SELECT REVIEWS. On the late Persecution of the Protestants in the South of France. By Helen Maria Williams. 8vo. pp. 62. Price 3s. 6d. [From the Eclectic Review.] OUR Countrywoman in Paris, has availed herself of an advertisement in the English Journals, containing the words"H. M. Williams's Confession," to introduce to the British public a Letter on the late Persecutions of the Reformed in France. Whether anxiety to perfect her exculpation, zeal for the Protestant interest, or any other feeling of a more ordinary and business-like nature, dictated the correspondence, we presume not to determine; but this letter forms a bulky pamphlet, of 62 pages, of very large bold type; and besides a great deal more of extraneous matter, one whole quarter, that is from p. 16 to p. 32, consists of the tale of other times, and anecdotes of the sufferings of Protestants in the good days of Louis 15th, &c. &c. The Letter is however highly important, from the circumstance of its being written by a distinguished Protestant in Paris, who must have had access to the best informed persons in the Protestant Communion, and also to many respectable fugitives from the various scenes of desolation. And it is still more important, as it is written by a devoted admirer and a voluntary panegyrist of the Bourbon family, under whose reign these unhappy events have taken place. The Times, the Courier, and even the Christian Observer, may surely venture to quote this Pamplet, as pure and high authority.Does Miss Williams, then, with the last publication, style the tragedies of the South, "PRETENDED persecutions?" or, with the others, describe them as the mere factious struggles of Jacobins and Bonapartists? - The following extracts will furnish our readers with the means of forming a just decision on this point: The persecutors of the nineteeth century have not entered into the niceties of religious belief; they have not, in the indulgent spirit of their predecessors under Louis XIV, proposed the alternative of "La messe ou la mort;"—" repent, or perish; become Catholics, or we kill you;" they have proceeded at once to execution; their victims were marked, and they have plundered and murdered as their fury directed, wherever they found Protestant property, or persons professing the Protestant faith.' From whatever cause this violence has proceeded, the Protestants alone have been the victims. Were it a local insurrection against property or lives, such as sometimes has desolated parts of France during the revolution, the assailants would not have been so discriminate in their choice. It is on Protestants only that their rage has fallen: and the selection of the professors of this faith appears to them an unequivocal proof, that it was an organized religious persecution. We were for a long time incredulous; and, what added to our incredulity on this subject, was, that this persecution should have taken place while the country was in possession of the Protestant powers of Europe, by either of which it might instantly have been crushed. The silence and inaction of these Protestant powers, led to the disbelief of such violence arising from such a cause; but diplomacy is observant of etiquette, and interference with the internal government might have been deemed a humiliation of royal authority. The foreign troops were also too much occupied in skirmishes, and sieges, and in re-forming the museum, to heed disturbances in the departments: no French army existed. 'What then were the crimes which have drawn down on the heads of those respectable Calvinists, the persecution of which they have been of late the victims? Crimes! their foulest enemies bring none to their charge. One leading cause of this persecution dates from far: it is a renovation of that old spirit of fanaticism, which once infected even the court; and which, driven from the powerful and the great, now sought for refuge in the lowest of the multitude.' In comparing the former and the present state of the Protestants, with that from which they have lately been reduced, Miss Williams does homage to the revolution, the abuses of which she will not be supposed to advocate. 'Amidst all the various phases, (she remarks) of the French revolution, the star of religious liberty had moved calmly in its majestic orbit, and cheered despairing humanity with a ray of celestial radiance. Amidst the violations of every other principle, the domain of conscience appeared to be consecrated ground, where tyranny feared to tread." The revolution took place, fraught with all happy omens for the Protestants. They cast their eyes back on the iron bondage of the past, on the edicts of the last hundred years against their fathers, and blessed the dawn of religious liberty. Yet during the constituent assembly, how many hesitations, exceptions, and discussions took place on the subject of the Protestants! It was with some difficulty, notwithstanding the proud promulgation of equal rights, and equal laws, that they obtained the privilege of being tolerated. Rabaut St. Ethienne fought against the Abbé Maury, under the shield of Mirabeau, who exclaimed, "that he knew nothing more intolerable than toleration." 'The Protestants were now tolerated in the public exercise of their worship, and enjoyed their civic rights, but they received no portion of what was allotted to the ministers of religion by the government; to whom, on the contrary, they paid an annual tribute for the hire of the churches in which they officiated. Their state was that of temporary tranquillity-but it was not confirmed repose.' p. 33. And, finally, alluding to the reign of Bonaparte, she makes this full and candid declaration. Whatever might have been the advantages to the pope, the church, or Bonaparte, from this compact, the Protestants completely gained their cause. It was no longer the persecuted, or the tolerated sect. They were at once enthroned in rights equal to those of the Catholic church, and became alike the objects of imperial favour.' p. 37. But no sooner does our letter-writer come down to the period of the restoration, than she adopts the language of apology; and is even compelled to acknowledge, that a sad reverse has been experienced. The royal family of France (she says) returned. By some oversight in the king's charter there was mention of a state religion, and the Protestants were consequently obliged to sink back to toleration. The charter had been less favourable with respect to their religious rights than the concordat; but they were justly satisfied in believing, that their religion could never have been safer under a ruler, indifferent to every system of faith, than under the protection of a pious and philosophical prince. Secure in the virtues of the monarch, and the lights and philosophy of the present times, they little dreamt that they should ever become again the objects of religious persecution.' 'It might have have been hoped that the conduct which the Protestants had observed since that glorious epocha which confirmed to them their religious rights, would have disarmed the most rigorous of their foes. They had showed no exultation in the victory they had obtained; their joy had been confined to their own bosoms, or breathed in secret thanksgivings. The blessings of the revolution had not been perverted by them to any private advantage; they had not been forward to solicit the honours, but had always cheerfully borne their share in the burdens and charges of the state. 'But no conduct, however void of offence, can disarm the ma lignant passions. The tranquillity enjoyed by France during a few months after the first return of the king, presented no means to the fanatics of gratifying their rage, except by menaces. 'We were then far indeed from any conjecture that the disastrous event of the landing of Bonaparte on the coast of Provence was so near. He glided rapidly by the southern provinces, and established himself at Lyons. His presence affected the Protestants in no other manner than as it affected all other Frenchmen. 'Amidst the most important changes in the state, many partial disorders took place in various parts of France. Partial insurrections were formed, and various outrages committed at Marseilles, Montpellier, Toulouse, Avignon; and the disorders of Nismes were long believed at Paris to have the same source, and to be no other than the last convulsion of political contests. But it was at length recognized that, when the troubles which had prevailed in other provinces were hushed into peace, the department of the Gard was still the scene of violence and horror. 'It was found that some evil of a darker hue, and more portentous meaning than the desultory welfare of political parties, hung over the devoted city of Nismes. A fanatical multitude, breathing traditionary hatred, was let loose:-the cry of "Down with the Hugonists!" resounded through the streets. Massacre and pillage prevailed; but Protestants alone were the victims. The national guard of Nismes, composed of its most respectable citizens, had been dissolved, and a new enrolment of six times the number had taken place, and in which many of the fanatics had found admission. Here, and here only, by some cruel fatality, the national guard betrayed its trust, and abandoned its noble function of protecting its fellow-citizens. In vain the unhappy Protestants invoked its aid; no arm was stretched out to shelter, or to save them!— their property was devastated without resistance, and their murderers were undisturbed.' After such testimony, it is unnecessary to offer any arguments; we shall therefore conclude by an extract, which, though sufficiently bombastic, will prove that Miss Williams differs as much from the apologists of persecution in this country, on the character and conduct of the dissenting ministers, as on the nature of those evils which they have laboured to arrest: The high-toned and generous resolves, proceeding from the three denominations assembled in London, and which were reechoed by all other denominations, were not unheard in France. This intervention was the calm commanding voice of a great people lifted up against persecutors, and claiming kindred with the persecuted. Its sound in Paris was noble and persuasive; and it glided over the South like that sacred harmony of the heavenly host, which spoke to the watch of shepherds "of peace and of good-will."" Leaves. 8vo. pp. 184. [From the Eclectic Review.] In seeking an appropriate title for these little poems' says the author, I have feared to imply too much; I have called them Leaves.' But what leaves are they? rose-leaves, of faint but undeceiving fragrance, fit for a lady's dainty apparel; or bay leaves, or myrtle leaves, such as may form an evergreen chaplet for the bard? Or are they such leaves as nobler trees in the exuberance of their strength put forth in honour of the spring, and shed with the changing season to the passing breeze,--leaves whose only value was their freshness, and which we tread upon in soberer age, and moralize on their decay. Our author has taken for the motto on his title page, They are leaves that have fallen, we suppose, in the silence of contemplative solitude. The volume consists, in fact, of a series of poems, of very unequal merit; some of them are imitations from the Italian; others reminded us of Gessner's Idyls: none of them display any considerable degree of energy of mind, or originality, but they are for the most part highly elegant and pleasing. They are such productions as would never confer distinction on their author's name, but yet they afford no reason for conceal ing it. Children' are the subjects of most of them. 'Beauty,' 'Attachment,' 'Sensibility' Evening,' are the titles of others. The author scarcely attempts any thing of a higher character. They are what the title designates them,-leaves. We select the following as no unfavourable specimen: 6 THE CHILD LOVE, AND GENIUS. 'IT chanced in lonely vale afar, By woods, and purple evening shaded, That Love, with tiny pomp, paraded. "And mine the scene, and mine the hour!". But as it fell it crushed the flower, His own dear flower when joys betide him! 'Then sorrowing wept the wayward child, And lent his lyre,—with amaranth twining, |