persons from the kingdom, and they sought refuge principally in Holland and England. The Waldenses were curprised by the issuing of an order from their Governor, in the year 1685, that no stranger should remain in the valleys above three days, without his permission, on pain of being severely punished. At first they could not understand this, for they had not heard of a massacre which was then going on in France; but they soon found that this order was intended to prevent the fugitives from France from obtain ing shelter and protection among them.

But the unchristian zeal of the French monarch against his own subjects was not enough; he compelled the Duke of Savoy to adopt similar measures in Piedmont; and the Waldenses, on the 31st January, 1686, were amazed by the publication of an order from the Duke, forbidding his subjects the exercise of the protestant religion, upon pain of death; and also decreeing the confiscation of goods, the demolition of their churches, the banishment of their pastors, and the baptizing of all their children in the Catholic faith. The Waldenses were dismayed at these announcements, especially when they found that a French army was about to enforce them. They memorialized the Duke, and obtained the interference of the Swiss Cantons in their behalf; but it became evident that the Duke was in the hands of the powerful French monarch; and indeed his secretary of state, in a reply to a memorial on the subject, candidly stated that "the great wheels moved, and carried the little ones along with them; that having for his neighbour a prince both powerful and jealous of his honour, the Duke was obliged to carry himself with great circumspection, and to act according to the exigencies of the times." He also remarked that the Duke, by endeavouring to preserve some of his subjects, might run the hazard of losing them all; and that, in fact, the Duke executed at Turin the orders which were issued at Versailles.

The Swiss Cantons sent commissioners to intercede between the Duke and the Waldenses; and long correspondences and interviews occurred, in a vain attempt to induce a more lenient conduct. The Duke would listen to nothing unless the Waldenses gave up all their arms; while they, on the other hand, had many reasons for suspecting that the surrender of their arms would be the preliminary to an immediate attack on the part of the hostile troops. The commissioners retired after trying all means of conciliation, and the poor mountaineers prepared to defend themselves to the best of their ability. There were about ten thousand five hundred men capable of bearing arms, from among whom some were chosen as officers. They attempted to defend all their posts; and herein appears to have been one source of their subsequent disasters; for it is supposed that if they had centred their attention upon their mountain fastnesses, they might have maintained them. The result was disastrous. A large and well appointed army, consisting of French and Piedmontese soldiers, attacked the valleys at all points, and utterly defeated the Waldenses, killing numbers, and making many of the survivors prisoners; marking their path by those atrocities which too frequently characterize a conquering army.

It does not appear that the Waldensian people had ever before been so utterly routed as they were by this memorable course of events. It is said that twelve thousand of them were committed to prison, and two thousand of their children placed with Catholic families; the prisoners were all crammed into about fourteen prisons, where they pined and perished through bad and insufficient food, tainted air, and the heats of summer. At length the Duke gave an order for their release, not that they might return to their beloved mountain valleys, but that they should cross Savoy to Switzerland, where an asylum had been offered to them. Strange indeed it may seem, that a sovereign should rather lose the presence and affection of a large body of his subjects, than allow them to follow a religion different from his own; but it is evident that he was herein merely the perpetrator of the will of the French monarch.

sion of the churches, the whole country has been animated with such a spirit of love and compassion, that every man's house and purse have been opened to the refugees, who have passed thither in such numbers that sometimes there have been more than two thousand in Lausanne alone, and of these there were, at one time, nearly two hundred ministers; and they all met with a kindness and frankness of heart that looked more like the primitive age revived, than the degenerate age in which we live." The same writer also remarks, in one of his Letters from Italy, that he found all the court of Turin ashamed of the matter, and exceedingly anxious to impress him, as an Englishman, with the fact, that the Duke had only followed the imperious demands of the French monarch, and not his own private inclination, in these proceedings.

But the exiles, though kindly and hospitably welcomed, could not forget their native valleys; they felt the yearning after home, the mal du pays, which constitutes so strong, and so lovely a part of our nature. On three different occasions did they attempt to return to Piedmont; but twice their plans were altogether inefficient. The first attempt was made without leaders, almost without arms, and unprovided with the most ordinary resources: the project was discovered by the governor of Lausanne, who partly by entreaty, and partly by command, induced them to desist. They then sought to devise measures for renewing the enterprise under more auspicious circumstances. With this view, they selected three men of tried courage and experience, to reconnoitre the country, to discover the most secure paths across the mountains, and the most fordable parts of the rivers; they were also instructed to ingratiate themselves with the inhabitants immediately bordering on the valleys, and thereby induce them to provide a good supply of the durable hard bread eaten in those districts, as a resource for the use of the expedition. These agents, after undergoing many dangers and hardships, returned to their companions, and reported that a passage by the Great St. Bernard mountain might be practicable. Plans were accordingly laid in secret; and on a given night the whole of the party assembled at a particular spot, or proceeded in the direction thereof. But the enterprise soon got noised abroad; and after the authorities of the place had compelled the return of the exiles, the protestant pastors of Geneva affectionately entreated them to remain in the asylum so frankly placed at their disposal. Thus terminated the second attempt.

SECTION 6.

RETURN OF THE WALDENSES TO THEIR VALLEYS.

Dr.

At length in the year 1689, the expatriated Waldenses, finding their continued absence from their beloved valleys quite insupportable, resolved on a third attempt to return. This proved successful; and the "glorious return of the exiles," as it has been termed, forms one of the most romantic incidents anywhere recorded in history. Beattie has treated this subject with much fulness and beauty, in his illustrated work on the Waldensian valleys; but our space will only allow us to present a brief outline of the march. The Duke of Savoy, on hearing of the two former attempts, had despatched troops to all the boundary villages between Savoy and Switzerland, to intercept the

exiles on their return.

On the 16th of August, 1689, after a prayer had been

offered up by Henri Arnaud in the midst of his devoted followers, the party embarked on the Lake in a number of open boats, and landed on the opposite or Savoy side. Our second cut represents the town of St. Ivoire, where the landing was effected. They then determined to march, sword in hand, towards their native valleys, and brave all the dangers that might accompany the attempt. Arnaud arranged the Waldenses in strict military order,-vanguard, main-body, and rear-guard, placing an officer over eacn, and commanding the whole himself. The whole arrangements were most remarkable; for Arnaud was both their chief pastor and their military commander. They proceeded with such determined resolution through the northern parts of Savoy, that they repelled several minor attacks made on them by the officials of the towns and villages; and on many occasions were treated with much hospitality by the villagers themselves. Several times they took prisoners some of the officers and civil authorities, when they suspected that an attack was meditated, and kept them as hostages for the good behaviour of others.

We may remark that the historians of this march quote one from another, one of those achievements, so hard to be credited, wherein a very small number of men defeat a very large number. The reader of history will not fail to remember many such statements; and among them is one which informs us that a handful of these Waldenses defeated with great slaughter a French force, which they encountered on the eighth day of their march, of two thousand five hundred men, with a loss of only twenty-five killed and wounded. We must dismiss the enumeration here given, and take the statement as indicating that a signal feat of heroism was exhibited by the little band, in the discomfiture of a body of troops much larger than their own, and much better provided with the necessaries of warfare and the comforts of life. Every day, for the thirty-one days that the exiles were on their march, did they encounter some hostile attack, either from Piedmontese or French troops, sometimes losing a considerable number of their comrades, but in most cases repelling their enemies with remarkable success. It seems quite evident that the attention of the Duke of Savoy was at that time directed to more important matters, and that the troops placed in the villages on the line of march were not portions of any regular army. On their road, too, the way-worn exiles experienced the usual sufferings of cold and hunger. Forced to climb high mountains, and to lie down in roofless huts, or in caves, and to find food just when and where they could, they lived as none could live but those who are supported by a strong inward conviction that they are proceeding in a just cause. On one occasion, when they had missed their way over a mountain, in the dead of the night, they had to descend it by each individual placing himself in a sitting posture, or on his back, and thus sliding downwards where the steepness was too great for him to have a firm footing, and with no better light to direct his course than was afforded him by the whiteness of the snow. At length they reached a cold and desolate valley, where there were only a few deserted shepherds' huts; and here the exhausted wanderers were compelled to halt for the night, but without being able to find even sufficient wood to light a fire. Thus painfully circumstanced, they had no choice but to unroof the huts for fuel; and by thus seeking a remedy for one evil, brought upon themselves another, for they were thereby deprived of shelter, and exposed to the injurious effects of the rain, which continued throughout the night.

When the exiles reached their native valleys, they found them occupied by hostile troops, and were obliged to pass one whole winter in holes and caves in a mountain fortress called the Balsille. The exiles were all men, numbering, after all their losses had been taken into account, about eight hundred; and it is supposed that their wives and children came to them at an after period, when the storm of affliction had somewhat abated.

Political events, which had more than once favoured the Waldenses, again befriended them. There had for some months been a growing hostility between Savoy and France, which helped to distract the attention of the Duke from his Waldensian subjects; and this hostility at last broke out into open war. The Duke, having had such abundant proofs of the courage and determination of the Waldenses, offered them all that they had ever demanded, if they would enrol themselves in his cause. The Waldenses had never voluntarily deserted the House of Savoy, and they now gladly availed themselves of the Duke's offer. Among the first tokens of restoration to their prince's favour, was the return

of four captives from the prisons of Turin; and from this time their prospects became more cheering; for intelligence reached them that the Duke had given his assurance, not only of liberty of conscience, but of permission for their pas tors to preach even at Turin. After several exploits in the war with France, in which they gave ample proof of the loyalty which this happy change in their favour had excited, and in which Henri Arnaud acquired high distinction, a circumstance occurred which elicited from the Duke a frank and full declaration of their rights. A party of Waldenses having captured a French courier with despatches, Baron Palavicino, commander of the Duke's troops, directed that they should be presented by Arnaud and two other Waldensian chiefs, to his royal highness, who after receiving them in the most gracious manner, addressed them in these words: "You have only one God and one prince: serve them faithfully. Hitherto we have been foes; henceforth let us be friends. To strangers alone our misfortunes are to be attributed; but if, as is your duty, you expose your lives for me, I in like manner will expose mine for you; and while I have a morsel of bread, you shall have your share." Subsequent events shewed that these protestations, though worth something to the Waldenses, were partly insincere and intended to serve a temporary purpose.

During the forty years which followed these events, the Waldenses appear to have settled peacefully in their native valleys, and to have followed their usual occupations, and exercised their religious duties, without much interference from other parties. In 1728, however, an order was issued by the Duke to restrict the Waldensian country within certain limits, and to banish all those who had not been born within the new frontier. These amounted to a very considerable number; for the Waldenses, after the recovery of their valleys, had been joined by many foreign protestants, who at the invitation of the Duke had settled in the valleys. The blow was as severe as unexpected and undeserved; driven from the habitations which they had earned by fighting for the prince who now turned against them, the unhappy wanderers (the inhabitants of the outer districts) set out in search of a new country in the territory of Wirtemburgh, where their descendants are said still to exist, though in very reduced numbers and impoverished circum

stances.

SECTION 7.

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE WALDENSES.

Our limits require that we should pass rapidly over the events of the larger part of the last century, and indeed of the present too, especially as the Waldenses have not suffered such notable and barbarous persecutions as some already noticed. Yet have they repeatedly felt that the sovereign to whose line of princes they have been faithful subjects for eight hundred years, can forget benefits received, and promises solemnly made. Their history points to many periods in the eighteenth century, when their religious liberties were more or less attacked, or their valleys were in part wrested from them, or they were made to bear a larger portion of the burden of the state than the Roman Catholics of Piedmont. Still, however, they have uninterruptedly maintained their position in the Piedmontese valleys, and have experienced repeatedly the kind and brotherly feeling which England has manifested. Documents have been recently brought to light, which shew that the English ambassadors at Turin have been often charged to interfere between the Waldenses and their sovereigns; and it is more than probable, that if we could learn the details of those periods when busy political events overshadow those of smaller import, we should find that English influence had greatly lessened the amount of persecution which the Waldenses had suffered.

When Piedmont formed part of the French dominions, which it did for several years, in the early part of the present century, the Waldenses, though they shared with the other inhabitants the evils of frequent wars, were left undisturbed in the exercise of their religious faith. But on the return of the House of Savoy to their ancient possessions in 1815, repeated and annoying interferences were manifested, which have continued more or less to the present day. Five years after the conclusion of the war (which had been years rather of trouble than of peace to the Waldenses), the attention of an amiable and benevolent man was directed towards them, viz., the Rev. Stephen William Gilly, now prebendary of Durham, who has done more than any other person to make the cause and condition of the Waldenses

known in England. He states that he happened, in the year 1822, to attend a meeting of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, on the day when a very affecting letter was read from one of Waldensian ministers, who requested that some aid might be sent in money or books to the protestant congregations in the mountains of Piedmont, who were struggling hard against poverty and oppression. Mr. Gilly was induced, by this and other circumstances, to visit the Waldensian valleys, and he published in 1824 a Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont, in which he described the valleys, the towns and villages, the inhabitants, their churches and religious offices, their manners and customs, occupation, domestic and moral character, and general condition both social and political. His details attracted much attention to the subject; and many contributions, both in money and religious books, were forwarded from the religious societies of England and from private individuals.

The Rev. Mr. Gilly made a second journey to the valleys in 1829, his objects being, as he states, the following: first, to judge, by personal observation and inquiry, how certain sums of money placed at his disposal might be best employed not only for the benefit of the Waldensian church, but for the advantage of the protestant cause at large in Northern Italy; second, to see how far that aid had proved effectual which had already been extended to the Waldenses, and to examine into the condition of several hospitals and schools which had been founded and endowed by funds raised in the protestant countries of Europe; and in addition, to extend his knowledge of the condition and character of that people. After his return, Mr. Gilly opened a correspondence with the English Government, to induce them to interfere diplomatically in the preservation of the rights of the Waldenses; and in 1831 he published the fruit of his labours in the Waldensian Researches. Still more recently the same gentleman has contributed the articles "Valdo" and "Valdenses" to the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, in which he brings down the history to very recent times. Dr. Beattie, too, has contributed to make English readers acquainted with the Waldenses and their valleys, by the publication in 1838 of a beautifully illustrated volume on the subject; and the sympathy of England towards her pro

testant brethren of Piedmont is now so thoroughly awakened that we shall probably continue to hear promptly of all that may affect them.

The recent information afforded by Mr. Gilly in the article just referred to, brings down our knowledge of this remarkable band of Christians to a late date. He terminates his notice of their career down to the year 1838, with the following paragraph:-"The difficulties with which the Valdenses have now to contend are poverty and reduced numbers, being confined to limits which do not produce subsistence for more than a very limited population. They also labour under the disadvantage of having to learn three languages before they can receive competent instruction. Their national language is Italian; their vernacular tongue is a provincial dialect, peculiar to their district; and the language of instruction is French, because in that only they can obtain books of devotion used by protestants. If the Government of Great Britain should cease to exercise its good offices at the Court of Turin, in behalf of the protestants of Piedmont, or if the people of Great Britain should become indifferent to the moral and spiritual wants of this impoverished community, the religious liberties of the Valdenses will be no more, and the lamp of this little mountain church will be extinguished for ever." But in a postscript of the article, Mr. Gilly states that he has just received information of three edicts which strike at the very root of their Christian privileges. The first is an article of the Code promulgated at Turin, which forbids the printing or manuscripts, for their use, in other countries, unless they shall have previously passed the censorship at Turin; this will have the effect of cutting off the future supply of religious books and tracts. The second is an order published in the Turin Gazette of 27th December, 1840, to this effect: "By decree of the holy congregation of Rome, the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, translated into the Piedmontese language, is condemned and prohibited;" although this translation had passed the censorship, and had been legally introduced into Piedmont, seven years before! The third is a message sent to the chief pastor of the Waldenses by the Romish president at Turin, demanding by what authority a library of books had been placed in their head school or college!

I.

GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

THE present is the first of a short series of articles illustrative of Canada, its resources, the character of its inhabitants, its principal towns, and the events by which the present state of things has resulted from the past. As one of the most important of England's colonies, Canada obviously deserves a portion of attention, of a character similar to that which we have bestowed on Java, the Ionian islands, British Guiana, and other portions of the world. The reader will gain a more complete idea of the subject by following us through a rapid geographical sketch, with a map of Canada before him.

Canada occupies a large portion of the northern regions of America. Its southern extremity is Point Pelée, about the latitude of 42° north; the eastern extremity is Cape Gaspè, near the mouth of the River St. Lawrence, in longitude 624 west; and the western is at Fort William, on Lake Superior, in longitude 90°. With regard to the northern extremity, no particular boundary is established, since the Canadian territories and those surrounding Hudson's Bay are not definitely separated; it is usual, however, to consider that all the country north of the Great Lakes, whose waters fall into the St. Lawrence, belongs to Canada; while the VOL. XXII.

districts watered by streams falling into Hudson's Bay belong (nominally, if not virtually) to the Hudson's Bay Company*.

The boundary of Canada is, indeed, rather ill-defined; for not only are the British possessions, northward, eastward, and westward of it, vague and unsettled, but until very recently the unfortunate "boundary question" between the governments of England and America, left open a disputed territory south of the St. Lawrence. This dispute arose out of conflicting opinions as to the interpretation of certain clauses in an agreement between the two countries many years ago; but the difference was amicably settled by a treaty signed during the last year at Washington, Lord Ashburton having been specially sent over by this country in order to settle the question. According to the best estimates, Canada may be deemed to have a length from east to west of about a thousand miles, and an average breadth of three hundred.

The grandest feature in Canada is constituted by the Lakes, the largest collections of fresh water in the world; five of which form a connected chain westward of the river St. Lawrence. The most westerly of these, Lake Superior, is four hundred miles long, and nearly two

The reader will find an historical notice of the Hudson's Bay Company, in two Supplements on Fur and the Fur Trade, contained in Saturday Magazine, Vol. XX., p. 41, and Vol. XXI., p. 257. 696