cattle. In fact, none but those who have been among them, can imagine what are the toils and deprivations of the Vaudois Clergy; not one of whom has a population to attend to of less than seven or eight hundred; and these, from the sterility of the soil, spread over a great extent of mountain and valley not easy of

access.

In consequence of the urgent application of the Prussian and Belgian Ministers, the King was, after a while, persuaded to take into consideration the very distressed state of these exemplary men, and to allow them a pension of 500 francs each. There is also a small charge upon each commune, varying from 100 francs,, to 140 francs, towards their maintenance; the Dutch government allows 100 francs yearly to each of the two senior Pastors, and 75 francs each to three who are next in age, and the pension of about 300 francs annually to every one of the thirteen Clergy, from the national grant of 1768, is now regularly received from England. Thus 1040 francs a year, with the use of the presbytery, or parsonage house, is the utmost fixed and certain income, upon which any of these poor Ministers have to depend. They have no fees for burials, baptisms, or marriages.

If it were not for the occasional bounty which they receive from Switzerland, Prussia, and the Netherlands, it would be impossible for the ministerial office to be supplied. The former contributes 600 francs towards the annual support of four students at Lausanne; and in 1820, the sum of 4650 francs was remitted from Holland in aid of the schools, and widows of the clergy. The King of Prussia is said to have presented 10,000 francs towards the general support of the schools, Clergy, and widows of Clergy; and the Emperor of Russia has given the same sum

The Author has had great pleasure in learning, that the allowance made to each of the Clergy of the Vaudois, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, amounts at present to twenty pounds, or about 500 francs, a-year.-Note to Second Edition.

in aid of a new hospital, which is to be built at La Torre.

Of all their benefactors, the Vaudois are most indebted to the Prussian Ambassador at Turin, the Count Waldbourg de Truchsess, who is incessant in his endeavours to scrve them; and whenever importunity and zeal can avail, he is sure to succeed. I was informed of one kind office which he did, which will not soon be effaced from the memory of the individual whom he relieved from his embarrassment; or of the little flock, whose Minister he restored to them. Among other laws in their favour, enacted by the French government, which the King of Sardinia repealed at his restoration in 1814, was that which rendered the Protestants capable of enjoying public employment, and of rising to rank in the army. The royal edict of May 21, 1814, reduced them to all the degradations to which they had been obliged to submit in former times. They cannot rise in civil employment; they cannot practise in the learned professions; and they cannot be promoted to the rank of commissioned officers; but all are liable to serve as common soldiers, and none are exempt from military conscription; not even the Clergy. M. Peyrot, the Pastor of Rora, was drawn in the conscription of 1821: in vain he urged his sacred character, and pastoral duties. His remonstrances were of no use; he was too poor to purchase a substitute, and orders of a most peremptory nature arrived for his joining his regiment as a private soldier, immediately. The interposition of Count Truchsess was prayed for, and obtained. M. Peyrot was released, not as a Clergyman, but with a pretended understanding, on the part of the war-office, that he was beyond the age prescribed for military service.

M. Peyrani himself, and afterwards M. Bert, the Pastor of La Torre, searched all their accounts in had been rendered to the Vaudois on my presence, to see what succours the part of England, independent of the pension arising from the national grant. Every benefaction and ser

vice is carefully recorded in books kept by the Moderator, the Moderator Adjoint, and the Secretary: but some Bibles from the Bible Society, some books from a few generous individuals, and two hundred pounds from the Baptist Society, were all that appeared under the head of British bounty.

Of the royal pension, to which Napoleon alluded in his conference with M. Peyrani, no part whatever has been received since the year 1797 it was suppressed by the British government when Piemont became subject to France, and has not been restored with the legitimate dynasty. This pension proceeded, if I have been rightly informed, from a grant of William and Mary, encreased by a bequest of Queen Mary. The hardship of being deprived of a pension, amounting to 400 francs a-year, which had been enjoyed for more than a hundred years, is rendered the more insupportable, because it is considered a right rather than a benefaction, and claimable upon every principle of equity. I was shown, by M. Peyrani, a copy of an order in council, held at Westminster, under the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, a transcript of which is in the hands of almost every Pastor in the three valleys; and upon the strength of which they partly found their claim to the pension in question. The collection alluded to, amounted to more than 38,000/. of which upwards of 16,000/. was put out to interest.

It is little to the credit of Charles the Second, that he sequestrated or rather abolished, this fund; and that all the pathetic appeals, and pressing remonstrances, of the poor Vaudois, could not persuade him to restore it. His only answer was, "That he did not consider himself bound by any of the engagements of an usurper and tyrant, nor responsible for his debts." James the Second could not be expected to pay any attention to the claims of the Protestants; but William and Mary restored the pension, or at least established a new one, and were the constant friends of this oppressed community. King William gave the celebrated Henri Ar

naud the commission of Colonel in one of his own regiments. The commission itself, dated May 14, 1691, signed "William," and countersigned "Nottingham," is still preserved in the family of Appia, at La Torre.

It was with extreme regret we witnessed the approach of the hour, which told us we must take leave of the venerable Peyrani. The goodhumour, cheerfulness, and resignation of the old man, his perfect recollection of events and conversations which took place years ago, his profound erudition and general information, lent a deep and peculiar interest to his discourse. My young companions were rivetted with attention. He appeared to them like a being of a different order from what they had been used to see all that they heard and saw had more the air of romance than reality. The little window of the room opened upon the wild mountain scenery of Pomaretto; the roar of the distant torrents was heard through the casement; and the impression left by the whole scene was so much the greater, from the contrast between the elevated character of the noble old man, and the circumstances in which he was placed. Poverty within and desolation without, formed a dark and striking background to the portrait of the philosophic Minister, whose lips teemed with eloquence, and whose mind was stored with all the riches of the most intellectual society. The looks of my friends, as they wandered from the window to the Moderator, sufficiently told me what was passing within their breasts; and they did not escape the notice of M. Vertu, who watched with an inquiring eye, to observe what impression the aged Moderator of his Church would make upon the strangers. Holding him in the utmost reverence himself, he was all anxiety that we should do the same; and could not disguise his feelings of delight at every mark of respect, which we paid to the sacred representative of this primitive Christian community.

Before we parted, I looked several times earnestly round the room, that 1 might carry away with me

possible recollection of the chamber, in which Rodolphe Peyrani was likely to finish his days. The ordinary and antique furniture, and the prints which hung upon the walls, were all objects of interest; and some of them illustrated the character of the man. In the centre, and directly over the fire-place, was the Moderator's diploma, presented to him by the Royal Academy of Turin. On one side of the diploma was George the Fourth, taken when he was Prince of Wales: on the other, the King of Sardinia; for no sufferings or injustice done to him could efface the loyal principles of M. Peyrani. Several Kings of Prussia, Sir Isaac Newton, Luther, and Calvin, occupied another place; and the Duke of Wellington, and Lord William Bentinck, were in a very conspicuous situation. The good man pointed to the latter, and spoke of him with much gratitude. "If any thing could have been done for the Vaudois, Lord William would have effeeted it," he said; "but the restored King was deaf even to his intercessions."

The British General naturally conceived that he, who had been instrumental in replacing his Majesty upon the throne of his ancestors, had some pretensions to be heard in favour of subjects, who professed the same religion as his own sovereign and himself. He took the earliest opportunity of urging their suit; and at Genoa, before the King could even set foot in the hereditary dominions to which the British arms had restored him, and while he was yet under the protection of a British escort, Lord William Bentinck most earnestly pleaded for the oppressed churches of the valleys. The King listened to the eloquent and feeling appeal with worse than indifference. His determination, most probably, was already made; for in four days afterwards, and on the morning after he had taken possession of his palace at Turin, the ungrateful Monarch issued an edict, by which he dispossessed the Vaudois of all that they had enjoyed during his dethronement; and put many vexatious decrees in force, which had been pro

claimed against them by his bigoted and intolerant predecessors.

Victor Emanuel, the late King, is but just gathered to his fathers. The Vaudois never speak with any bitterness even of those who have used them the most unfairly; and his death was announced to me by one of my friends in the valleys, with an observation which does honour to the kindness of his heart. "On ne lui a connu d'autre defaut, que d'être trop bon et trop crédule, de sorte que tous avoient raison, mais plus particulièrement le dernier venu."

As M. Peyrani followed us feebly down stairs, he showed us the door of an apartment which had never been opened, he told us, since the day on which his brother had been carried out of it, to be consigned to the grave. I asked what brother, and the answer was a momentary shock. It was Ferdinand Peyraní, the Pastor of Pramol. It was like hearing the knell of a dear friend. Ferdinand Peyrani was the first person who interested me in the history of the Vaudois. It was his letter, addressed to the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, which directed my attention to them, and occasioned this excursion to their Alpine retreats. He was one of the Pastors to whom I felt so anxious to be introduced, and this was the first news of his being no more. His death was hastened by the scurvy, a disorder increased by poverty and want.

At the door of his humble presbytery the aged Moderator wrung our hands, and said Farewell with every symptom of regret at parting. He stood at the threshold, watching our departing steps, and the last sight that I had of his long grey locks,' floating in the wind, left an impres sion that will not soon be removed. I am sure nobody could take leave, as we did, of M. Peyrani, with the certainty of seeing him no more, without being sensibly affected. His son accompanied us to the edge of the torrent, and there we said Adieu to him.

Such was our visit to the successor of the Bishops of the purest church in Italy, whose necessities

were such, that we felt bound, by a sacred sense of duty, to run the hazard of wounding those feelings which every man of sensibility must retain, even amid the most urgent poverty, by pressing upon his acceptance a heart-offering for the purchase of a few of those comforts, which his age and infirmities required. I have had many struggles, before I could make up my mind as to the propriety of stating this circumstance; and nothing could have induced me to do it, but the persuasion that it will put the case in the strongest light, and shew at once the deplorable situation to which many of these excellent Pastors are reduced. We could not have presumed to proffer, nor would the venerable Moderator have condescended to accept, the assistance of private individuals like ourselves, if it had not been a very timely succour and certainly the circumstance never could have appeared in print, but with the object of drawing attention to the wants of a people, who have been too much overlooked by those who have the means of aiding them.

Who knows but, as the flood of time rolls on, some successor of the Primate of England may be reduced to the same condition; that the archiepiscopal chair of Canterbury may no longer be filled by a mitred Prelate; that the functions and arduous duties may outlive the well appointed dignity of the sacred office; and that some bumble Pastor, like Rodolphe Peyrani, with the empty title of Bishop, may be obliged to the compassion of strangers for temporary relief?

Reader, the sufferings of Rodolphe Peyrani are at an end! He died about three months after our interview with him. His spirit could no longer bear up against a complication of maladies and sorrows, and now, all that I remember of him is literally like a dream that is past, or a tale that is told. His death was communicated to me in a letter from one of my Vaudois friends, M. Bert, the Pastor of La Torre. Its simple eulogy does honour both to the writer, and to him of whom it was written.

"Dans la supposition que vous n'avez pas entretenir de relation avec d'autres personnes de ce pays, c'est à moi un triste devoir de vous annoncer que nous avons perdu M. Peyrani, Modérateur, depuis le fin d'Avril. C'est dans son genre une perte irréparable."

The father is happily gone to his rest; but it is painful to speak of his son, of that excellent young man whom we were all so disposed to esteem. He is now studying, preparatory to taking orders, at Lausanne, and existing upon a pittance which is not enough for the necessaries of life. I heard of him lately. He was invited to the house of an English family, but his garl was so indifferent, that he could not accept the invitation, until a fellow-student had the kindness to lend him his clothes for the day.*

An anecdote, in illustration of the talents of the late Moderator Peyrani, of his useful application of them, and the obscurity in which they were buried, must conclude my melancholy narrative.

Haud facile emergunt, quorum vir-
tutibus obstat
Res angusta domi.

lic Curé, of Geneva, wrote a pamA few years ago a Roman Cathophlet in defence of the adoration of saints, and image worship. It was much admired, had a great sale, and was thought by the friends of the Curé to be unanswerable. The Protestants of Geneva were burning to see a reply to this able tract, but none appeared, to the disappointment and mortification of every good Lutheran and Calvinist. Just at the the author of "Brief Observations crisis of its popularity, Mr. Lowther,

* The author is most happy in having the opportunity of reporting, that several unsolicited donations have been remitted to him, to enable this good young man to pursue his studies more comfortably at Lausanne. Until he received this assistance, the poor youth was indebted to the charity of the benevolent M. Monastier, a professor of the University, for his daily dinner, M. Monastier himself has but a very contracted income, and a large family. Note to Second Edition.