Soon after this, the papists forced Dr. Bedell, his two sons, and the

rest of his family, with some of the chief of the protestants whom he

had protected, into a ruinous castle, called Lochwater, situated in a

lake near the sea. Here he remained with his companions some weeks, all

of them daily expecting to be put to death. The greatest part of them

were stripped naked, by which means, as the season was cold, (it being

in the month of December) and the building in which they were confined

open at the top, they suffered the most severe hardships. They continued

in this situation till the 7th of January, when they were all released.

The bishop was courteously received into the house of Dennis O'Sheridan,

one of his clergy, whom he had made a convert to the church of England;

but he did not long survive this kindness. During his residence here, he

spent the whole of his time in religious exercises, the better to fit

and prepare himself and his sorrowful companions, for their great change

as not but certain death was perpetually before their eyes. He was at

this time in the 71st year of his age, and being afflicted with a

violent ague caught in his late cold and desolate habitation on the

lake, it soon threw him into a fever of the most dangerous nature.

Finding his dissolution at hand, he received it with joy, like one of

the primitive martyrs just hastening to his crown of glory. After

having addressed his little flock, and exhorted them to patience, in the

most pathetic manner, as they saw their own last day approaching, after

having solemnly blessed his people, his family, and his children, he

finished the course of his ministry and life together, on the 7th day of

February, 1642. His friends and relations applied to the intruding

bishop for leave to bury him, which was with difficulty obtained; he, at

first telling them that the churchyard was holy ground, and should be no

longer defiled with heretics: however, leave was at last granted, and

though the church funeral service was not used at the solemnity, (for

fear of the Irish papists) yet some of the better sort, who had the

highest veneration for him while living, attended his remains to the

grave. At his interment, they discharged a volley of shot, crying out,

"Requiescat in pace ultimas Anglorum;" that is, May the last of the

English rest in peace. Adding, that as he was one of the best so he

should be the last English bishop found among them. His learning was

very extensive; and he would have given the world a greater proof of it,

had he printed all he wrote. Scarce any of his writings were saved; the

papists having destroyed most of his papers and his library. He had

gathered a vast heap of critical expositions of scripture, all which

with a great trunk full of his manuscripts, fell into the hands of the

Irish. Happily his great Hebrew MS. was preserved, and is now in the

library of Emanuel college, Oxford.

In the barony of Terawley, the papists, at the instigation of the

friars, compelled above forty English protestants, some of whom were

women and children, to the hard fate either of falling by the sword, or

of drowning in the sea. These choosing the latter, were accordingly

forced, by the naked weapons of their inexorable persecutors, into the

deep, where, with their children in their arms, they first waded up to

their chins, and afterwards sunk down and perished together.

In the castle of Lisgool upwards of one hundred and fifty men, women,

and children, were all burnt together; and at the castle of Moneah not

less than one hundred were all put to the sword.--Great numbers were

also murdered at the castle of Tullah, which was delivered up to M'Guire

on condition of having fair quarter; but no sooner had that base villain

got possession of the place, than he ordered his followers to murder the

people, which was immediately done with the greatest cruelty.

Many others were put to deaths of the most horrid nature, and such as

could have been invented only by demons instead of men. Some of them

were laid with the centre of their backs on the axle-tree of a carriage,

with their legs resting on the ground on one side, and then arms and

head on the other. In this position one of the savages scourged the

wretched object on the thighs, legs, &c. while another set on furious

dogs, who tore to pieces the arms and upper parts of the body; and in

this dreadful manner were they deprived of their existence. Great

numbers were fastened to horses' tails, and the beasts being set on

full gallop by their riders, the wretched victims were dragged along

till they expired. Others were hung on lofty gibbets, and a fire being

kindled under them, they finished their lives, partly by hanging, and

partly by suffocation.

Nor did the more tender sex escape the least particle of cruelty that

could be projected by their merciless and furious persecutors. Many

women, of all ages, were put to deaths of the most cruel nature. Some,

in particular, were fastened with their backs to strong posts, and being

stripped to their waists, the inhuman monsters cut off their right

breasts with shears, which, of course, put them to the most excruciating

torments; and in this position they were left, till, from the loss of

blood, they expired.

Such was the savage ferocity of these barbarians, that even unborn

infants were dragged from the womb to become victims to their rage. Many

unhappy mothers were hung naked on the branches of trees, and their

bodies being cut open, the innocent offsprings were taken from them, and

thrown to dogs and swine. And to increase the horrid scene, they would

oblige the husband to be a spectator before suffered himself.

At the town of Issenskeath they hanged above a hundred Scottish

protestants, showing them no more mercy than they did to the English.

M'Guire, going to the castle of that town, desired to speak with the

governor, when being admitted, he immediately burnt the records of the

county, which were kept there. He then demanded L1000 of the governor,

which having received, he immediately compelled him to hear mass, and to

swear that he would continue so to do. And to complete his horrid

barbarities, he ordered the wife and children of the governor to be hung

before his face; besides massacring at least one hundred of the

inhabitants. Upwards of one thousand men, women and children, were

driven, in different companies, to Porterdown bridge, which was broken

in the middle, and there compelled to throw themselves into the water,

and such as attempted to reach the shore were knocked on the head.

In the same part of the country, at least four thousand persons were

drowned in different places. The inhuman papists, after first stripping

them, drove them like beasts to the spot fixed on for their destruction;

and if any, through fatigue, or natural infirmities, were slack in their

pace, they pricked them with their swords and pikes; and to strike

terror on the multitude, they murdered some by the way.--Many of these

poor wretches, when thrown into the water, endeavoured to save

themselves by swimming to the shore; but their merciless persecutors

prevented their endeavors taking effect by shooting them in the water.

In one place one hundred and forty English, after being driven for many

miles stark naked, and in the most severe weather, were all murdered on

the same spot, some being hanged, others burnt, some shot, and many of

them buried alive; and so cruel were their tormentors, that they would

not suffer them to pray before they robbed them of their miserable

existence.

Other companies they took under pretence of safe conduct, who, from that

consideration, proceeded cheerfully on their journey; but when the

treacherous papists had got them to a convenient spot, they butchered

them all in the most cruel manner.

One hundred and fifteen men, women, and children, were conducted, by

order of Sir Phelim O'Neal, to Porterdown bridge, where they were all

forced into the river, and drowned. One woman, named Campbell, finding

no probability of escaping, suddenly clasped one of the chief of the

papists in her arms, and held him so fast, that they were both drowned

together.

In Killoman they massacred forty-eight families, among whom twenty-two

were burnt together in one house. The rest were either hanged, shot, or

drowned.

In Kilmore the inhabitants, which consisted of about two hundred

families, all fell victims to their rage. Some of them sat in the stocks

till they confessed where their money was; after which they put them to

death. The whole county was one common scene of butchery, and many

thousands perished, in a short time, by sword, famine, fire, water, and

other the most cruel deaths, that rage and malice could invent.

These bloody villains showed so much favour to some as to despatch them

immediately; but they would by no means suffer them to pray. Others they

imprisoned in filthy dungeons, putting heavy bolts on their legs, and

keeping them there till they were starved to death.

At Casel they put all the protestants into a loathsome dungeon, where

they kept them together, for several weeks, in the greatest misery. At

length they were released, when some of them were barbarously mangled,

and left on the highways to perish at leisure; others were hanged, and

some were buried in the ground upright, with their heads above the

earth, and the papists, to increase their misery, treating them with

derision during their sufferings. In the county of Antrim they murdered

nine hundred and fifty-four protestants in one morning; and afterward

about twelve hundred more in that county.

At a town called Lisnegary, they forced twenty-four protestants into a

house, and then setting fire to it, burned them together, counterfeiting

their outcries in derision to the others.

Among other acts of cruelty they took two children belonging to an

English woman, and dashed out their brains before her face; after which

they threw the mother into a river, and she was drowned. They served

many other children in the like manner, to the great affliction of their

parents, and the disgrace of human nature.

In Kilkenny all the protestants, without exception, were put to death;

and some of them in so cruel a manner, as, perhaps, was never before

thought of.

They beat an English woman with such savage barbarity, that she had

scarce a whole bone left; after which they threw her into a ditch; but

not satisfied with this, they took her child, a girl about six years of

age and after ripping up its belly, threw it to its mother, there to

languish till it perished. They forced one man to go to mass, after

which they ripped open his body, and in that manner left him. They sawed

another asunder, cut the throat of his wife, and after having dashed out

the brains of their child, an infant, threw it to the swine, who

greedily devoured it.

After committing these, and several other horrid cruelties, they took

the heads of seven protestants, and among them that of a pious minister,

all which they fixed up at the market cross. They put a gag into the

minister's mouth, then slit his cheeks to his ears, and laying a leaf of

a Bible before it, bid him preach, for his mouth was wide enough. They

did several other things by way of derision, and expressed the greatest

satisfaction at having thus murdered and exposed the unhappy

protestants.

It is impossible to conceive the pleasure these monsters took in

exercising their cruelty, and to increase the misery of those who fell

into their hands, when they butchered them they would say, "Your soul to

the devil." One of these miscreants would come into a house with his

hands imbued in blood, and boast that it was English blood, and that his

sword had pricked the white skins of the protestants, even to the hilt.

When any one of them had killed a protestant, others would come and

receive a gratification in cutting and mangling the body; after which

they left it exposed to be devoured by dogs; and when they had slain a

number of them they would boast, that the devil was beholden to them for

sending so many souls to hell. But it is no wonder they should thus

treat the innocent christians, when they hesitated not to commit

blasphemy against God and his most holy word.

In one place they burnt two protestant Bibles, and then said they had

burnt hell-fire. In the church at Powerscourt they burnt the pulpit,

pews, chests, and Bibles belonging to it. They took other Bibles, and

after wetting them with dirty water, dashed them in the faces of the

protestants, saying, "We know you love a good lesson; here is an

excellent one for you; come to-morrow, and you shall have as good a

sermon as this."

Some of the protestants they dragged by the hair of their heads into the

church, where they stripped and whipped them in the most cruel manner,

telling them, at the same time, "That if they came to-morrow, they

should hear the like sermon."

In Munster they put to death several ministers in the most shocking

manner. One, in particular, they stripped stark naked, and driving him

before them, pricked him with swords and darts till he fell down, and

expired.

In some places they plucked out the eyes, and cut off the hands of the

protestants, and in that manner turned them into the fields, there to

wander out their miserable existence. They obliged many young men to

force their aged parents to a river, where they were drowned; wives to

assist in hanging their husbands; and mothers to cut the throats of

their children.

In one place they compelled a young man to kill his father, and then

immediately hanged him. In another they forced a woman to kill her

husband, then obliged the son to kill her, and afterward shot him

through the head.

At a place called Glaslow, a popish priest, with some others, prevailed

on forty protestants to be reconciled to the church of Rome. They had no

sooner done this, than they told them they were in good faith, and that

they would prevent their falling from it, and turning heretics, by

sending them out of the world, which they did by immediately cutting

their throats.

In the county of Tipperary upwards of thirty protestants, men, women,

and children, fell into the hands of the papists, who, after stripping

them naked, murdered them with stones, pole-axes, swords, and other

weapons.

In the county of Mayo about sixty protestants, fifteen of whom were

ministers, were, upon covenant, to be safely conducted to Galway, by one

Edmund Burke and his soldiers; but that inhuman monster by the way drew

his sword, as an intimation of his design to the rest, who immediately

followed his example, and murdered the whole, some of whom they stabbed,

others were run through the body with pikes, and several were drowned.

In Queen's county great numbers of protestants were put to the most

shocking deaths. Fifty or sixty were placed together in one house, which

being set on fire, they all perished in the flames. Many were stripped

naked, and being fastened to horses by ropes placed round their middles,

were dragged through bogs till they expired. Some were hung by the feet

to tenter-hooks driven into poles; and in that wretched posture left

till they perished. Others were fastened to the trunk of a tree, with a

branch at top. Over this branch hung one arm, which principally

supported the weight of the body; and one of the legs was turned up, and

fastened to the trunk, while the other hung straight. In this dreadful

and uneasy posture did they remain, as long as life would permit,

pleasing spectacles to their blood-thirsty persecutors.

At Clownes seventeen men were buried alive; and an Englishman, his wife,

five children, and a servant maid, were all hung together and afterward

thrown into a ditch. They hung many by the arms to branches of trees,

with a weight to their feet; and others by the middle, in which postures

they left them till they expired. Several were hung on windmills, and

before they were half dead, the barbarians cut them in pieces with their

swords. Others, both men, women, and children, they cut and hacked in

various parts of their bodies, and left them wallowing in their blood to

perish where they fell. One poor woman they hung on a gibbet, with her

child, an infant about a twelve-month old, the latter of whom was hung

by the neck with the hair of its mother's head, and in that manner

finished its short but miserable existence.

In the county of Tyrone no less than three hundred protestants were

drowned in one day; and many others were hanged, burned, and otherwise

put to death. Dr. Maxwell, rector of Tyrone, lived at this time near

Armagh, and suffered greatly from these merciless savages. This person,

in his examination, taken upon oath before the king's commissioners,

declared, that the Irish papists owned to him, that they, at several

times, had destroyed, in one place, 12,000 protestants, whom they

inhumanly slaughtered at Glynwood, in their flight from the county of

Armagh.

As the river Bann was not fordable, and the bridge broken down, the

Irish forced thither at different times, a great number of unarmed,

defenceless protestants, and with pikes and swords violently thrust

above one thousand into the river, where they miserably perished.

Nor did the cathedral of Armagh escape the fury of these barbarians, it

being maliciously set on fire by their leaders, and burnt to the ground.

And to extirpate, if possible, the very race of those unhappy

protestants, who lived in or near Armagh, the Irish first burnt all

their houses, and then gathered together many hundreds of those innocent

people, young and old, on pretence of allowing them a guard and safe

conduct to Colerain; when they treacherously fell on them by the way,

and inhumanly murdered them.

The like horrid barbarities with those we have particularized, were

practised on the wretched protestants in almost all parts of the

kingdom; and, when an estimate was afterward made of the number who were

sacrificed to gratify the diabolical souls of the papists, it amounted

to one hundred and fifty thousand. But it now remains that we proceed to

the particulars that followed.

These desperate wretches, flushed and grown insolent with success,

(though by methods attended with such excessive barbarities as perhaps

not to be equalled) soon got possession of the castle of Newry, where

the king's stores and ammunition were lodged; and, with as little

difficulty, made themselves masters of Dundalk. They afterward took the

town of Ardee, where they murdered all the protestants, and then

proceeded to Drogheda. The garrison of Drogheda was in no condition to

sustain a siege, notwithstanding which, as often as the Irish renewed

their attacks they were vigorously repulsed by a very unequal number of

the king's forces, and a few faithful protestant citizens under sir

Henry Tichborne, the governor, assisted by the lord viscount Moore. The

siege of Drogheda began on the 30th of November, 1641, and held till the

4th of March, 1642, when sir Phelim O'Neal, and the Irish miscreants

under him were forced to retire.

In the mean time ten thousand troops were sent from Scotland to the

remaining protestants in Ireland, which being properly divided in the

most capital parts of the kingdom, happily eclipsed the power of the

Irish savages; and the protestants for a time lived in tranquility.

In the reign of king James II. they were again interrupted, for in a

parliament held at Dublin in the year 1689, great numbers of the

protestant nobility, clergy, and gentry of Ireland, were attainted of

high treason. The government of the kingdom was, at that time, invested

in the earl of Tyrconnel, a bigoted papist, and an inveterate enemy to

the protestants. By his orders they were again persecuted in various

parts of the kingdom. The revenues of the city of Dublin were seized,

and most of the churches converted into prisons. And had it not been for

the resolution and uncommon bravery of the garrisons in the city of

Londonderry, and the town of Inniskillin, there had not one place

remained for refuge to the distressed protestants in the whole kingdom;

but all must have been given up to king James, and to the furious popish

party that governed him.

The remarkable siege of Londonderry was opened on the 18th of April,

1689, by twenty thousand papists, the flower of the Irish army. The city

was not properly circumstanced to sustain a siege, the defenders

consisting of a body of raw undisciplined protestants, who had fled

thither for shelter, and half a regiment of lord Mountjoy's disciplined

soldiers, with the principal part of the inhabitants, making in all only

seven thousand three hundred and sixty-one fighting men.

The besieged hoped, at first, that their stores of corn, and other

necessaries, would be sufficient; but by the continuance of the siege

their wants increased; and these became at last so heavy, that for a

considerable time before the siege was raised, a pint of coarse barley,

a small quantity of greens, a few spoonfuls of starch, with a very

moderate proportion of horse flesh, were reckoned a week's provision for

a soldier. And they were, at length, reduced to such extremities, that

they ate dogs, cats, and mice.

Their miseries increasing with the siege, many, through mere hunger and

want, pined and languished away, or fell dead in the streets. And it is

remarkable, that when their long expected succours arrived from England,

they were upon the point of being reduced to this alternative, either to

preserve their existence by eating each other, or attempting to fight

their way through the Irish, which must have infallibly produced their

destruction.

These succours were most happily brought by the ship Mountjoy of Derry,

and the Phoenix of Colerain, at which time they had only nine lean

horses left with a pint of meal to each man. By hunger, and the fatigues

of war, their seven thousand three hundred and sixty-one fighting men,

were reduced to four thousand three hundred, one-fourth part of whom

were rendered unserviceable.

As the calamities of the besieged were great, so likewise were the

terrors and sufferings of their protestant friends and relations; all of

whom (even women and children) were forcibly driven from the country

thirty miles round, and inhumanly reduced to the sad necessity of

continuing some days and nights without food or covering, before the

walls of the town; and were thus exposed to the continual fire both of

the Irish army from without, and the shot of their friends from within.

But the succours from England happily arriving put an end to their

affliction; and the siege was raised on the 31st of July, having been

continued upwards of three months.

The day before the siege of Londonderry was raised, the Inniskillers

engaged a body of six thousand Irish Roman catholics, at Newton, Butler,

or Crown-Castle, of whom near five thousand were slain. This, with the

defeat at Londonderry, dispirited the papists, and they gave up all

farther attempts to persecute the protestants.

The year following, viz. 1690; the Irish took up arms in favour of the

abdicated prince, king James II. but they were totally defeated by his

successor king William the Third. That monarch, before he left the

country, reduced them to a state of subjection, in which they have ever

since continued; and it is to be hoped will so remain as long as time

shall be.

By a report made in Ireland, in the year 1731, it appeared that a great

number of ecclesiastics had, in defiance of the laws, flocked into that

kingdom: that several convents had been opened by jesuits, monks, and

friars; that many new and pompous mass-houses had been erected in some

of the most conspicuous parts of their great cities, where there had not

been any before; and that such swarms of vagrant, immoral Romish priests

had appeared, that the very papists themselves considered them as a

burthen.

But notwithstanding all this, the protestant interest at present stands

upon a much stronger basis than it did a century ago. The Irish, who

formerly led an unsettled and roving life, in the woods, bogs, and

mountains, and lived on the depredation of their neighbours, they who,

in the morning seized the prey, and at night divided the spoil, have,

for many years past, become quiet and civilized. They taste the sweets

of English society, and the advantages of civil government. They trade

in our cities, and are employed in our manufactories. They are received

also into English families; and treated with great humanity by the

protestants.

The heads of their clans, and the chiefs of the great Irish families,

who cruelly oppressed and tyrannized over their vassals, are now

dwindled in a great measure to nothing; and most of the ancient popish

nobility and gentry of Ireland have renounced the Romish religion.

It is also to be hoped, that inestimable benefits will arise from the

establishment of protestant schools in various parts of the kingdom, in

which the children of the Roman catholics are instructed in religion and

reading, whereby the mist of ignorance is dispelled from their eyes,

which was the great source of the cruel transactions that have taken

place, at different periods, in that kingdom.

In order to preserve the protestant interest in Ireland upon a solid

basis, it behooves all in whom that power is invested, to discharge it

with the strictest assiduity and attention; for should it once again

lose ground, there is no doubt but the papists would take those

advantages they have hitherto done, and thousands might yet fall victims

to their malicious bigotry.

FOOTNOTES:

[C] Although Garnet was convicted for this horrible crime, yet the

bigoted papists were so besotted as to look upon him as an object of

devotion; they fancied that miracles were wrought by his blood; and

regarded him as a martyr! Such is the deadening and perverting influence

of popery.

[D] The king of England was at that time called _highness_, not

_majesty_, as at present.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE RISE, PROGRESS, PERSECUTIONS, AND SUFFERINGS OF THE QUAKERS.

In treating of these people in a historical manner, we are obliged to

have recourse to much tenderness. That they differ from the generality

of protestants in some of the capital points of religion cannot be

denied, and yet, as protestant dissenters, they are included under the

description of the toleration act. It is not our business to inquire

whether people of similar sentiments had any existence in the primitive

ages of Christianity: perhaps, in some respects, they had not, but we

are to write of them not as what they were, but what they now are. That

they have been treated by several writers in a very contemptuous manner,

is certain; that they did not deserve such treatment, is equally

certain.

The appellation _Quakers_, was bestowed upon them as a term of reproach,

in consequence of their apparent convulsions which they laboured under

when they delivered their discourses, because they imagined they were

the effect of divine inspiration.

It is not our business, at present, to inquire whether the sentiments of

these people are agreeable to the gospel, but this much is certain, that

the first leader of them, as a separate body, was a man of obscure

birth, who had his first existence in Leicestershire, about the year

1624. In speaking of this man we shall deliver our own sentiments in a

historical manner, and joining these to what have been said by the

Friends themselves, we shall endeavour to furnish out a complete

narrative.

He was descended of honest and respected parents, who brought him up in

the national religion: but from a child he appeared religious, still,

solid, and observing, beyond his years, and uncommonly knowing in divine

things. He was brought up to husbandry, and other country business, and

was particularly inclined to the solitary occupation of a shepherd; "an

employment," says our author, "that very well suited his mind in several

respects, both for its innocency and solitude; and was a just emblem of

his after ministry and service." In the year 1646, he entirely forsook

the national church, in whose tenets he had been brought up, as before

observed; and in 1647, he travelled into Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire,

without any set purpose of visiting particular places, but in a solitary

manner he walked through several towns and villages, which way soever

his mind turned. "He fasted much," said Sewell, "and walked often in

retired places, with no other companion than his Bible." "He visited the

most retired and religious people in those parts," says Penn, "and some

there were, short of few, if any, in this nation, who waited for the

consolation of Israel night and day; as Zacharias, Anna, and Simeon,

did of old time." To these he was sent, and these he sought out in the

neighbouring counties, and among them he sojourned till his more ample

ministry came upon him. At this time he taught, and was an example of

silence, endeavouring to bring them from self-performances; testifying

of, and turning them to the light of Christ within them, and encouraging

them to wait in patience, and to feel the power of it to stir in their

hearts, that their knowledge and worship of God might stand in the power

of an endless life which was to be found in the light, as it was obeyed

in the manifestation of it in man: for in the word was life, and that

life is the light of men. Life in the word, light in men; and life in

men too, as the light is obeyed; the children of the light living by the

life of the word, by which the word begets them again to God, which is

the generation and new birth, without which there is no coming into the

kingdom of God, and to which whoever comes is greater than John: that

is, than John's dispensation, which was not that of the kingdom, but the

consummation of the legal, and forerunning of the gospel times, the time

of the kingdom. Accordingly several meetings were gathering in those

parts; and thus his time was employed for some years.

In the year 1652, "he had a visitation of the great work of God in the

earth, and of the way that he was to go forth, in a public ministry, to

begin it." He directed his course northward, "and in every place where

he came, if not before he came to it, he had his particular exercise and

service shown to him, so that the Lord was his leader indeed." He made

great numbers of converts to his opinions, and many pious and good men

joined him in his ministry. These were drawn forth especially to visit

the public assemblies to reprove, reform, and exhort them; sometimes in

markets, fairs, streets, and by the highway-side, "calling people to

repentance, and to return to the Lord, with their hearts as well as

their mouths; directing them to the light of Christ within them, to see,

examine, and to consider their ways by, and to eschew the evil, and to

do the good and acceptable will of God."

They were not without opposition in the work they imagined themselves

called to, being often set in the stocks, stoned, beaten, whipped and

imprisoned, though, as our author observes, honest men of good report,

that had left wives, children, houses, and lands, to visit them with a

living call to repentance. But these coercive methods rather forwarded

than abated their zeal, and in those parts they brought over many

proselytes, and amongst them several magistrates, and others of the

better sort. They apprehended the Lord had forbidden them to pull off

their hats to any one, high or low, and required them to speak to the

people, without distinction, in the language of thou and thee. They

scrupled bidding people good-morrow, or good-night, nor might they bend

the knee to any one, even in supreme authority. Both men and woman went

in a plain and simple dress, different from the fashion of the times.

They neither gave nor accepted any titles of respect or honour, nor

would they call any man master on earth. Several texts of scripture they

quoted in defence of these singularities; such as, Swear not at all. How

can ye believe who receive honour one of another, and seek not the

honour which comes from God only? &c. &c. They placed the basis of

religion in an inward light, and an extraordinary impulse of the Holy

Spirit.

In 1654, their first separate meeting in London was held in the house of

Robert Dring, in Watling-street, for by that time they spread themselves

into all parts of the kingdom, and had in many places set up meetings or

assemblies, particularly in Lancashire, and the adjacent parts, but they

were still exposed to great persecutions and trials of every kind. One

of them in a letter to the protector, Oliver Cromwell, represents,

though there are no penal laws in force obliging men to comply with the

established religion, yet the Quakers are exposed upon other accounts;

they are fined and imprisoned for refusing to take an oath; for not

paying their tithes; for disturbing the public assemblies, and meeting

in the streets, and places of public resort; some of them have been

whipped for vagabonds, and for their plain speeches to the magistrate.

Under favour of the then toleration, they opened their meetings at the

Bull and Mouth, in Aldersgate-street, where women, as well as men, were

moved to speak. Their zeal transported them to some extravagancies,

which laid them still more open to the lash of their enemies, who

exercised various severities upon them throughout the next reign. Upon

the suppression of Venner's mad insurrection, the government, having

published a proclamation, forbidding the Anabaptists, Quakers, and Fifth

Monarchy Men, to assemble or meet together under pretence of worshipping

God, except it be in some parochial church, chapel, or in private

houses, by consent of the persons there inhabiting, all meetings in

other places being declared to be unlawful and riotous, &c. &c. the

Quakers thought it expedient to address the king thereon, which they did

in the following words:

"_O king Charles!_

"Our desire is, that thou mayest live for ever in the fear of God, and

thy council. We beseech thee and thy council, to read these following

lines in tender bowels, and compassion for our souls, and for your good.

"And this consider, we are about four hundred imprisoned, in and about

this city, of men and women from their families, besides, in the county

jails, about ten hundred; we desire that our meetings may not be broken

up, but that all may come to a fair trial, that our innocency may be

cleared up.

"London, 16th day, eleventh month, 1660."

On the 28th of the same month, they published the declaration referred

to in their address, entitled, "A declaration from the harmless and

innocent people of God, called Quakers, against all sedition, plotters,

and fighters in the world, for removing the ground of jealousy and

suspicion, from both magistrates and people in the kingdom, concerning

wars and fightings." It was presented to the king the 21st day of the

eleventh month, 1660, and he promised them upon his royal word, that

they should not suffer for their opinions, as long as they lived

peaceably; but his promises were very little regarded afterward.

In 1661, they assumed courage to petition the house of Lords for a

toleration of their religion, and for a dispensation from taking the

oaths, which they held unlawful, not from any disaffection to the

government, or a belief that they were less obliged by an affirmation,

but from a persuasion that all oaths were unlawful; and that swearing

upon the most solemn occasions was forbidden in the New Testament. Their

petition was rejected, and instead of granting them relief, an act was

passed against them, the preamble to which set forth, "That whereas

several persons have taken up an opinion that an oath, even before a

magistrate, is unlawful, and contrary to the word of God: and whereas,

under pretence of religious worship, the said persons do assemble in

great numbers in several parts of the kingdom, separating themselves

from the rest of his majesty's subjects, and the public congregations

and usual places of divine worship; be it therefore enacted, that if any

such persons, after the 24th of March, 1661-2, shall refuse to take an

oath when lawfully tendered, or persuade others to do it, or maintain in

writing or otherwise, the unlawfulness of taking an oath; or if they

shall assemble for religious worship, to the number of five or more, of

the age of fifteen, they shall for the first offence forfeit five

pounds; for the second, ten pounds; and for the third shall abjure the

realm, or be transported to the plantations: and the justices of peace

at their open sessions may hear and finally determine in the affair."

This act had a most dreadful effect upon the Quakers, though it was well

known and notorious that these conscientious persons were far from

sedition or disaffection to the government. George Fox, in his address

to the king, acquaints him, that three thousand and sixty-eight of their

friends had been imprisoned since his majesty's restoration; that their

meetings were daily broken up by men with clubs and arms, and their

friends thrown into the water, and trampled under foot till the blood

gushed out, which gave rise to their meeting in the open streets. A

relation was printed, signed by twelve witnesses, which says, that more

than four thousand two hundred Quakers were imprisoned; and of them five

hundred were in and about London, and the suburbs; several of whom were

dead in the jails.

However, they even gloried in their sufferings, which increased every

day; so that in 1665, and the intermediate years, they were harassed

without example. As they persisted resolutely to assemble, openly, at

the Bull and Mouth, before mentioned, the soldiers, and other officers,

dragged them from thence to prison, till Newgate was filled with them,

and multitudes died of close confinement, in that and other jails.

Six hundred of them, says an account published at this time, were in

prison, merely for religion's sake, of whom several were banished to the

plantations. In short, says Mr. Neale, the Quakers gave such full

employment to the informers, that they had less leisure to attend the

meetings of other dissenters.

Yet, under all these calamities, they behaved with patience and modesty

towards the government, and upon occasion of the Rye-house plot in 1682,

thought proper to declare their innocence of that sham plot, in an

address to the king, wherein, appealing to the Searcher of all hearts,

they say, their principles do not allow them to take up defensive arms,

much less to avenge themselves for the injuries they received from

others: that they continually pray for the king's safety and

preservation; and therefore take this occasion humbly to beseech his

majesty to compassionate their suffering friends, with whom the jails

are so filled, that they want air, to the apparent hazard of their

lives, and to the endangering an infection in divers places. Besides,

many houses, shops, barns, and fields are ransacked, and the goods,

corn, and cattle swept away, to the discouraging trade and husbandry,

and impoverishing great numbers of quiet and industrious people; and

this, for no other cause, but for the exercise of a tender conscience in

the worship of Almighty God, who is sovereign Lord and King of men's

consciences.

On the accession of James II. they addressed that monarch honestly and

plainly, telling him, "We are come to testify our sorrow for the death

of our good friend Charles, and our joy for thy being made our governor.

We are told thou art not of the persuasion of the church of England, no

more than we; therefore we hope thou wilt grant us the same liberty

which thou allowest thyself, which doing, we wish thee all manner of

happiness."

When James, by his dispensing power, granted liberty to the dissenters,

they began to enjoy some rest from their troubles; and indeed it was

high time, for they were swelled to an enormous amount. They, the year

before this, to them one of glad release, in a petition to James for a

cessation of their sufferings, set forth, "that of late above one

thousand five hundred of their friends, both men and women, and that now

there remain one thousand three hundred and eighty-three; of which two

hundred are women, many under sentence of praemunire; and more than three

hundred near it, for refusing the oath of allegiance, because they could

not swear. Three hundred and fifty have died in prison since the year

1680; in London, the jail of Newgate has been crowded, within these two

years sometimes with near 20 in a room, whereby several have been

suffocated, and others, who have been taken out sick, have died of

malignant fevers within a few days. Great violences, outrageous

distresses, and woful havock and spoil, have been made upon people's

goods and estates, by a company of idle, extravagant, and merciless

informers, by persecutions on the conventicle-act, and others, also on

_qui tam_ writs, and on other processes, for twenty pounds a month, and

two-thirds of their estates seized for the king. Some had not a bed to

rest on, others had no cattle to till the ground, nor corn for feed or

bread, nor tools to work with, the said informers and bailiffs in some

places breaking into houses, and making great waste and spoil, under

pretence of serving the king and the church. Our religious assemblies

have been charged at common law with being rioters and disturbers of the

public peace, whereby great numbers have been confined in prison without

regard to age, and many confined in holes and dungeons. The seizing for

L20 a month has amounted to many thousands, and several who have

employed some hundreds of poor people in manufactures, are disabled to

do so any more, by reason of long imprisonment. They spare neither widow

nor fatherless, nor have they so much as a bed to lie on. The informers

are both witnesses and prosecutors, to the ruin of great numbers of

sober families; and justices of the peace have been threatened with the

forfeiture of one hundred pounds, if they do not issue out warrants upon

their informations." With this petition they presented a list of their

friends in prison, in the several counties, amounting to four hundred

and sixty.

During the reign of king James II. these people were, through the

intercession of their friend Mr. Penn, treated with greater indulgence

than ever they had been before. They were now become extremely numerous

in many parts of the country, and the settlement of Pennsylvania taking

place soon after, many of them went over to America. There they enjoyed

the blessings of a peaceful government, and cultivated the arts of

honest industry.

As the whole colony was the property of Mr. Penn, so he invited people

of all denominations to come and settle with him. A universal liberty of

conscience took place; and in this new colony the natural rights of

mankind were, for the first time, established.

These Friends are, in the present age, a very harmless, inoffensive body

of people; but of that we shall take more notice hereafter. By their

wise regulations, they not only do honour to themselves, but they are of

vast service to the community.

It may be necessary here to observe, that as the Friends, commonly

called Quakers, will not take an oath in a court of justice, so their

affirmation is permitted in all civil affairs; but they cannot prosecute

a criminal, because, in the English courts of justice, all evidence must

be upon oath.

_An account of the persecution of Friends, commonly called Quakers in

the United States._

About the middle of the seventeenth century, much persecution and

suffering were inflicted on a sect of protestant dissenters, commonly

called Quakers: a people which arose at that time in England some of

whom sealed their testimony with their blood.

For an account of the above people, see Sewell's, or Gough's history of

them.

The principal points upon which their conscientious nonconformity

rendered them obnoxious to the penalties of the law, were,

1. The Christian resolution of assembling publicly for the worship of

God, in a manner most agreeable to their consciences.

2. Their refusal to pay tithes, which they esteemed a Jewish ceremony,

abrogated by the coming of Christ.

3. Their testimony against wars and fighting, the practice of which they

judged inconsistent with the command of Christ: "Love your enemies," &c.

Matt. v. 44.

4. Their constant obedience to the command of Christ: "Swear not at

all," &c. Matt. v. 34.

5. Their refusal to pay rates or assessments for building and repairing

houses for a worship which they did not approve.

6. Their use of the proper and Scriptural language, "thou," and "thee,"

to a single person: and their disuse of the custom of uncovering their

heads, or pulling off their hats, by way of homage to man.

7. The necessity many found themselves under, of publishing what they

believed to be the doctrine of truth; and sometimes even in the places

appointed for the public national worship.

Their conscientious noncompliance in the preceding particulars, exposed

them to much persecution and suffering, which consisted in prosecutions,

fines, cruel beatings, whippings, and other corporeal punishments;

imprisonment, banishment, and even death.

To relate a particular account of their persecutions and sufferings,

would extend beyond the limits of this work: we shall therefore refer,

for that information, to the histories already mentioned, and more

particularly to Besse's Collection of their sufferings; and shall

confine our account here, mostly to those who sacrificed their lives,

and evinced, by their disposition of mind, constancy, patience, and

faithful perseverance, that they were influenced by a sense of religious

duty.

Numerous and repeated were the persecutions against them; and sometimes

for transgressions or offences which the law did not contemplate or

embrace.

Many of the fines and penalties exacted of them, were not only

unreasonable and exorbitant, but as they could not consistently pay

them, were sometimes distrained to several times the value of the

demand; whereby many poor families were greatly distressed, and obliged

to depend on the assistance of their friends.

Numbers were not only cruelly beaten and whipped in a public manner,

like criminals, but some were branded and others had their ears cut off.

Great numbers were long confined in loathsome prisons; in which some

ended their days in consequence thereof.

Many were sentenced to banishment; and a considerable number were

transported. Some were banished on pain of death; and four were actually

executed by the hands of the hangman, as we shall here relate, after

inserting copies of some of the laws of the country where they suffered.

_"At a General Court held at Boston, the 14th of October, 1656._

"Whereas, there is a cursed sect of heretics, lately risen up in the

world, which are commonly called Quakers, who take upon them to be

immediately sent from God, and infallibly assisted by the Spirit, to

speak and write blasphemous opinions, despising government, and the

order of God, in the church and commonwealth, speaking evil of

dignities, reproaching and reviling magistrates and ministers, seeking

to turn the people from the faith, and gain proselytes to their

pernicious ways: this court taking into consideration the premises, and

to prevent the like mischief, as by their means is wrought in our land,

doth hereby order, and by authority of this court, be it ordered and

enacted, that what master or commander of any ship, bark, pink, or

ketch, shall henceforth bring into any harbour, creek, or cove, within

this jurisdiction, any Quaker or Quakers, or other blasphemous heretics,

shall pay, or cause to be paid, the fine of one hundred pounds to the

treasurer of the country, except it appear he want true knowledge or

information of their being such; and, in that case, he hath liberty to

clear himself by his oath, when sufficient proof to the contrary is

wanting: and, for default of good payment, or good security for it,

shall be cast into prison, and there to continue till the said sum be

satisfied to the treasurer as aforesaid. And the commander of any ketch,

ship, or vessel, being legally convicted, shall give in sufficient

security to the governor, or any one or more of the magistrates, who

have power to determine the same, to carry them back to the place whence

he brought them; and, on his refusal so to do, the governor or one or

more of the magistrates, are hereby empowered to issue out his or their

warrants to commit such master or commander to prison, there to

continue, till he give in sufficient security to the content of the

governor, or any of the magistrates, as aforesaid. And it is hereby

further ordered and enacted, that what Quaker soever shall arrive in

this country from foreign parts, or shall come into this jurisdiction

from any parts adjacent, shall be forthwith committed to the house of

correction; and, at their entrance, to be severely whipped, and by the

master thereof be kept constantly to work, and none suffered to converse

or speak with them, during the time of their imprisonment, which shall

be no longer than necessity requires. And it is ordered, if any person

shall knowingly import into any harbour of this jurisdiction, any

Quakers' books or writings, concerning their devilish opinions, shall

pay for such book or writing, being legally proved against him or them

the sum of five pounds; and whosoever shall disperse or conceal any such

book or writing, and it be found with him or her, or in his or her house

and shall not immediately deliver the same to the next magistrate;

shall forfeit or pay five pounds, for the dispersing or concealing of

any such book or writing. And it is hereby further enacted, that if any

person within this colony, shall take upon them to defend the heretical

opinions of the Quakers, or any of their books or papers, shall be fined

for the first time forty shillings; if they shall persist in the same,

and shall again defend it the second time, four pounds; if

notwithstanding they again defend and maintain the said Quakers'

heretical opinions, they shall be committed to the house of correction

till there be convenient passage to send them out of the land, being

sentenced by the court of Assistants to banishment. Lastly, it is hereby

ordered, that what person or persons soever, shall revile the persons of

the magistrates or ministers, as is usual with the Quakers, such person

or persons shall be severely whipped or pay the sum of five pounds.

"This is a true copy of the court's order, as attests

"EDWARD RAWSON, Sec."

"_At a General Court held at Boston, the 14th of October, 1657._

"As an addition to the late order, in reference to the coming or

bringing of any of the cursed sect of the Quakers into this

jurisdiction, it is ordered, that whosoever shall from henceforth bring,

or cause to be brought, directly or indirectly, any known Quaker or

Quakers, or other blasphemous heretics, into this jurisdiction, every

such person shall forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds to the country,

and shall by warrant from any magistrate be committed to prison, there

to remain till the penalty be satisfied and paid; and if any person or

persons within this jurisdiction, shall henceforth entertain and conceal

any such Quaker or Quakers, or other blasphemous heretics, knowing them

so to be, every such person shall forfeit to the country forty shillings

for every hours' entertainment and concealment of any Quaker or Quakers,

&c. as aforesaid, and shall be committed to prison as aforesaid, till

the forfeiture be fully satisfied and paid. And it is further ordered,

that if any Quaker or Quakers shall presume, after they have once

suffered what the law requires, to come into this jurisdiction, every

such male Quaker shall, for the first offence, have one of his ears cut

off, and be kept at work in the house of correction, till he can be sent

away at his own charge; and for the second offence, shall have his other

ear cut off; and every woman Quaker, that has suffered the law here,

that shall presume to come into this jurisdiction, shall be severely

whipped, and kept at the house of correction at work, till she be sent

away at her own charge, and so also for her coming again, she shall be

alike used as aforesaid. And for every Quaker, he or she, that shall a

third time herein again offend, they shall have their tongues bored

through with a hot iron, and be kept at the house of correction close to

work, till they be sent away at their own charge. And it is further

ordered, that all and every Quaker arising from among ourselves, shall

be dealt with, and suffer the like punishment as the law provides

against foreign Quakers.

"EDWARD RAWSON, Sec."

_"An Act made at a General Court, held at Boston, the 20th of October,

1658._

"Whereas, there is a pernicious sect, commonly called Quakers, lately

risen, who by word and writing have published and maintained many

dangerous and horrid tenets, and do take upon them to change and alter

the received laudable customs of our nation, in giving civil respect to

equals, or reverence to superiors; whose actions tend to undermine the

civil government, and also to destroy the order of the churches, by

denying all established forms of worship, and by withdrawing from

orderly church fellowship, allowed and approved by all orthodox

professors of truth, and instead thereof, and in opposition thereunto,

frequently meeting by themselves, insinuating themselves into the minds

of the simple, or such as are at least affected to the order and

government of church and commonwealth, whereby divers of our inhabitants

have been infected, notwithstanding all former laws, made upon the

experience of their arrogant and bold obtrusions, to disseminate their

principles amongst us, prohibiting their coming into this jurisdiction,

they have not been deterred from their impious attempts to undermine our

peace, and hazard our ruin.

"For prevention thereof, this court doth order and enact, that any

person or persons, of the cursed sect of the Quakers, who is not an

inhabitant of, but is found within this jurisdiction, shall be

apprehended without warrant, where no magistrate is hand, by any

constable commissioner, or select-man, and conveyed from constable to

constable, to the next magistrate, who shall commit the said person to

close prison, there to remain (without bail) until the next court of

Assistants, where they shall have legal trial. And being convicted to be

of the sect of the Quakers, shall be sentenced to banishment, on pain of

death. And that every inhabitant of this jurisdiction, being convicted

to be of the aforesaid sect, either by taking up, publishing, or

defending the horrid opinions of the Quakers, or the stirring up mutiny,

sedition, or rebellion against the government, or by taking up their

abusive and destructive practices, viz. denying civil respect to equals

and superiors, and withdrawing from the church assemblies; and instead

thereof, frequenting meetings of their own, in opposition to our church

order; adhering to, or approving of any known Quaker, and the tenets and

practices of Quakers, that are opposite to the orthodox received

opinions of the godly; and endeaving to disaffect others to civil

government and church order, or condemning the practice and proceedings

of this court against the Quakers, manifesting thereby their complying

with those, whose design is to overthrow the order established in church

and state: every such person, upon conviction before the said court of

Assistants, in manner aforesaid, shall be committed to close prison for

one month, and then, unless they choose voluntarily to depart this

jurisdiction, shall give bond for their good behaviour and appear at the

next court, where, continuing obstinate, and refusing to retract and

reform the aforesaid opinions, they shall be sentenced to banishment,

upon pain of death. And any one magistrate, upon information given him

of any such person, shall cause him to be apprehended, and shall commit

any such person to prison, according to his discretion, until he come to

trial as aforesaid."

It appears there were also laws passed in both of the then colonies of

New-Plymouth and New-Haven, and in the Dutch settlement at

New-Amsterdam, now New-York, prohibiting the people called Quakers, from

coming into those places, under severe penalties; in consequence of

which, some underwent considerable suffering.

The two first who were executed were William Robinson, merchant, of

London, and Marmaduke Stevenson, a countryman, of Yorkshire. These

coming to Boston, in the beginning of September, were sent for by the

court of Assistants, and there sentenced to banishment, on pain of

death. This sentence was passed also on Mary Dyar, mentioned hereafter,

and Nicholas Davis, who were both at Boston. But William Robinson, being

looked upon as a teacher, was also condemned to be whipped severely; and

the constable was commanded to get an able man to do it. Then Robinson

was brought into the street, and there stripped; and having his hands

put through the holes of the carriage of a great gun, where the jailer

held him, the executioner gave him twenty stripes, with a three-fold

cord-whip. Then he and the other prisoners were shortly after released,

and banished, as appears from the following warrant:

"You are required by these, presently to set at

liberty William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, Mary

Dyar, and Nicholas Davis, who, by an order of the

court and council, had been imprisoned, because it

appeared by their own confession, words, and

actions, that they are Quakers: wherefore, a

sentence was pronounced against them, to depart

this jurisdiction, on pain of death; and that they

must answer it at their peril, if they, or any of

them, after the 14th of this present month,

September, are found within this jurisdiction, or

any part thereof.

"EDWARD RAWSON"

"Boston, September 12, 1659."

Though Mary Dyar and Nicholas Davis left that jurisdiction for that

time, yet Robinson and Stevenson, though they departed the town of

Boston, could not yet resolve (not being free in mind) to depart that

jurisdiction, though their lives were at stake. And so they went to

Salem, and some places thereabout, to visit and build up their friends

in the faith. But it was not long before they were taken, and put again

into prison at Boston, and chains locked to their legs. In the next

month, Mary Dyar returned also. And as she stood before the prison,

speaking with one Christopher Holden, who was come thither to inquire

for a ship bound for England, whither he intended to go, she was also

taken into custody. Thus, they had now three persons, who, according to

their law, had forfeited their lives. And, on the 20th of October, these

three were brought into court, where John Endicot and others were

assembled. And being called to the bar, Endicot commanded the keeper to

pull off their hats; and then said, that they had made several laws to

keep the Quakers from amongst them, and neither whipping, nor

imprisoning, nor cutting off ears, nor banishing upon pain of death,

would keep them from amongst them. And further, he said, that he or they

desired not the death of any of them. Yet, notwithstanding, his

following words, without more ado, were, "Give ear, and hearken to your

sentence of death." Sentence of death was also passed upon Marmaduke

Stevenson, Mary Dyar, and William Edrid. Several others were imprisoned,

whipped, and fined. We have no disposition to justify the Pilgrims for

these proceedings, but we think, considering the circumstances of the

age in which they lived, their conduct admits of much palliation. The

following remarks of Mr. Hawes, in his tribute to the memory of the

Pilgrims, are worthy of serious consideration.

"It is alleged that they enacted laws which were oppressive to other

denominations, and, moreover, that they were actually guilty of

persecution. This, indeed, is a serious charge, and to some extent must

be admitted to be true. And yet whoever candidly examines the facts in

the case, will find abundant evidence that our fathers, in this respect,

were far from being sinners above all who have dwelt on the earth. Many

of the laws that are complained of were enacted when there were few or

none of any other denomination in the land. They were designed to

protect and support their own ecclesiastical and civil order; and not to

operate at all as persecuting or oppressive enactments against

christians belonging to other sects. It is also true that most of those

persons who are said to have been persecuted and oppressed, suffered not

so much for their religious opinions, as for their offences against the

state. Some of them outraged all decency and order, and committed such

acts as would unquestionably, at the present day, subject a man to

imprisonment, if not to severer punishment.

"This, according to Winthrop, was the ground of the sentence of

banishment, passed on Roger Williams. 'He broached and divulged divers

new opinions against the authority of magistrates, as also wrote letters

of defamation both of the magistrates and churches.'"--_Winthrop's Hist.

of N. E. edit. by Savage, vol. 1, p. 167._

"For a particular account of the causes for which Mr. Williams was

banished, see Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. 1, p. 41;

Dwight's Travels, vol. 1, p. 142; Magnalia, vol. 2, p. 430. As for the

laws subsequently enacted against the Baptists and Quakers, no one most

certainly can justify them. They were oppressive and wrong. But let no

one reproach, too severely, the memory of our fathers, in this matter,

till he is certain, that _in similar circumstances_, he would have shown

a better temper.

"It is allowed that they were culpable; but we do not concede, that in

the present instance, they stood alone, or that they merited all the

censure bestowed on them. 'Laws similar to those of Massachusetts were

passed elsewhere against the Quakers and also against the Baptists,

particularly in Virginia. If no execution took place here, it was not

owing to the moderation of the church.'"--_Jefferson Virg. Query,

XVIII._

"The prevalent opinion among most sects of christians, at that day, that

toleration is sinful, ought to be remembered; nor should it be

forgotten, that the first Quakers in New England, besides speaking and

writing what was deemed blasphemous, reviled magistrates and ministers,

and disturbed religious assemblies; and that the tendency of their

opinions and practices was to the subversion of the commonwealth in the

period of its infancy."--_Holmes' Am. Annals. Hutch. vol. 1, p. 180-9._

"It should be added, that in Massachusetts the law which enacted that

all Quakers returning into the state after banishment, should be

punished with death, and under which four persons were executed, met

with great, and at first, successful opposition. The deputies, who

constituted the popular branch of the legislature, at first rejected it;

but afterwards, on reconsideration, concurred with the magistrates, (by

whom it was originally proposed,) by a majority of only one."--_Chr.

Spect. 1830, p. 266._

"The fathers of New England, endured incredible hardships in providing

for themselves a home in the wilderness; and to protect themselves in

the undisturbed enjoyment of rights, which they had purchased at so dear

a rate, they sometimes adopted measures which, if tried by the more

enlightened and liberal views of the present day, must at once be

pronounced altogether unjustifiable. But shall they be condemned without

mercy for not acting up to principles which were unacknowledged and

unknown throughout the whole of christendom? Shall they alone be held

responsible for opinions and conduct which had become sacred by

antiquity, and which were common to christians of all other

denominations? Every government then in existence assumed to itself the

right to legislate in matters of religion; and to restrain heresy by

penal statutes. This right was claimed by rulers, admitted by subjects,

and is sanctioned by the names of Lord Bacon and Montesquieu, and many

others equally famed for their talents and learning. It is unjust then,

to 'press upon one poor persecuted sect, the sins of all christendom?'

The fault of our fathers was the fault of the age; and though this

cannot justify, it certainly furnishes an extenuation of their conduct.

As well might you condemn them for not understanding the art of

navigating by steam, as for not understanding and acting up to the

principles of religious toleration. At the same time, it is but just to

say, that imperfect as were their views of the rights of conscience,

they were nevertheless far in advance of the age to which they

belonged; and it is to them more than to any other class of men on

earth, the world is indebted for the more rational views that now

prevail on the subject of civil and religious liberty."

CHAPTER XVII.

PERSECUTIONS OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE, DURING

THE YEARS 1814 AND 1820.

The persecution in this protestant part of France continued with very

little intermission from the revocation of the edict of Nantes, by Louis

XIV. till a very short period previous to the commencement of the late

French revolution. In the year 1785, M. Rebaut St. Etienne and the

celebrated M. de la Fayette were among the first persons who interested

themselves with the court of Louis XVI., in removing the scourge of

persecution from this injured people, the inhabitants of the south of

France.

Such was the opposition on the part of the catholics and the courtiers,

that it was not till the end of the year 1790, that the protestants were

freed from their alarms. Previously to this, the catholics at Nismes in

particular, had taken up arms; Nismes then presented a frightful

spectacle; armed men ran through the city, fired from the corners of the

streets, and attacked all they met with swords and forks. A man named

Astuc was wounded and thrown into the aqueduct; Baudon fell under the

repeated strokes of bayonets and sabres, and his body was also thrown

into the water; Boucher, a young man only 17 years of age, was shot as

he was looking out of his window; three electors wounded, one

dangerously; another elector wounded, only escaped death by repeatedly

declaring he was a catholic; a third received four sabre wounds, and was

taken home dreadfully mangled. The citizens that fled were arrested by

the catholics upon the roads, and obliged to give proofs of their

religion before their lives were granted. M. and Madame Vogue, were at

their country house, which the zealots broke open, where they massacred

both, and destroyed their dwelling. M. Blacher, a protestant seventy

years of age, was cut to pieces with a sickle; young Pyerre, carrying

some food to his brother, was asked, "Catholic or protestant?"

"Protestant," being the reply, a monster fired at the lad, and he fell.

One of the murderer's companions said, "you might as well have killed a

lamb." "I have sworn," replied he, "to kill four protestants for my

share, and this will count for one." However, as these atrocities

provoked the troops to unite in defence of the people, a terrible

vengeance was retaliated upon the catholic party that had used arms,

which with other circumstances, especially the toleration exercised by

Napoleon Buonaparte, kept them down completely till the year 1814, when

the unexpected return of the ancient government rallied them all once

more round the old banners.

_The arrival of King Louis XVIII. at Paris._

This was known at Nismes on the 13th of April, 1814. In a quarter of an

hour, the white cockade was seen in every direction, the white flag

floated on the public buildings, on the splendid monuments of antiquity,

and even on the tower of Mange, beyond the city walls. The protestants,

whose commerce had suffered materially during the war, were among the

first to unite in the general joy, and to send in their adhesion to the

senate, and the legislative body; and several of the protestant

departments sent addresses to the throne, but unfortunately, M. Froment

was again at Nismes at the moment when many bigots being ready to join

him, the blindness and fury of the sixteenth century rapidly succeeded

the intelligence and philanthropy of the nineteenth. A line of

distinction was instantly traced between men of different religious

opinions; the spirit of the old catholic church was again to regulate

each person's share of esteem and safety. The difference of religion was

now to govern every thing else; and even catholic domestics who had

served protestants with zeal and affection, began to neglect their

duties, or to perform them ungraciously, and with reluctance. At the

fetes and spectacles that were given at the public expense, the absence

of the protestants was charged on them as a proof of their disloyalty;

and in the midst of the cries of "_Vive le Roi_," the discordant sounds

of "_A bas le Maire_," down with the mayor, were heard. M. Castletan was

a protestant; he appeared in public with the prefect M. Ruland, a

catholic, when potatoes were thrown at him, and the people declared that

he ought to resign his office. The bigots of Nismes even succeeded in

procuring an address to be presented to the king, stating that there

ought to be in France but one God, one king, and one faith. In this they

were imitated by the catholics of several towns.

_The History of the Silver Child._

About this time, M. Baron, counsellor of the Cour Royale of Nismes,

formed the plan of dedicating to God a silver child, if the Duchess

d'Angouleme would give a prince to France. This project was converted

into a public religious vow, which was the subject of conversation both

in public and private, whilst persons, whose imaginations were inflamed

by these proceedings, run about the streets crying _Vivent les

Bourbons_, or the Bourbons forever. In consequence of this superstitious

frenzy, it is said that, at Alais, women were advised and instigated to

poison their protestant husbands, and at length it was found convenient

to accuse them of political crimes. They could no longer appear in

public without insults and injuries. When the mobs met with protestants,

they seized them, and danced round them with barbarous joy, and amidst

repeated cries of _Vive le Roi_, they sung verses, the burden of which

was, "We will wash our hands in protestant blood, and make black

puddings of the blood of Calvin's children." The citizens who came to

the promenades for air and refreshment, from the close and dirty

streets, were chased with shouts of _Vive le Roi_, as if those shouts

were to justify every excess. If protestants referred to the charter,

they were directly assured it would be of no use to them, and that they

had only been managed to be more effectually destroyed. Persons of rank

were heard to say in the public streets, "All the Huguenots must be

killed; this time their children must be killed, that none of the

accursed race may remain." Still, it is true, they were not murdered,

but cruelly treated, protestant children could no longer mix in the

sports of catholics, and were not even permitted to appear without their

parents. At dark their families shut themselves up in their apartments;

but even then stones were thrown against their windows. When they arose

in the morning, it was not uncommon to find gibbets drawn on their doors

or walls; and in the streets the catholics held cords already soaped

before their eyes, and pointed out the instruments by which they hoped

and designed to exterminate them. Small gallows or models were handed

about, and a man who lived opposite to one of the pastors, exhibited one

of these models in his window, and made signs sufficiently intelligible

when the minister passed. A figure representing a protestant preacher

was also hung up on a public crossway, and the most atrocious songs were

sung under his window. Towards the conclusion of the carnival, a plan

had even been formed to make a caricature of the four ministers of the

place, and burn them in effigy; but this was prevented by the mayor of

Nismes, a protestant. A dreadful song presented to the prefect, in the

country dialect, with a false translation, was printed by his approval,

and had a great run before he saw the extent of the error into which he

had been betrayed. The sixty-third regiment of the line was publicly

censured and insulted, for having, according to order, protected

protestants. In fact, the protestants seemed to be as sheep destined for

the slaughter.

_Napoleon's Return from the Isle of Elba._

Soon after this event, the duke d'Angouleme was at Nismes, and remained

there some time; but even his influence was insufficient to bring about

a reconciliation between the catholics and the protestants of that city.

During the hundred days betwixt Napoleon's return from the Isle of Elba,

and his final downfall, not a single life was lost in Nismes, not a

single house was pillaged; only four of the most notorious disturbers of

the peace were punished, or rather prevented from doing mischief, and

even this was not an act of the protestant but the _arrete_ of the

catholic prefect, announced every where with the utmost publicity. Some

time after, when M. Baron, who proposed the vow of the silver child in

favour of the Duchess d'Angouleme, who was considered as the chief of

the catholic royalists, was discovered at the bottom of an old wine tun,

the populace threw stones at his carriage, and vented their feelings in

abusive language. The protestant officers protected him from injury.

_The Catholic arms at Beaucaire._

In May, 1815, a federative association, similar to those of Lyons,

Grenoble, Paris, Avignon, and Montpelier, was desired by many persons at

Nismes; but this federation terminated here after an ephemeral and

illusory existence of fourteen days. In the mean while a large party of

catholic zealots were in arms at Beaucaire, and who soon pushed their

patroles so near the walls of Nismes, "as to alarm the inhabitants."

These catholics applied to the English off Marseilles for assistance,

and obtained the grant of 1000 muskets, 10,000 cartouches, &c. General

Gilly, however, was soon sent against these partizans, who prevented

them from coming to extremes, by granting them an armistice; and yet

when Louis XVIII. had returned to Paris, after the expiration of

Napoleon's reign of a hundred days, and peace and party spirit seemed to

have been subdued, even at Nismes, bands from Beaucaire joined

Trestaillon in this city, to glut the vengeance they had so long

premeditated. General Gilly had left the department several days: the

troops of the line left behind had taken the white cockade, and waited

farther orders, whilst the new commissioners had only to proclaim the

cessation of hostilities, and the complete establishment of the king's

authority. In vain, no commissioners appeared, no despatches arrived to

calm and regulate the public mind; but towards evening the advanced

guard of the banditti, to the amount of several hundreds, entered the

city, undesired but unopposed. As they marched without order or

discipline, covered with clothes or rags of all colours, decorated with

cockades not _white_, but _white_ and _green_, armed with muskets,

sabres, forks, pistols and reaping hooks, intoxicated with wine, and

stained with the blood of the protestants whom they had murdered on

their route, they presented a most hideous and appalling spectacle. In

the open place in the front of the barracks, this banditti was joined by

the city armed mob, headed by Jaques Dupont, commonly called

Trestaillon. To save the effusion of blood, this garrison of about 500

men consented to capitulate, and marched out sad and defenceless; but

when about fifty had passed, the rabble commenced a tremendous fire on

their confiding and unprotected victims; nearly all were killed or

wounded, and but very few could re-enter the yard before the garrison

gates were again closed. These were again forced in an instant, and all

were massacred who could not climb over roofs, or leap into the

adjoining gardens. In a word, death met them in every place and in

every shape and this catholic massacre rivalled in cruelty, and

surpassed in treachery, the crimes of the September assassins of Paris

and the Jacobinical butcheries of Lyons and Avignon. It was marked, not

only by the fervour of the revolution, but by the subtlety of the

league, and will long remain a blot upon the history of the second

restoration.

_Massacre and Pillage at Nismes._

Nismes now exhibited a most awful scene of outrage and carnage, though

many of the protestants had fled to the Convennes and the Gardonenque.

The country houses of Messrs. Rey, Guiret, and several others, had been

pillaged, and the inhabitants treated with wanton barbarity. Two parties

had glutted their savage appetites on the farm of Madame Frat: the

first, after eating, drinking, and breaking the furniture, and stealing

what they thought proper, took leave by announcing the arrival of their

comrades, "compared with whom," they said, "they should be thought

merciful." Three men and an old woman were left on the premises: at the

sight of the second company two of the men fled. "Are you a catholic?"

said the banditti to the old woman. "Yes." "Repeat, then, your Pater and

Ave." Being terrified she hesitated, and was instantly knocked down with

a musket. On recovering her senses, she stole out of the house, but met

Ladet, the old _valet de ferme_, bringing in a salad which the

depredators had ordered him to cut. In vain she endeavoured to persuade

him to fly. "Are you a protestant?" they exclaimed; "I am." A musket

being discharged at him, he fell wounded, but not dead. To consummate

their work, the monsters lighted a fire with straw and boards, threw

their yet living victim into the flames, and suffered him to expire in

the most dreadful agonies. They then ate their salad, omelet, &c. The

next day, some labourers, seeing the house open and deserted, entered

and discovered the half consumed body of Ladet. The prefect of the Gard,

M. Darbaud Jouques, attempting to palliate the crimes of the catholics,

had the audacity to assert that Ladet was a catholic; but this was

publicly contradicted by two of the pastors at Nismes.

Another party committed a dreadful murder at St. Cezaire, upon Imbert la

Plume, the husband of Suzon Chivas. He was met on returning from work in

the fields. The chief promised him his life, but insisted that he must

be conducted to the prison at Nismes. Seeing, however, that the party

was determined to kill him, he resumed his natural character, and being

a powerful and courageous man advanced and exclaimed, "You are

brigands--fire!" Four of them fired, and he fell, but he was not dead;

and while living they mutilated his body and then passing a cord round

it, drew it along, attached to a cannon of which they had possession. It

was not till after eight days that his relatives were apprized of his

death. Five individuals of the family of Chivas, all husbands and

fathers, were massacred in the course of a few days.

Near the barracks at Nismes is a large and handsome house, the property

of M. Vitte, which he acquired by exertion and economy. Besides

comfortable lodgings for his own family, he let more than twenty

chambers, mostly occupied by superior officers and commissaries of the

army. He never inquired the opinion of his tenants, and of course his

guests were persons of all political parties; but, under pretence of

searching for concealed officers, his apartments were overrun, his

furniture broken, and his property carried off at pleasure. The houses

of Messrs. Lagorce, most respectable merchants and manufacturers M.

Matthieu, M. Negre, and others, shared the same fate: many only avoided

by the owners paying large sums as commutation money, or escaping into

the country with their cash.

_Interference of Government against the Protestants._

M. Bernis, extraordinary royal commissioner, in consequence of these

abuses, issued a proclamation which reflects disgrace on the authority

from whence it emanated. "Considering," it said, "that the residence of

citizens in places foreign to their domicile, can only be prejudicial to

the _communes_ they have left, and to those to which they have repaired,

it is ordered, that those inhabitants who have quitted their residence

since the commandment of July, return home by the 28th at the latest,

otherwise they shall be deemed accomplices of the evil-disposed persons

who disturb the public tranquility, and their property shall be placed

under provisional _sequestration_."

The fugitives had sufficient inducements to return to their hearths,

without the fear of sequestration. They were more anxious to embrace

their fathers, mothers, wives, and children, and to resume their

ordinary occupations, than M. Bernis could be to insure their return.

But thus denouncing men as criminals who fled for safety from the sabres

of assassins, was adding oil to the fire of persecution. Trestaillon,

one of the chiefs of the brigands, was dressed in complete uniform and

epaulettes which he had stolen; he wore a sabre at his side, pistols in

his belt, a cockade of white and green, and a sash of the same colours

on his arm. He had under him, Truphemy, Servan, Aime, and many other

desperate characters. Some time after this M. Bernis ordered all parties

and individuals, armed or unarmed, to abstain from searching houses,

without either an order, or the presence of an officer. On suspicion of

arms being concealed, the commandant of the town was ordered to furnish

a patrol to make search and seizure; and all persons carrying arms in

the streets, without being on service, were to be arrested. Trestaillon,

however, who still carried arms, was not arrested till some months

after, and then not by these authorities, but by General La Garde, who

was afterwards assassinated by one of his comrades. On this occasion it

was remarked, that "the system of specious and deceptive proclamations

was perfectly understood, and had long been practised in Languedoc; it

was _not too late_ to persecute the protestants simply for their

religion. Even in the good times of Louis XIV. there was public opinion

enough in Europe to make that arch tyrant have recourse to the meanest

stratagems." The following single specimen of the plan pursued by the

authors of the Dragonades may serve as a key to all the plausible

proclamations which, in 1815, covered the perpetration of the most

deliberate and extensive crimes:--

_Letters from Louvois to Marillac._

"The king rejoices to learn from your letters, that there are so many

conversions in your department; and he desires that you would continue

your efforts, and employ the same means that have been hitherto so

successful. His majesty has ordered me to send a regiment of cavalry,

the greatest part of which he wishes to be quartered upon the

protestants, but he does not think it _prudent_ that they should be all

lodged with them; that is to say, of twenty-six masters, of which a

company is composed, if, by a judicious distribution, ten ought to be

received by the protestants, give them twenty, and put them all on the

rich, making this pretence, that when there are not soldiers enough in a

town for all to have some, the poor ought to be exempt, and the rich

burdened. His majesty has also thought proper to order, that all

converts be exempted from lodging soldiers for two years. This will

occasion numerous conversions if you take care that it is rigorously

executed, and that in all the distributions and passage of troops, by

far the greatest number are quartered on the rich protestants. His

majesty particularly enjoins that your orders on this subject, either by

yourself or your sub-delegates, be given by word of mouth to the mayors

and sheriffs, without letting them know that his majesty intends by

these means to force to become converts, and only explaining to them,

that you give these orders on the information you have received, that in

these places the rich are excepted by their influence, to the prejudice

of the poor."

The merciless treatment of the women, in this persecution at Nismes, was

such as would have disgraced any savages ever heard of. The widows Rivet

and Bernard, were forced to sacrifice enormous sums; and the house of

Mrs. Lecointe was ravaged, and her goods destroyed. Mrs. F. Didier had

her dwelling sacked and nearly demolished to the foundation. A party of

these bigots visited the widow Perrin, who lived on a little farm at the

windmills; having committed every species of devastation, they attacked

even the sanctuary of the dead, which contained the relics of her

family. They dragged the coffins out, and scattered the contents over

the adjacent grounds. In vain this outraged widow collected the bones of

her ancestors and replaced them: they were again dug up; and, after

several useless efforts, they were reluctantly left spread over the

surface of the fields.

Till the period announced for the sequestration of the property of the

fugitives by _authority_, murder and plunder were the daily employment

of what was called the army of Beaucaire, and the catholics of Nismes.

M. Peyron, of Brossan, had all his property carried off; his wine, oil,

seed, grain, several score of sheep, eight mules, three carts, his

furniture and effects, all the cash that could be found and he had only

to congratulate himself that his habitation was not consumed, and his

vineyards rooted up. A similar process against several other protestant

farmers, was also regularly carried on during several days. Many of the

protestants thus persecuted were well known as staunch royalists; but it

was enough for their enemies to know that they belonged to the reformed

communion; these fanatics were determined not to find either royalists

or citizens worthy the common protection of society. To accuse, condemn,

and destroy a protestant, was a matter that required no hesitation. The

house of M. Vitte, near the barracks at Nismes, was broken open, and

every thing within the walls demolished. A Jew family of lodgers was

driven out, and all their goods thrown out of the windows. M. Vitte was

seized, robbed of his watch and money, severely wounded, and left for

dead. After he had been fourteen hours in a state of insensibility, a

commissary of police, touched by his misfortunes, administered some

cordials to revive him; and, as a measure of safety, conducted him to

the citadel, where he remained many days, whilst his family lamented him

as dead. At length, as there was not the slightest charge against him,

he obtained his liberation from M. Vidal; but when the Austrians

arrived, one of the aids-de-camp, who heard of his sufferings and his

respectability, sought him out, and furnished an escort to conduct his

family to a place of safety. Dalbos, the only city beadle who was a

protestant, was dragged from his home and led to prison. His niece threw

herself on the neck of one of them and begged for mercy; the ruffian

dashed her to the ground. His sister was driven away by the mob; and he

being shot, his body remained a long time exposed to the insults of the

rabble.

_Royal Decree in favour of the Persecuted._

At length the decree of Louis XVIII., which annulled all the

extraordinary powers conferred either by the king, the princes, or

subordinate agents, was received at Nismes, and the laws were now to be

administered by the regular organs, and a new prefect arrived to carry

them into effect; but in spite of proclamations, the work of

destruction, stopped for a moment, was not abandoned, but soon renewed

with fresh vigour and effect. On the 30th of July, Jacques Combe, the

father of a family, was killed by some of the national guards of Rusau,

and the crime was so public, that the commander of the party restored to

the family the pocket-book and papers of the deceased. On the following

day tumultuous crowds roamed about the city and suburbs, threatening the

wretched peasants; and on the 1st of August they butchered them without

opposition. About noon on the same day, six armed men, headed by

Truphemy, the butcher, surrounded the house of Monot, a carpenter; two

of the party, who were smiths, had been at work in the house the day

before, and had seen a protestant who had taken refuge there, M.

Bourillon, who had been a lieutenant in the army, and had retired on a

pension. He was a man of an excellent character, peaceable and harmless,

and had never served the emperor Napoleon. Truphemy not knowing him, he

was pointed out partaking of a frugal breakfast with the family.

Truphemy ordered him to go along with him, adding, "Your friend,

Saussine, is already in the other world." Truphemy placed him in the

middle of his troop, and artfully ordered him to cry _Vive l'Empereur_:

he refused, adding, he had never served the emperor. In vain did the

women and children of the house intercede for his life, and praise his

amiable and virtuous qualities. He was marched to the Esplanade and

shot, first by Truphemy and then by the others. Several persons

attracted by the firing, approached, but were threatened with a similar

fate. After some time the wretches departed, shouting _Vive le Roi_.

Some women met them, and one of them appeared affected, said one, "I

have killed seven to-day, for my share and if you say a word, you shall

be the eighth." Pierre Courbet, a stocking weaver, was torn from his

loom by an armed band, and shot at his own door. His eldest daughter was

knocked down with the butt end of a musket; and a poignard was held at

the breast of his wife while the mob plundered her apartments. Paul

Heraut, a silk weaver, was literally cut in pieces, in the presence of a

large crowd, and amidst the unavailing cries and tears of his wife and

four young children. The murderers only abandoned the corpse to return

to Heraut's house and secure every thing valuable. The number of murders

on this day could not be ascertained. One person saw six bodies at the

_Cours Neuf_, and nine were carried to the hospital.

If murder some time after, became less frequent for a few days, pillage

and forced contributions were actively enforced. M. Salle d'Hombro, at

several visits was robbed of 7000 francs; and on one occasion, when he

pleaded the sacrifices he had made, "Look," said a bandit, pointing to

his pipe, "this will set fire to your house; and this," brandishing his

sword, "will finish you." No reply could be made to these arguments. M.

Feline, a silk manufacturer, was robbed of 32,000 francs in gold, 3000

francs in silver, and several bales of silk.

The small shopkeepers were continually exposed to visits and demands of

provisions, drapery, or whatever they sold; and the same hands that set

fire to the houses of the rich, and tore up the vines of the cultivator,

broke the looms of the weaver, and stole the tools of the artizan.

Desolation reigned in the sanctuary and in the city. The armed bands,

instead of being reduced, were increased; the fugitives, instead of

returning received constant accessions, and their friends who sheltered

them were deemed rebellious. Those protestants who remained, were

deprived of all their civil and religious rights, and even the advocates

and huissiers entered into a resolution to exclude all of "the pretended

reformed religion" from their bodies. Those who were employed in

selling tobacco were deprived of their licenses. The protestant deacons

who had the charge of the poor were all scattered. Of five pastors only

two remained; one of these was obliged to change his residence, and

could only venture to administer the consolations of religion, or

perform the functions of his ministry, under cover of the night.

Not content with these modes of torment, calumnious and inflamatory

publications charged the protestants with raising the proscribed

standard in the communes, and invoking the fallen Napoleon; and, of

course, as unworthy the protection of the laws and the favour of the

monarch.

Hundreds after this were dragged to prison without even so much as a

_written order_; and though an official newspaper, bearing the title of

the _Journal du Gard_, was set up for five months, while it was

influenced by the prefect, the mayor, and other functionaries, the word

_charter_ was never once used in it. One of the first numbers, on the

contrary, represented the suffering protestants as "Crocodiles only

weeping from rage and regret that they had no more victims to devour; as

persons who had surpassed Danton, Marat, and Robespierre, in doing

mischief: and as having prostituted their daughters to the garrison to

gain it over to Napoleon." An extract from this article, stamped with

the crown and the arms of the Bourbons, was hawked about the streets,

and the vender was adorned with the medal of the police.

_Petition of the Protestant Refugees._

To these reproaches it is proper to oppose the petition which the

Protestant Refugees in Paris presented to Louis XVIII. in behalf of

their brethren at Nismes.

"We lay at your feet, sire, our acute sufferings. In your name our

fellow-citizens are slaughtered, and their property laid waste. Misled

peasants, in pretended obedience to your orders, had assembled at the

command of a commissioner appointed by your august nephew. Although

ready to attack us, they were received with the assurances of peace. On

the 15th of July, 1815, we learnt your majesty's entrance into Paris,

and the white flag immediately waved on our edifices. The public

tranquility had not been disturbed, when armed peasants introduced

themselves. The garrison capitulated, but were assailed on their

departure, and almost totally massacred. Our national guard was

disarmed, the city filled with strangers, and the houses of the

principal inhabitants, professing the reformed religion, were attacked

and plundered. We subjoin the list. Terror has driven from our city the

most respectable inhabitants.

"Your majesty has been deceived if there has not been placed before you

the picture of the horrors which make a desert of your good city of

Nismes. Arrests and proscriptions are continually taking place, and

difference of _religious_ opinions is the real and only cause. The

calumniated protestants are the defenders of the throne. Your nephew has

beheld our children under his banners; our fortunes have been placed in

his hands. Attacked without reason, the protestants have not, even by a

just resistance, afforded their enemies the fatal pretext for calumny.

Save us, sire! extinguish the brand of civil war; a single act of your

will would restore to political existence a city interesting for its

population and its manufactures. Demand an account of their conduct from

the chiefs who have brought our misfortunes upon us. We place before

your eyes all the documents that have reached us. Fear paralizes the

hearts, and stifles the complaints of our fellow-citizens. Placed in a

more secure situation, we venture to raise our voice in their behalf,"

&c. &c.

_Monstrous outrage upon Females._

At Nismes it is well known that the women wash their clothes either at

the fountains, or on the banks of streams. There is a large basin near

the fountain, where numbers of women may be seen every day, kneeling at

the edge of the water, and beating the clothes with heavy pieces of wood

in the shape of battledoors. This spot became the scene of the most

shameful and indecent practices. The catholic rabble turned the women's

petticoats over their heads, and so fastened them as to continue their

exposure, and their subjection to a newly invented species of

chastisement; for nails being placed in the wood of the _battoirs_ in

the form of _fleur-de-lis_, they beat them till the blood streamed from

their bodies, and their cries rent the air. Often was death demanded as

a commutation of this ignominious punishment, but refused with a

malignant joy. To carry their outrage to the highest possible degree,

several who were in a state of pregnancy were assailed in this manner.

The scandalous nature of these outrages prevented many of the sufferers

from making them public, and, especially, from relating the most

aggravating circumstances. "I have seen," says M. Durand, "a catholic

avocat, accompanying the assassins in the fauxbourg Bourgade, arm a

battoir with sharp nails in the form of _fleur-de-lis_; I have seen them

raise the garments of females, and apply, with heavy blows, to the

bleeding body this _battoir_ or battledoor, to which they gave a name

which my pen refuses to record. The cries of the sufferers--the streams

of blood--the murmurs of indignation which were suppressed by

fear--nothing could move them. The surgeons who attended on those women

who are dead, can attest, by the marks of their wounds, the agonies

which they must have endured, which, however horrible, is most strictly

true."

Nevertheless, during the progress of these horrors and obscenities, so

disgraceful to France and the catholic religion, the agents of

government had a powerful force under their command, and by honestly

employing it they might have restored tranquility. Murder and robbery,

however, continued, and were winked at, by the catholic magistrates,

with very few exceptions; the administrative authorities, it is true,

used words in their proclamations, &c. but never had recourse to actions

to stop the enormities of the persecutors, who boldly declared that, on

the 24th, the anniversary of St. Bartholomew, they intended to make a

general massacre. The members of the reformed church were filled with

terror, and, instead of taking part in the election of deputies, were

occupied as well as they could in providing for their own personal

safety.

_Arrival of the Austrians at Nismes._

About this time, a treaty between the French court and the allied

sovereigns, prohibited the advance of the foreign troops beyond the line

of territory already occupied, and traced by the course of the Loire,

and by the Rhone, below the Ardeche. In violation of this treaty, 4000

Austrians entered Nismes on the 24th of August; under pretence of making

room for them, French troops, bearing the _feudal_ title of Royal

Chasseurs, followed by the murdering bands of the Trestaillons and

Quatretaillons, who continued their march to Alais, where a fair was to

be held, and carried disorder and alarm into all the communes on that

route. Nothing now was heard but denunciations of fusillading, burning,

razing, and annihilating; and while the catholics were feasting and

murdering at Nismes, the flames of the country houses of the

protestants, rising one hundred feet in the air, rendered the spectacle

still more awful and alarming. Unfortunately, some of the peasants,

falsely charged with the murder of two protestants, were brought to

Nismes while the prefect was celebrating the fete of St. Louis. At a

splendid dinner given to the Austrian commanders, and even without

quitting the table, it appears, that the French prefect placed the fate

and fortune of these unfortunate prisoners at the disposal of Count

Stahremberg, who, of course, believing the representations made to him

ordered the accused to be immediately shot. To mortify and exhaust the

protestant communes, the Austrians were directed to occupy them, where

they completely disarmed the inhabitants without the least opposition.

In fact, these foreigners were soon undeceived. They expected to meet

the most perfidious and brutal enemies in arms, and in open rebellion

against their king; but, on the contrary, they found them all in peace,

and experienced the most kind and respectful treatment; and though their

duty was a most vexatious and oppressive one, they performed it in

general with moderation. On this account they could not refrain from

expressing their astonishment at the reports made to them by the

authorities at Nismes, declaring, "They had found a population suffering

great misfortunes, but no rebels; and that compassion was the only

feeling that prevailed in their minds." The commander himself was so

convinced of the good disposition of the people of the Cevennes, that he

visited those districts without an escort, desiring, he said, to travel

in that country as he would in his own. Such confidence was a public

reproach on the authorities at Nismes, and a sentence of condemnation on

all their proceedings.

As the persecution of the protestants was spreading into other

departments, strong and forcible representations were secretly printed

and made to the king. All the ordinary modes of communication had been

stopped; the secrecy of letters violated, and none circulated but those

relative to private affairs. Sometimes these letters bore the postmark

of places very distant, and arrived without signatures, and enveloped in

allegorical allusions. In fact, a powerful resistance on the part of the

outraged protestants was at length apprehended, which, in the beginning

of September excited the proclamation of the king, on which it was

observed, "that if his majesty had been correctly and fully informed of

all that had taken place, he surely would not have contented himself

with announcing his severe displeasure to a _misled people, who took

justice into their own hands, and avenged the crimes committed against

royalty_." The proclamation was dictated as though there had not been a

protestant in the department; it assumed and affirmed throughout the

guilt of the sufferers; and while it deplored the atrocious outrages

endured by the followers of the duke d'Angouleme, (outrages which never

existed,) the plunder and massacre of the reformed were not even

noticed.

Still disorders kept pace with the proclamations that made a show of

suppressing them, and the force of the catholic faction also continued

to increase. The catholic populace, notwithstanding the decrees of the

magistrates, were allowed to retain the arms they had illegally seized,

whilst the protestants in the departments were disarmed. The members of

the reformed churches wished at this period to present another memorial

to the government, descriptive of the evils they still suffered, but

this was not practicable. On the 26th of September, the president of the

consistory wrote as follows: "I have only been able to assemble two or

three members of the consistory pastors or elders. It is impossible to

draw up a memoir, or to collect facts; so great is the terror, that

every one is afraid to speak of his own sufferings, or to mention those

he has been compelled to witness."

_Outrages committed in the Villages, &c._

We now quit Nismes to take a view of the conduct of the persecutors in

the surrounding country. After the re-establishment of the royal

government, the local authorities were distinguished for their zeal and

forwardness in supporting their employers, and, under pretence of

rebellion, concealment of arms, non-payment of contributions, &c.

troops, national guards, and armed mobs, were permitted to plunder,

arrest, and murder peaceable citizens, not merely with impunity, but

with encouragement and approbation. At the village of Milhaud, near

Nismes, the inhabitants were frequently forced to pay large sums to

avoid being pillaged. This, however, would not avail at Madame

Teulon's: On Sunday, the 16th of July, her house and grounds were

ravaged; the valuable furniture removed or destroyed, the hay and wood

burnt, and the corpse of a child, buried in the garden, taken up and

dragged round a fire made by the populace. It was with great difficulty

that M. Teulon escaped with his life. M. Picherol, another protestant,

had deposited some of his effects with a catholic neighbour; this house

was attacked, and though all the property of the latter was respected,

that of his friend was seized and destroyed. At the same village, one of

a party doubting whether M. Hermet, a tailor, was the man they wanted,

asked, "Is he a protestant?" this he acknowledged. "Good," said they,

and he was instantly murdered. In the Canton of Vauvert, where there was

a consistory church, 80,000 francs were extorted. In the communes of

Beauvoisin and Generac similar excesses were committed by a handful of

licentious men, under the eye of the catholic mayor and to the cries of

"Vive le Roi." St. Gilles was the scene of the must unblushing villainy.

The protestants, the most wealthy of the inhabitants, were disarmed,

whilst their houses were pillaged. The mayor was appealed to:--the mayor

laughed and walked away. This officer had, at his disposal, a national

guard of several hundred men, organised by his own orders. It would be

wearisome to read the lists of the crimes that occurred during many

months. At Clavisson the mayor prohibited the protestants the practice

of singing the psalms commonly used in the temple, that, as he said, the

catholics might not be offended or disturbed.

At Sommieres, about ten miles from Nismes, the catholics made a splendid

procession through the town, which continued till evening and was

succeeded by the plunder of the protestants. On the arrival of foreign

troops at Sommieres, the pretended search for arms was resumed; those

who did not possess muskets were even compelled to buy them on purpose

to surrender them up, and soldiers were quartered on them at six francs

per day till they produced the articles in demand. The protestant church

which had been closed, was converted into barracks for the Austrians.

After divine service had been suspended for six months at Nismes, the

church, by the protestants called the Temple, was re-opened, and public

worship performed on the morning of the 24th of December. On examining

the belfry, it was discovered that some persons had carried off the

clapper of the bell. As the hour of service approached, a number of men,

women, and children, collected at the house of M. Ribot, the pastor, and

threatened to prevent the worship. At the appointed time, when he

proceeded towards the church, he was surrounded; the most savage shouts

were raised against him; some of the women seized him by the collar; but

nothing could disturb his firmness, or excite his impatience: he entered

the house of prayer, and ascended the pulpit; stones were thrown in and

fell among the worshippers; still the congregation remained calm and

attentive, and the service was concluded amidst noise, threats, and

outrage. On retiring many would have been killed but for the chasseurs

of the garrison, who honourably and zealously protected them. From the

captain of these chasseurs, M. Ribot soon after received the following

letter.

"_January 2, 1816._

"I deeply lament the prejudices of the catholics

against the _protestants_, who they pretend do not

love the king. Continue to act as you have hitherto

done, and time and your conduct will convince the

catholics to the contrary: should any tumult occur

similar to that of Saturday last inform me. I

preserve my reports of these acts, and if the

agitators prove incorrigible, and forget what they

owe to the best of kings and the _charter_, I will

do my duty and inform the government of their

proceedings. Adieu, my dear sir; assure the

consistory of my esteem, and of the sense I

entertain of the moderation with which they have

met the provocations of the evil-disposed at

Sommieres. I have the honor to salute you with

respect.

SUVAL DE LAINE."

Another letter to this worthy pastor from the Marquis de Montlord, was

received on the 6th of January, to encourage him to unite with all good

men who believe in God to obtain the punishment of the assassins,

brigands, and disturbers of public tranquility, and to read the

instructions he had received from government to this effect publicly.

Notwithstanding this, on the 20th of January, 1816, when the service in

commemoration of the death of Louis XVI. was celebrated, a procession

being formed, the National Guards fired at the white flag suspended from

the windows of the protestants, and concluded the day by plundering

their houses. In the Commune of Angargues, matters were still worse; and

in that of Fontanes, from the entry of the king in 1815, the catholics

broke all terms with the protestants; by day they insulted them, and in

the night broke open their doors, or marked them with chalk to be

plundered or burnt. St. Mamert was repeatedly visited by these

robberies; and at Montmiral, as lately as the 16th of June, 1816, the

protestants were attacked, beaten, and imprisoned, for daring to

celebrate the return of a king who had sworn to preserve religious

liberty and to maintain the charter. In fact, to continue the relation

of the scenes that took place in the different departments of the south

of France, would be little better than a repetition of those we have

already described, excepting a change of names: but the most sanguinary

of all seems that which was perpetrated at Uzes, at the latter end of

August, and the burning of several protestants places of worship. These

shameful persecutions continued till after the dissolution of the

Chamber of Deputies at the close of the year 1816. After a review of

these anti-protestant proceedings, the British reader will not think of

comparing them with the riots of London in 1780, or with those of

Birmingham about 1793; as it is evident that where governments possess

absolute power, such events could not have been prolonged for many

months and even for years over a vast extent of country, had it not been

for the systematic and powerful support of the higher department of the

state.

_Farther account of the proceedings of the Catholics at Nismes._

The excesses perpetrated in the country it seems did not by any means

divert the attention of the persecutors from Nismes. October, 1815,

commenced without any improvement in the principles or measures of the

government, and this was followed by corresponding presumption on the

part of the people. Several houses in the Quartier St. Charles were

sacked, and their wrecks burnt in the streets amidst songs, dances, and

shouts of Vive le Roi. The mayor appeared, but the merry multitude

pretended not to know him, and when he ventured to remonstrate, they

told him, "his presence was unnecessary, and that he might retire."

During the 16th of October, every preparation seemed to announce a night

of carnage; orders for assembling and signals for attack were circulated

with regularity and confidence; Trestaillon reviewed his satellites, and

urged them on to the perpetration of crimes, holding with one of those

wretches the following dialogue:

_Satellite._ "If all the protestants, without one exception, are to be

killed, I will cheerfully join; but as you have so often deceived me,

unless they are all to go I will not stir."

_Trestaillon._ "Come along, then, for this time not a single man shall

escape." This horrid purpose would have been executed had it not been

for General La Garde, the commandant of the department. It was not till

ten o'clock at night that he perceived the danger; he now felt that not

a moment could be lost. Crowds were advancing through the suburbs, and

the streets were filling with ruffians, uttering the most horrid

imprecations. The generale sounded at eleven o'clock, and added to the

confusion that was now spreading through the city. A few troops rallied

round the Count La Garde, who was wrung with distress at the sight of

the evil which had arrived at such a pitch. Of this M. Durand, a

catholic advocate, gave the following account:

"It was near midnight, my wife had just fallen asleep; I was writing by

her side, when we were disturbed by a distant noise; drums seemed

crossing the town in every direction. What could all this mean! To quiet

her alarm, I said it probably announced the arrival or departure of some

troops of the garrison. But firing and shouts were immediately audible;

and on opening my window I distinguished horrible imprecations mingled

with cries of _vive le Roi!_ I roused an officer who lodged in the

house, and M. Chancel, Director of the Public Works. We went out

together, and gained the Boulevarde. The moon shone bright, and almost

every object was nearly as distinct as day; a furious crowd was pressing

on vowing extermination, and the greater part half naked, armed with

knives, muskets, sticks, and sabres. In answer to my inquiries I was

told the massacre was general, that many had been already killed in the

suburbs. M. Chancel retired to put on his uniform as captain of the

_Pompiers_; the officers retired to the barracks, and anxious for my

wife I returned home. By the noise I was convinced that persons

followed. I crept along in the shadow of the wall, opened my door,

entered, and closed it, leaving a small aperture through which I could

watch the movements of the party whose arms shone in the moonlight. In a

few moments some armed men appeared conducting a prisoner to the very

spot where I was concealed. They stopped, I shut my door gently, and

mounted on an alder tree planted against the garden wall. What a scene!

a man on his knees imploring mercy from wretches who mocked his agony,

and loaded him with abuse. In the name of my wife and children, he said,

spare me! What have I done? Why would you murder me for nothing? I was

on the point of crying out and menacing the murderers with vengeance. I

had not long to deliberate, the discharge of several fusils terminated

my suspense; the unhappy supplicant, struck in the loins and the head,

fell to rise no more. The backs of the assassins were towards the tree;

they retired immediately, reloading their pieces. I descended and

approached the dying man, uttering some deep and dismal groans. Some

National Guards arrived at the moment, I again retired and shut the

door. "I see," said one, "a dead man." "He sings still," said another.

"It will be better," said a third, "to finish him and put him out of his

misery." Five or six muskets were fired instantly, and the groans

ceased. On the following day crowds came to inspect and insult the

deceased. A day after a massacre was always observed as a sort of fete,

and every occupation was left to go and gaze upon the victims. This was

Louis Lichare, the father of four children; and four years after the

event, M. Durand verified this account by his oath upon the trial of one

of the murderers."

_Attack upon the Protestant Churches._

Some time before the death of general La Garde, the duke d'Angouleme had

visited Nismes, and other cities in the south, and at the former place

honoured the members of the protestant consistory with an interview,

promising them protection, and encouraging them to reopen their temple

so long shut up. They have two churches at Nismes, and it was agreed

that the small one should be preferred on this occasion, and that the

ringing of the bell should be omitted, general La Garde declared that he

would answer with his head for the safety of his congregation. The

protestants privately informed each other that worship was once more to

be celebrated at ten o'clock, and they began to assemble silently and

cautiously. It was agreed that M. Juillerat Chasseur should perform the

service, though such was his conviction of danger that he entreated his

wife, and some of his flock, to remain with their families. The temple

being opened only as a matter of form, and in compliance with the orders

of the duke d'Angouleme, this pastor wished to be the only victim. On

his way to the place he passed numerous groupes who regarded him with

ferocious looks. "This is the time," said some, "to give them the last

blow." "Yes," added others, "and neither women nor children must be

spared." One wretch, raising his voice above the rest, exclaimed, "Ah, I

will go and get my musket, and ten for my share." Through these ominous

sounds M. Juillerat pursued his course, but when he gained the temple

the sexton had not the courage to open the door, and he was obliged to

do it himself. As the worshippers arrived they found strange persons in

possession of the adjacent streets, and upon the steps of the church,

vowing their worship should not be performed, and crying, "Down with the

protestants! kill them! kill them!" At ten o'clock the church being

nearly filled, M. J. Chasseur commenced the prayers; a calm that

succeeded was of short duration. On a sudden the minister was

interrupted by a violent noise, and a number of persons entered,

uttering the most dreadful cries, mingled with _Vive le Roi!_ but the

gens-d'armes succeeded in excluding these fanatics, and closing the

doors. The noise and tumult without now redoubled, and the blows of the

populace trying to break open the doors, caused the house to resound

with shrieks and groans. The voice of the pastors who endeavoured to

console their flock, was inaudible; they attempted in vain to sing the

42d psalm.

Three quarters of an hour rolled heavily away. "I placed myself," says

Madame Juillerat, "at the bottom of the pulpit, with my daughter in my

arms; my husband at length joined and sustained me; I remembered that it

was the anniversary of my marriage; after six years of happiness, I

said, I am about to die with my husband and my daughter; we shall be

slain at the altar of our God, the victims of a sacred duty, and heaven

will open to receive us and our unhappy brethren. I blessed the

Redeemer, and without cursing our murderers, I awaited their approach."

M. Oliver, son of a pastor, an officer in the royal troops of the line,

attempted to leave the church, but the friendly sentinels at the door

advised him to remain besieged with the rest. The national guards

refused to act, and the fanatical crowd took every advantage of the

absence of general La Garde, and of their increasing numbers. At length

the sound of martial music was heard, and voices from without called to

the besieged, "Open, open and save yourselves." Their first impression

was a fear of treachery, but they were soon assured that a detachment

returning from mass was drawn up in front of the church to favour the

retreat of the protestants. The door was opened, and many of them

escaped among the ranks of the soldiers, who had driven the mob before

them; but this street, as well as others through which the fugitives had

to pass, was soon filled again. The venerable pastor, Olivier Desmond,

between 70 and 80 years of age, was surrounded by murderers; they put

their fists in his face, and cried, "Kill the chief of brigands." He was

preserved by the firmness of some officers, among whom was his own son;

they made a bulwark round him with their bodies, and amidst their naked

sabres conducted him to his house. M. Juillerat, who had assisted at

divine service with his wife at his side and his child in his arms, was

pursued and assailed with stones, his mother received a blow on the

head, and her life was some time in danger. One woman was shamefully

whipped, and several wounded and dragged along the streets; the number

of protestants more or less ill treated on this occasion amounted to

between seventy and eighty.

_Murder of General La Garde._