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iants so much divided , " We had better remain as we are . ' * At an annual meeting of the Paris Missionary Society , a year or two ago , when a vote of thanks was proposed to the English societies which had lent their co-ope ^ ration , a distinct exception was made to the prejudice of that for continental
missions , just offence having been taken at the unmeasured terms in which it had stigmatized the sentiments of the French Protestants . The organ of the Calvinistic party in this country is the Archives du Christianisme , a work which is interesting from its information , but deeply imbued with the peculiar spirit of its conductors ; and the style in which many of its articles are written is as mSdiocre as its engravings .
The southern provinces of this country are , as is well known , those in which the Protestants are in the greatest force . Though few , compared to their more orthodox brethren , they are yet a very considerable body , and their wealth and standing in society are much more than proportioned to their numbers * In Bourdeaux , especially , the richest of the merchants ar 6 of this persuasion , and a liberal spirit prevails between the members of the two communions , which indeed is the case , I believe , in most of the towns
through which I passed , excepting Nimes , where there is a religious , or rather an irreligious , mob of the worst description . The prospects of an increase of numbers among the Protestants are exceedingly cheering . There is a very strong disposition among the Catholics to change their religion . Seventeen hundred came over at Lyons very lately , in consequence , probably , of the measures which had been taken by the authorities to prevent the celebration of Protestant worship in the village of Consorce , ( see Mon .
Repos ., N . » S ., p . 601 , ) in that neighbourhood ; and I was both surprised and gratified the other day to hear a Catholic declare , that if there were to be a persecution of the Protestants in France , two-thirds of the Catholics would turri Protestant immediately . * The little success which has followed the labours of the Jesuitical missionaries who have lately been traversing the country , and the disgust which their extravagant doctrines and unblushing assumption
have , in many instances , excited , are proofs that the French are not , at this moment , very submissively disposed towards the See of Rome . The noble spirit , too , which has been displayed in the late elections , furnishes some kind of pledge that other impositions besides those of the political world will be resisted , and other sophisms exposed ; and when to this we add , that the people of this country are daily becoming more serious and philosophical ,- !"
* I heard lately an anecdote , which is so very characteristic of the spirit of the times , that I cannot forbear relating it . The cure " of the parish of in Gascony , had given it as his opinion that it was very wrong in the women to come to church with nosegays . In spite of this prohi-. bition , his fair auditors thought proper to make their appearance with the offensive ornaments in their bosoms . The enraged cur £ descended from hia pulpit , and snatched away from them all the flowers which he could find . The following
Sunday the offence was repeated , and the same summary notice was taken of it ; upon which their ladyships , not choosing to be dictated to in this arbitrary manner , seceded in a body , and determined to have a pastor more to their own liking . They first , however , procured a number of Bibles , that they might form a more accurate judgment of the pretensions of the rival churches ; and the result has been , that
they have hired a room aa the first step to the establishment of a Protestant service * Let the priests look to it ! their influence hangs on a very thread ! Should any more Protestants be hindered in the celebration of their worship , or any more nosegays be plucked from the glowing bosoms of the high dames of Gascony , we shall soon see the Catholic churches left to the quiet possession of the bata and the cure ' s , t In support of this remark , I have great pleasure iu translating a passage from
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Journal of a Tour in the Smith of France . 87
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1828, page 87, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2557/page/15/
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