21 JULY 1894, Page 24

The Cantisards. By Charles Tylor. (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.) — Mr. Tylor,

as a consistent Friend, and therefore an opponent of war, deplores the revolt of the Camisards. The appeal to arms which was made in 1689 he describes as a fatal mistake, and he holds the same opinion about the renewed outbreak which began with the murder of the arch-priest Du Challa. " So far from being the Salvation of the Church, the Camisard War really did more to oast her down than was done by the dragonnades, or the galleys, or all 134ville's dungeons and wheels." But he evidently feels it to be only fair that the story of the provocations which led to this lamentable outburst should be told, and accordingly we have it in the narrative of a certain Jean Marteilhe, with which he commences his history. Marteilhe was arrested in an attempt to leave the Kingdom. (This he did because his father had been arrested, his two brothers and his sister sent to convents, and his mother forced to abjure.) First imprisoned at Tourney, he was sent to the galleys at Dunkerque. Dunkerque was sur- rendered to the English, but the prisoners were given up to the authorities. Marteilhe was taken to Rouen, to La Truncelle, and then again to the galleys at Marseilles. Here at last he was released by the intercession of the English Government, The miseries of this confinement are not easily described. What life on a galley was is pretty well known ; but the missionary priests did their best to increase its horrors. Men whose only fault was that they were Protestants were beaten to death by their orders for refusing to uncover at the Mass. This was too much even for the King, who forbade the practice. The story of the Camisard War is followed by the history of the Huguenot body during the eighteenth century. Far on into that period the persecution con- tinued. The execution of Calas at Toulouse may be said to have been the end (this was in 1762), though as late as 1768 a meeting for worship was dispersed by soldiers, and a minister was im- prisoned in 1773, but released after a few days. Two Protestants were indeed still left at the galleys till the death of Louis XV. in 1774. They had been condemned in 1745, and had been simply forgotten. The strange thing is that the man who brought this horrible system to an end was Voltaire The piety and faith of France put up with it.