without feeling the conviction that he was an honest and truehearted diplomatist, and that he has had an honest and truehearted editor to publish his papers, and to rescue his memory from oblivion. Had there been more such diplomatists and biographers, the Vaudois and the Protestant cause would not have been betrayed as they have been. Were there more such diplomatists in our own day, who, like Mr. Hill and Count Waldbourgh Truchsess, would extend protection and aid to the oppressed, from higher motives than those of expediency, the Vaudois would not still be groaning under the yoke of revived edicts and penal enactments:* bigotry and intolerance would not be making such rapid strides in the vallies of Piedmont, where they have grown bolder and stronger through the continued indifference or non-intervention of the cabinets, which have purchased the right of checking their progress. One or two extracts will serve to show the spirit in which Mr. Hill obeyed the letter of his instructions respecting the Vaudois. "There is another article (writes the envoy) which gives me more pain, and that is what does regard the Vaudois. These poor people have their books of martyrs, which were full before the time of the reformation; and, since that time, almost every reign in Savoy is marked with their persecutions. About sixteen years since they were almost exterminated, and were only established by a secret article in the treaty of alliance which was made in 1690, between our late king, the states, and his royal highness. That treaty ended in 1696; and though his royal highness has still continued to protect them, and to suffer them to enjoy the liberty of their religion,† they have no security of that liberty but the good will of their sovereign. My instructions in this matter are very plain; and when I did about six months since solicit his royal highness in favour of these people, he was pleased to promise me that he would give us a secret article in our treaty, by which he would engage himself not to revoke the edict by which they were established, pursuant to the treaty of 1690. " Now, it is so contrived, that the article which concerns the Vaudois signifies less than nothing." "I desire you would please to let me receive her majesty's command with regard to the 160,000 crowns; and to the liberty of conscience for the Vaudois, which I do demand, so soon as I may expect them." (pp. 388-389.) * See Church of England Quarterly, October 1843, Art. III, and Quarterly Review, Dec. 1843, Art. I. + When he wrote this letter, Mr. Hill had not received the memoir, which he afterwards sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury, (see pp. 440 and 889), and which shews that in 1698 the Vaudois were made to feel that the treaty with England in 1690, and the edict of 1694, had been rendered null and void, by the perfidy of Victor Amedée. Before however the expected answer could reach Turin, Mr. Hill was so urgently pressed to sign the treaty that he did so, and by engaging to pay the required sum, he obtained from the Duke of Savoy the secret article promising religious liberty, and the enjoyment of their legitimate rights to the inhabitants of the vallies of Piedmont, on condition of receiving subsidies, which were duly paid, and an accession of territory, which still belongs to the king of Sardinia. The editor, in a very able note appended to Mr. Hill's letter announcing the signing of the treaty, has given the following lucid account of the transaction. "This treaty was IMPORTANT, not only in a political point of view, according to the then circumstances of Europe, but in a religious point of view, since a secret article contained in it directly secured (and that for a valuable consideration) to the Vaudois or Waldensian Churches in the vallies of Piedmont, their religious liberty. This liberty to these ancient Churches, which had never succumbed to Papal Rome, the British nation bought and paid for. If the reader will turn to page 388 of this volume, he will see in Mr. Hill's despatch of July 11-22, 1704, his statement that the Duke of Savoy required, not only a subsidy of eighty thousand crowns per month during the war, but eighty thousand crowns per month for two months after the war was ended, and a peace should be signed. This however exceeded Mr. Hill's instructions: he stated that he dared not consent to it without orders from the British sovereign. In an after-part of the same despatch, tlie reader will see that he states that the Duke of Savoy had promised him, six months before, a secret article in the treaty about to be negociated, by which he would engage himself not to revoke the edict by which the Vaudois were established in 1694, pursuant to the treaty of 1690 (which edict and treaty the reader may see in appendices E. and F. of this book). In Mr. Hill's despatch of July 14-25, 1704 (see p. 391), he states that the duke had again pressed him to sign his treaty with her majesty (the Queen of England), but that he re-intrenched himself behind his Vaudois, whom he was resolved not to abandon, and that he thought he should obtain an article in their favour, if he would consent to the payment of the two months' subsidies which were demanded. In his despatch of August 1st, 1704, N.S., the reader will see he again states, that the Duke of Savoy was very earnest with him to sign his treaty, but he says, that, if he had the complaisance for his royal highness to sign the article for the payment of one hundred and six thousand six hundred and sixty-six crowns* more than was at first intended, it should be on the condition to ascertain to the Vaudois a liberty of conscience for which, they had then no very good security. In his despatch of August 1-12, 1704, he states that he had signed the treaty with his royal highness. In this treaty is the secret article, securing that which Mr. Hill had laboured for. In the fourth article of the treaty, the Duke of "Being two-thirds of eighty thousand crowns a month for two months," England's share of the subsidy. Holland paid the other part, Savoy binds himself to confirm, and does confirm, the seeret article of the treaty of October, 1690, relative to these poor and interesting people. After reciting that treaty between the King of England, the States-General, and the Duke of Savoy, his royal highness restores and secures to the Vaudois, their children, and posterity, the possession of all their ancient rights, customs, and privileges, in regard to their habitations, traffic, the exercise of their religion, and other claims." "Thus England, to her immortal honour, through the agency of Mr. Richard Hill, may be said to have bought of the Duke of Savoy the religious liberty of the Vaudois, and she has a right to expect that these people should have entire liberty of conscience, and unrestricted freedom of religious worship: and not only has she a right to expect it, but to demand of the King of Sardinia faithfulness to the engagements of a solemn treaty; and, if he refuse, a power to compel him to give her that which she bought and paid for in hard cash. Had the motive never come to light (as it now does by these letters), which induced Mr. Hill to exceed his instructions, and, without orders or leave from the British Sovereign, to allow the Duke of Savoy a gratuitous subsidy of one hundred and six thousand six hundred and sixty-six crowns, the treaty itself ought to be sufficient to show the Sardinian Government that the Vaudois have an undoubted claim to liberty of conscience, and deliverance from the oppression which they now suffer. The motive, however, now appearing as it does, why England gratuitously paid one hundred and six thousand six hundred and sixty-six crowns, after the war was ended, does indeed strengthen their claim, as also the right of England to demand that they have full liberty of conscience, and a freedom from oppression. In the Secretary of State's despatch to Mr. Hill of 11th August (see p. 142), he approves of his signing for the extra two months' subsidies, if he had signed; but if he had not, he empowers him to do so, on the two conditions of making the best terms he could for her Majesty, and securing an article in favour of the Vaudois. Surely a British Protestant Government will not be backward to discharge their duty, and see that the terms of the treaty, in reference to the Vaudois, are abided by." (pp. 401-403). We cannot refrain from offering a concluding observation on the moral of this diplomatic correspondence. It exhibits the humiliating portrait of a prince who had all the great qualities of courage, energy, and genius nullified, by being trained up to duplicity from his very boyhood, by priests and confessors nominated by the court of Rome. He succeeded to the ducal crown of Savoy when he was a minor, and he never could unlearn the lessons taught by his early instructors. To put down heresy to look upon the end as justifying the means to play off chicanery and artifice against the everlasting principles of justice, righteousness, and truth-to retard the progress of knowledge, freedom, and public welfare, rather than lose the opportunity of promoting some petty interest: this was instilled into him, as the perfection of wisdom, by the keepers of his con science, before his beard was grown. He was not aware until too late of the trammels in which he was held by the very power (that of the Vatican) which he sometimes pretended to despise and resist. In all that he did, he was unwittingly the tool of Rome, whose object it has ever been to enthral the human mind, and for this purpose to set kingdom against kingdom, when it cannot by other means attain its object; and to sow the seeds of distrust between sovereigns and subjects, when either the one or the other will not receive laws from the Seven Hills. Victor Amedée, the bravest and the ablest of the House of Savoy, has the unenviable celebrity of having broken faith more frequently-of having violated more compacts-betrayed his allies oftener-and inflicted more misery upon his own people than any other of his race: and why?-because he was the most apt scholar under Romish tutelage. ART. VI.-A Word in Season. A Series of Subjects addressed to the Flock committed to his Charge. By the Rev. John HOOPER, Rector of Albury. London: Painter. 1844. THE days in which we live are fraught with important consequences to the Church of Christ. Events, significant of the prevailing spirit and temper of the times, follow each other in rapid succession, in every one of which a foundation is laid for some fresh aggression on her rights-in every one of which an increased unbelief in the true nature of her standing in the world is manifested. Whoever looks abroad upon Christendom at large must perceive, in the various struggles that are rending every religious community, an antagonism of principles which no human power or sagacity can coerce or direct into a peaceful result; whilst in our own land, and in a constitution hitherto essentially Protestant, a system of legislation has been introduced, and will probably be consummated, which renders that word in its national acceptation a misnomer, and must ultimately place the Church of England in the position of a State stipendiary, or separate her altogether from any connexion with it, Groundless anticipations of evil are ever to be deprecated: they sap the sources of moral energy, and waste, in a morbid and fanciful preparation for calamities that never occur, the strength that should be husbanded for real difficulties. Far be it from us to lend ourselves at any time to that unwholesome disposition of mind which can only perceive the wrong-which, in its sentimental sympathy with whatever is dark in human life, utterly forgets the difficulties in which men find themselves—the good for which they often strive, and not unfrequently attain. An intelligent understanding of any actual position, and a calculation of its almost sure results are, however, different things, in which the experience of the past, brought to bear upon the present, helps us to conclusions with something like the certainty of mathematical deductions. The exercise of these faculties is the paramount duty of all who live and minister for God amongst men; for they are specially charged with the keeping of that wisdom in whose light all human events are to be read and interpreted, as to the influence which they exercise upon man's relation to God, and the part they bear in the fulfilment of the divine purpose. Never, we believe, were these faculties more required than at present: never were the ministers of the Lord more called upon for the application of that heavenly knowledge which enables them to mark, in the progress of all things, the signs of his coming footsteps, and to prepare his faithful ones for his appearing. There is a spirit abroad, whose commission seems to be to afflict and to destroy. Human suffering is developed in so many forms that remedy passes the skill of the wise its cry has become so loud that there is no soft recess where luxury reclines, no stray hold where despotic power hides itself, into which it does not enter. A perception of want and insufficiency-a desire for something better than what is possessed-an universal longing after some more Catholic economy, both spiritual and social, wherein men may find room for the expression of all that is in their hearts-wherein they may find. a vent for the higher aspirations of their spirits, and without bondage tell out all they think: these are the motive causes to that agitation which is every where visible, shaking on the one hand the Papacy to its foundation; and, on the other, threatening all ancient forms of monarchy with destruction. Nor can any conceal the fact that what, in the first instance, was aimed against oppression and abuse, is now falling heavily upon all that is legitimate. The day of authority in its rightful exercise is over; the constitution and preservation of society by rule and obedience as ordained from God are no more; the office of the Church, as an authoritative teacher, is almost repudiated. Compact is the only recognized basis upon which men can command or are willing to obey; and government is not according to the immutable principles of right and wrong declared in God's word, but according to the dictates of the popular mind. The Church is expected to wait upon the movements of that mind and not to direct them; and, whilst the condition of her ministers, as the servants of all men, is loudly proclaimed, it is forgotten |