where they were reduced to the alternative of living-hypocrites, or dying martyrs. All poñible obftacles were, however, oppofed to their emigration. The frontiers were lined with troops; the peasants were armed and excited to hunt them in their paffage like beafts of prey. A barbarous carnage was the confequence of thefe fanguinary orders. Multitudes were robbed and affaffinated; the prifons and the galleys were filled with these innocent victims; and many of them were fent to the American colonies, where they were employed in the labours, and reduced to the fervile condition of the negroes.

It was at this odious period of infernal periecution, that the Grand Elector publifhed the declaration, which will render his name ever illuftrious in the annals of religion and humanity. This declaration opened his dominions and his treasure to thefe unfortunate exiles; it contained orders to his envoys and refidents in the different parts of Germany, Flanders, and Holland, to facilitate their paffage, to fupply them with all the neceffaries of life, with money, carriages, and every kind of fuccour it exempted any remains of their fhattered fortunes, which they could carry along with them, from all taxes, duties, and impofitions; it gave them the choice of the places. where they should refide for the purposes of carrying on commerce or erecting manufactures; it gave them all the rights and privileges of happy fubjects. In a word, it was the voice of paternal tenderness, adopting as his children an offspring, against which their natural parent had, without reafon, fhut all the bowels of affection and compaffion. We could not read this declaration in the work before us without the tendereft emotion. It breathes fuch a spirit of humane benevolence as muft touch every feeling heart, and render the GENEROUS HERO, from whom it proceeded, an object of delicious and refpectful contemplation. Though the emigration of the French Proteftants was, in a political view, advantageous to his dominions by the great increafe of population, commerce, and manufactures which was its natural confequence, yet we fee palpably, in the conduct of this great and excellent prince, a fpirit that would have excited him to a declaration of this kind even without the profpect of thefe advantages. For (as the Authors obferve) he had long pleaded the cause of the Proteftants at the court of Lewis XIV.; he had endeavoured to difarm that intolerance which alone could engage them to leave their country; and had his counfels and remonstrances been attended to, the edict of Nantes would never have been revoked, and in this cafe France would not have loft near a million of fubjects, nor the population of Brandenburg been augmented by their emigration. If the Elector had only confulted his interefts, he would not have remonftrated, during a long courfe of years, against the cruel and defpotic

measures

meafures of the French monarch, but would have ftood a filent Spectator of his folly, and turned it to his own profit.

Nor did this great Elector only offer the Proteftants an afylum in his own dominions, but alfo, by his recommendations and influence, procured for them fettlements in other countries. It was in confequence of this, that the Grand Duke of Mufcovy publifhed, in favour of thefe unfortunate exiles, a humane and remarkable edict, which is given at full length among the records fubjoined, as proofs to this hiftory. Here we have a curious contraft, which our Authors do not pass unobserved. France, a country enlightened by the fciences, and polished by the arts, exhibits a fanguinary fpirit of bigotry and perfecution, which feems only fuited to a state of the groffeft ignorance and barbarifm; while Mufcovy, a country hitherto almost unknown, and not yet emerged from its primitive darkness, difplays a mild fpirit of toleration and benignity. Barbarians heal the wounds which humanity and religion received from a civilized and elegant nation!

If the Elector's declaration in favour of the French Proteftants was generous and humane, his anfwer to the fharp and haughty complaints made on that occafion by the court of Verfailles was refolute and magnanimous. Lewis, who was in the zenith of his glory and vanity, remonftrated haughtily against the conduct of the Elector. He complained of the term perfecution that was given to his fanguinary measures againft the Proteftants (which puts us in mind of the Fable of the Boys and the Frogs); he reprefented the Elector as alienating the minds of his fubjects from their fovereign; he asked him haughtily, what right he had to intermiddle in the affairs of the French Proteftants? and concluded by threatening a ceflation of the fubfidies, which France paid by treaty to the Houfe of Brandenburg. The anfwer of the Elector was like himfelf (for there is a noble tenour of dignity and confiftency in all his tranfactions), he expreffed his furprize that Lewis should be offended at the term perfecution, for if tearing children from the arms of their parents, and treating both on account of their innocent opinions with a degree of barbarity which was fcarcely, if at all, inferior to that which the Pagans exercifed againft the primitive Chriftians, if this was not perfecution, what could be fo? He obferved, that the term Heretics, with which the French court thought proper to ftigmatize all the Reformed churches, was as offenfive as the term perfecution,-and that it was fingularly fhocking to fee it maintained, in writings publifhed with the approbation of government, that conventions with heretics were not binding, by which maxims Proteftants were placed below the rank of Turks and Pagans. The Elecfurther obferved, that fince the Catholic monarch was fo

for his religion, he ought not to be furprifed that a

Proteftant

Proteftant prince fhould be alfo zealous for his; and above all, that be should be touched with compaffion for fuch a multitude of unfortunate victims of eruel perfecution, to whom nothing could be imputed but their refpecting the dictates of confcience.

This fpirited anfwer was followed by measures that became it. The court of Verfailles had publifhed an order, prohibiting the French Proteftants to attend divine worship in the chapel of the Minister of Brandenburg at Paris, and pofted foldiers at the door of that minifter, with a view to render the prohibition effectual. The Elector obferved the fame conduct with refpect to the Roman Catholics of Berlin, and placed guards at the doors of Rebenac the French Minister, and the Auftrian Envoy.

Brandenburg, which had been fo cruelly ravaged during the war of thirty years carried on by Guftavus Adolphus, and was now beginning to refume its former luftre, and rank among the German States under the aufpicious reign of FREDERICKWILLIAM, received, no doubt, fignal advantages from the emigration of the French Proteftants. Our authors defcribe the ftate of that country from its erection into a marquifate in the 12th century under Albert the Bear, (who was very far from deferving that denomination) to the period in which the Grand Elector availed himself of this emigration; they also enter into interefting details concerning the genius and character of the French nation, and the state of literature and useful arts in that country, which conclude the 4th book of this ift volume.

The 5th contains an account of the measures employed by the French court to prevent the emigrations,-of the retreat of the clergy, of the permiffion granted to certain families to quit the kingdom, and of the progrefs of the emigrations. Among the pastors, the famous Claude was treated with particular rigour, because he had difconcerted an infamous plan, that was formed for the re-union of the Reformed church at Paris with the church of Rome. This plan deferves to be kept from oblivion: it was as follows: The Reformed church, which was a confiderable edifice, was to be furrounded with troops: the Archbishop of Paris, and the Bishop of Meaux (Boffuet), accompanied with a train of priests and the licutenant of the police, were to march thither in proceffion, during divine fervice; one of these prelates was to mount the pulpit and fummon the congregation to fubmit to Mother church and re-unite: a number of Roman Catholics, pofted for the purpofe in different parts of the church, as if they belonged to it, were to anfwer the prelate's fummons, by bawling out re-union; after which the other prelate was to give the congregation a public absolution from the charge of herefy, and to receive the new pretended converts into the bofom of the church: an indecent APP. REV. Vol. LXVIII.

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and fcandalous scene, which was to be impofed upon the world for a real re-union!-This plan is a new proof, what a fellow the great Boffuet was; and it is worthy of notice, that his affociate, in this clerico-military expedition, was the egregious libertine HARLAI, Archbishop of Paris, whofe life and death were fo fcandalous, that not a fingle curate could be found, among the most unprincipled part of the Romish clergy, who would undertake to preach his funeral fermon.

The exiled paftors took refuge in England, Holland, and Switzerland. In England, fay our authors, they were received with the generofity that fo eminently characterifes that nation. Towards the conclufion of the year 1685, there were above two hundred in Switzerland, and above eighty in the fingle city of Laufanne. Above two hundred and fifty retired to Holland, where the government fhewed them the most beneficent protection, and fupported them generously, by granting them penfions, or fettling them in churches. Among those which fettled in Holland there were, certainly, many eminently diftinguished both by extenfive learning and real genius, and their mitigated Calvinifm was imperceptibly attended with a foftening influence on the more angular and rigid parts of the Belgic theology.

In the 6th book our authors follow the general body of the French Refugees in their emigrations into Switzerland, Geneva, England, Holland, Heffia, Bremen, Saxony, Francfort, Denmark, Altona, Hamburg, Hanover, Hamelen, Zell, Brunfwick, Bareith, Anfpach, and other countries. The calamities of these respectable victims excited compaffion in all the nations of Europe, and their merit (for they were undoubtedly the most virtuous, fober, and induftrious part of the nation) was univerfally acknowledged. Befides, the circumftance of their being forced and torn by favage perfecution from their children, their families, friends, and poffeffions, and obliged to feek an exiftence in ftrange lands, of which both the inhabitants and the language were unknown to them, could not but excite towards them the tendereft emotions of pity. Even that arch-bigot James II. feemed to feel their diftreffes; he encouraged their fettlement in England, and published a humane and gracious declaration in their favour. Could their merit and innocence receive a more fignal teftimony than the protection of a prince, whofe attachment to the old Lady of Babylon was fo filly and exceffive, that he facrificed, foon after, his three kingdoms for a mals? After this, let the reader caft a look backwards on Lewis XIV. and fee what a figure he makes amidst the marks of compaffion and refpect fhewn by all the nations of Europe to his perfecuted fubjects.

The 7th and 8th books, which conclude this volume, give a circumftantial account of the wife measures of Frederic-William for the settlement of the refugees in his dominions, and for rendering this settlement reciprocally advantageous to them and to his former fubjects. The refpectable exiles were not all deftitute of fortune: many, and more efpecially the trading part of them, found means of conveying large fums to the places of their new refidence, and these were employed to the best purposes. For the details relative to this object, we refer our readers to the work before us, where their curiofity will be amply satisfied.

ART. III.

HISTOIRE Phyfique, Morale, Civile & Politique de la Ruffie Ancienne et Moderne. i. e. A Natural, Moral, Civil and Political History of Ancient and Modern Ruffia. By M. LE CLERC, Knight of the Royal Order, and Member of feveral Academies. 4to. Vol. I. of the ancient Hiftory, and Vol. II. containing the first volume of the modern Hiftory. Enriched with thirty-four Plates, well engraven. Paris, 1783.

M. ly,

L'EVESQUE, whofe hiftory of Ruffia we announced bareand commended with justice, in one of our former Reviews, got the start of M. LE CLERC, with refpect to publication, but the latter comes after him with such a difplay of advantages peculiar to his extenfive work, that he is likely to carry off the first prize of hiftorical fame from his competitor. M. LE CLERC refided in Ruffia, as well as his rival; he lived there ten years; he ftudied the language of the country, and had extenfive and intimate connexions with men of quality and men of letters, which furnished him with the most favourable opportunities of collecting valuable materials for his work, and afcertaining the truth of his relations. Moreover, the reader may fee, by the title of his work, that it is much more comprehenfive, and confequently must be much more interefting than that of M. L'EVESEQUE. It was happily imagined to enlarge the plan of this work by blending phyfical, moral, and political researches with hiftorical facts, and exhibiting the more peaceable exertions and aspects of human nature in manners, cuftoms, laws, and religious fervices, which diverfify the monotony of general Hiftory. If M. LE CLERC's plan is interesting, we can say, with confidence, that its execution is animated and mafterly.

There is, perhaps, more variety in this hiftory than in the hiftories we have of many other nations, whofe long duration and annals yield a richer provision of materials. For except Dr. Henry's Hiftory of England (which rifes fo fuperior to all modern works of the kind, by the extent of its plan and the excellence of its method, and gives us an account of men as well as of statesmen)

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there