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tile opinion . You may still inquire in French society , what are the political sentiments of a man in advanced life ; but if the person with whom you converse be younsc ^ inquiry is useless ; that person is a lover of liberty . The French youth have lired only under the new order of things , and have not been taught to respect the old . They have imbibed the principles of the Revolution , without having felt its evils . Its pitiless tempest rocked their cradle and passed harmless
over their beads . They are not like those who , having- passed through the Revolution , are weary of the conflict , and disposed to leave the reformation of the world to whomever it may concern . The minds of the French youth are unsubdued by suffering , and full of the ardour of
independence . They know tbat liberty is the prize , for [ which ] many of their parents have bled in the field or perished on the scaffold . But they are too well read in modern history , of which their country lias been the great theatre , to seek for liberty where it is not to be found .
They do not resemble that misled and insensate multitude who , in the first years of the Revolution , had just thrown off their chains , and profaned in their ignorance the cause they revered . The present race
are better taught , and will not bow the knee to false idols . They rally round the charter as their tutelar divinity , whom it is their duty to obey , and their privilege to defend . '—Pp . 7—9 .
We are pleased with the following notice , the first that has reached us , of the recal from exile of M . PomitfiER . Rajbauo , the brother of the illustrious and unfortunate Rabaud St . T « itieiine , and for several years one of the Protestant ministers at Paris . M .
Rabaud . was one of the Convention that sate in judgment upon Louis XVI . He gave his vote for the death of the king , but with an additional clause designed to save his life . The measure of his political offences was
filled up by his signing the « ' Additional Act , " that is , the act of allegiance to Buonaparte on his return from Elba . And hence , at an advanced age , and without any means of subsistence but his profession , he was banished from France .
" M . Rabaud bears a name which is never pronounced but with veneratiou by the Protestants "" of France . His exile was generally deplored 9 the pious had lost a model , and the poor a friend . After two years of exile , his return was solicited by one of the best defenders of Protes-
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tantism and of liberty in France , M . Boissv d' Angelas , and granted by the King wfch generous alacrity . The first time oiuveuerabie pastor appeared at church a great part of the audience offered him a spontaneous tribute of affectionate reve rence , by rising , wheD he entered " Pn 11 , 12 . P ' The great thing gained by the French is the election of representatives . This privilege is not equal in value to the elective franchise in
England . The people only elect other electors , who , in what are called " electoral colleges , ' * choose the actual Deputies ; and in the assemblies of the " electoral colleges" no discussion is permitted on the merits of the respective candidates .
" The people , however , well understand the value of their right of election . They know the price it has cost . They are not ignorant that they have paid for it with thirty years of revolution , with their tranquillity , their fortunes , their children ; they regard it , like the sacred
ark , which no impious hand could touch with impunity . During * the last election at Paris , a friend of mine passed a group of people , who were talking- politics in the street , when one man , stepping- out of the group , pointed with his hand to a placard with the names of the electors , and exclaimed , This is the Revolution . "—Pp .
31 , 32 . The sign and seal of French liberty is the impotence of the priesthood , of which Miss Williams gives an amusing proof :
" The carnival of 1817 was succeeded by an incident that spread a general gaiety over the first days of Lent . This was a Mandement , or Pastoral Letter , of the Grand Vicaires of Paris , the first episcopal
authority in the interregnum of the archbishoprick , addressed to the faithful , and affixed as usual , at that season , to the walls of all the churches of the capital . It was in general , in the accustomed forms ,
prescribing abstinence , granting * permission to eat eggs , &c . ——but it contained one prohibition of a novel description . A bookseller had just published a compact edition of Voltaire for more general use ; and against this publication the Maudernent hurled all its thunders . The
Parisians have lon < r had sufficient reason to be serious , but their natural disposition w to be gay ; they were glad of an occasion for mirth , and never was a Mandement before the cause of so much pleasantry . It furnished the subject of epigrams , the burden of songs j every body felt the ordinary
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700 Review . —Miss Williams ' s Letter $ on France .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1819, page 700, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1778/page/48/
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