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    ' t . ^ cs * n ^ M *>* de Didonne , a hamlet north embouchure HtSnkGod . a regular profession as allowable as any other , and even now ^ ^ thank God , a re ^ m P century it was the gibbet or the provided for in ^ * »^ ' oftener of the two , the gibbet . " Jarousseau was galleys in ^ PJ ^^ te I « the grade of proposanT , or candidate , he had ac-?^ m nIn ? i the celebrated preacher , Loui / filbert , in his perilous journeys , and C ^ sisted at that tragic conventicle in the forest of Valleret where fS-bertwSshot through the heart , and where women as well as men were outtothe 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 distinguish him above the peasants , from whose race he sprang . It had been hastily fathered 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 decunated than recruited under the paternal band 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 evidently superfluous for teaching how to die ; to have heart was enough . Now , in that respect , Pastor Jarousseau was the best theologian 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 tne work of persecution , which was therefore plied in a more desultory manner , if not with less virulence than before . Marshal Senneterre , governor of Saintonse , 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 , hut 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 you mind ? I will not endure it . When one of your people has a child he shall carry it for baptism to the curd , and when he marries his daughter lie 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 ; hut you must also help me © n 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 cler * rv , 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 , severel y 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 befel his followers . A number of them , consisting chiefly of couples to be married and parents to celebrate their

    with children to be christened , put out to sea one Sunday 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 before he had reached the shore . The shock of ^ his catastrophe confirmed the pastor in a design he had for sometime meditated . "If the king knew all ! " was an exclamation constantly on the lips of himself and his peop le . 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 , Jaroua Beau resolved that no would go to Paris , and himself make known their wrongs to the king in person . With that intention , ho wrote for the necessary permission to the Intendant , who readily accorded it , as a means of ridding the province for ever of such a troublesome subject ; for he wrote immediately to the lieutenant of police of Paris , giving Jnrousseau ' s nu / natoment , and directing that as soon as he arrived in the capital he should be arrested and sent to the Bastille . A journey from the mouth of the Gironde to taris -was a very different thing in those days from what it is now . It k occupied Jarouuseau a month , and before ho could undertake it he had to provide funds by mortgaging the little patch of land on which his children -were wholly dependent for their scanty broad . He carried with him a letter to M ^ leBherbea , given him some time before by the Marquis do Mauroy , who had spent a night under his roof when about to oniburk for North

    America to part War Independence . , 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 frdm the point of view of dry reason , this traveller , now disappearing in Belmont Wood , is assuredly no better than a visionary , wandering forth on the 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 lie 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 , Loinenie de Brieime and Talleyrand . Two years afterwards the Revolution abrogated the pretended right of controlling the relations of man to his Maker .

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    CANTERBURY PILGRIMS . The Israelitish Authorship of the Sinaitic Inscriptions Vindicated against the Incorrect " Obsei-vations" in the "Sinai and Palestine . " By the Rev . Arthur Penrhyn Stanley , M . A . A Letter to Lord Lyndhtirst . By the Rev . Charles Forster , B . D . R . Bentley . Not long ago , two preachers made a pilgrimage from Canterbury in the direction of the Holy Land . The one was the Rev . Arthur Penrhyn Stanley , a Master of Arts , the other the Rev . Charles Forster , a Bachelor of Divinity ; but both belonged to the Cathedral , 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 p ublished 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 surfuce of Mr . Forster ' s Sinaitic hypothesis ; but when Mr . Forster found his theory , not his person , attacked , he turned bitterly upon the commentator , aM . 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 Ilazeroth , Mr . Stanley refers , not uncourteously , to Mr . I'orster : — 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 Hie only conclusion in that work which

    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 . " 1 think there are none that could not have been written b y one man climbing on another ' s shoulder . " Now this is a personal opinion , moderately stated . But . what does Mr . Forster aay ? He accuses Mr . Stanley of a contempt ot truth and justice , ridicules the " jargon" contradictory ideas—his own bein <» isolated—and even dares to cast an oblique reflection upon Mr . Stanley ' s Christianity . At the same time ho is vulgarly emphatic about veracity and candour , and announces that , like the thistle , he carries a Bting . but assuming

    Really , the controversy wns scarcely worth so much passion ; that it is not nonsense to talk of Christiun interest , death-blows , and deathlike silence with reference to such a topic , is Mr . Forster ' s ground so nrm that lie can afford to insult the leading philologists of Europe by a display ot impertinent levity in support of arrogant pretensions P Iio is not the only Hebraist , or the only archaeologist , who lias examined the Sinaitic rocks , and of hia predecessors the foremost are dead against him , while Mr . Stanley , who is perhaps as competent a scholar , follows him , and does not corroborate his testimony . First , what i » Mr . Forster ' s " discovery ? " Not that the peninsula abounds in inscriptions , for that bad long boon known , a lar ^ e body of the Sinuitic characters having been copied by Grey ; but that they

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    of the take in the of Besides this THE LEADER . [ No . 334 , Saturday , 7 . OO '

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 16, 1856, page 788, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2154/page/20/