gmenting prosperity. Oh, that men were wise! Oh, that politicians would
remember that it is righteousness which exalteth a nation. The thought that
Piedmont became the Zoar of the living Church of God, when its members fled
from the Sodom of pagan and papal persecution and corruption, is not one of
the least of the grounds of hope, that not only shall its political
expansion continue, but that with it shall also be united that nobler gift
of the gospel of Christ, in its purity and power conveying the glorious
liberty of the children of God to the millions who have so long groaned
beneath the bondage of Antichrist.

But these thoughts remind us that the precious boon of emancipation for the
Vaudois did not descend upon them without an intervening period of doubt
and struggle.

The political changes first announced in October, 1847, did not include the
Vaudois within their range. Hence they had to ask for a special act by
which their freedom should be conceded. All the liberals supported this
demand. At a banquet at Pinerolo, Audifredi, an advocate, said, "Twenty
thousand of our brothers stand, so to speak, enclosed and isolated between
two torrents in our delightful valleys. They are honourable, laborious,
strong in mind and body, equal to other Italians. With enlightened
dispositions and by severe sacrifices they have educated their children,
but oppressed by burdens they do not enjoy the rights of other citizens. To
us it belongs, as their nearest brethren, to vote that by an universal
brotherhood there shall no longer be the embankment of these torrents, that
the country should be their mother and not their stepmother, and that as
they are judged suitable to defend their country by the arm, so it should
be allowed that they can enlighten and elevate it by the mind. _Evviva la
emancipazione dei Valdesi._"[F]

An immense petition was drawn up, headed by the names of Marquis Roberto
d'Azeglio, Count Cavour, Cesare Balbo, and, strange to say, the Bishop of
Pinerolo. The attorney-general, Count Sclopis, supported the memorial,
because, said he, by careful examination of the criminal records of the
government, "no other population of the country could be compared with the
Vaudois in morality and virtue." At length the _statuto_ was published in
the _Official Gazette_ on the 25th of February, 1848 (though dated the 17th
of that month). On the evening of that day the residences of the English
and Prussian ambassadors were br