APPENDIX. NATIONAL TREATIES IN FAVOUR OF THE VAUDOIS. The following extracts from a letter sent to the Earl of Aberdeen, by the Rev. Mr Gilly, will show that national treaties are in existence, binding the court of Sardinia to leave the Vaudois in the uninterrupted enjoyment of their religious and civil privileges, and pledging the honour of England to see them maintained. "The fruit of this mediation, on the part of the English government in 1665, was a solemn compact signed by the Duke of Savoy, in favour of his Vaudois subjects, and guaranteed by the ambassador of the king of France, and the ambassadors of the Reformed Cantons of Switzerland. But the compact was soon violated, and in answer to a letter from the Swiss Cantons to Charles II. about the year 1666, requesting his majesty's interference, the king promised, 'We will from our heart do all we can towards the preservation and safety of those who are so closely united to us by the sacred ties of a common faith.' There is every reason to believe that the promised intercession of Charles II. was but feeble; for at this crisis there commenced a system of more effectual persecution, which continued to deprive the Vaudois of their lands and property, to confine one populous valley was wrested from the Protestants, and the inhabitants were compelled to abjure their faith, during the period of this inertness; but in the midst of the evil, the argument which I am humbly using with your lordship, (namely, that there are ample grounds and precedents for interposition by virtue of treaties,) derives strength from the language and conduct of the British minister, Mr Hedges, at the court of Turin. He strongly protested against the infraction of treaties, and he wrote repeated letters to his own government, imploring them to be more in earnest, to instruct him to insist upon the observance of engagements with the Vaudois, and pledging himself that it only required to be in earnest to carry the point. "The following extracts from the despatches of Mr Hedges, in 1727, are so much to the purpose, and so applicable to the present state of things, that I trust your lordship will pardon my troubling you with them. "I believe, if the Marquis d'Aix, (Sardinian envoy in London,) perceived an earnestness in England of having this affair remedied, it would very much facilitate it.' June 21, 1727. ""I cannot but be of opinion, that one great reason of the coldness I meet with here on those subjects, arises chiefly from the little warmth with which it is urged to the Marquis d'Aix, at London, and as they are points by no ways agreeable to the king of Sardinia, I do not doubt but he informs his master that we have them not so much at heart, as to oblige him to make many alterations in either case. For the treaties are so express with regard to the Protestants, that they cannot possibly have any thing to say in defence of their present behaviour to them.' August 23, 1727. "The Marquis de St Thomas owned to me the hardships that the inhabitants of those valleys laboured under; but pleaded in excuse, that they were obliged not to suffer the exercise of the Protestant religion in them by the treaty made with France for the cession of those valleys in exchange for the valley of Barcellonette; but, as I had carefully looked over that treaty, and could find in it no one word relating to the not suffering the Protestant religion, but, on the contrary, it appeared to me, as your Grace will see by a copy of the article enclosed, them within more narrow limits, and greatly to reduce their numbers. This oppression became more and more severe, until the non-interference of the English government under James II., and the revocation of the edict of Nantes in France, gave the Duke of Savoy an opportunity of making a new attempt to exterminate the Vaudois. The greater part of their population was massacred; and of the remainder, some were obliged to conform to Romanism, and the rest were driven from their habitations. This took place in 1686. "Within a few years afterwards, the courage and conduct of the Vaudois refugees, who were aided by William III., enabled them to repossess themselves of some part of their ancient settlements, and in 1690, the Waldenses were once more indebted to the English government, and recovered their political exist ence. "Your lordship will take some interest in reading the account, which an historian of that day gives of the decisive conduct of the English envoy, who managed the affair. The Duke of Savoy granted a very full edict in favour of the Vaudois, restoring their former liberties and privileges to them, which the lord Galway took care to have put in the most emphatical words, and passed with all the formalities of law, to make it as effectual as laws and promises can be; yet every step, that was made in that affair, went against the grain, and was extorted from him by the intercession of the king, and the states, and by the lord Galway's zeal.' “ The same zealous attention to the grievances of the Vaudois was again shown in the secret treaty of Turin, in 1704, between Queen Anne and the Duke of Savoy; and it also appeared in the face of the correspondence between those powers in 1709. In the course of that correspondence, and in a conversation with the ambassador Chetwynd, the duke admitted that he was bound, both by treaties and promises, to give satisfaction to England on this subject. "Unfortunately for the Waldenses, the administrations, which immediately succeeded, did not watch the execution of these treaties and engagements with sufficient vigilance, or they did not press the question with vigour. It is certain that that the inhabitants should be maintained inviolably in all their privileges and immunities. I told him I could not possibly imagine it was capable of receiving any such construction. I then told him that I could not but be extremely surprised at the little attention that was shown to His Majesty's intercession, FOUNDED ON SOLEMN TREATIES, which could not possibly be misunderstood.'" August 30, 1727. LECTURE IV. ON THE PRESENT CONDITION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE WALDENSIAN CHURCH. BY THE REV. ROBERT W. STEWART, A.M., LATE OF ERSKINE. THE armorial legend of the Protestant valleys of Piémont, from time immemorial, has been "Lux lucet in tenebris ;"* and it contains, remarkably enough, a truthful epitome of their history. Somewhat similar in signification is the motto of Geneva, the model church of the Reformation, "Post tenebras lux,"+ and yet in the use of the same words, there is sufficient diversity to establish a striking contrast between a primitive and reformed church. Though poor and despised by the world, the Vaudois community lays claim to the high prerogative of being called a primitive church. From father to son an unbroken tradition has been handed down among them, which the writings of their enemies have unwittingly confirmed, that the doctrines they maintain were received directly from the apostles; and Henri Arnaud, their renowned pastor-chief, has left "The light shineth in darkness." |