tributing in all things to the advantage of his affairs.

Laws against religion are justifiable only when that religion is made a political engine; where, under the pretence of pious zeal, treason lurks, and where a hatred to the recognized establishments of the state, and an alliance with its foreign enemies, are leading principles. The rebel must be restrained, let his pious pretence for rebellion be what it will. But the spirit of persecution waits for none of those things.

Within five years from this testimony to the pacific and obedient conduct of its protestant subjects, the government commenced a course of the most galling irritation. Every year some new drop of bitterness was instilled into the wound of the last, until the whole calamity was completed by the revocation of the edict of Nantes.

On the 22d of October, 1685, the decree of revocation announced

1. A repeal of the whole edict of 1598, and of every concession in favour of the reformed, with a declaration that their churches should be demolished.

2. A prohibition of meeting for worship in any place or under any pretence.

3. An express interdict of every kind of religious exercise in the houses of those among the reformed of high rank or noble birth, under pain of confiscation and death.

4. The banishment of all their ministers from the kingdom within fifteen days, unless they become Roman Catholics.

5. An offer of a third more than their stipend to those ministers who would conform, with a continuation of it to their widows.

6. An offer of admission to the profession of the law three years sooner than the usual time.

7. The absolute shutting up of all their schools. 8. The baptism of their children by the popish priests, under a penalty of five hundred livres.

9. Permission given, by the king's clemency, for the refugees, if returned within four months, and converted to popery, to recover their property and privileges.

10. A prohibition of leaving the kingdom under the penalty of galleys or death.

11. The decrees against the relapsed were to be putin execution; but those who were not decided or prepared to declare themselves, might remain where they resided until it pleased God to enlighten them, continue their trade or arts, and enjoy their property without being disturbed, provided they refrained from all exercises of their religion, and from every kind of meeting, on that account.

The apparent lenity of the final article, which yet utterly prohibited the exercise of that religion in which was all the hope of the reformed, was soon found to be no defence. Hired informers were sent among the people. Soldiers hunted them down like wild beasts, and shot them. Their houses were burned, their property was plundered, their families were treated with the most cruel indignities; many were tortured, and numbers of the more important persons were sent for galley slaves. Above a million of people fled into the protestant countries, carrying with them their arts, industry, and manufactures. The loss to France in wealth

was immense; but in character, honour, and religion, it was incalculable.

The difficulty of even this unhappy escape became at length so great, that the reformed in the south took up arms for the mere preservation of their lives. Success increased their numbers, and the war of the Caurisaries began. The whole mountain country of the Cevennes became the seat of a severe conflict. The king's troops were harassed and defeated, in a long series of encounters, by the undisciplined valour of a peasantry who fought the battle of despair. This war raged during four years. The Cevennes was the grave. of a multitude of the persecutors. The shedding of the blood of the protestants was awfully repaid. The go

vernment finally found the necessity of gentler means; partial pacifications were offered; and it is probable that the comparative quiet of the remaining protestants, during the century, was largely due to the exploits of the men of the Cevennes.

But the persecution was to be retaliated by a deeper, though a more circuitous vengeance. Some links of the chain are traceable. It may be beyond human eyes to see how far they still extend. The first result was the encouragement of William III. to attempt the English throne. Holland had received with generous hospitality a vast number of the refugees. Many of them were military; they had among them distinguished officers, and William thus found himself in possession of a most valuable body of troops. He obtained an allowance for their pay from the states, and prepared for invasion!

Another striking result was its effect on the mind of England. The notorious connexion of James II. with Rome had already prepossessed the nation against the Stuarts. But this fearful development of the natural heart of popery; the cries that came on every wind across the channel; the spectacle of the unhappy emigrants flung on the British shore, worn out with flight and disease, terror and wounds; and those men, their fellow Christians; bound by the closest tie of faith, and those sufferings undergone for the purest cause of Christianity; put an end to all the insidious glosses and flatteries of priest or king. Within three years from the revocation, the Stuarts were driven into eternal exile; and William was placed on the throne, to be the champion of the church throughout Europe, and the leading enemy of France. Another, and still sterner result, was the national impurity; which at length, after undermin ing and consuming away the foundations of the public strength, flamed out in the French revolution.-Croly's Sketch of the Hist. of the Church.

63. THE SPANISH ARMADA.

PHILIP, king of Spain, husband to the deceased queen Mary of England, was no less inimical to the protest- ants than that princess. He had always disliked the English, and, after her death, determined if possible to crown that infamous cruelty which had disgraced the whole progress of her reign, by making a conquest of the island, and putting every protestant to death.

The great warlike preparations made by this monarch, though the purpose was unknown, gave an universal alarm to the English nation; as it appeared evident that he was taking measures to seize the crown of England, though he had not declared that intention. Pope Sixtus V., not less ambitious than himself, and equally desirous of persecuting the protestants, urged him to the enterprise. He excommunicated the queen of England, and published a crusade against her, with the usual indulgences. All the ports of Spain resounded with preparations for this alarming expedition; and the Spaniards seemed to threaten the English with a total annihilation.

Three years had been spent by Philip in making the necessary preparations for this mighty undertaking; and his fleet, which on account of its prodigious strength was called "The Invincible Armada," was now completed. A consecrated banner was procured from the pope, and the gold of Peru was lavished on the occasion. Several instruments of torture were also taken on board the Spanish fleet, designed for the tormenting of the English protestants, in case their scheme took effect.

Troops from Italy, Germany, Flanders, and Spain were embarked, or sent to the points from which they might be thrown on England. The Spanish nobles volunteered. Men of the highest rank in the popish realms solicited employment; the first sea officer of the age, the Marquis Santa Croce, whose very name seemed an omen, commanded the fleet; the first general of the

age, the prince of Parma, marched the Spanish army, thirty-four thousand of the most celebrated troops in Europe, down to the Flemish shore, for invasion. The fleet numbered one hundred and thirty ships of war, carrying thirty thousand troops and seamen. But it had a darker freight of monks, papal bulls, and instruments of torture.

Elizabeth, finding that she must contend for her crown with the whole force of Spain, made preparations for resistance; and though her fleet (consisting of less than a hundred ships, and much inferior in point of size to her antagonist) seemed very inadequate to oppose so powerful an enemy, every place in the kingdom discovered the greatest readiness in defending their religion and liberty, by contributing ships, men, and money.

Men of reflection, however, entertained the greatest apprehensions, when they considered the force of the Spaniards, under the duke of Parma, the most consummate general of the age.

Elizabeth was sensible that, next to her popularity, the firmest support of her throne consisted in the zeal of the people for the protestant religion, and their abhorrence of popery. She reminded the English of their former danger from the tyranny of Spain; and of the bloody massacres in the Indies, and the unrelenting executions in the Low Countries; and a list was published of the several instruments of torture with which, it was said, the Spanish armada was loaded. The more to excite the martial spirit of the nation, the queen appeared on horseback in the camp at Tilbury; and riding through the lines, she exhorted the soldiers to remember their duty to their country and their God, declaring that she would rather perish in battle than survive the ruin and slavery of her people.

The armada, after sailing from Lisbon, suffered considerably from storms; but the damages being repaired, the Spaniards again put to sea. Effingham, admiral of