Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/54

 . . . . Nothing can be more laudable than the chanty, equity, moderation, compassion, fidelity, and diligence with which these gentlemen acquit themselves of the employment which their goodness induced them to accept. It is impossible to express the sentiments of acknowledgment, esteem, and love which all the poor, and all the refugees in general, have in their hearts for these good and pious administrators.”

It was in the reign of Queen Anne that the Committee began to print lists or states. The first list was printed in 1703, dated 3d November, the committee being Messieurs Portal, Maguel, Gardie, Pinsun, Hayet, La Motte Blagny, J. Rottisset, De Narbonel. The title is “''Liste des Protestans François refugiez qui étant dans le besoin ont part à l’assistance charitable de quinze mille livres sterlings qui leur sont accordées tous les ans dans ce puissant et heureux Royaume. Laquelle Liste est imprimée par ordre des seigneurs nommés par la Reine sur la distribution desdits quinze mille Livres Sterlings''. A Londres, sur le fin de l’année 1703. &#42;&#8270;* A Londres, chez Robert Roger dans les Black-Fryers, proche de l’lmprimerie Royale.” In 1708 Paul Vaillant was employed to print “''Estats de la Distribution de la somme de douze mille livres sterlings. . . . receue par le Comité françois'' le 18 de Decembre 1706. . . ." The preface called this the second statement of accounts. The Committee had been enlarged, and now consisted of eighteen Englishmen and twenty-nine Frenchmen. Their statement divided the refugees into ten classes:— (1.) Gentlemen; (2.) Burgesses; (3 ) Extraordinary cases; (4.) Ecclesiastical proselytes; (5.) Refugees in the provinces; (6.) Patients in the Pest-House; (7.) Ophans; (8.) School-teachers; (9.) The common people; (10.) Medical men employed by the Committee. The gcntilhommes represented 145 families, of whom 205 persons were relieved.

It remains that we should enquire regarding the votes and proceedings of the House of Commons, relative to the Royal Bounty. The statements as to this fund, handed down to us as history, are questionable, at least as to the source from which the income was raised, and as to the right of parliament to withhold, either in whole or in part, the annual sum of £15,000, which appears to have been first voted in 1696. In the present year (1869) the fund survives (though at its last gasp), and therefore official papers must exist with which the printed histories might now be compared, and by which they might, wherever they are erroneous, be corrected.

The most simple method for the present writer will be to begin by quoting the cotemporary history, and to end by furnishing what (as he has been informed) is the right version of the case. To save trouble I have given all the references, belonging to the historical head, in one foot-note, and here acknowledge that (with slight exceptions) the language is that of the writers quoted, and not my own, as the enquiring reader may ascertain for his own satisfaction.

The distressed French exiles upon account of religion, having lost their best support by the death of Queen Mary, and having solicited the court to little purpose, did on the 9th April 1695, present a petition to the House of Commons, humbly praying that their deplorable condition might be taken into consideration. The Commons, out of a generous and Christian tenderness, presented an address to the king, that his majesty would be pleased to take the poor French refugees into his princely consideration, and vouchsafe them some relief. To this address his majesty answered, that he was desirous to have it complied with, and would direct the Lords of the Treasury to consider and report to him the fund wherein to place that charity. This parliament was dissolved on the 22d October, and a new one was elected.

On the 22d November the king made his speech from the throne to the new parliament, and in the midst of the portion addressed to the gentlemen of the House of Commons, he said that compassion obliged him to mention the miserable circumstances of the French Protestants who suffered for their religion, and recommended their case to his faithful Commons. This matter was considered by Committees of the whole House, during several sittings, beginning on the 12th March 1696. Their report embodied the declarations of King Charles II. (28th July 1681), and of King William and Queen Mary (25th April 1689), importing, that the French Protestants having been invited with great promises of assistance to come hither, it would be a great scandal to the government and to religion if they were not speedily relieved, and that it would be strange if this nation should suffer itself to be outdone by their neighbours in so excellent a work, seeing that what charity soever is 