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Untitled Article
it could have been in human nature to have conducted themselves in such a manner , if they had known the real facts of the case . All that he imputed to his MajestyV ministers was , that they had too credulously believed , and too lightly judged upon , all the stories they had received . He could also assure the House , if indeed it were
necessary , that in introducing this matter to its consideration he was actuated by no party or ^ personal feelings , but by motives of justice and humanity to an injured and disheartened
> eople ; and after having received inbrmation from various quarters , after laving had the means of conversing with many persons that had been on the spot , he did think it would have been a dereliction of the dutv he owed
to oppressed and injured individuals , had he hot drawn the attention of the House to the subject . —The letter of the Duke of Wellington had been published at Nismes , and was scattered about the town with the greatest joy and exultation by the Catholics ; but it filled the Protestants with the
utmost consternation ; it took from the oppressors the only restraint impdsea upon them , and from the oppressed their last hope . So completely were they oppressed , that they were
looked upon as mere slaves , under the controul , and subject to the passions , £ > f an enraged master—without hope , "Without comfort and without rejief .
In considering , then , this important subject , there were three principal questions to be discussed : 1 st . whether any and what punishment had been innicted on these murderers and assassins j 2 dly , whether these offences had been committed against law and
nature from political or religious motives ; and 3 dlyr v ^ heth er the French government had afforded any protection to the injured . Unless these three questions were considered , it wputd be impossible to give a dtstinc *
itfefr ^ of the disgraceful transaction ^ which had taken place in the depart-J meat of the Gard , to tvhich the distressing scenes were almost wholly confined . There could be no doubt that there had been a most unjust persecutionfcf the Protestants in the Sonth 0 f rr&nce , and that Itfismes was the
principal scene 0 f % 6 rroY and of bloodshed ; but ip order that the subject might be fully eoin ^ idteliehded ( by the j #$ * c , it ^ b ujd beVec ^ sswy for * £ * &
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to put it in possession of the situation in which the Protestants were placed previous to the restoration of hi * present Majesty , L . ouis XVIII . on the throne of France . The department of the Gard was the , first pan of France , and , he believed , of Europe , where the doctrines of the reformed
religion were promulgated ; and it was in the mountains of the Cevennes that , in the twelfth century , heresy , as it was then termed , first took its root , distinguished by the piety of the doctrines of those who professed it . Tn this situation they remained unmolested to the time of the Reformation
but by the unhappy communication between the leaders of the two parties at the latter end of the reign of Francis I . a dreadful destruction of the Protestants took place at Aix . This
was the first appearance of that bitter animosity which afterwards spread devastation throughout the whole of France , and the commencement of those dreadful wars between the
Hugonots and Catholics , so disgraceful to human nature . At last religious peace was restored under the reign of Henry IV . when the Pfotestants enjoyed the most perfect liberty . Nismes was then the city to which the Protestants resorted . So matters rested
until the revocation of the edict of Nantes , when those bloody orders were issued , the object of which was to convert the whole province of the Gard by a regiment of dragoons * The face of things was immediately changed ; all France became a Catholic country , and not a Protestant was to be seen m it . In the time of Louii
XIV . and XV . the Protestants again began to rear up their heads ; ana of so novel a description were they , that the term of " les noveax convertis , " was applied to them . Proceeding in his statement of the grievances under which the Protestants laboured ^ the
Hoti : Gentleman mentioned that it frad teen stated as an instance oi comparative lenity by one writer , that from the year 1 ^ 45 to 1770 only eight of their ministers were hanged . la all this period their marriages were declared null , their children of fourteen
years old , who professed the Catholic reli g ion , were taken from the care of their p arents : instances might be mentioned of husbands being sent xo * h galleys for marrying according to t ^ Protestant foftjfi , and their wives I *
Untitled Article
358 Intelligence . —Delate i » the House of Commons on the French Protestants .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1816, page 358, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2453/page/50/
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