conformity with his Majesty's promise General La Garde of the orders of the "I inclose the copy of the King's Ordonnance, issued in consequence of this event, which sufficiently shews the views and intentions of the Government, I have further to inform you, that it is not true, that the salaries of the Protestant Ministers have been discontinued by the King of France. I trust that what I have above stated will convince the Society of which you are the Secretaries, that the King of France's Government are not to blame, on account of the unfortunate circumstances which have oc curred in the South of France. I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, P. S. I likewise inclose a French newspaper, containing what is, I believe, an authentic Report of what passed at Nismes, when General La Garde was wounded.' These communications, and other in formation, as well as an Ordonnance published on Nov. 23, by the Court of France, induced the Committee, on December 5, to adopt the following, and second series of Resolutions: 1. THAT having experienced from the Prince Regent's Government the most prompt and polite attention to their application respecting the Protestants of France--having received their assurances "that it has been the invariable object of the British Government, and of their Allies, to support, and on every suitable occasion to assert, the principles of Religious Toleration and Liberty--and that in their recent communications with the Government of France, they have brought forward these principles as the foundation of their policy, and of their just expectations ---and that they are, therefore, using their best efforts to arrest the progress of evils which they most deeply deplore"--and having been convinced of the benefits which have already resulted from their avowal of this policy, and from the declaration of these truly British and honourable sentiments, this Committee cannot delay to record and to communicate their cor dial gratitude to the Right Hon. the Earl of Liverpool, and to the other Members of the present Administration, for their past and useful efforts, and for their judicious and liberal disposition to maintain, on behalf of the Protestants of France, those great principles of Religious Freedom which this Committee most devoutly ap prove, and are appointed to protect. 2. That desirous to co-operate with the British Government in conduct so enlightened and bethe measures which may occur in France, and neficent, this Committee will continue to observe will neither abate their vigilance, nor their humbler, but utmost exertions, until the Protes tants of that country shall be allowed practically, perfectly, and permanently to exercise that Liberty of Worship, and those Rights of Conscience which the Constitutional Charter of their own Monarch has justly recognized-which his recent Ordonnance has wisely re-assured-and which they and every man throughout the world are entitled to enjoy. T. PELLATT, J. WILKS, Secretaries. pared, and they subsequently addressed Protestant Consistories in France-inviting information communicating encouragement - and reChristian resignation. To that letter commending firmness, loyalty, and many Protestant Clergymen, and other have persons, honourable, and grateful replies. forwarded important, fending labours of Christian love, the Occupied by these useful and unofCommittee were most unexpectedly assailed by the Editor of the Times Newspaper, who printed on January 6th, 1816, the letter written to the Secretaries, by the Duke of Wellington, and accused the Society, and all the advo cates of the French Protestants, of suppression, party motives, want of candour, and of fraud. The Secretaries immediately pre pared and published the following letter, which, the Committee think, completely refutes an accusation which ought not to have been adduced. "TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. "The paragraph inserted this day in your paper, introductory to the publication of a letter addressed to us by the Duke of Wellington, has excited our astonishment and regret. That pa ragraph accuses the Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty, to which we are Secretaries, of party, political motives, of uncandid conduct, and of the suppression of a letter which by some inexplicable means you have obtained. We shall not refer to the real present situation of the French Protestants-nor examine the necessity for extended exertions for their permanent protection, nor investigate the propriety of collecting those subscriptions for their relief which were recommended by another public body (consisting of Dissenting Ministers of Three Denominations in London) but which our institution has never attempted to invite :nor shall we discuss the existence of any obliga tions to publish all the information we might receive, and especially letters which we were unau. thorized to expose :---we shall only deny the charge as a calumny most unfounded and unjust. existence of a persecution in France, and its fearful and sanguinary effects--our own Govern The ment--the French Government---the Duke of Wellington concur to admit and to deplore. To state its existence, and to protest against its principles, were the, just objects of the original Resolutions of our Society. Those Resolutions, when unpublished, were forwarded to our own Government, and were transmitted to the Duke of Wellington for the information of the Government of France. Our Society were subsequently induced, by the assurrances received from Lord Liverpool, by the Ordonnance of the King of France, and by the communication of the Duke of Wellington, to cherish hopes that some effective measureswould be taken to repress the evil, to punish the guilty, and to compensate the sufferers. Anxious instantly to allay public irritation, our Society adopted two other Resolutions, in which they published, and gratefully acknowledged the assurances they had received from Lord Liverpool, and determined to await, inert, but vigilant, the result of th exertions which those assurances encourage them to expect .With this liberality of conduct, they might have been content; but really solicitous to discountenance party feeling-to demonstrate their candour---and to give all possible publicity to any intimation which could soothe and gratify the minds of those benevolent persons who were interested for their persecuted brethren; we actually transmitted extracts from the letter of the Duke of Wellington to the Protestant Ministers in France, and also sent the following abstract of that letter as a communication from the Duke of Wellington to us, to all the London newspapers, including your newspaper, on Dec. 14:-That the Government of France is resolved to employ all the means in its power to terminate the evils in the South of France, and to take under its protection all the subjects of the King, conform. able to the promise which he had made in his Royal Charter, and to support them in the exercise of their religious duties, whatever might be their persuasion, and in the enjoy ment of their civil privileges, whatever might be their religious sentiments; and also that no discontinuance of the salaries of the Protestant Ministers had taken place. On the succeeding and subsequent days, that abstract was inserted in at least seven papers, although it was omitted in your paper, for some reason which we cannot attempt to explain. 6 "A structure of accusation was, therefore, we conceive, never raised upon a foundation more frail; and, we think, that you must admit, that our members' and encouragers,' and' the public,' will conclude, that the charges of personal and party motives,' of interested suppression, delusive statement,' of want of candour,' and of fraud,' will rather apply to the authors of that paragraph, than to the institution we have been required to vindicate, and which we esteem it our honour to represent. "THOMAS PELLATT, "Jan. 6. 1816." "JOHN WILKS." The COURIER Newspaper also made repeated attacks on the Protestant Society, accused them of premature interference,' party motives,'' interested suppression of documents,' and 'continued and needless exertions; and required them to answer these charges publicly announced. The Committee, on December 8, did not hesitate to give to the following Refutation an equal publicity, THE Secretaries to the Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty dis elaim an intention to eater into controversy with anonymous assailants. Even if they were disposed to such litigation, they are too well instructed to become advocates in a forum where their opponents would be at once the parties and the judge. As a correondent under your appearance and in your Fer of Saturday last, but not in the courtly language which from him might have been expected, has accused the Protestant Society' of premature interference respecting the French Protestants-of party and political motives-of an interested suppression of a letter from the Duke of Wellington-and of exertions inflammatory and needlessly continued : and, as imitating the conduct rather of French than English Tribunals, he has demanded an explanation from the accused-the Secretaries to that Institution, who respect public opinion, and who are grateful for public confidence, will not withhold a reply. But they limit this discussion to the following remarks. As to premature interference, the first Resolutions of their Society were not adopted until the 21st of November last. For several previous months Europe had heard whispers of the persecutions of those afflicted Protestants. Your Journal and other Papers of all parties had announced their wrongs, and advocated their cause. After this period, it became the duty. of that institution to express their opinion in favour of Religious Freedom-to solicit the interposition of Government-and to assure the sufferers of their assistance, if other relief should not be obtained. An attempt to prove the existence of. the evils against which they protested would be absurd. That existence has been admitted by the Courts of England and France, and is recorded in numerous public documents which your former pages contain. Prematurity of interference cannot therefore be honestly imputed, and especially by your correspondent, whose contradictory accusation subsequently complains, that the evils had almost terminated when this interference began. Party and political motives they most anxious. ly deny. Those motives, the constitution of their Society prohibits and precludes. Their objects are superior to those which the wretched state of all political parties can supply. Their inclination has combined with their duty to teach them inflexibly to observe neutrality the most strict. From their own Government, and from the present. Administration, they have constantly received attention and assistance, which they have always gratefully perceived and have delighted to avow. From distinguished Members of successive Oppositions, they have also experienced equal friendship and kind support. Upon this occasion, there could exist nothing to tempt them from their constant path. Their Resolutions, when yet unpublished, were accordingly sent to their own Administration, and were also transmitted to the Duke of Wellington for the information of the Government of France. After their publication, they re ceived from the Earl of Liverpool an admission of the evils, and an assurance of past and of continned exertions to The Society therefore, acting on their independ effect their termination.. ent principles, hastened to adopt farther Reso lutions, which were twice inserted in your Paper, announcing and applauding those assurances, as liberal and judicions; and expressing, in language as animating as sincere, their cordial acknowledgments. At that period, therefore no party feeling could exist or was displayed; and any subsequent display of such feeling their subsequent remarks must equally disprove. The non-publication of the letter of the Duke of any obligation to publish every document of Wellington, they might vindicate by a denial they received; or by the statement that such publication was unauthorised, and might therefore be deemed disrespectful to that great General, whose military talents Europe and the world unite to admire. The contents of the letter might also suficiently excuse them from affording to it an ostentations publicity. That letter has now been read, and it is not generally thought to convey material information, nor has satisfaction or confidence been thereby pro duced; but without referring to such topics, they assert, that the charge is intentionally unfounded, and is a calumny which the accuser must have known to be false. For although the Committee of the Society did not think that they ought, from respect to the writer, to publish the whole of the letter, they abstracted the very parts which your Correspondent states to be material; and not only forwarded them to the Protestant Ministers in France for their encouragement, but actually sent them as a minute of communication from the Duke of Wellington to the Secretaries of the Protestant Society, to all the London newspapers on December 14, in the following form That the Government of France is resolved to employ all the means in its power to terminate the evils in the south of Frauce, and to take under its protection all the subjects of the King, conformable to the promise which he had made in his Royal Charter, and to support them in the exercise of their religious duties, whatever might be their persuasion, and in the enjoyment of their civil privileges, whatever might be their religious sentiments; and also that no discontinuance of the salaries of the Protestant Ministers had taken place.' In eight papers it was published; and the public will decide to whom accusations of illiberality,-want of candour,- and interested concealment, will justly apply. The last accusation of continued exertions when exertions were no longer required, shall finally receive an equally conclusive reply. When on December 5th, the Society adopted the Resolution, expressive of their gratitude to Government, they also resolved to wait, vigilant but inactive, the performance of the promises they had received from England and from France, to seek for additional information; but to adopt no farther proceedings, unless by increasing and continued necessity farther proceedings should be imperatively required. To that resolution they have adhered. Exertions have been made, but not by them. The subscriptions solicited,--the letters subsequently circulated, the resolutions since obtained in country towns, statements and pamphlets recently dispersed, bave originated, not with the Society, but with the Dissenting Ministers of London, of Three Denominations,' who are, doubtless, prepared to vindicate their measures, if those measures should be assailed. the On all the topics introduced by your Correspondent, the answer demanded has been given: and if such accusers could feel as honorable men, they would hasten to publish a retraction, and apology; which, however, from such accusers it would be self-delusion to expect. For the Society whom they represent, the Secretaries must however avow, that although they have thus disproved the charges advanced, they shall not be intimidated by such virulent invectives from any future interposition, if such interposition appears to them to be required. They must confess that such attacks will rather excite than paralize their vigilance. They prove that the fiend of persecution yet stalks abroad. The slumbering or lethargic by such clamour must be aroused. They will also admit that, notwithstanding their desire to confide in the benevolence, of the British Government and of Louis XVIII. the state of France does not equal the expectations they have cherished. The present situation of the Press, the suspension and insecurity of personal liberty, compel uneasiness; and the, non-apprehension of the culprits and assassins, -the neglect to compensate the persons whose property has been despoiled, prevent the per fect confidence they desire, and perpetuate. their anxiety and their fears. They perceive throughout Europe that the sun of religious freedom rather declines than ascends the horizou. The twilight disappears, only that the gloom may become more dark. Italy, Portugal, and Spain present scenes which they cannot contemplate withont interest, nor without dismay. Devoted by principle and duty to the protection of Religious Freedom, they must therefore continue to be prepared to promulgate the principles, and to assert the importance of that best of liberties, which their wisest ancestors long and successfully struggled to obtain, which ignorance, superstition, and tyranny cannot finally withhold--and which posterity must ultimately and universally enjoy. The TIMES newspaper renewed their charges of another suppression, on January 9th; and having inserted the following letter from the Rev. M. MARRON, of Paris, accused the Secretaries of a disingenious and interested machination,' in suppressing that document, which they considered as interest ing and important. Copy of a Leiter written by M. Marron, President of the Protestant Consistory at Paris, and Addressed to M. M. of the Committee for the affairs of the French Protestants. Gentlemen, Paris, Dec. 7. I have made it a duty to oppose every proposition tending to foreign interference in the affairs of the French Protestants. I cauuot; therefore, see with satisfaction what passes in England on this subject, and I cannot conenr in it, if the zeal of your fraternal love edities and affects me. it appears to me, nevertheless, to go beyond the line of true prudence, and even the spirit of true charity. It is not thus that the latter virtue pro claims its assistance, especially when it may have reason to dread, that by such a conduct it inay compromise the very interests of the cause which it undertakes to support and defend. I am far from admitting that there can be, as you imagine, any thing hostile in the conduct or in the intentions of the French Government, with regard to the Protestants. The sufferings at Nismes are great, doubtless, but they are local; and local causes, however unfounded, may have contributed to provoke them and prolong their dura-. tion. The French Government laments them as much as you or 1. The King has pronounced, in the most unequivocal manner, his displeasure,. his horror at the late events. Ilis wishes and his efforts to remedy the evil, to calm the lamentable exasperat on of public feeling are attested by the Royal Ordinance, by what the Duc d'Angonleme said to the Deputation of the Consistory, and by the flattering distinction with which one of the pastors of the Cevennes (M. Malines) was lately honoured, in receiving the decoration of the Legion of Honour. it upon him to excite your commiseration for the delay which the Ministers of the Reformed Religion experience in the payment of their sti-. pends. What we experience in this respect, we only participate with all other public functionaries. They do not impute it, any more than ourselves, to any other cause than to the deplorable situation into which we have been thrown We ought rather to bless the Government for. what it has done, than blame it for what it has not done; and I must again solemnly disavow here, every appeal to foreign commiseration. I beseech you, therefore, to write to me no more in the style in which you have now done. I respect, I honour the signatures of your letter: I render justice to the motives of all; and I dare hope that you will not be offended on your part with my frank disapprobation. None can subscribe themselves with more fraternal regards, Yours, &c. I do not known, Gentlemen, who could take This further calumny produced from the Secretaries the annexed indignant and conclusive reply ; TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. 66 FRENCH PROTESTANTS. 'As Secretaries to "The Protestant So aiety for the Protection of Religious Liberty," we most reluctantly re-address you. We have no personal vanity" which we seek to gratify and vain, indeed, must they be, whose "vanity" can be gratified by Newspaper controversy, and by any publicity" which such discussions can confer. As to the charge of the suppression of a Letter from the Duke of Wellington-the accusation and the defence have been submitted to the public-a desire of " vengeance" we did not feel" threats of vengeance" we should have disdained to utter, and we were prepared to await, unfearful, the decision which an enlightened and impartial public might pronounce. But new calumnies compel a new reply. The same accuser has now ventured to charge on us the suppression of another Letter. In your Paper of this day we are accused of concealing a Letter, which you publish from the original French, as having been written to us by M. Maron, President of the Protestant Consistory at Paris. Our reply shall be brief, but distinct. Of the name of that Gentleman we are informed. We have seen it in The Narrative of recent Events, published by Helen Maria Williams; and in the celebrated Dictionary of Weathercock's (or des Girouettes). We have heard of him as the successive panegyrist of every succes sive occupier of power at Paris; and as a Gentleman who, on a recent visit to England, com plained of the insensibility of some principal Members of the British Government to the interests of the Protestants of France. But from M. Maron we have not individually or officially, nor has "The Protestant Society" ever received the Letter which you have published from "the original French," nor any other communication of any kind nor have we heard that by any other person any similar, or any other letter from him, was ever received. 'After contradiction so direct," the most outrageous" desire of " vengeance" we could feel would be abundantly gratified: as the revengeful man would wish that his unprovoked assailant should be degraded---and we cannot con ceive any thing more degradatory than that a person should become the voluntary or involuntary, the intentional or the incautious, publisher of a calumny so unfounded, as that which we have been required to refute. We, however, feel pity rather than resentment, and shall on this further complaint also await the opinion of that public which must conclude that another' interested and disingenuous machination has been completely 'exposed.' Jan. 10, 1816. THOMAS PELLATT. Subsequent, and almost daily, abuse induced the COMMITTEE to publish, on January 13, 1816, a document, which the length will not permit them to insert, and which, by the following Address, was introduced. The Committee of the Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty have been impelled by no party feelings to manifest their interest for the Protestants in the South of France. Party motives they have invariably and justly disclained. To their own Government they cherish an attachment independent and sin cere. For that of France they have no desires, but that it should be rendered permanent by the attachment of all the people, and that such attachment should be ensured by the comunica tion of those blessings which Civil and Religious Freedom only can bestow. They have been in fluenced, by obligations which they esteem sacred, to advocate the rights of conscience, and to offer It subsequently appeared, that this Letter was received from M. Maron, by a Member of the Committee of the Ministers of the Three Deno minations in London. their sympathies and their relief to the victims of persecution, although suffering in a foreign land. That necessity required the efforts which they have made--and which other public bodies throughout the empire have nobly supported, they cannot doubt. Nor can they doubt that those efforts have already produced inestimable benefit. But those efforts they will be most happy to relinquish, whenever the evils by which they have been excited shall have disappeared-and the Protestants shall enjoy that Religious Liberty which all men are entitled to claim, and which the Constitutional Charter was intended to insure. But until that result shall be attained, their duty commands them to persevere undeterred by calumny---undeluded by letters extorted by the dread of punishment-and regardful only of their wish to accelerate the universal return of Religious Freedom, of prosperity and of peace. These determinations have been confirmed by the recent attempts made to distract and prejudice the public mind. In those attempts the Committee have perceived a design to divert attention from the evils which our own Government acknowledged and deplored-to overwhelm truth by clamour-and to perpetuate a neglect to the oppressed or to invigorate the arm of the oppressors. Designs so injurions they conceive themselves required to resist and counteract. No means more effectual for such resistence do they perceive than the exposition of some of those facts which justify their past interposition, and illustrate the past situation of those persecuted brethren, whom they commiserate, and have resolved to protect. Unaccompanied by any remarks they accordingly publish a letter, which they have recently received, and which was written by a Gentleman of great eininence and undoubted worth, and was brought from France and delivered to them by a distinguished Member of the British Parliament. This letter, the Committee think, will develope facts more impressive than many arguments. Facts that afflicted them with grief, which the wise and benevolent of all parties and denominations will partake, and which they hope that the French Government by prompt, active, and unequivocal exertions, will not only continue to mitigate, but will eventually remove. Jan. 13, 1816. Siuce that date, the voice of Calumny has not been silent, and the Journals of France have united with those often defeated, but perpetually reviving, antagonists, whom the Committee have been compelled to combat, and have been enabled successfully to resist. Divine Providence, however, has smil. ed on the great and good canse which the Committee endeavoured to defend, and the period has arrived when this contest may honourably end. The objects of the exertions of the Committee seem to be attained. Their declaratious and to shrink from any perseverance, which their principles would not permit them their duty could require; but must prohibit any perseverance which that duty does not enjoin. They think that the evils which they disapproved are greatly mitigated, even if they be not completely removed---and that farther immediate efforts are not desired by the Protestants, whose rights they have succeeded to defend,---and would rather retard than accelerate the happiness and prosperity they have alone been solicitous to restore. The reasons which have induced that opinion and the propitious circumstances to which they refer, the following and third series of AT a SPECIAL MEETING of the SAMUEL MILLS, Esq. in the Chair, The COMMITTEE, having considered the necessity and expedience of further immediate interference with the affairs of the FRENCH PROTESTANTS. Resolved, 1. That this Society, including Members of the Established Church, as well as numerous congregations of Protestant Dissenters, throughout England and Wales, has not been formed for the special purpose of affording relief to the Protestants in France,-is unconnected with any political party,-has invariably been disposed to afford to Government all just support;-and, although espe cially designed to protect the enjoyment of Religious Freedom, according to the existing Laws, in the British Empire, could not, without selfishness and degra dation, disregard the numerous statements, long circulated in the daily Journals and other publications, of the existence of persecutions towards the Protestants in the South of France. 2. That the COMMITTEE, therefore, assembled on Nov. 21, 1915, and adopted RESOLUTIONS respectful to the French and British Governments; but declaratory of the great principles of Religious Liberty, of their hatred to intolerance, of their determination to investigate the accuracy of the existing complaints, and of their inclination to afford to the persecuted all needful protection and relief. 3. That, adhering to the constitution of their Society, this COMMITTEE hasteued first to communicate their Resolutions to their own Government, and to request from them accurate intelligence, and that interposition which acquaintance with their principles and conduct induced them to expect :-and that they received from the EARL of LIVERPOOL, and from other Members of the Administration, admissions of the evils, and assurances of their due exertions to prevent their continuance,-which they did not delay most publicly to announce. 4. That, gratified by this declaration, by an Ordonnance published on Nov.23d, by the Court of France, and by the information of the DUKE of WELLINGTON of the disposition of that Court to repress the outrages, which he did not attempt to deny, the COMMITTEE, by public Resolutions adopted on Dec. 5, and by other statements, communicated the substance of the information they received, and expressed their intention not to augment public anxiety by active labours; but rather vigilantly to observe the measures which might occur in France 5. That to these Resolutions they have firmly adhered that they have sought for information by honorable ceedings which might increase solicitude meaus that they have avoided all proand discontent: that they have not invited public contributions which might not be required, which the sufferers might decline to accept, and which they might be unable to dispense that they have addressed to the French Protestants a letter which Calumny has not ventured to denounce: and that they have sought rather to conciliate than to offend,---and to hush the elements of existing discord into permanent tranquillity. 6. That, able to discriminate between exaggerated complaints, and equally exaggerated exculpations; between details which gave universality to local oppressions, and assertions which denied that local cruelties had been displayed: and that, regardless equally of inflated panegyric, and of unmerited obloquy, the COMMITTEE have pursued the path they originally designed, and have now arrived at the goal they intended to attain. 7. That, from the intelligence they have received, they learn that there are s9 consistories, 230 churches, and 251 ministers, belonging to the Protestants in jorty departments of France, and one college for their literary and theological instruction, established at Montauban; and that in the department du Gard a persecution, partly political |