‘The Emperor, after receiving several Deputies, went up to the Catholic Vicar, who had written a speech, and proceeded to read it. The Emperor, without replying, asked where were the Protestant ministers. Then M. Ten Oever, in his robes, followed by the entire Protestant clergy, was presented by the Prince de Wagram, and read an address. The Emperor remarked with satisfaction that the Protestant ministers wore their robes. Then, turning to the Roman Catholic clergy, he asked, “How is it that you are not wearing your frocks? What! I come to a Department [Holland had been annexed to France] where the majority are Catholics, who were formerly oppressed, and who have received more liberty from the King, my brother, and myself, and your first act is to show me disrespect! I have always found my Protestants faithful subjects. I have six thousand at Paris and eight hundred thousand in my empire, and I have no cause for complaint against a single one. Fools that you are! _If the Concordat had not been accepted by the Pope, I should have turned Protestant, and thirty million Frenchmen would have followed my example._ [The italics are my own.] You have calumniated Protestants, representing them as men teaching principles contrary to the rights of sovereigns. I have no better subjects. They serve in my palace in Paris. It was not Luther, nor Calvin, but the German princes who declined to submit to your fanatical yoke. The English were quite right to part company with you. You would like to set up scaffolds and stakes, but I will prevent you. All authority comes from God.”’ Footnote 217: D. Bogue, D.D., _On the Divine Authority of the New Testament_, 1801. Footnote 218: Bishop of Cloyne, _Alciphron; or, the Minute Philosopher_, 1732. Footnote 219: C. Leslie, died 1722, author of _The Rehearsals: Tracts against the Deists and Socinians_, 4 vols. Footnote 220: _Voyage en Amérique_, 2 vols. 1800. It seems that the French _émigrés_, after being most hospitably treated in England, showed little return in the way of graciousness. See _Letters of Maria Josepha Holroyd_; also the _Jerningham Letters_. Footnote 221: Ambrose Marie Arnault, French economist, 1750-1812. See Vapereau. Footnote 222: See Chap. IV. ‘Ireland,’ for this curious bargain, by which A. Y., instead of a sum total of 700_l._, in 1776 was to receive 72_l._ per annum! ----- CHAPTER XV APPROACHING BLINDNESS 1804-1807 A great preacher—Arthur Young the younger goes to Russia—Cowper’s Letters—Mrs. Young’s illness—Dr. Symonds—Novel reading—Skinner’s ‘State of Peru’—Death of Pitt—Burke’s publishing accounts—Literary projects—Approaching blindness.