202 
and he renounced the English church, and 
with it—much to the credit of Protestants, 
who stickle for freedom of thought—he lost 
his character and caste in society; and 
finally found it desirable to remove with his 
family to a foreign and a Catholic country, 
Speaking of English Catholics who visited 
his mother, he says— 
Comparing the behaviour of these gentry tomy 
mother with the conduct of all of the same class, 
with three or four exceptions only, towards me. I 
infer that the best way to be treated by them with 
common civility is, to be, not a convert, but a 
renegado. 
When will men be reasonable? When 
will they practise as well as preach the 
spirit of the gospel? Nay, when will 
passion and prejudice fail? Never. 
For the particulars of his residence at 
Avignon, we refer our readers to the book 
itself. It is full of lively remark, though 
tinged with alittle severity—natural enough 
in a man, who lost the advantages of Eng- 
lish society—of the socieiy of his birth 
and station—in yielding to tie dictates of 
his conscience, however i!J-informed it may 
be thought, and avowing his convictions, 
however groundless they may seem. He 
is not an enlightencd man—of that his 
conyersion will perhaps be thought proof 
enough; but he is no fool, and has formed 
just conclusions in many of the relations of 
life. Much of the book is occupied with 
the illness and death of a favourite son, on 
whose memory he fondly dwells, and who 
appears unhappily to have been lost through 
the ignorance and pertinacity of the Avig- 
nonese physicians. 
There are two subjects, however, of 
which we have heard much—the massacre 
of the Protestants at Nismes, and the 
French missions ; and having come to con- 
clusions on both of them, corresponding 
with the account given by the respectable 
writer before us, we are inclined to quote 
his remarks. He will be thought a pre- 
judiced witness in both cases ; let the sen- 
timents be taken with what allowance they 
may, we do not think him likely to mis- 
state the bare facts, and they are all we are 
concerned with. 
MASSACRE OF PROTESTANTS AT NISMES. 
A Protestant friend, being at Avignon, wished to 
see the Maison Quarrée, and inquired of me if it 
was safe to go to Nismes. ‘ Will not the Papists 
murder me?? The cause of this dread is curious; 
the explication of it may amuse the impartial, 
that is, almost nobody; but I will venture. The 
Protestants of Nismes had all been favourable to 
the revolution. The ancient royal government 
of France had not, indeed, like the queen and par- 
liament of England, insisted on every man’s chang- 
ing his faith, but it had resisted the introduction of 
a new religion: these two cases are very different, 
though perpetually confounded both by the tolerant 
and intolerant among us. However, the Protestants 
of Nismes very naturally threw their weight into 
that balance, the preponderance of which promised 
them the assurance of their civ rights and po- 
litical consideration. The Catholics, on the con- 
trary, not having these motives, and carrying into 
Monthly Review of Literature, 
[Aus, 
politics that love of stability, the principl of which 
they find in their religion, disliked political change, 
and were well pleased with the return of the’ ihe. 
« C'est 1a le beau cOté de la teligion Catholique; elle 
n’approuve pas les revolutions,’ said a Protestant 
minister to a protestant king. He regarded the 
matter like a statesman. and no further. “During 
the republican and imperial government the Protes- 
tants were the stronger party at Nismes, and had 
made the Catholics feel that they were so. On the 
restoration, a scuffle took place between the parties, 
in which some half-dozen Protestants were killed. 
Of this unlucky affray, great advantage was taken 
in England: committees were appointed, and sub- 
scriptions raised for the purpose of succouring out 
distressed brethren, the Protestants of the South of 
France.’ The ‘no popery’ cry being once well set 
up, it was thought right to inquire into the extent 
of the mischief. A letter was returned from France, ; 
reporting nearly what has been stated above; this 
letter, the noble person to whom it was addressed 
kept in his pocket some days before he sent it to the 
committee, that the ‘ no popery’ cry might not go 
down too soon. The fear entertained by my friend 
of being murdered by the Papists at Nismes need 
not now be wondered at: it was only three or four 
years since such things had happened; and it is 
well known, that what has happened once may 
happen again. 
FRENCH MISSIONS. 
In the second year of my sojourn, a mission was 
preached at Avignon. On the expediency or pru- 
dence of these missions, concerning which so much 
difference of opinion prevailed among the French 
themselves, a stranger is hardly able to decides 
Many were offended that catholic France should be 
treated like a country that had never heard of the 
gospel; but this view of the matter was formed 
rather on a strict and somewhat captious interpreta- 
tion of the word mission, than from any thing in 
the scheme itself justifying such an interpretation, 
The gospel was not preached by the missionaries as 
new, but as having been neglected. Yet this sup- 
position of neglect threw a blame somewhere; and: 
these extraordinary means taken to repair it ex- 
cited animosity. 
Six thousand par’sh’s throughout France were 
said, at this time, to want pastors; and it was re- 
gretted that funds should be diverted from the 
maintenance of the seminaries, or their more effec- 
tual support, to supyly the expense of desultory 
efforts, of evanescent enthusiasm. 
On the other hand it was argued that, for a quar-" 
ter of a century, religion had been discouraged 3” 
for one year of that time it had been proscribed, 
and the churches closed; during all that time Chris-- 
tian education had been notoriously neglected; so 
many clergy had been banished, that the remainder 
had been insufficient to the various functions re- 
quired of them; that to recover from such a state, 
extraordinary remedies were called for. , 
After all, there was nothing so very extraordinary 
in these missions: from three to six priests, men of 
some talent, zeal, and eloquence, arrived ina town, 
stayed there a greater or less number of days, ac- 
cording to the population, or, it may be, the spi+ 
ritual wants of the place, preached, and heard con~. 
fessions. Yet let any suppose what would be the 
effect of the presence of half-a-dozen methodist 
teachers in any town in England, and he will be able. 
to form an idea of the state of Avignon pending the. 
mission, which lasted, as well as I can remeniben, 
a fortnight. Eo a 
The churches were crowded; those who wished’ to 
have seats toyhear the sermon at six in the evening, 
were obliged to take their places at mid-day; these 
