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    . : . /J^ ¦"•¦¦ • ' . .¦<.* ? ' y 78g TH...

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    CANTERBURY PILGRIMS. The Israelitiah Aut...

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    Forgotten Heroes. Lea Morts Fneonnus: Le...

    caverns about Saint-Georges de Didonne a hamlet ™ l ? v f * % * £ ™ ™? oftheGironde " The preaching of Protestantism , " says M . J ^ elletan , is now thaS God , a regular profession as allowable as any other and even Sided for in the budget ; but in the last century it was the gibbet or the SXys in expectation , and oftener of the two , the gibbet . " Jarousseau was nrenared for either fate . In the grade of proposant , or candidate , he had ac-Somoanied the celebrated preacher , Louis Gibert , in his perilous journeys , and ffi assisted at that tragic conventicle in the forest of Valleret where Gibert was shot through the heart , and where women as well as men were put to the sword by the dragoons of orthodoxy . Jarousseau succeeded the martyr in his office , for which he was qualified by as large an endowment of faith , hope , and charity , as ever fell to the lot of mortal . Of learning , it must be owned , his stock was but small , barely enough , indeed , to distin-< mish him above the peasants , from whose race he sprang . It had been hastily gathered at the college of Lausanne , and consisted of a little theology and sacred history , and as much music as might serve to lead a congregation in psalmody .

    The tribe of Levi , as they said in those days , was more rapidly decimated than recruited under the paternal hand of the monarchy . The theological faculty of Lausanne had to prepare men for martyrdom rather than for controversy . The study of Hebrew , as well as of Latin , was evideutly superf luous for teaching how to die ; to have heart was enough . Now , in that respect , Pastor Jarousseau was the best thec * logian of the faculty . By the time when he entered on the ministry the spirit of intolerance had been partially checked through Voltaire ' s influence on public opinion . The secular powers were no longer zealous to co-operate with the ecclesiastical in the wok of persecution , which was therefore plied in a more desultory manner , if not with less virulence than before . Marshal Senncterre , governor of Saintonge , who resided within a league of Jarousseau ' s hamlet ,

    became in secret his protector . He sent for him , and said : — " . Hark ye , my friend , I know , but I choose to ignore , what you came here to do . Since you are bent by all means on having a flock , lead it out to pasture -where you please and on what grass you please , provided it is not in public and on the highway . But no scandal , do yon mind ? I will not endure it . When one of your people has a child he shall carry it for baptism to the cure ' , and when he marries his daughter he shall marry her in church . In that case , if ever I shall have to look for you in discharge of my office , I will take care not to find you ; but you must also help me on your part . " ¦ " . Upon that supposition would Monseigneur be pleased to mark out a line of conduct for me ?" ¦ . " Que diable , my lad , I cannot myself prescribe to you the means of escaping from my jurisdiction . Have a hiding-place in your house , or somewhere else , I don't care Where , so you are concealed ; only , whenever I give orders for your arrest , I will make them beat the drum as they enter the village . "

    The pastor adhered as closely as he could' to the terms of this compact , the only point in which he failed completely being that -which related to the celebration of marriage . A second baptism could wash out the _ stain of one previously administered by a Romish priest ; but it was otherwise with marriage in the church , to which confession was a necessary preliminary . This ¦ was so repugnant to the Protestants , that they chose rather to brave the injustice of the law which declared their marriages " in the wilderness" null and void , and bastardized their offspring . In spite , however , of reiterated denunciations , they continued their religious exercises without much serious molestation , until their sole protector , Marshal Senneterre , was compelled by ill health to quit the province , and his authority devolved successively on Barentin and Baillon , intendants of Rochelle , who owed their fortunes to the Catholic clergy , and were eager to display their gratitude by subserving the

    rancour of their patrons . Soldiers were despatched without beat of drum to arrest the pastor , and not finding him , they threatened to set fire to his house in order , as they said , to smoke the badger out of his hole . That day his wife was delivered of an idiot child , a living monument of the violence of her husband ' s persecutors . He himself fell into their hands at last , being surprised in the act of preaching to his flock . They offered no resistance to the troops marched against them ; nevertheless the commanding officer ordered his men to fire , and the pastor fell , severely wounded . Admiring his intrepidity under fire , the officer had him carried home instead of to prison , and left one of his men to guard the wounded man during his long illness . He was hardly recovered when another calamity befcl his followers . A number of them , consisting chiefly of couples to be married and parents with children to be christened , put out to sea one Sunday to celebrate their forbidden rites under the conduct of an elder , whom Jarousseau had

    deputed to fill his place in the ministry . In the evening a storm arose , and the vessel was wrecked on its return . The pastor , escaping from his guard , galloped down to the shore armed with a rope , and succeeded in saving a part of those on board , but some of them were already beyond help beforo he had reached the shore . The shock of this catastrophe confirmed the pastor in a design he had for some time meditated . " If the king knew all ! " was an exclamation constantl y on the lips of himself and his people . It seemed indeed incredible that the most Christian king should be desirous of treating men as malefactors and outlaws for any peculiarities of Christian doctrine , at the very time when he went so far in the way of toleration as to desire that an atheist should be archbishop of Paris . Therefore , after consulting his flock , Jarous seau resolved that lie would go to Paris , and himself make known their

    wrongs to the king in person . With that intention , ho wrote for tho necessary permission to the Intendant , who readily accorded it , as a means of ridding the province for ever of such a troublesome subject ; for lie wrote immediately to the lieutenant of police of Paris , giving Jarousscau's ^ tV / wa / enient i and directing that as soon as he arrived in tho capital he should be arrested and sent to the Bastille . A journey from tho mouth of the Gironde to Paris was a very different thing in those days from what it is now . It occupied Jarousseau a month , and beforo ho could undertake it he hud to provide funds by mortgaging the little patch of land on which his children were wholly dependent for tWr scanty broad . He carried with him a letter to Malesnerbes , given him some time before by the Marquis de Mauroy , who had spent a night under his roof when ubout to embark for North

    America to take part in the War of Independence . Besides this , he had a memorial to the king on behalf of freedom , which he had composed under four heads like a sermon , and which had cost him a world of pains . It was faultlessly logical and utterly injudicious . Having ^ launched him on his adventurous journey , M . Pelletan makes these reflections : — Considered from + Jle point of view of dry reason , this traveller , now disappearing in Belmont Wood , is assuredly no better than a visionary , wandering forth on th < g faith of a day-dream in pursuit of a chimera . Poor , unknown , proscribed , a mere peasant or very little more , he sets out from his province without any other recommendation or support than a private letter and some pages of manuscript in his valise to demand liberty of conscience , and to demand it of whom ? of a king -whose hand is still bound by the oath he took at his coronation to exterminate heresy . He has no name , no weight or influence . Politically speaking he is nobody , and yet from the lowest depth of obscurity he dares resume the work which Voltaire attempted in vain from the height of his genius .

    There goes the man ; make what you will of him . Laugh if you please at his simplicity , you have a right to do so , if you have been used from your childhood to deal only with reason ; but if ever in your life you have reckoned with a higher inspiration , call it faith or what you will , then will you recognize a greater than Voltaire in yonder mysteriously inspired traveller ; and history , if for once by way of exception it understood true glory , ought to watch him with respectful gaze . He is clearing the way at this moment for the holiest thing in this world , liberty of conscience . What matters it whether or not this sacred embassy of a principle of justice succeeded at the moment ? Once the idea of right has spoken , it relapses no more into night . Yesterday it came one , to-morrow it will come back a million . The movable decoration of this earth would pass away sooner than that idea Jarousseau .... had within him so profound a consciousness of justice , that he made no doubt of victory , if only he could approach the king ' s ear though but for a moment . It is this consciousness of justice that makes the hero , and which at that very moment was calling up a simple planter of America , to the foremost place among mankind . If the measure of a man be the idea that possesses him , Pastor Jarousseau and

    Washington are of equal greatness before God , for the animating idea of both was essentially the same . The theatres on which they appeared were different , and that was the only difference between them . After enduring many mischances and sore perplexities in the capital , the simple pastor at last obtained a private audience of the king through the intercession of Malesherbes . His mission was so far successful that it put an end to the direct persecution of his brethren ; but it was not until 1787 , more than ten years after his journey to Versailles , and two years after the presentation of Malesherbes' last memorial , that Louis XVI . signed the edict of toleration , which was not a charter of religious freedom for the Protestants , but merely recognized their civil rights . Vehement was the outcry even against this meagre concession to justice . The parliament refused to register the edict , the assembly of the clergy protested against it with but one dissentient voice , and their protest was carried to Versailles by two prelates who were notorious for their unbelief , namely , Lomenie de Brienne and Talleyrand . - Two years' afterwards the Revolution abrogated the pretended right of controlling the relations of man to his Maker .

    . : . /J^ ¦"•¦¦ • ' . .¦<.* ? ' Y 78g Th...

    . : . / J ^ ¦"•¦¦ ' . . ¦< . * ? ' y 78 g THE LEADER . [ No . 334 , Saturday ,

    Canterbury Pilgrims. The Israelitiah Aut...

    CANTERBURY PILGRIMS . The Israelitiah Authorship of the Sinaitic Inscriptions Vindicated against the Incorrect " O bservations" in the " Sinai and Palestine . " By the Rev . Arthur Penrhyn Stanlev , M . A . A Letter to Lord Lyndhurst . By the Rev . Charles Forster , B . D . R . Bentley . N " ot long ago , two preachers made a pilgrimage from Canterbury in the direction of the Holy Land . The one was the Rev . Arthur Penrbyn Stanley , a Master of Arts , the other the Rev . Charles Forster , a Bachelor of Divinity ; but both belonged to the jCathedral , and both travelled by the way of the Sinaitic peninsula . Mr . Forster , who went to discover , preceded Mr . Stanley , who only went to observe . The one has published his discoveries , the other his observations , and the result is that they are at war . The beginning of the quarrel was certainly due to Mr . Stanley , whose criticisms pierced too far below the surface of Mr . Forster's Sina \ tic hypothesis ; but when Mr . Forster found his theory , not his person , attacked , he turned bitterly upon the commentator , and tried to settle a point in philology with a literary tomahawk .

    From the writers to the books . Mr . Forster's is The Voice of Israel from the Rocks of Sinai , Mr . Stanley ' s Sinai and Palestine . The first is an ingenious attempt to prove that the inscriptions in the Sinaitic peninsula were the work of the Jewish nation , on its way from Egypt . _ The second is a panoramic picture of the sacred regions , profusely but artistically coloured , in which Mr . Forster's views are disposed of incidentally . In a notice of Hazeroth , Mr . Stanley refers , not uncourteously , to Mr . rorstcr : — 1 do not mean to guarantee the accuracy of his translation , or the applicability of his remarks to the especial subject of which he is there speaking . But I am unwilling to withhold this alight illustration of almost the only conclusion i ? i that work tvhlch received any confirmation from my observations .

    He believes the inscriptions may have been the casual work of passing travellers , Christian pilgrims of the fourth and fifth centuries . _ " I think there are none that could not have been written by one man climbing on another ' s shoulder . " Now this is a personal opinion , moderately stated . Hut what does Mr . Forster say ? He accuses Mr . Stanley of a contempt of truth and justice , ridicules the "jargon" of contradictory ideas—bis own being isolated—and even dares to cast an oblique reflection upon Mr . Stanley ' s Christianity . At the Brtino time he is vulgarly emphatic about veracity and candour , and announces that , like the thistle , he carries a sting . Iteally , the controverny was scarcely worth so much passion ; but assuming death

    that it is not nonsense to talk of Christiun interest , death-blows , and - like silence with reference to such a topic , ia Mr . Forstor ' a ground so finn that ho can alfordto insult tho leading philologists of Kurope by a display of impertinent levity in support of arrogant pretensions f lie is not the only Hebraist , or the only archwologifit , who lias examined the Sinaitic rocks , and of his predecessors tho foremost are dead against him , while Mr . Stanley , Avho is perhaps as competent a scholar , follows him , and does not corroborate his testimony . First , what is Mr . Fornter's " discovery P" Not that tho peninsula abounds in inscriptions , for that had long been known , a large body of tho Sinui ' tic characters having been copied by Grey ; but that they

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1856, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16081856/page/20/