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a receptacle of prostitutes . Such by law was the condition of the Protestants in France — ameliorated , no doubt , by the increasing toleration of
the age . Louis XVI . had the distinguished merit of remedying many of those grievances from the earliest years of his reign . There were extant memorials presented to him by the lamented M . Malesherbe and others , on
this subject ; and their remaining grievances would , doubtless , have been removed by that unfortunate sovereign , had not his throne been overthrown by the torrent of the revolution , amidst his wishes to establish a
constitutional liberty . One of the first acts of the revolution was to restore the Protestants to a perfect equality of privileges . They were declared admissible to all civil offices without distinction ; and one of their ministers ,
Rabaut St . Etienne , was president of the national assembly . The Protestants , with the feelings natural to men , could not but applaud and admire a work > by which they were raised , from being outcasts of society , and from a
state of degradation and infamy , to that of citizens with equal rights . This , however , had been objected to them by some persons als matter of reproach ; but he trusted he should be able to show , to the satisfaction of the
House , that all that had been said of their being revolutionists and -Buonapartists in a peculiar degree was perverted arid misrepresented . He would assert , that in those scenes of horror which soon disgraced the progress of the revolution , not one Protestant was
found to be an , actor . Of course he nrnst here be supposed to speak generall y , as far as his information extended . He , acknowledged , indeed , that some of them who were members of the convention voted for the death
of the king , ( mt al \ of them with rfie addition of the appeal to the people , which , if not , displaying due firmness , at least discovered their , wish to save *» e monarch . There was not one \ i ; otestan £ > a member of the revolutyWary tribtypai of the department of % Gard j > ai ^ of the 130 person * 5 # P were gujjlatined fyy it $ orders at ^ iffiffi es , inpre ^ h ^ an ipo were Prqtes-TOfc , tfowglvt | ie Protestants formed W y ahomjo ^ ^ hirfj of the papula-JJ 9 ff » % njigjit , say , , | iiaj ; amidst the "& * & ** . tty the revolution they were al ways found on the side of modera-
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tion and justice . He did not speak this invidiously , but , as was usual in a sect which " formed the minority , many of whom we ^ e opulent , greater regularity of conduct and correctness of morals were generally found to prevail . The Protestants being thus restored to the rank of citizens , all
religious animosities seemed to subside in the South of France . In 1802 , Buonaparte , being then First Consul , procured the enactment of a law which placed their religion precisely on the
same footing with the Catholic faith in point of establishment and privilege . Could it be matter of reproach to them that they were grateful for this favour ?—it was not possible but that thev must have felt attachment to him
for it . Hence , however , it was deemed proper by some that they should be stigmatized as Buonapartists . There was no foundation for the assertion that any partiality was shown to them by Buonaparte . There was not one Protestant prefect or commandant of
department appointed by him ; none of them filled the tribunal of justice ; and probably one reason of this might be , that before the revolution they were not allowed to follow the profession of the law . It was not improbable , however , that the circumstance
of the Protestants being thus placed on a level with their former masters , might excite a rankling jealousy in the latter , which would break out on the first convenient opportunity . This state of things continued until Louis XVIII . was restored to his kingdom in April 1814 . At this period
Buonaparte had become odious to the Protestants at Niames , both from the weight of taxation with which they were loaded , and from the incessant demands of the conscription . The taxes fell with peculiar Hardship or * ^ rmt ^ t mm * ^^ ^* « ^^^ 4 K w w im w *• ^ ^^ ^^ ~ ^^ ¦* ¦ ¦* ^™ ¦ - » ~ ™ ™ ' — — t- j ¦ — — - —
^ m the Protestants , as , generally speaking * there was more property ^ in the * r hands ; and leading , as they generally did , retired , , domestic lives , the conscription , which t 0 r $ 4 rom them their children * was peculiarly felt by thejm .
aa a hardship of the greatest seventy * He believed tfyatt the Protestants vwere , under these circumstances , unanimous irt the joy which they expressed on ith # restoration of Louis . X-VIIL fJnfor tunately , however , during the course of the $ acoee 4 iiig : jUen mout )^ , a , pon sidcrable ohange pf ^ opiaion 4 opk place * Persons who had been long absent
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Intelligence * —Delate in the House of Commons on the French Protestants . 359
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1816, page 359, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2453/page/51/
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