Thus mourns the parent whose ill-fated son,

Back to his country never must return;

The widow thus bewails her husband gone;

And tore away the veil from mortal sight, While shewn by thee, th' ETERNAL'S glory bright

Is own'd,-felt,-seen,-ev'n in this world of crime !

Thou, once a slumberer on the Saviour's breast!

Deem'd worthy to be call'd the Virgin's Son!

From the German of Schiller.
Wrapt in gloomy mist of even

All my joys are fled afar,
One bright ray in mem'ry's heaven
Lingers, one immortal star.
See it beam celestial light ;-
No! 'tis but a gleam of night.

Death's long slumber hath o'erta'en thee,

Veil'd those lovely eyes of thine-
Can my sorrows, Emma, pain thee?

Beats thy bosom now with mine?
Ah! thou liv'st in light above;
But thou liv'st not for my love!

Love's emotions perish never :

Can they perish, Emma, say? All beneath is fleeting ever:

And must love too pass away? Can this flame of heav'nly fire Like an earthly spark expire?

A.

From the Portuguese of A. Ferreira.
To the beloved Disciple.

Celestial Eagle! that on wing sublime,
Rose above heav'n in thy seraphic flight,
And brought the secrets of the stars to
light,

And gave eternal day to darksome time; That fill'd with heavenly gladness earthly clime,

best!

To Spring.

Thrice welcome! soul-reviving Spring, That com'st with smiles; and with thee bring,

The Zephyrs bland, with balmy wing,
Gladding the plains,

And let the feather'd warblers sing,
Their softest strains.

Sweet Philomel's autumnal lay,
When tears hang trembling on the spray,
May softly hymn departed day,
With pensive voice;

But when thou com'st enchanting May,
All hearts rejoice.

The violet, and the primrose pale,
Perfume with sweets the vernal gale,
Roses and lilies of the vale,
United bring,

Their choicest, fairest charms to hail
Returning Spring.

Ah! I have seen a blushing rose,
At young-eyed morning just unclose,
Wafting with every gale that blows
Fragance around,

Cropt off before it fully blows,
Fade on the ground.

This fate was thine, thou lovely maid!
'Twas faithless love that thee betray'd,
(Thou fairest flower of all the glade)
And yew trees wave,

Where oft with breaking heart I tread
Thy lowly grave!

C. S.

Epigram on Scott's Waterloo.
How prostrate lie the heaps of slain
On Waterloo's immortal plain!
But none by sabre or by shot,

Fell half so flat as WALTER SCOTT.
Yet who with magic spear or shield,
E'er fought like him on Flodden Field?
Morn. Chron.

FOREIGN.

French Protestants.

DOCUMENTS.

Royal Ordinance.

Louis, by the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre, &.

"We are informed that our Ordinance of the 21st of Nov. last, has received in the town of Nisses the re

spect and submission we expected; that though the criminal whom ins tice demands is not yet secured, strict searches have been made; that they have been seconded by the National Guard and the inhabitants; and that every thing announces that the assassin of General Lagarde has neither asylum nor protection at Nismes.

"On the other hand, the article of the Constitutional Charter, which, in recognizing the Catholic religion for the religion of the State, secures to other religions liberty and protection, has been faithfully executed. The temple of the Protestants is open, and they enjoy therein all the security which is guaranteed to them by the laws.

"After so marked a return to principles and order, we will no longer postpone the revocation of the rigorous measures which necessity drew from us.

"For these reasons we have ordered and do order what follows::

"ART. 1. The troops quartered in garrison or on the inhabitants of Nismes, shall be without delay withdrawn, and distributed in the barracks, and in such parts of the department of the Gard, as our Military commandant may judge necessary.

"2. Our Prefect shall declare to the inhabitants of Nismes, that we are satisfied with the zeal with which they concurred in the maintenance of tranquillity, and the re-establishment of order in our said good city.

"3. Our Minister, Keeper of the Seals, and our Ministers for War, and the Interior, and General Police, are charged with the execution of the present Ordinance.

(Signed)

"LOUIS." "Given at Paris, Jan. 10, 1816."

Paris, Jan. 12. The following is the Proclamation

Notice to the Inhabitants of the City of Nismes.

"The laws of the realm and the will of the King secure the exercise of the Protestant worship. I tell you so, I, who am your magistrate, your mayor-I, who have surely some testant churches will be opened on claims to your confidence. The ProThursday next, and that day will prove to the King, to France, and to Europe, who are our accusers, that the blindness of a few women and children is not the crime of the city of Nismes, which has distinguished itself on so many occasions, and even recently, by its fidelity and devotion to the King.

"Women who are blinded by your zeal, and perhaps excited by your enemies, you will not once more ruin your city, and gratify by your errors the enemies of the Royal cause. I am assured, and for that reason I have a ferences are opened, and nearly terpleasure in informing you, that conminated, with the Consistory of the Protestant worship. Their object is to restore, by common consent, to the worship of the State, the churches which have been conceded to the Protestant worship. Two churches will lieu of that concession. During that be built, and that very shortly, in short interval, the Protestants may enjoy, undisturbed, the churches thus conceded. The people of Nismes need only know the will of the King, and hear the voice of the Royal Authorities, to do their duty. "Marquis de VALLONQUES, Mayor." "Nismes, Dec. 19, 1815."

The Official Gazette of this day announces, that tranquillity is restored in the South; notwithstanding which assertion, we have authentic accounts

of the following transactions having. recently taken place in that part of the kingdom :—

At Sommières, the Protestants, having attempted to celebrate their worship on the 24th of December, the power of which they had been deprived of since the month of July, they met with the most barbarous treatment on that account.

The royal troops, which do not cease to infest the environs of Nismes, exercise continual vexations on the Protestants. On the 22nd of December a detachment of about fifty men broke into the house of M. Mourier, a gentleman of property at St. Blancard, lately returned from emigration, who had just time to effect his escape. Failing in their main object, these brigands completely pillaged the premises, and daily continue their depredations in the neighbourhood.

Several families at Nismes have abjured their religion, the motive of which is evident. They are families of mechanics and workmen, who are without bread in consequence of the persecutions they have undergone. The Protestant manufacturers have, for the most part, fled, and the Catholics will not employ Protestant workmen ; besides which, the looms and frames of the latter have been destroyed, and they are reduced to the alternative of recanting or starving.

This system of persecution has extended to Bordeaux and its neighbourhood. Its effects have also been felt at Nantz, the President of the Consistory of that city having been sent into exile. Tristaillon, Quatretaillon, and another brigand of that party, made their entry lately into Lyons. They wore in their hats white cockades of a preposterous size, in the midst of which was displayed a large red cross, the characteristic badge of the fanatics of Nismes. These crusaders met with a very ill reception from the people of that city, several of whom have been arrested upon a charge of having insulted them. In consequence of the spirit of the Lyonnese being so unfavourable to these culprits, the latter have been transferred to some town in the province of Bourbonnais. The refugees from Nismes have been warmly greeted by the people of Lyons; which circumstance has given great disgust to the

Royal Authorities of that place. The Prefect of that city having learned that the President of the Protestant Consistory had received letters from the English Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty, called up that minister before him, compelled him to deliver them up, and threatened him with a criminal prosecution for corresponding with the enemies of the State.

It may not be unworthy of notice, that the soldiers, who, by the late Royal Ordonnance are removed from Nismes, were quartered solely on the Protestants during their stay in that city; and that the whole weight of extraordinary contributions is made to fall upon the Protestants, of which the following is a striking instance: The Marquis de Calvieres, a Catholic gentleman, enjoying a landed estate of 60,000 livres a year, is assessed at . 600 livres-while Mr. Brosse de Pierdon, a Protestant, whose income amounts to about 10,000 livres, has paid within this last year the sum of 15,000 livres towards those contributions.

(From the Journal des Debats.)

Protestant Society of London. The anxiety and inquiries of the Protestant Society of London have at least produced one good effect.These inquiries have become, to a very considerable class of Frenchmen, an opportunity for manifesting sentiments, respecting which the most perfidious malevolence cannot any longer express a doubt. From all sides, the heads and the members of the Consistories are eager to prove, by the most authentic protestations and the most formal declarations, that no real cause existed for the proceedings of the Society in London, and that an excess of zeal alone inspired that Society with its fears and suspicions. The following is the extract from a letter which M. Martineau de la Zalgue, President of the Consistory of the Reformed Church at Clairac, has written to his Excellency the Minister of the Interior, sending to him at the same time the letter which the Society of London had addressed to all the Consistories of France:

"Full of an entire confidence in his Majesty Louis XVIII. my well-beloved King, I look for peace and tranquillity on the earth from him alone.

The finest promises of protection and aid from a foreign government cannot make any impression on my heart ;God, my country, and the Charter of fmy King, are my sacred signs of rallying, and I would die rather than abandon them.

"These, Sir, are the sentiments which I unceasingly endeavour to fortify by my discourses and my example, in the minds and hearts of my flock, and where they have long since been engraven; and I dare affirm, without fear of contradiction, that the King has not any subjects more devoted than the Protestants of Clairac." We think it our duty to add to this new testimony, the following extract from an address sent to the King by the President, Pastors, and Members of the Reformed Consistories of the Department of the Ardeche.

Sire, your faithful subjects, professing the reformed religion in the department of Ardeche, come to lay at the foot of the throne the respectful homage of their gratitude and love. They form no body in the State; they do not harbour the guilty thought of forming one; united together by the single bond of a common worship, they are also united to all your subjects by their sentiments for your august person; and the precious title of Frenchmen is sufficient for their happiness and glory. It is in this quality, Sire, that they come to swear to your Majesty an unlimited fidelity.

"They have no complaints to make; no petition to offer: they rely implicitly on your justice and goodness. The tribute which they presume to offer to you is equally pure and disinterested; and their language must be that of unalterable gratitude and entire devotion. While the torch of fanaticism, repressed by your Ma jesty, has been shaken in less happy districts, they have constantly enjoye all the liberty guaranteed by that Charter, the immortal offspring of your noble wisdom, and the pledge of your goodness. No attempt has been made to check the impulse of their conscience, to oppose their devotions which they publicly practise, and in which they fervently pray for your safety and happiness.

"You come, to secure to us for ever that internal tranquillity which can alone serve as the basis for the public prosperity. That tutelary am

VOL. XI.

2A

177

nesty, proposed in your name, by your ministers, has subdued all hatreds, dissipated all alarms, calmed all resentments, re-established universal confidence, and blended into one common sentiment of gratitude and love, the differences of opinion which party spirit had fomented.

66

Sire, posterity will place the name of Louis XVIII. between those of Louis XII. and Henry IV. The latter, who was your ancestor and your model, has always been, to the Protestants of France, the object of a sort of adoration. We love, Sire, to discover him again in you; and if our ancestors had the glory of powerfully contributing towards placing him on a throne which has become your inheritance, we will prove, by our conduct towards your sacred person, that the Protestants of the present day have the same love and the same fidelity for the august family of the Bourbons which animated the Protestants of two centuries back.

"We are, Sire, with the most profound respect, your Majesty's most humble and most obedient servants and faithful subjects, the Presidents, Pastors, and Members of the Reformed Consistories of the Department of the Ardeche."

[Here follow the signatures.]

Proclamation of the Prefect to the Inhabitants and the National Guard of the City of Nismes.

Nismes, Jan. 20. "At last, brave and loyal Inhabitants, and National Guards, after so much solicitude for your happiness and your renown, I perceive a bright day shine upon this city, whose population has given so many proofs of its unalterable fidelity to legitimate monarchy, to the August House which reigned so long over our happy ancestors, and who, if our vows are heard by the Supreme Arbiter of nations and monarchs, shall reign for ever over our descendants.

"The King is satisfied with your conduct; he has fulfilled all my wishes and rewarded all my efforts, by ordering me to make known his sovereign and paternal satisfaction.

"Thus are obliterated a few errors, into which perfidious agitators, abusing even your attachment to your king, had drawn you. Thus are annihilated those calumnious reports, which

a vain attempt has been made to circulate in the bosom of our country, even to the foot of the throne of our august monarch; but which had been spread with too much success among foreign nations, which are now undeceived as to our true feel ings.

"I conjure you then, brave Nismois, brave National Guards, continue to deserve, by your fidelity to the King, by your obedience to his sacred orders and the laws of the kingdom, by your respect for liberty of worship and conscience, the favour which the King has just conferred on you and your justification in the face of all Europe, which his Majesy has not disdained himself to proclaim, by his Royal Ordonnance of the 10th of this month. Live the King! May our great, our good King live for ever!

•The Prefect Marquis

d'ARBAUD JOQUES."

Extract of a Letter of Jan. 12, 1816, of his Excellency the Minister of the Interior to the Prefect of the Gard. "I learn with joy the happy convalescence of M. the Count de Lagarde. May this good servant of the King yet for a long period consecrate to him his loyal services."

Strasburg, Jan. 29. The Journal of our department has published the following circular of the Minister of the Interior to the Prefects, dated Paris, Jan. 17.

"A circular, printed and dated at London, has been, Monsieur le Prefect, addressed by a pretended Protestant Society to the French Protes tant Ministers. This paper, under the pretext of persecutions, to which it supposes the latter to be subjected, may spread disquietude amongst them, and induce them to emigrate.

"I have before me the answers of the Presidents of several Consistories; all of them are marked by the good disposition which prevails in them, and by the sentiments which they express; and I doubt not that those which have not yet come to hand have repelled with the same indignation these dangerous insinuations. pray you, Monsieur, to send me copies of all these answers, which I shall Jay before the King. His Majesty will see with satisfaction these une

I

quivocal testimonies of the confidence of the Protestants in his paternal government, of their attachment to his person, and of their love for the country.

"The Protestants may also rely upon the Protection of the King, who only sees in his subjects, whatever may be their religion, children to whom he bears an equal affection. "I have the honour, Monsieur le Prefect, &c.

"The Minister Secretary of State for the Department of the Interior, (Signed) "VAUBLANC."

The following audacious calumny appeared in the French papers.

"The Prefect of Calvados has published at Caen a letter from M. de Vaublanc, Minister of the Interior, to the following effect:

Paris, Jan. 31, 1816.

all

"I received the letter which you wrote to me, enclosing the reply made by the Consistory of Calvados to the missives from the Protestant Society of London. I have recognized with pleasure in this answer the patriotic sentiments which animate Frenchmen of the Protestant communion. They may depend on the protection of the King; tell the Consis tory, at the same time, that to my certain knowledge, the persons who have formed a society at London, in order to throw a correspondence into France, enjoy little credit or confidence in their own country; they are there justly considered as belonging to a party of jacobius, enemies of repose and of every government. The sessions of Parliament about to open, will furnish proofs of this."

This is the manner in which the avowed agents of the French government dare to speak of the respectable body of Dissenting ministers, and of the Parliament of England. In every way, and by all descriptions of the constituted authorities in France, England and Englishmen are treated with illiberality. The fact is, that while these proclamations are published, and that the unprotected victims of persecution are forced to write letters denying the miserics they endure, every man who gets away from the horrid scene makes known to us the grievous truth, that their sufferings are not at an end, and that their only hope is in the exertions of the