brethren abroad to circulate cheap publications. During the past year, grants of publications have been made for Montreal, the Canadian Protestant Union, Lille, the Bahamas, Granada, and Rouen.

On the subject of ASSOCIATIONS, your Committee cannot here fail to point out the great advantages of having an organization in existence, and actively at work, to promote the great cause of Protestantism. Union is strength. An Association holds up a standard, under which many may enlist themselves, who would not fight alone. That the Protestant spirit is not extinct, though long slumbering, not only in England and Ireland, but throughout Europe also, and is now, beginning to arouse itself, is happily apparent. Though some, starting suddenly from their slumbers, scarcely awake, take a move in the wrong direction, and advance to Rome, instead of receding from it, yet there are others, who, piously and intelligently alive to the evils of Popery, and the blessings of a pure Christianity, are actively engaged in leading the minds of their countrymen into a right way.

Movements of a more or less extended nature are going on both at home and abroad. In Italy, Germany, France, Ireland, and elsewhere, the power of Popery seems to be tottering, and were it not that, unhappily, the British Government upheld her, Popery would be less influential than she now is throughout the globe. The Protestant College formed at Malta, the Alliance at New York, the Protestant Alliance in Ireland, the National Club in London, in support of the Protestant principles of the Constitution, and the Evangelical Alliance, all show how increasingly alive the public are becoming to the evils of Popery, and their own duty and interest to oppose her.

But whilst your Committee thus take a retrospect of the past, they feel bound to look forward to the future. They would call on all their fellow-Protestants, in a spirit of love to the Roman Catholic, to oppose Popery. Whilst without reference to particular parties or political men, they cannot but point out to you the manner in which the interests of your holy religion have been betrayed, they are compelled to admonish you that far greater evils are at hand. The Bills now before Parliament go to remove the protective clauses of the Roman Catholic Relief Act, to legalize the intromission of Papal bulls, and to modify, if not to repeal, the Act of Supremacy itself: and many are there in each House of Parliament, who desire to see the Church of Rome decked with the spoils of the United Church, or endowed with revenues and glebe lands along with it.

Are we thus, then, to "requite the Lord" for all his mercies to our nation? Are we thus to endow, patronise, and encourage a system denounced by Him, and pointed out to us as soon to be destroyed?

The Committee feel that the contest upon which they have entered is one that must be coeval with the existence of Popery. The truth will stand, the truth must prevail. Theologians may betray it, statesmen may despise, and Infidelity assail, but they cannot succeed in changing, destroying, or subverting it. Whatever clouds may be suffered for a while to gather round it, will, like the storms of winter or the clouds of spring, speedily pass away, and Divine truth, as revealed in God's own Word, assume her empire over all nations of

*

the earth. In the great conflict now going on and thickening around us, each one has his duty to perform. May grace in answer to the earnest prayer of faith be given, that whether as electors or senators, theologians or statesmen, they may so perform the arduous duties which devolve upon them, as to rescue their beloved country from the grasp of Popery, and make her a hundred-fold more instrumental in promoting, throughout the globe, the pure and holy cause of scriptural Christianity!

Sir DIGBY MACKWORTH, Bart., moved, "That the Report now read be adopted, printed, and circulated, under the direction of the Committee. And that the following be the Committee for the year ensuing:-John Bridges, Esq.; Rev. T. Boys; Rev. T. T. Cuffe; James J. Cummins, Esq.; Rev. J. E. Cox; Captain Henry Downes, R.N.; Captain E. G. Fishbourne; Captain Farrer; Rev. John Heming; Lieut. Hutchinson, R.N.; J. A. Knipe, Esq.; General Latter; John Mouatt, Esq.; Major Penley; Rev. H. Robbins; R. B. Seeley, Esq.; G. J. P. Smith, Esq.; J. Hamilton Storey, LL.D; Rev. A. S. Thelwall; Major Thorpe ; Rev. G. Campbell." He could not have believed, twenty years ago, that so many inroads could have been made in a country like this upon its Protestant constitution. (Hear.) They ought to be looked at, not singly, but in the aggregate, for the development of that system which was now manifesting itself through the length and breadth of this country. He should have no fear of the cunning and artifices of the Roman Catholic Church were it not for the comparative indifference of our country. (Hear.) Millions of Englishmen would die rather than renounce the Protestantism of their ancestors (applause), but still there was a general apathy throughout the public which encouraged Popery and discouraged those who saw the danger resulting from its introduction. It was true the Petitions against the grant to Maynooth had been signed by about a million and a quarter of persons, but what was that number compared with the millions of Protestants in England? (Hear, hear.) And why had not every single Protestant signed a Petition against Roman Catholic encroachments? (Hear, hear.) Those who wished to know what the Roman Catholic religion was, must learn it from its own documents; and he would just call the attention of the Meeting to a charge recently delivered by the head of the Roman Catholic in France, the Archbishop of Lyons. That city was the seat of the great Roman Catholic Society, which sends its missionaries all over the world, and which invariably acts on this principle, that wherever a Protestant missionary is sent among the Heathen, two are sent by that Society, not to the Heathen around that Protestant Mission, but to try to turn the converted Heathen to Popery. (Hear, hear.) That Institution had grown immensely under the auspices of the Archbishop of Lyons, one or two passages in whose charge he would now translate :- "True Catholics no longer pray, so to say, to God himself, but by Mary. In them there is no such thing as happiness without her. One would say that far from her, for them there is no longer any hope. Peter continually turns his regard towards the star of the sea. It seems that God has given over to his Mother his almightiness, and that the hands of this pure

Virgin can alone dispense to Jew and Gentile, the rays of truth and the waters of grace." The conclusion of another passage ran as follows:-"Thus you will have Mary, the powerful Virgin, as your advocate and as your hope. God, who seems to have remitted our destinies into her hands, has indicated the way most sure to make our worship most agreeable to him, and that security is to render the Virgin more favourable to our prayers." These were the sentiments which the head of the Roman Catholic movement taught Roman Catholics. And when such things were taught, were the Protestants of England willing to look on with indifference? Were they willing to become worshippers of the Virgin Mary, that she might intercede for them with an irritated Father? He was quite sure they would not tolerate such things. (Applause.) Although the Roman Catholics appeared to be gaining ground in England, he was happy to say they were losing in Ireland, for in the course of a few years, no less than forty of the Romish clergy had come over to the Protestant Church (applause), and between 3,000 and 4,000 of the members of the Romish Church had followed their example. (Applause.)

The Rev. HUGH STOWELL, M.A.-Mr. Chairman, and my Christian Friends,-I most heartily second the Resolution, which has just been moved. The Report is one so sound and so simple, and so fraught with facts, that it needs no remarks of mine to commend it to your support. We are here, a body of men, very much misunderstood, very much maligned, very much misrepresented; but by the help of God we are here, unshaken in our principles, undiminished in our confidence, and unmoved in our hope, because God is with us; and while He is with us, no matter who is against us.

We have had some desertions from our ranks; and we must be prepared to expect more. It was only yesterday morning, that a reverend brother, to whom I said, “Of course you will be with us to-morrow?” replied, "I shall not." "Why?" I enquired. "Because I think your efforts are of no avail; I give up in despair." He was not a worthy successor of the Latimers and Ridleys and Cranmers of the Church of England. Had these righteous men said, when they were the little handful, against the mighty myriads; when the fires of Smithfield were before them, when bonds and imprisonments awaited them, and when hell and Antichrist were in arms against them to consume them, "We despair," we should never have had the glorious Reformation. But neither the fewness of the numbers that supported them, nor the mighty multitude of those that were against them, nor the rack, nor the stake, nor the dungeon, could leave them to despair; but even at the stake, the one said to the other, "Courage, brother Ridley, we shall this day light such a candle in England, as shall never be put out." And are we to be afraid of that candle being put out, just because we have traitors in the camp, and open adversaries without the walls? No, we will, by the grace of God, still hold up that candle, and will still look to God, to supply the heavenly oil of His Spirit ; and then, though all the adverse gusts from hell were to seek to extinguish it, it shall burn on, even amid the storm. And when that storm shall have passed away, in the calm, clear day-light that shall follow, the candle of the Reformation shall shine out in more than

pristine splendour, and shall never be extinguished, till it is lost in the blaze of an eternal day.

I will, with your permission, take a very brief glance at the events of the past year, and then take a very brief forecast of the events that we may see approaching us, in the prospect of the year that is coming.

Looking back upon the past year, it is scarcely possible to avoid beginning with what may be considered the prominent event of the year the sorest stab, perhaps, that Protestantism has received since the fatal measure of 1829, which began the downfall, I might say, of our Protestant constitution. I allude, of course, as every one that hears me will at once conjecture, to the passing of the Bill for the permanent endowment of Maynooth. You will remember, that at this time last year we were met together in multitudes, and were as "one heart and one mind," in withstanding that hapless Bill; but you know, that in the face, I hesitate not to say, of the express sentiments of a great majority of the English nation, that Bill was hurried indecently through the nominally Protestant Houses of Parliament, was forced upon this nation, and found a place in the statute-book, not by the voice of the people, but by the voice of a body of men, whom the people had put into place and power, to maintain the Protestant constitution, as far as they were able. That is past, however; and although we may detest, and ought to try to repeal that hapless measure, yet, for my own part, I have little hope of our being successful at present in doing so. Still, as I said, let us not despair, but do our

duty, and leave the result with God.

The passing of that Maynooth measure is fraught with ulterior results, which those who brought it forward and adopted it perhaps little contemplated. We shall have no improvement in the staple of the education of the Romish priesthood; we shall have no more enlightenment of the intellect, in the true sense of the word; and assuredly we shall have no more of scriptural truth mingled with their education; and if we have more of the enlightenment of the intellect, it is not that which will save a man from Romanism, because the corrupt heart of man is the strength of Romanism, and that heart, whilst unsubdued, is as corrupt in the most intellectual, as it is in the most uncultured. If I need an illustration to prove this position, and to convince the so-called Conservative party in the House of Commons, that intellectual culture at Maynooth will not save the Maynooth priesthood, or the people the Maynooth priesthood profess to teach and guide, from the darkest and most blasphemous doctrines of the dark ages,-I would bring forward that document, which Sir Digby Mackworth brought forward, and would say, "Here is a document composed, not by some dark, illiterate, Maynooth-taught priest― not by some man unacquainted with what is reason, or intellect, or sense, or theology, but by the Archbishop of one of the principal provinces of France-a man high in office, cultivated in intellect, rich in the stores of secular learning, and yet putting forth a document, that for bold blasphemy, and for daring, horrible, atrocious profaneness, was never surpassed by Rousseau, Voltaire, or Tom Paine. I speak advisedly-in calmness and in conviction. I appeal to the in

telligent gentlemen around me and to the multitude before me. Did you not, in listening to those sentiments, feel a thrill of righteous horror and indignation boil through your veins? I would suggest, with all respect, to the Committee of this Association, that they should have a faithful, authentic, verified translation of those passages printed, and placed in the hands of every member of the two Houses of Legislature. And I can hardly conceive a better antidote to that wretched latitudinarianism of sentiment, which pretends to conclude, that you have only to cultivate the intellect, in order to get rid of the debasement of Romanism, and every other form of debasement; for here we have the most palpable, gross, and glaring evidence, that the highest intellectual culture, and the highest position in the hierarchy of the Church of Rome, is no security against doctrines, the most blasphemous, the most degrading, the most unscriptural, the most heathenish in their tendency, that were ever promulgated.

I was remarking, that the staple of the education at Maynooth will not be improved, but the amount of the production will be greatly increased. And already, I am told, the number of students, that are flocking thither is quite astonishing. And what will be the result? We shall by-and-by have an abundant supply for England and the colonies; we shall have these men going up and down as professed missionary priests, to sap and undermine the foundations of our common faith. And thus, to the hapless Bill, passed by so-called Protestant statesmen, in the British houses of Parliament, we shall have to trace the subversion and the overthrow, so far as Romanism can accomplish it, of our Protestant principles,-Protestant men, as we are, paying our money to subvert the foundations of the faith which we love.

There is another feature in the events of the past year, which I must be allowed to glance at. And I do it with all forbearance and charitableness towards those misguided men, on whose conduct I feel myself bound, however reluctantly, to animadvert. I allude to the secessions from the ranks of the Church of England and the accessions to the ranks of the Church of Rome. Mr. Chairman, you will remember— for you have been faithful among the faithless, and have stood high in support of our Protestant principles. (Loud cheers.) [Yes, my Christian friends, honour to whom honour is due. While many a name that is now trumpeted on account of its so-called political expediency, its tact, its manoeuvring, its knowing how to shift the sail according to the veering wind of so-called prudence and expediency shall have the righteous contempt of posterity poured upon them, John Pemberton Plumptre, and such as he, shall receive its righteous praise.]—Yes, Sir, I say you can bear witness, because you have not been wanting at the post of observation and vigilance-that when we, of the Protestant Association, used to lift up our righteous protest against the insidious developments of Tractarianism, we were charged with being accusers of the brethren, with being full of doubts and suspicions and all bitter uncharitableness, because we dared to whisper, that however their face was towards the Church of England, their course was towards the Church of Rome. But now we are ac

quitted and cleared before a Christian community; for nothing can be