tion was wanted — his last words being, “Mr. Dryden’s elegant version of Maimbourg’s History of the League is, with regard to style and language, a much better model, for anyone who will oblige the public with an accurate translation of M. Rapin de Thoyras’s History than Sir Roger L’Estrange’s translation of Josephus or of Quevedo’s Visions.” Dr. Herring concurs; writing to Duncombe on 16th September 1728, he pronounces his criticisms upon Tindal to be “exceedingly just and necessary;” “the inaccuracies of style and lowness of expression, and the many omissions of this translation are prodigiously offensive. The history of Rapin Thoyras is so much debased and mangled by them, that one would think the translator had a design upon his character, and intended him to appear ridiculous, by putting him into an awkward English dress; for really, if Mr. Tindal does not take a little more pains, Rapin Thoyras will become of the same class with the rest of our English historians.”
Besides his history, Rapin wrote, and published in 1717, Une Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Torys. This work, the title of which shows that it relates to English politics, was immediately translated into the English language, and was well received. Dr. Samuel Parr thought it worthy of republication; his illustrative notes for a contemplated new edition, which were written in the year 1783, occupy nearly 200 pages of the third volume of Dr. Parr’s Works.
The following sentences, translated from Rapin’s History, well express his just abhorrence of persecution. (He treats of the reign of Elizabeth):—
“This is not the only time, nor England the only State, where disobedience in point of religion has been confounded with rebellion against the sovereign. There is scarcely a Christian State, where the prevailing sect will suffer the least division, or the least swerving from the established opinions — no, not even in private. Shall I venture to say that it is the clergy chiefly who support this strange principle of non-toleration, so little agreeable to Christian charity? The severity, which from this time began to be exercised upon the non-conformists in England, produced terrible effects in the following reigns, and occasioned troubles and factions which remain to this day.
Reneu.
In my Historical Introduction I have the name of Mr. Hilary Reneu as the translator of Claude’s celebrated brochure Les Plaintes des Protestans cruellement oprimés dans le royaume de France. As a refugee he was Hillaire Reneu, a native of Bordeaux. He arrived in England in or about 1685, although the first known source of information regarding him is the Act of Naturalisation, dated 5th July 1698,[1] from which we learn that he was the son of Pierre Reneu, of Bordeaux, and that by his wife Marguerite, daughter of Jean Lupé, he had a son Pierre. His wife and son were refugees with him, also his widowed sister Marie, Madame Lassens. We may add that his daughter, Marie Reneu, was one of the refugees, though in 1698 she was not included in the home circle, because on 26th March 1695 she had been married to the Hecr Denis Dutry, a Dutch Protestant and naturalized Englishman. In 1708 he appears in the third edition of his translation of Claude as M. Hillaire Reneu, alias Mr Hilary Reneu. And in M. de Gastigny’s Will, dated 10th August 1708, where it is mentioned that he took an active interest in one of the Houses of Charity for French refugees, he is described as “Mr. Reneu, father-in-law of Mr. Dutry.” He had realised some wealth in PVance and had succeeded in bringing it with him. He was at the expense of printing two editions of the translation of Claude in the year 1707, and the bookseller, William Redmayne, brought out a third edition in 1708. Claude’s pamphlet had been bought up and all but destroyed by the Papists, so that (says M. Reneu), “the very children of the refugees themselves, who either came hither very young, or else are born here, do not know the cause of the exile and transmigration of their fathers and mothers.” In the reign of Queen Anne great efforts were made to disparage the refugees, and to prejudice the English nation against them. One false allegation was, that they were people of the lowest rank and intelligence. M. Reneu replied:—
“There came hither a Duke and Mareschal of France, some Generals of armies, a Duchess, several counts and countesses, marquises and marchionesses, Judges of Sovereign Courts, Viscounts, Barons, noblemen and gentlemen, ladies and gentlewomen, men of learning, lawyers, physicians, substantial merchants, tradesmen of all sorts, and many captains, masters mariners, gardeners, and husbandmen, besides the great number of ministers who were banished that kingdom, with orders to depart forthwith upon pain of the galleys.”
As for poverty, he declares that as a rule money was necessary for their escape;
- ↑ Peter, a brother of Mr. Hillary Reneu, was naturalised in 1677 (see vol. i. p. 39). Henrietta Reneu, of Putney, described in 1732 as “the youngest daughter of the late Mr. Peter Reneu, an eminent merchant of London,” was perhaps a daughter or grand-daughter of that refugee; she was married on 24th January 1732, to Rev. Mr. Comarque.
