ry; The Nursemaid; Sickness; Dress; and Behaviour to Parents. It abounds with striking remarks on each of these topics, fraught with experimental wisdom. It is a volume which may with great advantage be placed in the bands of young girls on leaving Charity or Sunday schools; and we shall be very glad to see a cheaper edition of the work for this express purpose, as there is no doubt of its obtaining a very extensive circulation.

The Rev. Mr. Watkins is generally known to be the benevolent originater of the London Society for the Encouragement of Faithful Female Servants.' His Second Report we have thought it highly worth while to bring forward to the notice of our readers.

We must refer to the Report itself for an account of the plan and successful operations of this well-intended Society, which reflects the highest credit on the benevolence of the truly excellent and laborious clergyman who has so much exerted himself in the cause of this neglected class. But we copy from the Report the remark that,

• While charitable institutions to recover the wicked from the error of their ways are numerous and laudable, few public endeavours comparatively have been made expressly to prevent vice, or to encourage a virtuous behaviour among the inferior ranks of Society,'

The Committee conclude their Report, by stating that

• Committing the cause they have taken in hand to the superintendence of Divine Providence, they are fully assured that it is necessary to call the attention of Christians to this home department of religious service. They are aware, that from various causes, a very large majority of the domestic servants in England are as destitute of Christian hope, and living as much without God in the world, as any native of the Asiatic or African continent, whose souls are nevertheless equally precious in the sight of God, and whose good services are more necessary to our comfort. Let our charity be as diffusive as our means; but let us not forget the servants of our own familiesFor, "He that provideth not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."

The "Friendly Hints to Servants" were drawn up expressly for the above Society, and bear all the marks of the Author's peculiar talent for conveying with impressive simplicity, moral and religious truth to the minds of the young and uninstructed. The singular excellence of most of the Author's Sunday School Tracts," among which these Friendly Hints' first appeared under the title of The Servants' Remembrancer," bas been duly appreciated by the religious public. Nearly fourteen thousand of the several editions of this Tract, have already been circulated.

It remains for us only to notice the "Hints and Observations "to Heads of Families," respecting which the Author shall be allowed the privilege of being heard in his own words.

The writer is aware, that, on this literally home subject, the details of which are so multifarious, very different opinions will be formed, by different readers; very much according to each one's temper and views, and ability, or previous domestic practice. Without doubt many of the following Hints will be wholly irrelative as to some; and not within the ability of others to reduce to practice. His only fear is, that the book will be despised by those who have, in their do mestic management, been the least guided by such considerations and reasonings, as are contained in the Holy Scriptures. He is free to confess, that his whole argument rests upon christian principlesupon the imitable example, and the declared will of Jesus Christ.

• As these pages were written only for the use of " those whom they may concern," if but one of the following Hints shall have a useful practical result in one case, and another in another-If these observations occasion one vigilant or benevolent feeling, which did not before exist, or confirm one already in operation-If they direct a conscientious master and mistress to some object, practicable in their especial case, to which they had not before adverted-or, if the subject itself, shall excite others better qualified, to present it in a superior form-in any of these cases, the design of the writer will be answered. Whatever reception the following pages may meet with, they are certainly scriptural; and they have been written with no other view, than as a mite to be thrown into the common treasury of christian philanthropy, with a hope that it may somewhat increase the aggregate of human happiness, socially and individually, here and hereafter for what is human happiness but an accumulation of minute endeavors to do good? In instituting the present endeavor toward so laudable an end; whether a mistake has, or has not been made, in the choice, or the management of the means, is a question which it would ill become the writer to determine.' pp. vii, viii.

. We cannot make room for further extracts, and, indeed, they would be superfluous as attestations of the value of this little work, which we cordially recommend to the serious perusal of all who are concerned for the happiness and moral character of their servants and dependents.

Art. X. On the late Persecution of the Protestants in the South of France. By Helen Maria Williams. 8vo. pp. 62. Price 3s. 6d. T. and G. Underwood. 1816.

UR country woman in Paris, has availed herself of an

advertisement in the English Journals, containing the words" H. M. Williams's Confession," to introduce to the British public a Letter on the late Persecutions of the Reformed in France. Whether anxiety to perfect her exculpation, zeal for the Protestant interest, or any other feeling of a more ordinary

and business-like nature, dictated the correspondence, we presume not to determine; but this letter forms a bulky pamphlet, of 62 pages, of very large bold type; and besides a great deal more of extraneous matter, one whole quarter, that is from p. 16 to p. 32, consists of the tale of other times, and anecdotes of the sufferings of Protestants in the good days of Louis 15th, &c. &c.

The Letter is however highly important, from the circumstance of its being written by a distinguished Protestant in Paris, who must have had access to the best informed persons in the Protestant Communion, and also to many respectable fugitives from the various scenes of desolation. And it is still more important, as it is written by a devoted admirer and a voluntary panegyrist of the Bourbon family, under whose reign these unhappy events have taken place. The Times, the Courier, and even the Christian Observer, may surely venture to quote this Pamphlet, as pure and high authority.Does Miss Williams, then, with the last publication, style the tragedies of the South," PRETENDED persecutions ?" or, with the others, describe them as the mere factious struggles of Jacobins and Bonapartists?

The following extracts will furnish our readers with the means of forming a just decision on this point.

The persecutors of the Nineteenth Century have not entered into the niceties of religious belief; they have not, in the indulgent spirit of their predecessors under Lewis XIV. proposed the alternative of La messe ou la mort ;”. "6 repent, or perish; become Catholics, or we kill you;" they have proceeded at once to execution; their victims were marked, and they have plundered and murdered as their fury directed, whereever they found Protestant property, or persons professing the Protestant faith.'

From whatever cause this violence has proceeded, the Protestants alone have been the victims. Were it a local insurrection against property or lives, such as sometimes has desolated parts of France during the Revolution, the assailants would not have been so discriminate in their choice. It is on Protestants only that their rage has fallen and the selection of the professors of this faith appears to them an unequivocal proof, that it was an organized religious persecution. We were for a long time incredulous; and, what added to our incredulity on this subject, was, that this persecution should have taken place while the country was in possession of the Protestant powers of Europe, by either of which it might instantly have been crushed.

The silence and inaction of these Protestant powers, led to the disbelief of such violence arising from such a cause; but diplomacy is observant of etiquette, and interference with the internal government might have been deemed an humiliation of royal authority. The foreign troops were also too much occupied in skirmishes,

and sieges, and in re-forming the Museum, to heed disturbances in the departments: no French army existed.

"What then were the crimes which have drawn down on the heads of those respectable Calvinists the persecution of which they have been of late the victims? Crimes! their foulest enemies bring none to their charge. One leading cause of this persecution dates from far it is a renovation of that old spirit of fanaticism, which once infected even the court; and which, driven from the powerful and the great, now sought for refuge in the lowest of the multitude.'

In comparing the former and the present state of the Protestants, with that from which they have lately been reduced, Miss Williams does homage to the Revolution, the abuses of which she will not be supposed to advocate.

· Amidst all the various phases, (she remarks) of the French Revolution, the star of religious liberty had moved calmly in its majestic orbit, and cheered despairing humanity with a ray of celestial radiance. Amidst the violations of every other principle, the domain of conscience appeared to be consecrated ground, where tyranny feared to tread.'

• The revolution took place, fraught with all happy omens for the Protestants. They cast their eyes back on the iron bondage of the past, on the edicts of the last hundred years against their fathers, and blessed the dawn of religious liberty. Yet, during the Constituent Assembly, how many hesitations, exceptions, and discussions took place on the subject of the Protestants! It was with some difficulty, notwithstanding the proud promulgation of equal rights, and equal laws, that they obtained the privilege of being tolerated. Rabaut St. Ethienne fought against the Abbé Maury, under the shield of Mirabeau, who exclaimed, " that he knew nothing more intolerable than toleration."

The Protestants were now tolerated in the public exercise of their worship, and enjoyed their civic rights, but they received no portion of what was allotted to the ministers of religion by the government; to whom, on the contrary, they paid an annual tribute for the hire of the churches in which they officiated. Their state was that of temporary tranquillity-but it was not confirmed repose." p. 33. And, finally, alluding to the reign of Bonaparte, she makes this full and candid declaration.

Whatever might have been the advantages to the Pope, the Church, or Buonaparte from this compact, the Protestants completely gained their cause. It was no longer the persecuted, or the tolerated sect. They were at once enthroned in rights equal to those of the Catholic Church, and became alike the objects of imperial favour.' p. 37.

But no sooner doe sour Letter-writer come down to the period of the Restoration, than she adopts the language of apology, and is even compelled to acknowledge, that a sad reverse has been experienced.

VOL. V. N.S.

H h

The Royal Family of France (she says) returned. By some oversight in the King's charter there was mention of a state religion, and the Protestants were consequently obliged to sink back to toleration.

The charter had been less favourable with respect to their reigious rights than the Concordat; but they were justly satisfied in believing, that their religion could never have been safer under a ruler, indifferent to every system of faith, than under the protection of a pious and philosophical prince. Secure in the virtues of the monarch, and the lights and philosophy of the present times, they little dreamt that they should ever become again the objects of religious persecution.'

It might have been hoped that the conduct which the Protestants had observed since that glorious epocha which confirmed to them their religious rights, would have disarmed the most rigorous of their foes. They had shewed no exultation in the victory they had obtained; their joy had been confined to their own bosoms, or breathed in secret thanksgivings. The blessings of the Revolution had not been perverted by them to any private advantage; they had not been forward to solicit the honours, but had always cheerfully borne their share in the burdens and charges of

the state.

But no conduct, however void of offence, can disarm the malignant passions. The tranquillity enjoyed by France during a few months after the first return of the king, presented no means to the fanatics of gratifying their rage, except by menaces.

'We were then far indeed from any conjecture that the disastrous event of the landing of Buonaparte on the coast of Provence was so near. He glided rapidly by the southern provinces, and established himself at Lyons. His presence affected the Protestants in no other manner than as it affected all other Frenchmen.

Amidst the most important changes in the state, many partial disorders took place in various parts of France. Partial insurrections were formed, and various outrages committed at Marseilles, Montpellier, Toulouse, Avignon; and the disorders of Nismes were long believed at Paris to have the same source, and to be no other than the last convulsion of political contests.

But it was at length recognized that, when the troubles which had prevailed in other provinces were hushed into peace, the department of the Gard was still the scene of violence and horror. It was found that some evil of a darker hue, and more portentous meaning than the desultory warfare of political parties, hung over the devoted city of Nismes. A fanatical multitude, breathing traditionary hatred, was let loose :- the cry of Down with the Hugonists!" resounded through the streets. Massacre and pillage prevailed; but Protestants alone were the victims. The national guard of Nismes, composed of its most respectable citizens, had been dissolved, and a new enrolment of six times the number had saken place, and in which many of the fanatics had found admission.. Here, and here only, by some cruel fatality, the national guard betrayed its trust, and abandoned its noble function of protecting