival of this monster within our walls, with the title of King, has put an end to the mystery, and has explained to us why some victims have been already put to death on the scaffold-others sentenced to ascend it— others sent to the galleys for life, or for many years--and why others are groaning in the prisons ;-while their accusers, the murderers of their families and the robbers of their property have been triumphantly acquitted, are tranquilly enjoying the comforts which their crimes have procured them, and are eagerly employed in celebrating, with their chief, his return to this city. "This mystery is further explained, by the conversation which the robber Magné, General of the Banditti, (assembled at Beaucaire, in June, 1815,) had a few days since with a citizen of Nismes, who was travelling the same route, on the subject of the arrest of the fanatical Boissin, the assassin of General La Garde. Replying to a question which the citizen put to hìm ou this subject, Magné said—“ This man will not perish-it is the policy, and also the interest of the Government to save him-that it may not weaken the party." "Magné spoke from experience." "In general the fanatics of this department are determined to do nothing which the King may order; but as far as it shall be conformable to their will. It is for this reason they will not re-organize the national guard according to the ordonnance of the King. This also would weaken the party; if they were to discharge the vagabonds (gens sans aven), assassins, thieves, the sweepers of the streets, and the shoe-blacks. It is thus that the Jacobins of the white cap decide. We are yet ignorant if the administration, will support them in their resolution; at present nothing moves, nothing indicates any amelioration. "Trois-tayons, paid his visits this day, dressed up in the habit of the na tional guard, and with a sabre under his arm. This has revived the former audacity of his partizans and accomplices so much that many Protestants have already been insulted. "How has this monster, accused of the murder of more than forty Protestants, been able to escape the authority of the laws? There can be but onc answer;—It is because he has most powerful friends. * The name of the suburbs inhabited by the populace who have pillaged, whipped, and murdered the Protestants. FRENCH PROTESTANTS. "During the fêtes which were given to the Duke D'Angoulême, at the time of his last visit to Nismes, the busts of the royal family were placed on a stage richly decorated, surrounded by valuable trees cut from the estates of Protestants, and the stage was placed directly in front of the house in which Trestaillon lived before he was arrested. "You know that the first lieutenant of Trestaillon, Trufény, who was arrested on the same night with his captain, was honorably acquitted. The Protestants, sufficiently courageous to accuse him before the tribunals with having assassinated either a father, a brother, a child, or a relative, considered as false witnesses, were imprisoned. Two days after the same brigands accused five Protestants, with having wounded in the hand, a Catholic of the name of Riche, a walking vender of lemonade, a man held in abhorrence by all virtuous persons, and who is charged with having reduced his own daughter to the situation of a prostitute. The judgment of the Protestants was as follows; Sauze, called Le Pur, and Deylau, father of twelve children, to the pillory, the hot iron, and the galley for life. Gourdoux, to the chains for ten years, the hot iron, and the pillory. Sauze de Pinet, to the galley for seven years, the hot iron, and the pillory. Deylau the son, to the galley for five years, the hot iron, and the pillory. 46 Mark the contrast-Trestaillon enters Nismes in triumph. A respectable widow murdered near her own house, ought to have been avenged by the justice of the laws. Her own children and her neighbours, witnesses of the abominable crime, of which they knew the perpetrators, after having lodged with the Procureur-royal a circumstantial deposition, were compelled to withdraw it; because, one night, the assassins visited them on purpose to inform them, that if they deposed the truth, they should pay with their lives for their imprudent courage. "The prisons are full of Protestants, who are detained under the most frivolous pretences, suffering, many of them during a year, in the most unjust and cruel captivity. It is only in the month of July, 1816, that leave has been granted to perform religious worship with the prisoners. "No justice for the innocent; no punishment for their murderers-such is the situation in which the Protestants find themselves up to this day.” The Committee have received from the Churches, in the Vallies of Piedmont, an account of the distribution of the Sum which was destined for the immediate relief of the Pastors and the Widows of the Pastors, accompanied with an expression of the support which they experienced in the Christian kindness of their brethren, and the great benefit which they had derived from the amount remitted to them by the Committee. About the same time they received information, which induced them to hope that the situation of those interesting Protestant Societies would be materially improved, especially as it appeared that they were to be permitted to reopen the Temple of the Commune of St. Jean: but from communications subsequently received, and from which they subjoin an extract, it is too evident, that they have little to hope from that Papal intolerance under which their fathers suffered the loss of all things. FRENCH PROTESTANTS. Extract of a Letter written from the Protestant Vallies of Piedmont. "A Committee of English Pastors of The Three Denominations of Nonconformists, having learnt the true state of distress in which the greater part of our Pastors groan, have voted a sum for their immediate relief, to be distributed among them according to their necessities, and to the Widows of the Pastors, some of whom are really in the greatest indigence. “The Court had promised, it is true, to assist them, but to this period, these fine promises, have been only the sound of the cymbal. "What indeed can be expected of a Court, which in permitting us to open the temple of the commune of St. Jean, after having been shut morę than a year, has not granted this permission but on one of the three following conditions, between which we must choose; either to submit to the will, that is, the caprice of the Curé for the hour of service,--or to have always the great door of the church closed,—or to raise a wall to the height of twenty feet the whole length of the front: this last condition has been preferred." A French foot is more than a foot measure English. Collections and Donations received since the last Publication. Rev. Mr. Bulmer and Congregation, Haverfordwest Rev. Dr. Carey's Congregation, Box-Lane Rev. Messrs. Grundy and Robberd's Congregation, Manchester, in addition Rev. Dr. Estlin and Mr. Rowe's Congregation, Bristol Rev. Mr. Bincliffe's Congregation, Selston Rev. Mr. Eastman and Friends, Stalbridge Rev. George Redford, M. A. Uxbridge Meadows Taylor, Esq. Diss Sincereta. Two-fifths Proportion of a Sum for full Restitution, made by a young Man, for Encroachment on his Master's Substance, during the Time of his Apprenticeship A. S. F. 2.10 600 5 0 0 2 0 0 200 Contributions will he received by the Rev. T. Morgan, Williams's Library, Red Cross Street; and such as are designed for the immediate Relief of the Ne cessitous VAUDOIS, or WALDENSES, will be exclusively appropriated to the Fund established for that purpose by the Committee. To be had of all Booksellers, 1. The REPORT on the PERSECUTION of the FRENCH PROTESTANTS. By the Rev. CLEMENT PERROT. Price 2s. 2. A SKETCH of the past and present STATE of the VAUDOIS, or WAL DENSES, inhabiting the Vallies of Piedmont. By Rev. T. MORGAN. Price 6d. THE following observations on the List of Nismois who were taxed in the extraordinary contribution of one hundred millions of francs, levied by the French government, will serve to illustrate the character of the persecution to which the Protestants of France have been exposed. The list of individuals, and their several proportions, is in the possession of the Committee appoiuted by the general body of Protestant Dissenting Ministers of the Three Denominations, and will be inserted in the Historical Relation of the Persecutions endured by the French Protestants, now in the press, and very speedily to be published. "The List contains about 190 individuals, and is composed as fellows:--- 2 Ex-Generals, a class not usually taxed 157 Protestants, although the Protestants 311,369 form but one-third of the population While artificers, bakers, retailers of vegetables, &c. Protestants, to the number of 14, have been placed on the list, and taxed from 825 francs as high as 1375 francs, is it not astonishing that 9 Catholics out of the 12 taxed, are found in the lowest proportion, that of 825 francs, though most of them are very respcctable, and some very rich? "It would be easy to place opposite this list another of the same length, of persons who have not been included in the taxation, but whose fortunes are immense. At the head of this list we might place M. M. Trinquelague, De Calviere, De Bernis, all three Members of the Chamber of Deputies, the son of Trinquelague, married to Mademoiselle Baron, with a fortune of 150,000 francs; M. Baron, his father-in-law, Judge in the Royal Court, immensely rich; M. Vidal, a great capitalist, and named in 1815 by the Duke D'Angoulême Commissary General of Police for the Department of the Gard, &c. &c." Though informed in their last accounts of assaults on the persons, and injury to the property of the Protestants. and of the depression under which they still languish, the Committee are happy to state, that up to that period there had not been any renewal of the general outrages which had destroyed, impoverished, or exiled so many of their fellow-Chrsitians.→→→→ The guilty, however, have not been punished; the most active enemy of the Reformed, M. Trinquelague, is still Secretary to the Minister of Jus FRENCH PROTESTANTS. ce; their persecutors have been re-chosen as Deputies to the new Chamber, and the leaders of the fanatical bands have been promoted to places of emolument or influence. Three of the most notorious, Soucho. Vampére, and Terme repaired to Paris, and were immediately appointed Commissary Appraisers at Bourdeaux, Montpellier, and Nismes. For this comparative tranquillity, the Protestants invariably express themselves to be indebted to the persevering efforts which the Committee have felt it their duty to maintain, for the alleviation of their sufferings, heightened as they have been by the severity of the season, and the scarcity of provisions, they acknowledge, in all their correspondence, their obligations to those generous persons, whose liberality has enabled the Committee to communicate to them remittances more valuable than professions and words. E. B. Collections and Donations received since the last Publication. Baptist Friend, Brightoh Ditto Ditto Rev. Mr. Maurice French Hay - £100 0 0 A Friend in the Country, by Mr. J. Garland, Plymouth Dock W. Rev. Messrs. Pringle and Black's Congregation, Perth J. T. Mr. Wm. Smith, Mugmoor House, Minchinhampton Mr. John Warner, Edmonton Rev. T. Davies's Congregation, Coed-y-cymmar D. Evans's Congregation, Rhaiadr, Gwy D. Lewis's Congregation, Aber W. Lewis's Congregation, Tredustan ----- A. Hedley's Congregation, Longframlington Balance from a Benevolent Fund Rev. Mr. Vowles, Tottenham Mr. Tumor, Basingstoke W. B. Bath Contributions will be received by the Rev. T. Morgan, Williams's Library, Red Cross Street; and such as are designed for the immediate Relief of the Ne cessitous VAUDOIS, or WALDENSES, will be exclusively appropriated to the Fund established for that purpose by the Committee. To be had of all Booksellers, 1. The REPORT on the PERSECUTION of the FRENCH PROTESTANTS. By the Rev. CLEMENT PERROT. Price 2s. 2. A SKETCH of the past and present STATE of the VAUDOIS, or WAL DENSES, inhabiting the Vallies of Predinont, By Rev. T. MORGAN. Price 6d. |