Show from tt the tte e NY journal ot of Cm morce 3 the nestled amid the deep glens and valleys of the bottian alps are the those primitive christians of whom milton wrote in in 1655 c even ceven them thern who kept thy ruth truth so pore pure of old oll when all our fathers worshipped wor shipped stocks and stones i this wonderful and interesting people are the subjects of the king of sardinia and of all the boons conferred by the liberal constitution granted by the late carlo alberto alb aib erto arto theirs was the most needed and th most appreciated from the revolution of 1848 sardinia received the greatest benefit but bat the crowning event of that troublous year was the liberation of the from petty persecution the annoyance of priestly bigotry 0 and the disabilities of centuries in all the speculations upon the present contest we have not noticed a single journal which has spoken of the connection of this protestant people with the momentous events transpiring within view new of the mountains that look down upon their peaceful hamlets we need not go into the past history of that ancient fold which amidst the darkest night M of the dark a age ae e was true to the little motto arnott upon on the wag war an sian coat of arms lux lucet an n te 11 His history fory profane and ecclesiastical lical has devoted demoted pages of to their heroic fortitude amid persecution such aa as the world never saw elsewhere poetry has sun sung her loftiest loft iest strains over oer the noble deeds of these simple mountain peasants or has rung wrung from men unused to pity tears of sympathy and sadness as they have listened to the dirge dirle dirt dirl 1 e wailed walled over those whose only fault was love I 1 fon for their master I 1 the old cossack general suwarrow Sn warrow ov after hig his victories over the french at novi visited them and in his rough manner bade them pray but did not withhold with hold bold his kindness napoleon I 1 was struck with their bravery when they fought for victor emanuel I 1 against the french napoleon the great inquired into their history and was wag filled with admiration at their undaunted endur endurance ance arce in sore core distress lie ile granted them such freedom as they had not enjoyed for centuries and added an all annual stipend for each clergyman A century anterior to this william III ill not furnished this poor and during his time persecuted people with money from his own private purse but at the treaty of ryswick Ry as macaulay informs us concocted plans which liu ilu humanly manly speaking preserved them from litter utter annihilation nearly half a century before william III ill cromwell ell eil had bad efi eft effectually interfered in their behalf and made pope and duke dule tremble at his threat to invade italy and established the rights of the church of the alps in ill the contest which is is now going on no people eo le directly have BO so much at staica stake as the M benses and through them the prospects of christianity in in italy are deeply involved it will be necessary to glance at the condition 0 sardinia a few years previous to the french revolution of 1848 rightly vaiden Valden to comprehend the present pr sent position position of the tile ses seq they iad ead had bad been crushed by unjust laws up to tiia ui time of the first napoleons invasion of italy his ilia success there aa as already intimated was truly a blessing to the men len he was overthrown the king and the royal family of sardinia returned itter otter after their long exile in various portions of europe cgarles albert was one of these princes tho thol not in the direct line ile he had been partly educated at geneva in switzerland and had as his protestant fellow students a number of the young men who have since become as clergyman so eminent in in the second reformation of their own country charles albert was also a member ot 0 the carbonarl carbonari the king of sardinia abdicated a brother of the prince mentioned above succeeded to the throne tin tru cne cue and at his death carlo caro alberto aa as the italians call him became monarch of the most northern kingdom of ital itai italy great ameliorations M had been ant anticipated ae t d from the new king butita but it vas was impost impossible icele t to 0 fulfill these elpe expectations C lations tat ions lons the jesuit power was supreme sardinia ecclesiastically was the abject tool toot of the Pope and politically was still under the baleful influence of austria carlo alberto often said that the priest power was everything in the way of his proposed reforms lie ile satisfied neither the church party nor the carbonari Bar bonari and he frequently remarked that his life was in constant inconstant danger danger from aiom the chocolate of the jesuit or the dagger agger of the carbonari 11 ile he was little understood at the time but now reflecting 0 men can see that he had just ideas of reform and that he was imaging making r haste slowly in order to make his am eli ell orations surely IE if we mistake not future historians will award him a high place among the true benefactors of italy carlo cario alberto had long looked with a an n unquiet qui 1 et eye upon the black plumed Aust austrian rians as they swayed it directly over lombardy and venice and through special treaties indirectly but with potency ivr tuscany modena parma and the states of the pope his queen was the daughter of the austrian at chouke atch Aich duke who was the reigning duke of tuscany victor emanuel emanue then the prince royal lloyal wis ws was married to the daughter of the late archduke renee of austria sa so that ahat his hands bands seemed politically iti cally tied by marriage alli alliances aLces tile the archbishop franzoni Fran zoni was so powerful an ecclesiastical monarch that if a swiss protestant or a colporteur distributed a tract or a bible swift punishment in loathsome dungeons was inevitable the were hemmed within their narrow valleys by laws odthe of the most unjust and bigoted character they could not purchase an inch of land outs outside de their very restricted limits and if it they sold to romanists Romanis ts a portion of their own small possessions they were prohibited h from re purchasing sing 9 their clergy were not all ali albred wed to pass piss a single nig night lit without royal permission beyond the bounds of their larish parish but roman catholic priests and missionaries sion aries erected establishments wherever these people of simple faith had found a footing r the romieh clergy were empowered with the right to seize oil on the smallest accusation the children of the and to bury them in convents or place them ill in distant papal schools their condition was truly pitiable but they did not cease their pious though contracted lab iab labors 0 r s oo 00 or t to pray in church and in schoolhouse hou s e f for the king of sardinia gol goi had raised up a benefactor for them in general beckwith a noble hearted wealthy wealth thou though h eccentric english officer who in man many times of gloom from 1825 to 1847 stood between them and the jesuits at length deliverance was wag at hand and in a quarter least expected in december 1847 the king announced to his people his intention to give to sardinia a constitution representative senta tive institutions and many popular privileges i this was done and oil on the loth cf ef february 1848 two weeks before the last french revolution was dreamed of that con situation sit slit ution without any iny compulsion whatever was proclaimed with one sweep of the royal pen the were liberated from the bondage of centuries in the tile next two years many more advantages were guaranteed to this people u who ubo bo had waited so long for their rights they immediately set to work the printing press they established churches at turin genoa Pin etolo casale ard other important points where a few months previous persecution would have followed any such attempt by the protestants archbishop franzoni and the priests revolted against tho the constitution which they said not only permitted those pestilent heretics the to scatter their errors but took away previous ecclesiastical immunities before if a priest committed murde rhe would escape escape to a convent where he lie could not be bouc touched led or he would be tried by a court of the hierarchy and his punishment would be to say mass to the more benighted people of an obscure parish the constitution of carlo alberto made such criminals amenable ame araen nabe abe to the civil courts coults this they could not the archbishop issued a proclamation against the constitution ution many liberal men trembled for the fute fite f ute ite of liberal institutions in italy in the mean time however Carlo alberto had matched sardinia against austria in endeavoring to liberate lombardy and venice and on the plains of novara in march 1849 he was defeated at of his battalions on the battlefield he abdicated in ja favor of his son tile the present king victor emanuel and then retired self banished to portugal where before the end of the year ha he dieda died a broken hearted man no one today to day can hear bear the humblest italian or the tho poorest pronounce tremblingly upon his imps lips the name of carlo alberto without feeling a tear start to his eye his name is enshrined in the tiie hearts of his people and they look upon the constitution as the tile last heirloom heir loom left by their hero martyr king it is this sentiment which enabled victor emanuel with such ministers as cavour DA and to put down the priestly faction to imprison try ani fin I 1 ally banish the once all potent archbishop franzoni from sardinia I 1 it t is this feeling w which aich sustained kinc kins and ministers when they broke the ties which bound them to the papal see and which have never been reunited under this constitution the have not only built churches and disseminated the truth openly in sardinia and silently in the nei nel neighboring broring states but they have been enabled blea to print the bible in the italian language at that very turin where in the latter part cf the century more than ten thousand of their ancestors perished in 1850 1830 general beckwith said to a correspondent of the journal of commerce sardinia will advance in enlightenment if the bulldogs bull dogs i of france and austria will let her alone y when the russian war united england and france as alli esno other nation lent them aid until sardinia offered her services and thus while sharing the dangers and the glories of cf the crimea she she for the future protected her sif s sif sit if from francy francs and virtually from austria twice within the last four years would the house hoase of hapsburg have invaded sardinia but for the fear of france and england many may re regard ard the present contest so far as the emperors of austria and france are concerned in the same ight wilt wiit as the fabled battle of the skunk and the rattlesnake rattlesnakes I 1 5 but so far as sardinia and particularly her most mst faithful subjects the Waldense sare concerned the sympathy of the protestant christian tian cannot be doubtful |