French Protestants. ment had not been forbidden by a Royal Ordonnance, the statement is true; but if it was designed to convey an assurance that the salaries had been reguIarly paid, it is a false and unworthy effort to stifle the sympathy and be nevolence of the British Public, while the ministers ard at this moment at least nine months in arrears. By as it was never mentioned as a proof of persecution from the government; but as an aggravating circumstance in the calamity which has befallen the Reformed Churches, that while their flocks have been scattered their merchants and manufacturers' exiled-and their resources drained by foreign troops and heavy imposts, their ministers should have been destitute of that stipend on which for so many years they had regularly depended for their ministerial support; and though this defalcation ́ has been common to the ministers of all religions, it must be considered, that the Protestant ministers have not those means of obtaining money, which the Catholic priests, by their various ceremonies, always possess. Another Letter has been published in the same Journal, which had been sent to us by M. Marron, President of 'the Consistory of Paris, declining our aid and censuring our interference; but you will, doubtless, have seen by other Jonrials, that another letter was received by the same conveyance, from the same person, stating, that our exertions had made a strong sensation in Paris, and were likely to produce the inost beneficial results: in addition to which, it is now evident, that the letter in question was written by M. Marron, after an examination by the Police, and under the fear of individual persecution. The effect of the Public Meetings which have been held, has been highly impor tant, and the arrival of the report of the Proceedings of the Common Council of London in Paris, was the commencement of exertions by the French authorities, which had not been previously made. While some persons have deprecated these Meetings and Discussions, it will always be a subject of satisfac. tion to us, that they originated with the Dissenting Ministers of London; and the paper which we had the honour to address to you, and which was produced in Court by all the speakers, was the document on which the public proceed. ings of that day were founded, which have been succeeded by similar procedings in Hull, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Gosport, Newcastle, Plymouth, and other places. No doubt, we presume, cau now rest on your minds, as to the fact of he Persecution being religions, and not political, at least only political as far as the intolerants have endeavoured to deprive the Protestants of those political rights and advantages which since the Revolution they have enjoyed. The intervention of the Catholic Priests, where they have been well.disposed, at the same time proves, that the Protestants could not have conducted themselves improperly towards the professors of the Catholic religion; and that their authority as priests was important in preventing or lessening evils which religious fury had inspired. The additional Accounts which we now furnish, will prove that your Contributions (our intention to solicit which, was, in the first instance, submitted to the Prime Minister of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent) are even more ́necessary than we could have anticipated, from the authentic letters we had received, but which suppressed, thro' fear, many important details; and as the efforts of our enemies have occa sioned a serious increase in our expenditure, we must re-urge on you the propriety of making those Contributions as early, and as liberally as your convenience will allow. As it will not be possible for us to provide an antidote to the poison daily diffused, we shall be content to assure you, that whenever any Intelligence arrives which alters our opinion, or renders your exertions unnecessary, you shall have immediate information. By Order of the Committee, RESOLUTIONS. Williams's Library, Red Cross Street, at a Meeting of the Committee, appointed by 1. That this Committee have observed, with astonishment and regret, that attempts are making, through the medium of the Press, to defeat their object, by misrepresenting their me tives; and altho' the Committee know too well what is due to that respectable body, by which they are deputed, to engage in useless warfare with those who are labouring to stifle that public sympathy, which it is the wish of the body to excite, they yet owe it to their own character, and to the cause they have undertaken, to state candidly, once for all, the motives by which they have be guided and the end they have in view. 2. That this Committee, therefore, utterly disclaim for themselves and their Constituents all party feelings on a question which they conceive to be purely and exclusively Religions; but that if they must be ranked with a Party, they are happy in ranking, on this occasion, with that of the Government which listened so candidly to their representations, entered so warmly into their feelings, — and pledged itself so readily to employ its good offices for the same humane purpose to which their interference has been directed. 3. That if any man, calling himself a Protestant, can impute to Dissenting Ministers, as a crime, that they have shewn themselves peculiarly forward, on this occasion, he should remember that they are the descendants of those who, for conscience-sake, suffered the spoiling of their goods, and the loss of their lives; and to whose constancy, under persecution, it is chiefly owing that religious liberty is now firmly established in this favoured land. 4. That, feeling the value of this inestimable blessing, they could not but be deeply interested by any occur rence which might threaten its loss to those especially, with whom they are united by the tie of a common faith, and a common worship; nor could they refuse their sympathy or their relief to men bleeding in the same cause which rendered the memory of their fathers immortal. 5. That though letters have been received from Ministers in France, expressing objections to the interference of their Protestant brethren in England, the Committee have ascertained, from unquestionable evidence, that some of those letters have been written under constraint, and that others have been dictated by an apprehension (it is hoped erroneous) lest such an interference should injure them in the estimation of their own Government, or rather, lest it should expose them to the fury of a faction, which sets the Government itself at defiance; and the Committee are of opinion, that if complaints are cautiously uttered, they deserve, the more, the consideration and sympathy of those who are aware of the cause in which this caution originates. 6. That while they have been acting consistently with their own principles, in expressing their abhorrence of all religious persecution, by whomsoever practised or countenanced, they cannot but suppose that in contributing to al leviate the distresses of the French Protestants, they are coinciding with the intentions of the French Government, which has been taking measures to suppress those outrages, which, if not suppressed, must occasion Its own disgrace, and compromise its own safety. 7. That, in the subscriptions and collec tions already made,-in the spirit which is spreading throughout the kingdom,and in the prospect that this spirit will ultimately enable them to grant important Relief to their suffering brethren, and to the widows and orphans of the victims of Persecution, the Committee have the most flattering encouragement to persevere. They do, therefore, earnestly request the unremitting co-operation of Protestants of every denomi nation, but especially of Protestant Dis. senters, in this labour of love; and they express their confident assurance that in contributing to this object, without suffering their zeal to be damped by any insinuations or assertions whatever, they are promoting the spread and es tablishment of that Christian Liberty which is the greatest earthly boon that Heaven can bestow on man. Sigued (by order of the Committee) THOMAS MORGAN, SECRETARY. £. s. d. Rev. Mr.Marsh's Cong. Hythe 2 0 0 Farmer's do Leeds Gooding's do. Lenham 6 2 1 2.10 0 Independent Cong. Marden Murch's do, Froome Mr. Nethersole, Clop-hill 7 0 0 10 0 0 1 1 0 Palmer's Cong. Romsey 14 Mr. G. Lloyd, by the Rev. Dr. 09000 3 12 0 Account of the Mutineers in the Boun tỷ, 1789. (From the Quarterly Review.) armed the Bounty, while employed in conveying the bread fruit tree from Otaheite to the British colonies in the West Indies, was taken from her commander, Lieutenant William Bligh, by a part of the crew, who, headed by Fletcher Christian, a master's mate, mutinied off the island of Tofoa, put the lieutenant, with the remainder of the crew, consisting of eighteen persons, into the launch, which after a passage of 1200 leagues, providentially arrived at a Dutch settlement on the Island of Timor. The mutineers, twenty-five in number, were supposed, from some expressions which escaped them, when the launch was turned a-drift, to have made sail towards Otaheite. As soon as this circumstance was known to the Admiralty, Captain Edwards was ordered to proceed in the Pandora to that Island, and endeavour to discover and bring to England the Bounty, with such of the crew as he might be able to secure. On his arrival in March, 1791, at Matavai Bay, in Otaheite, four of the mutineers came voluntarily on board the Pandora to surrender themselves; and from information given by them, ten others (the whole number alive upon the island) were, in the course of a few days taken; and with the exception of four, who perished in the wreck of the Pandora, near Endeavour Strait, conveyed to England for trial before a court martial, which adjudged six of them to suffer death, and acquitted the other four. From the accounts given by these men, as well as from soine documents that were preserved, it appeared that as soon as Lieutenant Bligh had been driven from the ship, the twenty-five mutineers proceeded with her to Toobouai, where they proposed to settle; but the place being found to hold out encouragement, they returned to Otaheite, and having there laid in a large supply of stock, they once more took their departure for Toobouai, carrying with them eight men, nine women and seven boys, natives of Otaheite. They commenced, on their second arrival, the building of a fort, but by divisions among themselves and quarrels with the natives, the design was abandoned. Christian, the leader, also very soon discovered that his authority over his accomplices was at an end; he therefore proposed that they should return to Otaheite; that as many as chose it should be put on shore at that island, and that the rest should proceed in the ship to any other place they might think proper. Accordingly they once more put to sea, and reached Matavai on the 20th of September, 1789. Here sixteen of the five and twenty desired to be landed, fourteen of whom, as already mentioned, were taken on board the Pandora; of the other two, as reported by Coleman, (the first who surrendered himself to Captain Edwards) one had been made a chief, killed his companion, and was shortly afterwards murdered himself by the natives. Christian, with the remaining eight of the mutineers, having taken on board several of the natives of Otaheite, the greater part women, put to sea on the night between 21st and 22d September, 1789; in the morning the ship was discovered from Point Venus, steering in a north-westerly direction; and here terminate the accounts given by the mutineers who were either taken or surrendered themselves at Matavai Bay. They |