assassins,
brigands, and disturbers of public tranquility, and to read the
instructions he had received from government to this effect publicly.
Notwithstanding this, on the 20th of January, 1816, when the service in
commemoration of the death of Louis XVI. was celebrated, a procession
being formed, the National Guards fired at the white flag suspended from
the windows of the protestants, and concluded the day by plundering
their houses. In the Commune of Angargues, matters were still worse; and
in that of Fontanes, from the entry of the king in 1815, the catholics
broke all terms with the protestants; by day they insulted them, and in
the night broke open their doors, or marked them with chalk to be
plundered or burnt. St. Mamert was repeatedly visited by these
robberies; and at Montmiral, as lately as the 16th of June, 1816, the
protestants were attacked, beaten, and imprisoned, for daring to
celebrate the return of a king who had sworn to preserve religious
liberty and to maintain the charter. In fact, to continue the relation
of the scenes that took place in the different departments of the south
of France, would be little better than a repetition of those we have
already described, excepting a change of names: but the most sanguinary
of all seems that which was perpetrated at Uzes, at the latter end of
August, and the burning of several protestants places of worship. These
shameful persecutions continued till after the dissolution of the
Chamber of Deputies at the close of the year 1816. After a review of
these anti-protestant proceedings, the British reader will not think of
comparing them with the riots of London in 1780, or with those of
Birmingham about 1793; as it is evident that where governments possess
absolute power, such events could not have been prolonged for many
months and even for years over a vast extent of country, had it not been
for the systematic and powerful support of the higher department of the
state.

_Farther account of the proceedings of the Catholics at Nismes._

The excesses perpetrated in the country it seems did not by any means
divert the attention of the persecutors from Nismes. October, 1815,
commenced without any improvement in the principles or measures of the
government, and this was followed by corresponding presumption on the
part of the people. Several houses in the Quartier St. Charles were
sacked, and their wrecks burnt in the streets amidst songs, dances, and
shouts o