at the religious
movement first developed itself,--full six months before the revolutions
and changes of 1848. The work was at first confined almost entirely to a
handful of foreigners--Captain Pakenham; M. Paul, a Frenchman, and the
Swiss pastor in Florence;---- at----; and Mr Thomson, Vice-Consul at
Leghorn. Count Guicciardini was the only Florentine connected with the
movement. It was resolved to print and circulate such books as were
likely to pass the censorship, and might be openly sold by all
booksellers. The censor of that day was a remarkably liberal man, and he
gave his consent very willingly. Five or six little volumes were printed
in that country; but the people were not yet prepared for such a step;
the books lay unsold, and were got into circulation only by being given
away as presents. But the very fact that the friends of the movement had
been able to print and publish such works openly at Florence, with the
approbation of the censor, greatly encouraged them. It was next proposed
to attempt to get the censor's approbation to an edition of the New
Testament; and the work was before him waiting his imprimatur, when the
revolutions of 1848 broke over Italy with the suddenness of one of its
own thunder-storms.

I cannot go particularly into the changes that followed, and which are
known to my readers through other sources,--the flight of the Grand
Duke,--the new Tuscan Constitution,--the free press. The political for a
time buried the religious. Captain Pakenham, taking advantage of the
liberty enjoyed under the republic, commenced printing an edition of
Martini's Bible (the Romanist version), believing that it would be more
acceptable than Diodati's (the Protestant version). Before he had got
the book put into circulation, the re-action commenced, the Grand Duke
returned, and the work was seized. When engaged in making the seizure,
the gendarmes pressed a young apprentice printer to tell them whether
there were any more copies concealed. The lad replied that he had only
one suggestion to offer, which was, that, now they had seized the book,
they should seize the author too. And who is he? eagerly inquired the
gendarmes, preparing to start on the chase. Jesus Christ, was the lad's
reply.

Meanwhile the revolution had greatly enlarged the privileges of the
Waldensian Church in Piedmont, and three of her pastors, MM. Malan,
Meille, and Geymonat, arrived in Florence in the winter of 1848-49, for
the purpose o