return into France with the same, to the prejudice of the other remoter relations of the deceased, settled in her Majesty's dominions; who were thereby for ever deprived of such estates as might fall to them, either by lineal or collateral succession, and therefore the petitioners prayed that leave be given to bring in a bill, to prevent the subjects of the French King, residing in his dominions, from claiming or enjoying any estates of their relations dying in her Majesty's dominions."

This petition having been read, a Bill was ordered to be brought in accordingly; but on the private suggestion of some among the French Protestants (whose names I have not found recorded) that this Bill would be more prejudicial than advantageous to themselves and their fellow-refugees, who, from time to time, received considerable remittances of money from their relations in France, the second reading of the Bill was put off and so it dropped.

On the 5th February, 1711, the Lords read a Bill which had been sent up to them by the Commons, for Repealing the Act for a General Naturalization, and rejected it by a majority of 14, to the great joy of the French refugees and other Protestant foreigners. The only effect of this Bill was, curiously enough, exactly the opposite to that intended by its promoters. Their object was to prevent the French refugees from enjoying the benefit of naturalization; but whilst little more than 1800 had availed themselves of the Act for the repeal of which this Bill was designed, upwards of 2000 hastened to become naturalized under its provisions during the short interval between the passing of the Bill by the Commons and its rejection by the Lords. So often does the cunning of the ill-disposed outwit itself.

As a suitable accompaniment to this mention of our English Naturalization Act, I will quote the Declaration of the StatesGeneral of Holland, dated about two years previously, viz: July 13th 1709 :

We, the States of Holland, do give all people to understand, that having taken into consideration that in general, the greatness and prosperity of any country, and in particular that of this Province, are increased in power and riches by the concourse of dispersed and miserable persons, who, having been driven out for the profession of the true reformed religion, or by other oppressions, have taken their sanctuary in this Province, and have this long while much contributed to the increase of trade, of manufactures, and of the common good:we therefore have thought good to ordain that all persons who

are retired out of the Kingdom of France, or other countries, for the profession of the true reformed religion, and have taken sanctuary in this province; and also all other the like refugees, who for the future, whether directly out of France, or other countries and provinces, will retire hither, and settle themselves here, shall be acknowledged and received for the future for our subjects; and they shall enjoy the right of Naturalization as it hath been established by our Act of September 25th, 1670."

You will observe that between the publication of this Declaration of the States-General and the passing of their Act referred to in it, a period of no less than forty years had elapsed. This was amply sufficient to enable the people of Holland to judge of the wisdom or un-wisdom of the policy they had adopted towards the refugees, and it is interesting to find that they were so fully persuaded of the benefits it had obtained for their country, that they were anxious to render the position of the exiles still more advantageous to the latter and, consequently, to themselves. Yet here in England, persons were found so short-sighted as to fail to profit by the example of their Dutch neighbours, and so malevolent as to endeavour to thwart every effort that might happen to be made for the well-being of the industrious refugees who desired to settle in this country and assimilate themselves to the natives of it. Fortunately for the refugees, and fortunately for England, these machinations, as I have already said, proved abortive.

I will conclude by a brief narrative of two events, by sea and land, in which I find some of our Huguenot fore-fathers playing a conspicuous part.

In 1703, the English government resolved to send some assistance to the Protestants of the Cevennes, whose sufferings under the inhuman persecutions of the Abbé de Chayla and other agents of Louis XIV, had excited the indignation and sympathy of our fellow-countrymen at that time, as indeed they still excite our own even now after the lapse of nearly two centuries.

In order to open communication with the Cevenois, two French Protestant refugees (whose names I have not been able to discover) were despatched to France to acquaint them with Her Majesty's intentions; and lest by any mis-hap these envoys should fail to make their way safely into the Cevennes country, the Marquis de Miremont, (himself an exile in England for religion's sake) sent a third person, M. David Flotard, at his own expense, with news of the intended relief.

This relief it was proposed to send in the form of arms, ammunition, and money, by a fleet under the command of the celebrated Sir Cloudesly Shovel.

Concurrently with this mission from England, the States of Holland sent several representatives overland to the Cevennes, but most of them were arrested, and either broken alive on the wheel or made slaves in the galleys. In fact, out of all the messengers sent by England and Holland, none had the good fortune to penetrate into, and return from, the Cevennes, except the Marquis de Miremont's envoy, M. David Flotard, who spent six days among the Cevenois, and acquainted them with the signals the English fleet would make, and those with which they were to reply to them.

Besides these envoys whom I have already mentioned, three of the French refugees resident in England were chosen to accompany the fleet under Sir Cloudesly Shovel. These three gentleinen were M. Portales, M. Tempié, and M. la Billiere, the last being an ancestor of my own. He served in two of the English Huguenot regiments, and his death, which occurred in 1736, is entered in the registers of St. Martin-in-the-fields.

On reaching the Gulf of Lions, however, Sir Cloudesly considered the weather too bad for him to prudently venture his whole fleet close to the coast, which was esteemed a very dangerous one. He therefore selected two vessels, the Pembroke and the Tartar, commanded by Captains Arris and Cooper, and despatched them to endeavour to concert measures with the Cevenois; the three refugees, Portales, Tempié, and La Billiere, accompanying them. This was on the 3rd September, and on the following day they captured a small French vessel, the captain of which told them that he knew their errand, and that news of it had also reached France, so that preparations had been made to oppose any attempt at landing or communicating with the Cevenois. The English captains, though somewhat disconcerted at this unexpected intelligence, determined to continue on their way; and on the 11th they succeeded in capturing three more French vessels, and passing Narbonne and Beziers, lay off Cette. The wind now changed to an unfavourable quarter, and the English ships could not approach nearer than two miles from shore. However, they made the signals agreed on, but without receiving any in reply; whereupon our three Huguenots volunteered to go ashore in a small boat to see if they could gain any intelligence of the movements of the Cevenois and of the royal troops. This plan, unfortunately, had at the last moment to be

abandoned, some war galleys putting out from the harbour to intercept them. In consequence of the strong force that appeared to be in readiness to oppose them, and on account of the continued bad weather, a consultation was held on board the Pembroke on the 18th September, and the following resolution was drawn up :—

"At a consultation held on board Her Majesty's Ship Pembroke this 18th day of September, it was the opinion of the pilots not to venture into the shore again, for fear of the many alterations of the winds which we now have, and likely to be bad weather, as is usual to be at this time of the year, which is confirmed by the French prisoners, both to Captain Cooper and to myself (viz: Captain Arris), and we having with the French gentlemen advised in relation to the aforesaid pilots' opinions, thought it necessary to make the best of our way to the general rendezvous, since nothing more could be attempted. Witness our hands,

Pursuant to this resolution, the Pembroke and Tartar sailed for Leghorn, where they arrived on the 23rd September, after having encountered a violent storm in quitting the Gulf of Lions. Captain Arris made his report to the Admiral, and Messieurs Portales and la Billiere afterwards waited on Sir Cloudesly Shovel to confirm the same. Sir Cloudesly thereupon told them that he was very well satisfied with what they had done, since they had made that gulf, which before was looked on as unapproachable, accessible and easy for all undertakings. And although," he added, "you have not succeeded in the design of giving relief to our friends, the Cevenois, yet they will see we have been as good as our words. And I am the more glad of your discovery, because it will be easy for the future to relieve them that way, if we go into the gulf with a strong squadron earlier in the year."

The future attempt, which the Admiral seemed to shadow out in these words, does not appear to have ever been made; although in the following year, 1704, the combined English

and Dutch fleets, under the command of Sir George Rooke, entered the Gulf of Lions and thus gave the Camisards of Languedoc some hopes of assistance. Instead, however, of making for the coast, Sir George went in pursuit of a French fleet and, failing to engage it, went on to Gibraltar, which he attacked and captured, in conjunction with Sir Cloudesly Shovel, on the 24th July, 1704.

I do not propose to weary the Society by entering into a lengthy discussion of that tedious subject, the War of the Spanish Succession, and the many events connected with and consequent upon it. It may, however, be of some interest to my hearers if I conclude these few notes by giving a list of the officers in the English army bearing French names, who were killed, wounded, and made prisoners at the battle of Almanza, which took place on April 14th, 1707.

This battle, as you may remember, was fought between the allied English, Dutch, and Portuguese forces, together with a few Spanish troops of Charles III., on the one side, and the combined French troops and Spaniards supporting the cause of France, on the other.

The allies were commanded by the Marquis das Minas and the Earl of Galway, the celebrated Ruvigny; whilst the French, and the Spanish troops siding with them, were under the Duke of Berwick, natural son of James II., his army having considerably the advantage in point of numbers. The battle was long and stubbornly contested by the English and Dutch who were, however, but indifferently supported by the Portuguese, who not only showed little fight, but at one time were guilty of the gross blunder of firing at each other by mistake. The Earl of Galway, during the whole action, gave signal proofs of courage and gallantry. He received two wounds in the face, near the eyes, which for a time incapacitated him; but, having got them bound up, he once more plunged into the thickest of the fight, till being overpowered and nearly surrounded, his friends compelled him to seek safety by retreating under escort of a small troop of English dragoons. Besides Ruvigny, another officer celebrated in the annals of the French Protestants, was present at Almanza. This was Colonel Cavalier. He too received several wounds and lay for some time as dead, but finally made his escape. The French remaining masters of the field, the Earl retreated with his English and Dutch troops to join Charles III. in Catalonia; and, in spite of his gallant conduct, did not entirely escape censure for having first failed to obtain more accurate.