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    No . 413 , February 20 , 1858 . ] THE LJgAgJJJBi . 187

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    and Prefects We need not say that all officials in France serve two masters , first the Emperor an / 1 then the Church , which contributes so much to the support of the present order of things . A Mayor , at any rate , who should incur the displeasure of a Curd , would have but a short lease of office .. Many instances could be cited to show the arbitrary manner in which -permission to exercise the Protestant religion is refused in France . In August 1852 , that religion was interdicted at Grand-Fresnoy , m the department of the Aisne . At Franviliiers , in the Somme , it was interdicted on November 27 , 1852 , and allowed on the 13 th of the following December ; zed in 1851 and interdicted

    whilst at a locality in the Oise , it was authori , in 1853 . But the grounds on which such measures are taken are better explained in a decree pronounced by the Academic Council of the Var , interdicting a Protestant school : — Considering that the Sienr Guilbot , by coming to * La Gaude to open a free Protestant school in a commune where t / iere was no Protestant by origin , born and recognized as sztc / i , has introduced such a ferment of discord that the said commune has ever since been constantly divided ; and considering that the closing of this school is asked for on all sides .... as the onjy and necessary means of re-establishing -calm . . it is decreed that the said school shall be immediately and for

    -ever closed . " . Precisely the same reasons are constantly alleged to justify tlie closing oi Protestant chapels , or the refusal to allow them to be opened . It is announced by all authorities , and even by all magistrates , that the Catholic religion is thereligion of France , and that all other religions are to be only tolerated to the smallest extent possible without absolute persecution . The principle obeyed is that the descendants of the old Protestant families are to be allowed to exercise their religion in certain places , but that nothing like conversion is to be tolerated . Observe the phrase , " . Protestant by " origin , born and recognized as such . " In order to prevent the spread of the hated doctrine all means are thought iustifiable . Of course the Government is merely in this respect an agent of

    the Church , by whose powerful influence it is mainly supported . We are often assured of the weight of the peasantry being thrown into the scale of the Empire ; but it is not so often pointed out that the peasants are chiefly acted upon not so much by political delusion as by the priests . This powerful body , which sees as yet no chance of the triumph of legitimate doctrines , is unanimous in its desire to accustom the French population , to obedience . It will gather up the heritage at some future day ; but , meanwhile , it gives its hearty support to Napoleon III ., stipulating , however , that Protestantism shall be narrowed and checked in all possible ways . What becomes , then , of the past assigned to the Senate ? It is true that we know no instance of its opposition to laws oi any kind ; but perhaps , in other departments , its interference has not yet been called for . In matters of religion it mijjht have done much if it had felt so disposed . Last year it to

    it received a petition from certain Methodist preachers , begging examine if the decree of March 15 , 1852 ( which forbade meetings for religious objects without preliminary authorization ) , was not unconstitutional , and states that many condemnations had been pronounced under that decree with evident repugnance by the judges . The petition was referred to a commission presided over by M . Delangle , who reported not only against its demands , but laid down the doctrine that among the rights of men was not that of teaching their brethren . Since that time the severity formerly displayed against the Protestants has been redoubled , and has risen almost to the height of absolute persecution . Nearly all demands for new schools and chapels , except in Paris and some southern departments -where the members of the Reformed religion are in great force , are peremptorily refused ; and some of the more hot-headed members of the clergy look forward to the time when their rivals shall be utterly silenced . In vain has the Emperor declared that all religions are equally protected by the State . No man is more accustomed than lie to use language to conceal his thoughts ;

    . and the Monitettr has since admitted , in obscure and Jesuitical phrases , the whole truth of the complaints made by th&opprossed Protestants of France . The doctrine therefore of liberty of conscience , preached Avitli so much courage and ability by M . Jules Simon , whose previous works lire not unknowiTin England , lias become one of the most important of tlie ^ duy . All liberties are mutually interdependent ; and ifc will be ever found impossible to establish political freedom in a country whore absolute freedom in religion is not allowed . The question whether France ought to have become Protestant Heed not here be discussed : it is quite certain that if it hud gone with Eivland and Germany in the sixteenth century we should never have heard of convulsive revolutions in Europe . At present , a great part of its free thought has taken another direction . liufc there is no doutit that , if absofute liberty of preaching were allowed in France , Avithin a few years the Church would lose one-third of it . i flock . There is evidently a yearning among the masses for a new form of faith 5 but as long as priests make or interpret tlie laws no change can take place that is not at the sumo time a revolt . .. _ _ ......

    There has of late been quietly formed in England , Belgium , and Piedmont , u 'Pacific Ausociiilion for the Defence of Religious ami Philosophical Liberty ; ' but the three liberal countries named have not the honour oi originating the idea . ' It came out of France , whore it cut 1 no IT pretend to result in any action nt present . The only notice that has boom taken of it is the publication of its laiwa in a provincial journul , which has of cCurse been seized . The reason at first given was that in onu of its clauses the word political' was printed for ' philosophical ; ' but it ia evident that no association of the kind would be tolerated for a moment in Franco . One of itn objects ia to supply utouuy for the defunuo of ' victims of intolerance . ' Now , —4 t 4 » . ppMttUu-F . * uuc » 4 o . aubacwbua ^ oven to pay tho fines to which he may bo condemned . The founders uiuut be content to uot ut first in countries whoro thoir aiu ia Icsa wunted , waiting for 11 cranny by which they may slip into tho country whoro their , uid ia nu > at wanted , W o have" not noticed M . Jules Simon ' s Liberty 0 / Consciauco us a book . Its literary qualities are of tho highoab order ; but wo regard it chiefly us u snunUogto of tho party of enlightened liberty in Frunco . W o come perhaps

    too late to recommend it , for we believe two large editions are exhausted . But we cannot refrain from expressing our admiration of the author , and the hope : with which the success of his labours inspires us . It is something that such questions are actively discussed in France , and that the rising generation has teachers so wise and so fearless . We once feared , that the terrible command of the Jesuits , bellowed out , by M . Veuillot in the Wnivers —altetissez-vous—would be listened to . This book is one among many signs that there are hetter things in store for the future .

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    THE DESCENDANTS OF THE STUARTS . The Descendants of the Stuarts . An Unchronicled Page ia England ' s History . By William Townend . Longman and Co . The Stuarts have found many apologists , but none more ardent than Mr . Townend . His labour of love has been to illuminate their pedigree upon a silver and purple scroll . This book is like a painted window , blushing with the blood of queens and kings . As a contribution to history it is useful , being a careful collection of facts and inferences bearing , not exactly on an unchronicled page of English history , but on topics and personages sufficiently English in their relations to interest the historical student and the general reader . Mr . Townend , however , has committed two mistakes : he has sought too elaborately to prove the importance of his own work , and he has gone out of the way to contradict other . writers on points not essential

    to the development of his own subject .. " That a narrative of the Roman Catholic Stuarts is a desideratum in Anglican literature is proved by the absence of such a work , " . is an affirmation bad in style and logic . It might as well have stood , " is not a desideratum . " That there is no record of Sir Richard Walworth ' s business dealings in Southwark , after lie had killed Wat Tyler , is no evidence that such a chronicle is imperatively called for , or that it would be edifying if compiled . Mr . Townend also winds through the long complexity of our dynastic annals , to show that the biography of kings is important in the history of kingdoms , a position which might have been assumed without any sacrifice of modesty . We must not , perhaps , arrest a genealogist in his excursions , or half his learning will be lost ; but a knowledge of genealogical tables is scarcely a qualification for . such judgments as are here pronounced on the characters of sovereign families

    and personages . The Stuarts , Mr . Townend urges , have been inore traduced , vilitied , and misrepresented , than almost any other race of prices ; as a dynasty , they ' will bear comparison with any on record . His first illustration is unfortunate : " Were they savage ? The idea of a savage Stuart seems too ludicrous for utterance . " Yet , they were " even ferocious . Charles I . was pitilessly cruel ; the Restoration , at its advent , dragged Blake out of his grave . Charles II . was King of the Bloody Assizes . The reader will , at all events , be glad to find that Mr . Townend is not a practical Jacobite . He simply thinks it unfair that eight members of the Stuart family should be entirely neglected by historians . Sir Frederick Thesiger believes their names to ^ be hidden in Bishop Culien's Library ; but it is here satisfactorily shown that the forbidden lineage , after parting from the English throne , did not run down to its sunless sea

    through immeasurable spaces of obscurity . The line still sparkles in continental pedigrees , and Stuarts and Stuart Siinmerens , ' whose very names have been unregistered by the historians , ' are written in the book of Townend thus : —James , Prince of Wales ; the Princess Louisa , Anne , Queen of Sardinia ; Elizabeth Charlotte , Duchess of Orleans ; Louis , Prince of Salms ; Louisa , Princess of Sahns ; Eleonora , Princess of Salms ; Anne , Princess of Com-le "; Benedicta , Duchess of Hanover : and the Princess Palatine Louisa . Of these , the Chevalier de St . George wus ^ the only British subject , lirst parading Hume , Mackintosh , Goldsmith , llapin , and Keightley , Mr . Townend demonstrates how far they have omitted to notice these personages , and then proceeds to quote his own authorities to correct the pedigree of the House of Stuart , and to reunite the imperfect passages

    cited . The attack upon Lord Macnulay is fierce and somewhat arrogant , but it is entertaining , and we have no objection to tho multiplication of critical commentaries upon a history too partial to be above correction . But Mr . Townend relics upon very feeble evidence in some of his extracts from ' able reviewers , ' and in his comparison between the composition of Lord Macauhiy and tho compilation of Miss Strickland , in which the latter bears away the palm * . But it is at least amusing to find Mr . Townend breaking lances for the beauty of Anno Hyde and Mary Beatrice , for tho haggard face of Catherine Sedley and the exquisite eyes of Arabella Churchill . The

    x'otort courteous is triumphant . If Catherine Sedley , insists Mr . 'IWnend , was lean , ugly , and painted , Elizabeth Villiens' squinted like a dragon ,-which was at least the opinion of Dean Swift . We may concur with the writer on another point , m his estimate of the bloody mandate sent by William to Gleneoe , but was there not a similar passage in tho reign of the lirst Charles , when the broad seal of England sanctioned a human holocaust an terrible ? Without going further into controversy , it may bo said of this volume that it has been industriously compiled , that it ia of some historical value , and that the enthusiasm of tho writer adds to tho narrative u zest which many readers might not anticipate from a glanco at its genealogical tables reaching from the ninth to tho nineteenth century .

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    SPORTING IN BOTH HEMISPHERES . Snorting in Both Lfemiyihereti . By J . D'JSwes , Author of China , Australia , and tho Ialands of tho Pacific . Itoutlodgo nnd Co . Tiui Author of this book is , by tho female line , a direct descendant of the well-known Charles Cotton , who wrote the second portion of Izaak \\ tillo ^ s ^ 'C ^—l— ^ hood on the banks of tho river Dove , in tho mansion inhabited by his ancestor , and , as might be anticipated , became a steady angler . iuyon when ut liugby , he seoina to have apont all his leiauro momenta in this amuaomout ; for the Avon , whoro Slmkauouro often wot tod a line , rujis hard Uy tho Culluue , and holds in Hb . sotfgy bank . a and deep holes' many a monster niko and porch . His favourite resort in theae boyish expeditions Jwi do

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 20, 1858, page 187, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2231/page/19/