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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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740 Afp . B <* &etf [ $ } i ' $ concluding Remarks en the Present State ofGenem ,
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tke other , tb ^ sqm $ soldiers "took religious tracts from terrified cbildr ^ u , and ramming them into their pieces , boasted , We fire off the Lord" ! The
Qenevese Government keeps a few hired soldiers in its pay , who may he much tike the soldiers in other countries , but I am certain that they dare not repeat sucban act , were it known to their officers , or to the magistrates ; and it is as unfair to charge the Genevsse with profaneness for a single act of these men . as it would be to
defame the English Calvinists , for any aqt done by our soldiers in the Green Park , Dr . § ., finding the evidence for the immorality of the Geneyese of the present day ; so defective , moves the charge back forty years * to 1784 * This reminds us of the wolf and the lamb
in- the fable : "Jf it was not you , it \ y $ s your mother" 1 He has also brought forward the rhapsody of M . de Joux , written twenty years since , in the time of the captivity of Geneva . It is exactly what ; we may every day in
hear well-me ^ niii £ preache rs England pour forth against their own c'oiuitrywen , measuring them by an imaginary standard of perfection at which society has never yet arrived . Such lamentations are of little value
ij * aiding us to form a comparative estimate of the morals of any people . It is ,, however , with the present state of morals in Geneva that we are con * , cerned , and I feel fully assured of the
truth of all that I have written respecting it in my former letters . As Dr . Smith declines the challenge tp bring forward a moral comparison of the Geneves e with Calvinisfs in
other cities , I wiH refer your readers to the account of Holland ia 1816 , by Mr . James Mitchell , M . A . : w The pr 6 vailin £ reKgioa is pure Calvinism : any preacher wlio were to oppose the
tenets of Calvin , would draw upon himself the vengeance of the Synods . " Notwithstanding this , Mr . Mitchell says there are 500 spiel-houses in Rotterdam alone , where unfortunate
young women are purchased like slaves and kept for prostitution : respectablelooking persons bring their wives and daughters on Sunday evenings to see the girls dance . He inquired several times the number of these infamous spiel-houses , and was constantly told five hurulred ! In Amsterdam , ihe
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manners are much the same- He lays that , on Sundays , respectable men and their families attend such bouses , and do not seem to feel any repugnance at joining in the dance with females whose society might be
supposed no acquisition . It is no stain on a man ' s morals or piety to be present . Such things ( he adds ) are not exactly what we would expect from Calvinists or Presbyterians . " ( Mitchell's Tour . ) It appears from this ' account , and from that of Sir J »
Carr , that Calvinism does not posses * any high degree of preserving influence over the morals of a people professing it . Surely Dr . Smith and his friends , who are so fcealous for the reform of Genevese heretics , would da well to direct their attention elsewhere * and visit their Calvinist brethren iu
Holland : but errors m conduct are considered by m ^ uy religionists as trifles compared with errors of faith . Now let us turn to Geneva ,, At the time that I was there , a circumstance occurred which proves in ^ striking manner the care that is taken to
preserve young persons from moisai con ^ tagion . A company of Ualiaa operadancers , passing through the city > performed for a few nights at the theatre . During one of the rqpr §?« sentations , the gesture of an actor , which would have passed without the
slightest natice on the London stogie , \ yias considered as indecorous . A TOa- * gistrate who was present immediately : ordered the piece to be stopped for the evening , and the spectator wHi ^ drew . Dancing in private houses * eyea of the first citizens , is not allowed Xo
be continued longer tha # 12 o ' gloqk , at night : a heavy penalty m leyjpdi qi * those who violate this reg ^ ul&Jtion . — Among the Orthodox Oen ^ vese , 3 c-r cording to Bishop BurneV & 8 t have before mentioned , secret < J # l * aii £ hery > " was managed witk great address ;" but uufortuaate women whose crimes
became notorious , were tfaewned m the Rhone — which , I suppo ^^ was regarded as washing away th $ sins of the people . The modern Cteaevese compel known prostitutes to live in
one street , to prevent their mixing generally with the citizens : thus they endeavour to lessen the pernicious effects of an evil which it has been foun d impossible to annihilate in large ai * d densely-peopled cities .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1824, page 740, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2531/page/36/
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