from the Duke of Vendome directed to the Marquis de St. Thomas, secretary of state, which he shewed me. It was dated the 18th of November, it contained general expressions of the duke's consideration for the house of Savoy, and of the violent condition into which it is reduced, of the French king's resentments, and how far he, Duke of Vendome, is willing to employ his good offices to accommodate matters for his royal highness with the court of France. His royal highness showed me the answer, which he had ordered to be sent to the Duke of Vendome, containing his just reasons to defend himself against the violence which was offered to him in October, 1703; the generous assistance which he had received from his allies, and his resolutions to deserve, by his courage, and firmness to his engagements, the esteem of the French king," &c. "I must now observe, that the two letters which his royal highness showed me were but copies, and I am not sure that they do exactly agree with the originals, or that these were all the letters that have passed."-(pp. 466, 467.)

"I was not able to deliver your grace's last letter to his royal highness myself, by which you gave him advice of what you had done for the queen, and for him the 18th past. He was pleased to come to me the same night, and to say everything which was fit upon that occasion. I was not sorry to observe that your grace had raised and deserved even the envy and jealousy of great princes. We made no réjouissance for your victory, and when I did desire that our artillery might be fired, I was told that we could not spare so much powder. It is true that we do want powder to a very great degree, but I have made a provision now of powder myself against the next occasion which your grace will give us."-(Letter to the Duke of Marlborough, p. 608.) "For these, or other reasons, I believe the Duke of Savoy would as willingly have the French at Milan as the imperialists; but would rather see the Turk there than either of them. His highness cannot conceal how much he is tempted himself to seize on the state of Milan, if the death of the king of Spain causes a scramble. And indeed so beautiful a mistress, so rich, and so contiguous to his royal highness's dominions, would tempt a less active and more moderate prince, especially since the conquest does not seem difficult. It is like the nymph in Ovid,

'Et quia nuda fuit, sit visa paratior illi.'

But his royal highness is so well known at Milan, and so much feared, that he must not expect the consent of the damsel."-(p. 811.)

Mr. Hill was not the mere representative of his sovereign at the gay court of an ally; he accompanied the martial Duke of Savoy (who was as brave as he was false, and partook equally of the nature of the lion and the tiger,) to the camp at Crescentin, and shared his dangers in the field of battle. He was shut up with him in his capital, when it was closely besieged by the French army, and had stories to tell of hair-breadth escapes, and chivalrous valour :

"Here we are at Crescentin, up to the knees in dirt, ever since the beginning of May; the Duke of Vendome has never been able to draw us, or drive us, from this post. It is just such a place as Eton, and Verrue is very like Windsor Castle, between which we preserve our bridge over the Po, from hence we cover Turin, and have hindered the enemies from taking quarters in Piedmont. Our Castle at Verrue is attacked, rather than besieged, ever since the 14th of October, but does defend itself very bravely still. We keep our communication open yet, and change one third of the garrison every third day. The enemies are lodged on the counter-scarp

these fifteen days, but are got no farther yet. Their artillery is not very well served, and they have not yet ruined our defences; they work most underground, and have blown up part of a fausse braie, but have not yet attempted to lodge themselves on the breach. At the rate they go on with forty weak and tired battalions, we shall find them work for fifteen days yet, and about that time I shall do myself the honour to write to your grace." -(pp. 473, 474.)

"I did myself the honour to write to your grace, the 4th inst. Since then I have been Crescentin, and Verrue, where our castle holds out bravely still. If I live to see such another siege, and to make such another long campaign as this has been, I shall desire your grace to give me a commission. I do not trouble your grace with any account of this famous siege, I leave that to Belcastel, who is still a much better officer than I am, and is so good a man that I hope you will not lose him.”—(p. 483.)

"We are in a very odd situation here; the enemies are as near us as they can be; a little river between us, over which they have laid two bridges. If their curiosity brings them nearer, we fire at them; if we go to look at them, they fire at us. We are neither invested, nor besieged, nor straitened on any side, but towards the enemy's camp. It is neither peace, nor war, nor truce, nor like any of the three."-(pp. 620, 621.)

"The Duke de la Feuilliade came to visit the avenues to our gates yesterday morning, and his royal highness chanced to be out a horseback at the same time, to view the situation of the enemies, they came within pistol shot of each other before they were aware. The companies saluted each other, and nothing else happened, though the enemies had some carbiniers, who might perhaps have fired upon our company, if one of their officers had not taken care to forbid them. The Duke de la Feuilliade sent his royal highness, at the same time, by the return of a trumpet, a very civil compliment, saying, that he had orders from the king to show all manner of respect to his royal highness, and to the royal family, and therefore when the duchesses, and two young princes were pleased to go out of Turin, he would send an escort to wait on them, if they pleased. The last part of his compliment we understood to be true French, and impertinent."-(pp. 637, 638.)

Not the least interesting passages in the book are Mr. Hill's statements in reference to the Camisards, the victims of the intolerance of Louis XIV., and to the Vaudois, who were first betrayed, and then treated with the most unrelenting cruelty, by Victor Amadée, after he had stipulated and been paid by England and Holland to restore them to their ancient rights, and to give them uninterrupted toleration; and after he had himself, under the sign-manual, issued a proclamation to the same effect. Mr. Blackley has undertaken this part of his editorial work con amore; and, in the true spirit of a clergyman of the Church of England, sympathising with the oppressed reformed churches in France and Italy, has taken considerable pains to draw the reader's attention to the important objects of Mr. Hill's mission, in relation to the Protestant cause and interests. In his preface, and in one of his Notes (pp. 401, 403), Mr. Blackley has drawn up a clear and forcible précis of the history of the celebrated treaties of 1690, and of 1704, by which England became the protector of the Vaudois, and purchased to herself the right of interposing in behalf

of the Waldensian church in Piedmont, whenever its liberties are in jeopardy. In the first instance, "30,000 crowns a month, to commence from the day of signing the treaty, 4th July, 1690, and to continue six months to come," was the purchase-money, and Victor Amadeé promised, "on the faith and word of a prince, inviolably to observe and punctually to execute the treaty, and always to hold it firm, stable, and irrevocable." But the prince's word and faith having been violated, under the sanction of a papal decree, dated Rome, 19th August, 1694, which dispensed with the observance of the treaty, another attempt was made to buy and bind the sovereign of the Vaudois, and a second time Victor Amadeé pledged himself by a secret article in the treaty of August 1704, negotiated by Mr. Hill, "to renew and ratify the compact of 1690," to confirm and strengthen it by additional stipulations, and to grant complete toleration to his protestant subjects in the valleys of Piedmont. The price paid, on this second occasion, was 106,666 crowns, and 80,000 crowns a month during the alliance, besides which his royal highness was to receive for himself and his successors a snug territory on the side of the Milanese,-the valley of Pragelato, the fortresses of Fenestrelles and Pignerol, and certain other possessions of the French crown on the Italian side of the Alps. The second treaty was signed, the ready money and instalments were paid, the territory in Lombardy, and the places on the Alpine frontier were transferred to the Duke of Savoy, and have remained in the hands of the kings of Sardinia, his successors, to the present hour. Such was the purchase, by English interposition, of Vaudois toleration.

The whole history of the transaction, and the secret articles of the treaty, which Lord Palmerston refused to produce on the motion in parliament of Sir Robert Inglis for their production in January 1832, are given in this valuable book, and we cannot withhold the expression of our hearty wish that the English government and British ministers at the court of Turin, would exhibit the same zeal and earnestness for the protection of the Vaudois in the nineteenth century, which were manifested in the beginning of the eighteenth.

We will now make a selection from Mr. Hill's despatches, to show the resolute determination of the envoy from England, to secure the liberties of the Waldensian Church; aud the reluctance of Victor Amadée to make the concessions required.

"You will improve," said the Earl of Nottingham, in his despatch to Mr. Hill, Feb. 22d, 170, "this generous proceeding of her Majesty, to the gaining of his R. H. into the grand alliance; .. and lastly to the interest of the Vaudois."-(p. 81.)

"Make the best terms you can for her Majesty's advantage, and secure an

article in favour of the Vaudois, as you propose," said another despatch.(p. 142.)

I hope," wrote Mr. Hill, "I shall obtain some favour for the Vaudois, but it will not be much." -(p. 359.)

"Her Majesty pays fairly, and his R. H. ventures bravely his person, his estates, and his crown; but they both want the just assistance of their allies. How far these wants may justify, at last, the infidelity of a mistress, I cannot tell. We do enjoy his Royal Highness; we have his person and his affections; but there is no tie, no contract, no sacrament."-(p. 369.)

"My instructions in this matter are very plain; and when I did, about six months since, solicit his Royal Highness in favour of these people, he was pleased to promise me, that he would give us a secret article in our treaty, by which he would engage himself not to revoke the edict by which they were established pursuant to the treaty of 1690. Now it is so contrived, that the article which concerns the Vaudois signifies less than nothing. I have great complaisance for his Royal Highness; but on this point I cannot have enough. I must stick to my first instructions, unless you do intimate to me her Majesty's pleasure to comply with his Royal Highness in this matter."(p. 389.)

His R. H. says, he does, or suffers, so much for his allies, that he believes the Queen would not refuse to grant him the continuation of his subsidies for two months after the war is ended, since it is not possible to knock his troops on the head, or disband them in less than two months. I think as his R. H. does, and therefore I re-intrenched myself behind my Vaudois, whom I resolve not to abandon. I begin to think I shall obtain an article in their favour, if I will consent to the payment of the two months' subsidies which are demanded."-(pp. 391, 392.)

After Mr. Hill had obtained the secret article, in favour of the whole Vaudois community, which he was so anxious to secure, he busied himself to procure the restoration of kidnapped Protestant children, and the release of Vaudois prisoners from jails and the galleys. In an affair, which forms one of the most interesting episodes in the whole correspondence, in which a poor Protestant family were thrown into affliction by having their child taken from them by the priests, Mr. Hill was as active and persevering, as if a great national wrong had been the cause of complaint. He never rested till he obtained the restoration of the child; and even hazarded the issue of other matters, in his humane determination to secure justice for three obscure individuals.

"As they are poor wandering refugees," says Mr. Hiil," under the protection of no sovereign, and whose sufferings do, in some measure, entitle them to her Majesty's protection and charity, I must own that I was a little warm in the prosecution of this cause, and I told one of the duke's ministers that I had desired this child for his poor parents par voye de grace; that I did desire him par voye de justice; but that I saw little hopes to have him any way; that I had no orders from the Queen in this matter, and knew not if it was worth her consideration; but that I thought I had deserved myself so much favour from his R. H., by my zeal and attention for his service, as that he would, for my sake, surrender a poor child to his parents, who were all strangers, and would be gone out of his dominions whenever he pleased;

It was because the treaty of 1690 was defective that Mr. Hill insisted on having a new and more effectual treaty in favour of the Vaudois.

that I thought his R. H.'s interest, or glory, or conscience, would not suffer, if there should be, by this act, one Protestant more in the world. I was sure that what I said would be told to his R. H., and therefore I tell it you very plainly. I think I shall meddle now no more in this matter, unless you give ine any directions in it. Perhaps I have done too little, perhaps I have done too much already; but I could not in conscience do less for poor people who came sometimes to worship God in my family, and have no other crime that I know of."-pp. 548, 549.)

"I have met with such odd and unexpected usage," writes Mr. Hill, a few months later," in soliciting the restitution of the Protestant child to his poor parents, that I must beg your pardon if I am a little negligent in the execution of the orders, which you did send me the 5th of June."-(p. 668.)

Finally, it was to the intercession of Mr. Hill with his own government at home, that the Vaudois were indebted, at the time, and are still indebted, for the annual grant, amounting to £277 a-year, under the name of the Royal Subsidy, which is issued from the Treasury in Downing Street, in aid of the Vaudois pastors and schoolmasters, through the hands of the Vaudois Committee, of which the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of London, Winchester, and Exeter, &c., are members.

It is devoutly to be wished, that the lessons to be learnt from the diplomatic correspondence of Mr. Hill may be carried into practice; for here we have the example of a great and good man, who never forgot either his religion or his country, and whom neither the smiles of royalty, nor the attractions of a foreign court, could divert from the straight-forward course of patriotism and duty. His conscience had always a stronger hold upon him than interest or pleasure; and whenever he felt that the Protestant cause, or the safety of the humblest individual who had claims upon his protection, was at stake, he held the same bold and uncompromising language, both to the government at home which employed him, and to the court where he was received as an accredited minister. Be the occasion what it might, which demanded his exertions, he made his stand like the true representative of a country to which the Reformed Churches ought to be invited to look up, as their bulwark and tower of defence. Since the time of the Reformation, we have had two envoys at Turin, whose energetic intervention, under the blessing of Divine Providence, saved the Waldensian Church from destruction. Mr. Hill was one of these. His successful negociation of the treaty of 1704 has strengthened the hands of his successors, and supplied them with unanswerable arguments, when they would plead for the Vaudois. And the Vaudois will have nothing to fear, so long as a British minister at the capital of Piedmont has courage and honesty to address the same language to the King of Sardinia, which Mr. Hill held to the bravest and the falsest of the House of Savoy, from which his Majesty is descended.