adequate idea of the magnitude, and still less of the depth, of that tremendous chasm. The delineation of such a scene requires the greatest skill and knowledge both of effect and of perspective, a combination of eye and science that is far. beyond the range of a common-place artist. The plan (if we may so term it) of the spot, is much more satisfactory. The portraits are interesting, and have been carefully engraved. We were disappointed at not finding an accurate chart of the Islands its place is ill supplied by a meagre sketch, on a small scale, of the track of H. M. S. Blonde.' An appendix contains a few papers on scientific and miscellaneous subjects.

Art. II. Declaration contre l'Intolerance du Canton de Vaud. Par M. Gardes, Pasteur à Nismes. pp. 8. 8vo. Paris, 1826.

THE

HE country of Vaud in Switzerland is about the size of the county of Essex: its population is estimated at a little more than 142,000. It had been, for almost three centuries, dependent upon the Canton of Berne; but the changes consequent upon the French Revolution raised it to the rank of a separate Canton; being now, for the purposes of internal administration, an independent republic, while, for all objects of alliance and defence, it is a member of the Helvetic Confederation. The seat of government is Lausanne, and the supreme power is lodged in an aristocratical Council of State. The people have long borne the character of enlightened and liberal; but recent events have forcibly and painfully proved that they do not possess a government worthy of them. Its ecclesiastical establishment is Protestant and Presbyterian, nominally Calvinistic. The Reformation was introduced in 1536, by Viret and his coadjutors, Farel and Le Comte. When the destructive agitations of the two communions, in the sixteenth century, had subsided, the lamentable result was a system of mutual intolerance, as to religion, between the Cantons which were closely joined in political union, but which could not mutually grant and accept religious freedom. Some of these districts remained exclusively and intolerantly Catholic; others became exclusively and intolerantly Protestant. The changes. produced by the shock of the French Revolution effected some relaxation of the old and miserable system. That this alteration was not, however, a matter of principle, but of narrowminded and political expediency, is too evident from the recent conduct of the Lausanne Council towards its own fellowcitizens; conduct better befitting the days of Hildebrand than the age of liberty and reason..

One of the first fruits of the Reformation in this part of Switzerland was the establishment of an academy and an endowed college, which have flourished to this day; and which, in regard of the number of professorships, the eminence of those who have filled them, and the resort of students to the theological, scientific, and literary advantages there enjoyed, might with great justice have claimed the name and privileges of a University.

In almost every part of the Continent where Protestantism was erected into the State religion, it has run the unhappy descent of exclusiveness, formalism, lukewarmness, indifference, and then a silent abandonment of evangelical doctrine. The Pays de Vaud did not form an exception to this course of degradation. Mr. Gibbon's long residence at Lausanne enabled him to attest, as he does with evident delight, the apparent extinction of Calvinistic prejudices.' Yet, some causes remained, (we fear that the rivalry of Geneva was one of them,) which produced a semblance of nearer approach to evangelical principles than was approved in some other places; and this advantage was aided, in various instances, by the sincere faith and practical piety of individuals in private and in public stations. The establishment of the Bible Society at Lausanne, and the concomitant exertions to revive religion by other means, gave a strong impulse to inquiry, and encouragement to prayer. These providential events were followed by so extensive an excitement of religious feeling, that we cannot hesitate to believe it to have been the effect of a most remarkable effusion of Divine influence. "The Spirit of the Lord is not straitened; and these are HIS doings." These heart-cheering and truly glorious displays of Divine grace, have occurred within the last five or six years; and we exult in the information that they are still continued.

Óne of the two professors of divinity in the academy of Lausanne had particularly directed his lectures to the confirmation of the Scripture doctrines concerning the Deity, atonement, and grace of Christ. The effect upon his auditors was great. A new life and energy appeared among the students and the younger ministers. Evangelical principles were not left to slumber in the formalities of the academic hall, but were brought forth into the exemplification of experience and action. The Professor became alarmed. He seems to have thought that his pupils had no right to go beyond the length of his cord; and (Ỏ weakness and wickedness of the human heart!) he became a chief instrument in procuring those legislative enactments which have brought scandal upon his country.

In the mean time, the awakened spirit of piety operated, in it accustomed characteristic, and, we might say, almost inevitable course. The Christians" spake often one to another;" and, in several towns and villages, held meetings for devotion and the reading of the Scriptures. Such meetings, eminently useful as they are when judiciously conducted, are obviously liable to misuse, and to become ensnaring to honest, but indiscreet persons. It would not have been surprising if zeal, united with inexperience, had broken out into some imprudences, which might have furnished occasion, plausible though unjust, for blame and reproach. But we have good reason for believing that nothing of that kind has occurred; and that, on the contrary, the most exemplary Christian wisdom has been maintained with regard to the time, the length, the method, and the attendants upon those services. They were usually held on the Sunday evening; the season when social meetings among all classes have been long the general custom, from the coterie of the politest people in the place, in whose party the clergyman was often found, down to the dance on the green, and the noisy vulgarity of the public house. The worthies of the latter kind, finding out a few of their neighbours assembling for religious purposes, assailed them with hootings and execrations, and soon with formidable missiles and personal outrage. In several cases, very serious corporal injury was inflicted. The magistracy refused protection to the sufferers; and, both by this impunity and by direct instigation, the lowest of the populace were encouraged in acts of violence, which approached, at least, to incendiarism and murder.

The case of M. Chavannes, a suffragan clergyman (the same as a curate in the Church of England) of Aubonne, may be taken as a specimen. The meetings began by a small number of persons requesting to be allowed to attend his family worship, on the Lord's day evening. Others asked the same privilege; and gradually, the number increased to forty or fifty. • When I saw,' says he,

'the meeting become so numerous, and likely to be still more so, I feared lest, along with the chief motive which brought these attendants to my house, some artifice of Satan might glide into the heart, and destroy the benefit of those instructions from the word of God which I gave them; lest they should take up a high opinion of themselves; lest they should indulge an elevation of pride above others who would not or could not partake of the instructions which they received; and lest, because, in coming and returning, they had to endure ridicule, outrage, threats, and sometimes actual violence from a great number of scoffers who gathered on the road, they

should make a righteousness and merit of all this. I said to them, that they ought not to think themselves more worthy than others; that, on the contrary, I hoped they had been brought to my house only by a real feeling of their sins and their spiritual necessities; that the Lord calls to himself only those who are labouring and heavily laden under the sighs and weight of their transgressions; that, if they began to think highly of themselves and value themselves upon any thing in the sight of God, they did not even comprehend the merciful invitations of the gospel, still less comply with them; that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble ;' that it is not the righteous, or those who think themselves such, whom Jesus came to seek and save, but those who feel themselves to be sinners, condemned and accursed by the law of God, and thus in themselves entirely lost before him; that it was their duty to abstain from any condemnatory judgment of those unhappy persons who oppose the truth and such as receive it; and that, on the contrary, they should only pity such persons, love them, bless them, do them good, and pray for them, according to our Saviour's direction to his disciples. I was afraid also, lest any of them should be induced to neglect the public worship in the churches; lest, through indolence or preference for the novelty, they should disregard the instructions given them in the public services of the day, and reserve themselves for those of the evening. I informed them that, if they had a sincere zeal for God and for the salvation of their souls, the effect would be quite otherwise, and that they would seek with avidity all opportunities of obtaining edification. I further exhorted them, if even they did not always find in the churches the benefit which they might have wished, to pray and wait for better times, and so to conduct themselves as to give no offence to any, to the Jew or to the Greek, or to the church of God; that the gospel might at last be preached in the churches more generally than it is at present; that we had still the Helvetic Confession of Faith and other evangelical books, the public documents of the doctrines of our national church; that the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper were consecrated by the word of God which the minister recites; and that we ought thus to maintain communion with the institutions of our church, as they had been established by our ancestors and blessed to them, however much we deplore its subsequent revolt; and that, in the event, it may please the God of all mercy to restore life to the fallen frame.

• But prejudice and irritation kept pace with the increase of our numbers. This was soon openly manifested by calumnious, insulting, and even murderous language, and by blasphemous outcries against the Lord, and against his Anointed our Saviour. There was scarcely any statement too absurd, in the invention and circulation of which a malignant delight was not taken: such, for instance, as these "That we supposed the Father now become too old, and that therefore we spake only about the Son; that we were returning into the Roman Catholic Church; that we had political views, and maintained 'secret relations with certain foreign powers, in order to betray our country to them; that I distributed money among those who resorted

;

to me; that we were silly people indeed, to spend our time and pains in searching into religious matters; some even maintained that there is no Christ, no resurrection; that all the Mômiers must be killed," &c. &c. Those who thought themselves the most knowing, affirmed that three classes only of people could attend my meetings; notorious criminals, seeking relief from the terrors of their guilt; or weak-headed fanatics, ready to embrace any new notions; or interested persons, expecting to make pecuniary advantage. These and many such reports were circulated among all classes of society; while none of their authors and propagators ever took the trouble of coming a single time to my meetings, to see with their own eyes, and hear with their own ears, though it was well known that my doors were open to all comers.' Recit des Faits, &c. par Mons. J. D. A. Chavannes. Geneva, 1823. pp. 9-13.

But it was not by turbulence and outrage alone, that these peaceable means of religious edification were assailed. M. Curtat, a clergyman of great influence at Lausanne, circuated a letter containing most pious and Christian arguments against the novel practice. Of these, one was, that it violated the law of evangelical charity,-that it was inconsistent with love to the brethren;-BECAUSE it implied a censure upon those numerous and respectable pastors and suffragans who were in the kind and condescending practice of spending the Sunday evening in pleasant card-parties with the genteel families of their parishioners.

We know not whether M. Curtat and his party distrusted the efficacy of their logic, but they delayed not to seek another kind of strength, and this they had no difficulty in obtaining. On Jan. 15, 1824, the Council of State of the Canton of Vaud, published an Edict (Arrêtè), which, after a preamble remarkable for absurdity and falsehood, prohibits all assemblies for religious worship, excepting those of the National Church, under severe penalties of fine and imprisonment. This was accompanied by a long Circular Letter to the Justices of the Peace and the Municipalities of the Canton, detailing allegations of complaint, and urging a strict execution of the Ediet. In this production, the Council gravely asserts, that it has not in view to interfere, in any way, with private opinions on religious subjects, or to restrain the liberty of thought; but that its only object is to maintain order, public quiet, and religious peace.' The free and happy Vaudois may think, it seems, and enjoy their thoughts; so prodigious is the liberality of their republican senators! They have only to give up the trivial appendages of speaking and acting as their thoughts may dictate. This wise and learned Council further protests, that it did not design, by any means, to harass the con