of fifty-four, and, though sixty-six years of age, he expected to have many more. They now sat down to a feast of which fat pork and rotten eggs are said to have been, to the taste of the mandarins, the most delectable dainties; if the latter contained young birds so much the better, and better still if they were full grown. The defeated envoy, however, appears not to have enjoyed the feast. A hint was now given that the sooner they departed the more agreeable; and the offer was made of their returning either by land or by water: as the winter season had set in, being near the end of October, they preferred returning to Turon Bay by land. It became the more necessary to hasten their departure, as, in the true spirit of their neighbours, the Chinese, a marked change immediately took place in the manner of their treatment. They descended,' says Mr. Finlayson, to acts of petty meanness, which were altogether contemptible, and much more calculated to excite contempt, derision, and pity, than any hostile feeling.' Accordingly, the envoy and his suite set out the very next day, in two boats, with a third containing an armed guard, and proceeded along a fine canal, which at the distance of eight or nine miles opened into a large estuary, appearing like an inland lake; beyond which they crossed a hilly country in palanquins, each carried by a couple of men, whose good humour, strength, and agility are highly commended. The kind disposition of these poor people was evinced in their extreme attention to the persons and property entrusted to their care; and in their readiness, as they proceeded, to collect for them such flowers and fruits as attracted their notice. The great beauty of the country and the variety of its scenery are described as objects worthy of admiration. Rice appeared to be the chief article of cultivation both in the plains and uplands. The numerous villages on the road were neat, clean, and comfortable. On the fourth day they descended the hills to Turon Bay, and, having rejoined their ship, set sail for Calcutta.. Thus ended this ill-concerted and luckless mission, much in the way that any one acquainted with the nature of the people to whom it was sent, and the object to be attained, would have anticipated; but which, by a little management, and a more firm and dignified line of conduct on the part of the envoy, might at least have commanded a greater degree of respect than was shown to the representative of the man' who is looked up to by all the world,' and who holds correspondence with the greatest kings of the east.' ART. V.-1. Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piemont in the year 1823, and Researches among the Vaudois or Waldenses, Protestant Inhabitants of the Cottian Alps. With Maps, &c. By the Rev. William Stephen Gilly. 2d edit. London. 8vo. 1825. 2. The History of the Christian Church, including the very interesting Account of the Waldenses and Albigenses. By William Jones. 2 vols. 4th edit. 3. A Brief Sketch of the History and Present Situation of the Vaudois. By Hugh Dyke Acland, Esq. London. 8vo. 1825. THE HE Vaudois have recently been called seditious fanatics ma publication of Dr. Milner's, not more remarkable for truth in its statements, than for charity in its spirit and courtesy in its style. These, who gave earliest notice, as the lark By striking out a solitary spark, When all the world with midnight gloom was dark, In vain endeavoured to exterminate, Fell Obloquy pursues with hideous bark.-Wordsworth. Unluckily for Dr. Milner and for other Romish writers who, like him, are repeating calumnies which have been again and again confuted, a faithful account of what the Vaudois were and continue to be, has been laid before the public in one of the most interesting volumes that has recently appeared. Mr. Gilly, the author of this volume, happened to attend a meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, on the day when a letter was read from Ferdinand Peyrani, one of the pastors of the ancient Protestant church of the Waldenses. The pastor stated the numbers at that time existing in the valleys of Piemont as amounting to 18,000, divided into thirteen parishes; he represented their clergy as in the greatest poverty, the churches in want of books, the people exposed, since peace had been restored, to fresh injuries from the Romanists, and even the continuance of their church in danger, not from any want of attachment in its members, but because the stipends of the clergy were so low that they could not by any exertions support the expense of bringing up their children to succeed them in the ministry. Mr. Gilly, who had then only an imperfect general knowledge of what related to the Vaudois, was so much impressed by this affecting representation, that the subject, he says, took complete possession of him. He immediately made the history history of this persecuted people his particular study, and the result was a determination to visit them in their native vallies. Accordingly in the month of December, 1822, he left England › with three young companions. Winter is not the season for visiting the vallies of the Alps; but it was their intention to make the tour of Italy afterwards, and in his own words, if those who have a few months only at their disposal, are resolved to make the most of that time, they must regulate their movements less by choice than necessity.' At Turin the travellers had the good fortune to fall in with a Vaudois merchant, resident in that city; some of his family were living at La Torre, the principal village of the community: he provided them with letters of introduction; and his son, an intelligent young man, who was acquainted with the country and with the English language, accompanied them. The first Vaudois village which they visited was Pomaretto, where M. Peyrani resided, the then Moderator, as the supreme pastor of their church is now called. This village is in the valley of Perosa, which, in most of the old maps, is named La Valle di Clusone, because the river Clusone divides it along its whole length; but the Protestants are confined to the western side of that river. In fact, they seem now to possess those parts of the country only from which it was found too costly and difficult to extirpate them, because a handful of determined men may there maintain their ground against very superior numbers. They have at different times been dispossessed of almost all that could be taken from them, and the vallies which they still retain are so unproductive and so awfully situated amid the wreck of the mountains, that a former visitor speaks of them as having been left to the Vaudois rather as places of exile than of enjoyment. This however is not so. Drear and uninviting as their country may appear, it will be seen, when we come to the history of this virtuous people, how dearly they have prized and how manfully maintained it. There is indeed a wild and desolate character in these Alpine vallies, both on the side of Savoy and of Piemont, which can hardly be imagined by those who have seen no other mountain scenery than such as Great Britain contains. The wildest passes in Wales or Scotland afford but poor materials for comparison: the aid of exaggeration must be called in before any of these can be called terrible. Even in Glencoe, which is perhaps the grandest and most impressive scene of this kind in the island, you have a sense of perfect security, and the stream there might invite you to drink of its waters or to bathe in them. But in these Alps the mountains are crumbling on all sides, the rocks themselves are in a state of dissolution. A fall into the torrent (and every stream is a torrent there) would be certain death; and even in situations which, to one unacquainted with the fearful character of the country, would seem remote from all danger, an avalanche, beginning so far away as to be out of sight and hearing at the commencement of its course, may make its way through the forest, prostrating, the pines before it, and overtake the traveller on his road, or bury him in his inn. The habitations are in keeping with the scenery; the houses are so low, so rude, and so loosely constructed, that a village appears at a little distance more like a heap of ruins than an assemblage of human dwellings, and seems to form a part of the wreck and desolation amid which it stands. Never,' says Mr. Gilly, did a more dreary spot burst upon the view than the village of Pomaretto seen in its wintry aspect. It seemed as if the mountains must have rent asunder to produce so much nakedness and desolation.' The street was narrow and dirty, the houses or rather cabins so small and inconvenient, that at every step the travellers took, poverty stared them in the face. The presbytery of the Moderator differed little. either in construction or size from the hovels by which it was surrounded. Its appearance sufficiently testified that an appointment to the episcopal office among the Vaudois brought with it no worldly advantages or comfort. But it would be injustice to the author were we to proceed in any other words but his own. 'We were received at the door by a mild, sensible, and modest-looking young man dressed in faded black, to whom we communicated our wish of being introduced to M. Peyrani. He replied, that his father was very unwell, but would be happy to see any English gentlemen who did him the honour of a visit. We were afraid that we might disturb the invalid, and therefore hesitated to intrude until we had begged M. Vertu to see M. Peyrani first, and ascertain whether the sight of strangers would be agreeable. The answer was in our favour, and we were, now conducted up a narrow staircase through a very small bed-room, whose size [the size of which] was still further contracted by several book-cases. This led into another bed-room, more amply provided still with shelves and books. The apartment was about fourteen feet square, low, and without any kind of decoration of paint or paper hanging. It was thick with dust; and the only attention to those munditie vitæ, to which we were in the habit of looking, were the sheets of the bed, than which nothing could be cleaner. At a small fire, where the fuel was supplied in too scanty a portion to impart warmth to the room, and by the side of a table covered with books, parchments, and manuscripts, sat a slender, feeble-looking old man, whose whole frame was bowed down by infirmity. A nightcap was on his head, and at first sight we supposed he had a long white beard hanging down upon his neck; but, upon his rising to welcome us, we perceived that it was no beard, but whiskers of a length which are [is] not often seen, and which had a very singular effect. effect. His dress consisted of a shabby, time-worn, black suit, and white worsted stockings, so darned and patched, that it is difficult to say whether any portion of the original hose remained. Over his shoulder was thrown what once had been a cloak, but now a shred only, and more. like the remains of a horse-cloth than part of a clerical dress. This cloak, in the animation of his discourse, frequently fell from his shoulders, and was replaced by his son with a degree of filial tenderness and attention extremely prepossessing. "The sickly-looking sufferer, in this humble costume, in this garb of indigence, was the Moderator of the Vaudois; the successor of a line of prelates, whom tradition would extend to the Apostles themselves; the high-priest of a church, which is, beyond all shadow of doubt, the parent church of every Protestant community in Europe, and which centuries of persecution have not been able to destroy. It is indeed a vine "which has stretched her branches to the sea, and her boughs unto the river:" but while her branches are flourishing, "the wild boar out of the wood doth root up the stem, and the wild beasts of the field devour it." And unless the same Providence which first planted this vine and made room for it, shall turn again and look down from heaven, and visit it, it must, it is feared, perish; for nothing short of the divine succours can enable men to bear up against the poverty, humiliation, and deprivations, to which most of the Vaudois clergy are exposed to this bour. 'M. Peyrani was upwards of seventy-one years of age at the time we saw him; the whole of his income did not exceed 1000 francs, or about forty pounds a-year; and with this pittance he had been obliged to meet the demands of a family, the calls of charity, the incidental expenses of his situation as moderator, and the additional wants of age, sickness, and infirmity. An accident, occasioned by the kick of a mule, had added to the ills of his condition. A large and prominent rupture, and an incurable weakness, were increased by his inability to procure surgical aid as often as he required it. For two years he underwent excruciating pain; and had his means enabled him to obtain the medical assistance which his case demanded, the malady might have been materially, if not effectually, alleviated. 'The welcome which we received from our venerable host was expressed with all the warmth and sincerity of one whose kindly feelings had not yet been chilled by years or sufferings: and the manner in which it was delivered, displayed a knowledge of the world and a fine tact of good breeding, which are not looked for in Alpine solitudes, or in the dusty study of a recluse. We were predisposed to respect his virtues and piety, and had been given to understand that he was a man of the first literary acquirements; but we did not expect to find the tone and manners of one whose brows would do honour to the mitre of any diocese in Europe: nor did we know that he, who was now drooping in a state of the veriest penury, had been, during the French dominiou, one of the twenty-five* members of the provisional government of Piemont. * The author has been informed of an error in this passage, and has learnt that it was M. Geymet, the predecessor of Peyrani in the office of moderator, who was so employed by the French government. M. Peyrani never filled any civil office.-Note to Second Edition. Such |