who would designate as religious persecution, the preventive power which the law should exercise to protect the people from unjust excommunication. With regard to the plaintiff in this case, we may observe that the verdict of a jury cannot remove the curse of the priest. The sentence of excommunication remains. To those who believe the doctrines of the Romish Church, no civil interference can remove the spiritual consequences of an excommunication. That sentence is one, which derives its weight and power, not from civil, but from ecclesiastical authority. The excommunicated, it is true, may say, I stand free by a verdict of my countrymen, who declare under the direction of a most Learned Judge, that the priest has no power thus to curse me. But those by whom he may be surrounded, bigoted members of the Roman Catholic Church, and quailing beneath its power, point out the fact that he is excommunicated, and that they dare not hold friendly converse with him, nor deal with him. THE IRISH COERCION BILL. TO THE EDITOR OF THE PROTESTANT MAGAZINE. SIR, It is stated in the public Journals that there have been seventeen failures of Coercion Bills in Ireland within the last forty years. And the present is as little likely to be successful as any that have preceded it. The "Morning Herald" justly observes, that "the Bill now proposed is worse than error. It assails the miserable peasant who is but the dupe, and spares the incendiary who dupes him. It is pandering to the evil it proposes to correct, and it furnishes the agitator with a fresh topic, whilst, at the same time, it exasperates the peasant by a fresh oppression. The brawler of Burgh Quay hail each Coercion Bill as a boon from the Government. We would not punish the duped criminal in the country, while we suffered a Crime Education Committee to sit unscathed weekly in the metropolis. The murderer is to be transported unless he goes to bed at night. But there is not one enactment against the doctrine that deludes him, not one clause against the trumpeters of sedition." The "Standard," in the same strain, maintains, "that the existence of the Riband conspiracy alone, is quite sufficient to account for all that distracts and degrades Ireland. The means to do ill deeds are supplied by the Riband conspiracy; the motives to use these means are furnished in ample measure by monster meetings, Burgh Quay speeches, and by histories of 'Ireland and the Irish.' It is modern Romanism-that factious Romanism of which Mr. O'Connell is himself the type-that must bear the blame of all the murders and outrages by which his country is impoverished and disgraced." But can any one be surprised at all these murders and outrages, when this very O'Connell, who had been convicted by a jury of his countrymen, of an offence against the State, in holding these monster Meetings, has had his punishment remitted, and been released from his recognisances? What are we to think of a Government that can treat so indulgently the principal agitator, and adopt such harsh and severe measures against a wretched peasantry, who are demonized to such a degree by the agents and emissaries of Popery, that even murder is naturalized among them? Is this even-handed justice? Can rulers who act thus be said not to bear the sword in vain? And where is the use of a standing army in Ireland, of three-and-twenty thousand men, and an expensive body of police, if there is no longer any security for life and property. Will nothing open the eyes of Englishmen to the real cause of such a frightful state of society? Our legislators are quite blind to it. Lord John Russell attributes the cause to political grievances, whilst O'Connell and Her Majesty's Ministers, agree in opinion that there is nothing sectarian or political in the organized system of murder and outrage, by which it is admitted that Ireland is now disgraced. And nothing can exceed the complaisance which is manifested towards each other, in Parliament by the convicted conspirator O'Connell, and the members of Her Majesty's Government. But there is a work which points to the real source of all the assassinations which are perpetrated in Ireland. That work is the LAWS OF THE PAPACY, by the Rev. R. J. M'Ghee. It is because Romanism reigns supreme in Ireland, and has virtually superseded the Government of Queen Victoria, that fertile portion of the United Kingdom, is reduced to its present deplorable condition. April 17, 1846. AN ENGLISHMAN. O'CONNELL AND FATHER MATHEW AT A DISCOUNT. A MEETING of the Temperance Society was announced to be held in Exeter Hall, on Wednesday, 22d ult., at which O'Connell was to preside, and his son John O'Connell, Father Mathew, the Earl of Surrey, Member Cobden, Bright, and several others were to attend as speakers. The Meeting presented the most miserable failure that was ever witnessed. The Chairman was there, but scarcely one of those whose names were announced, surrounded him. Neither Father Mathew, nor the Earl of Surrey, &c. The greater part of the benches were empty. We are unable to explain the cause of the failure. We would hope that the Teetotale rs begin to see that it is neither wise nor profitable to permit themselves any longer to be marshalled under the Popish banner. PROTESTANT NEWSPAPERS. (To the Editor of the Protestant Magazine.) IN a former number of the Magazine, I ventured to suggest the establishment of a Protestant Newspaper, if possible, in every county. In order to carry such a proposition into effect, I added, that the combined assistance of the Protestant Association and the Reformation Society might be of eminent service. I send you herewith the Prospectus of a Protestant Newspaper, proposed to be published in Exeter, under the title of "The Western Protestant."* *That the interests of the Protestant Faith, in the present day, loudly call for the zealous efforts of its friends and adherents, among all classes, to combine for the protection of those interests, unhappily needs no proof. The revival of Romanism-the exertions of members of the Papal communion to introduce their Antichristian system in every place the recent alarming measure of the Endowment of Maynooth-and, above all, the success which has attended the earnest labours of the Anti-Protestant party in the Established Church, sufficiently attest the peril by which our holy religion is threatened. Among other means of meeting the exigencies of the case, the establishment of a newspaper has been suggested, uniting Conservative principles in politics, with Evangelical views of Divine truth, in the hope that its circulation might be instrumental in awakening many in the Western counties, where (especially in Devon and Cornwall) such a paper is needed, to the evils by which the Protestant cause is threatened; and in stimulating them to the adoption of measures calculated to avert the impending danger. The proposal therefore is now made to establish a Protestant Journal, to be published weekly, in the city of Exeter, under the designation of "THE WESTERN PROTESTANT." REPORT OF THE NORWICH PRO- country has gained unprecedented na TESTANT OPERATIVE ASSOCIA TION. THE year 1845 adds one more link to the chain of troublous, if not disastrous, events in the history of British Protestantism. The godless and indiscreet desire for change which reigns in the minds of great masses of our countrymen, and directs to an unhallowed subversion of the fundamental element of our constitution-Protestant ascendancy, has, during the past year, received a manifest token of discouragement from the parliamentary counsels of our country; the Papacy has gained a step in advancementendowment in perpetuity; Protestantism has sustained a heavy discouragement and fore-warning of future betrayal. In such case, the Truth-loving and loyal Protestant (in the confidence that he is discharging a needful Christian duty, and committing the result to the will of his Heavenly Master,) should arouse himself with increased energy in contending for and upholding the great principles of Church and State policy under which our beloved tional prosperity, and the knowledge of God's Truth has been perpetuated amongst her people. In the conscientious persuasion of this duty, your Committee have first to notice, that they have deemed it advisable to make some alterations in the style and rules of the Association, and they have, after due consideration, adopted the style of "The Norwich Operative Protestant Association, for making known the principles and practices of Popery, and maintaining and promoting the sound Protestant principles of the Church of England." The alterations of the rules are in accordance with this style, but effect no very material change in our practical details. Your Committee have the pleasure to state, that the operations of the Association have been conducted in their usual course of Tract distribution, occasional Lectures, and Meetings, and they cordially bring to remembrance the proceedings of the Meeting held on the 5th of March last, when James Lord, Esq., attended, and addressed an attentive auditory on the prevailing topic of the day, the Maynooth Endowment Bill. A Meeting was also held in May, for the purpose of petitioning the House of Lords on that Anti-Protestant Act, a Petition was adopted, numerously signed, and forwarded for presentation to that House. In recording the assembling of the Members of the Association in October last, your Committee are assured that they express your unanimous feeling, when they speak of the gladdening spirit and heartfelt happiness which they experienced on once again seeing the worthy and venerated president of the Society, John Cator, Esq., presiding in person, and they earnestly trust his late visit may, in the providence of God, be the presage of a happy repetition. The anniversary of the Papal Gunpowder Plot was commemorated on the 5th of November last by a numerously attended Meeting, and your Committee beg to tender to those Members and Friends of the Society, who kindly addressed that Meeting, their most grateful acknowledgments for the manly, constitutional, and Scriptural sentiments propounded in favour of the principles espoused by the Association. Your Committee also beg to express their deep sense of the service rendered by those gentlemen who have delivered lectures to the Society during the past year. Your Committee have also to register the kind attention of the Committee of the "Prayer Book and Homily Society" in making a most acceptable gift of Homilies and other Tracts to the Association. The library of the Society has received an addition of many useful and entertaining works, from donors and by purchase. There is also one other subject which has been presented to, and engaged the *The formation of Protestant Libra ries, and the introduction of standard and interesting works on Protestantism into those libraries already formed, whether Parochial and Lending Libraries, or those of Mechanics' Institutes, is most important. The Protestant Association have published a series of works adapted to this object.-ED. The attention of, your Committee, namely, a proposition to unite in one common band with the County Association, which, until now, has been separate and distinct in its operations. effect of such an union, they feel, would be to produce a concentration of action, which would more effectually work out, both in the County and City, the objects in which the Societies are mutually engaged. In conclusion, your Committee would earnestly impress that the threatening aspect of the times urge strongly upon the Protestant to bear in mind the words of Holy Writ, "Remove not the antient land-mark which thy fathers have sct. The constant propagation of unbelief and factious principles carried on by means of Popish, Infidel, and Radical publications, and the vast increase of a population yearly outstripping all the united efforts of the Church of God to lead them to a knowledge of the Truth, and to conduct them in the ways of loyalty, virtue, and morality, demand most pressingly the support of the National Church, with her powers unimpaired and extended, and of those other Protestant Institutions which have not yet been wrested from the nation by the faithless hands of God-forgetting politicians. Let us be firm in our attachment to the Church of our fathers, England's greatest barrier against the encroachments of all enemies of Truth, liberty, and order. Let us be ardent in desire to see her, in the words of an eminent statesman, "great and powerful: to see her foundations laid low and deep, that she may crush the giant powers of rebellious darkness: to have her head raised up to that Heaven to which she conducts us: to have her open wide her hospitable gates, by a noble and liberal comprehension, but to have no breaches in her walls; tohave her cherish all those who are within, and pity all those who are without; to have her a common blessing to the world, an example, if not an instructor, to those who have not the happiness to belong to her. To have her give a lesson of peace to mankind, that a vexed and wandering generation may be taught to seek for repose and toleration in the maternal bosom of Christian Charity, and not in the harlot lap of infidelity and indif- inquiries were proposed to me by some ference." Then rally around her,by dangers unaw'd, ROMISH PRIESTS IN CANADA. EXTRACT of a letter from Rev. W. Scott, Wesleyan Missionary, dated St. Clair, Port Samia, January 8th, 1845. The efforts of the Papacy, in various parts of the world, to destroy true Christianity, and substitute its own direful errors and institutions, are now the subject of cominon observation. Priests and Jesuits are almost everywhere to be found, insinuating themselves amongst the people, and striving to promote the advancement of the Papal system. During the past year an extraordinary effort was made among the St. Clair Indians by them; but, by the blessing of God, they have not succeeded. At one time three Priests together made a sudden and unexpected descent upon this fair portion of the Lord's vineyard. One of these I had always seen at Manitoulin Island, when three several times I have visi ed that place; and he is now a fluent speaker in the Ojibeway language, and therefore well adapted to this mischievous undertaking. God, however, "taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and disappointeth the hope of the hypocrite." On the arrival of these Priests of Romanism, a temporary chapel, toward the upper end of this Indian reserve, near to the village of Port Samia, was erected, and pictures and crucifixes were hung all around it, in mimic grandeur and mock solemnity. The French and Indian Roman Catholics who reside near this place were sent for, and a great display was to be made on the approaching Sabbath. The Priests visit the Indians on this reserve from house to house, and invite them to attend; and other messengers are sent among the Indians, using every means to entice them "only to behold their superior way of worship." That there should be great excitement was not surprising. Many of our Class-Leaders respecting the claims of Popery; and they were satisfied of its unscriptural character and ruinous tendency. Nor could the jesuitry of the priesthood divert these faithful men from their allegiance to Christ, and their attachment to Wesleyan Methodism. Previously to the Popish display I had given notice that on the same day I should deliver two discourses on the doctrines, discipline, and fruits of Popery. Our Indian friends were delighted with this announcement, and made it a duty to invite all their friends to attend our services. The allurements of Popery were in vain. Our chapel was filled, and the Indians listened with intelligent attention to the discourses delivered in the morning and evening. Only a very few went to the Popish mass-house; and, though their ceremonies were continued through the week, yet the Wesleyan Indians were firm and unflinching. I know of only two exceptions-one woman and one man. You, my dear Sirs, need no information as to the duplicity and vileness of Popish Priests; but it may be useful to state a few facts which transpired here, and which are further illustrations of Romanism. The Priests, while here, were continually active, creeping into houses, both early and late. In one Indian's wigwam there was a sick child. The parents are pious and intelligent Wesleyans. The Priest sympathizes with their afflictions; and, acting upon deep parental affection, proposes a remedy. That remedy was baptism by a Romish Priest. He had the effrontery to assure the mother that the child would quickly recover, and would not again be liable to sickness and disease. What could be more easy? What more desirable? "There could be no harm in trying," thought the mother, almost persuaded. Hearing of this Popish game, accompanied by my interpreter, I immediately repaired to the wigwam. The wicked lies and deception of the Priest were unveiled, and the parents affectionately warned not thus to renounce Christianity, deny the good providence of God, and be ensnared by this mischievous scheme. They were mercifully preserved, and saw |