Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/157

 Rh "Although Mr. Fontaine was brought up to nothing but study, yet in the desire he has to live independently, without being burdensome to any one, he humbles himself so far as to become a mechanic, a thing very rarely seen among learned men, such as I know him to be from my own conversations with him. Do not you think our parish is obliged to him for every morsel of bread he earns for his family? It would be perfect barbarity to pretend to put any obstacle in the way of his earning a livelihood. Are you, his accusers, disposed to raise a fund, and settle an annuity upon him and his family for life? Strangers are as much entitled to justice at our hands as our neighbors are. I will answer for Mr. Fontaine, that if you will secure to him a moderate income, he will leave mechanical occupations, and gladly return to intellectual labor."

He paused awhile and looked around the Court-room, but no one broke the silence, so he resumed:—"Is nobody disposed to come forward? It is a strange thing, gentlemen, you are not willing to let him earn his own bread, and yet none of you offer to give it to him. Shall it be said of us, that there are only one or two families of poor Refugees settled in our town, who have abandoned country, friends, property, and every thing sweet and agreeable in this life for their religion and the glory of the Gospel, and instead of cherishing these people, and treating them as the suffering members of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and providing for them tenderly and abundantly by our charities, we would even hinder them from gaining a living by their labor? There is not a Turk in Turkey so barbarous."

He then turned around and addressed himself to me. "You may go away, there is no law that can disturb you, I