slumber and indifference, which so generally prevails, and from which the enemy has reaped such large advantages. In times so full of danger as the present, we would look to the Clergy as our spiritual guides and watchmen, hoping that on a day so much to be remembered, they will lead their flocks to the house of the Lord, that there they may praise him in the great congregation for past mercies; and beseech Him, that of His infinite mercy He would continue to protect our Church and Nation, which He has so wonderfully rescued in times of old. POETRY. NULLA PAX CUM ROMA. (For the Protestant Magazine.) Ho! Protestants! awake! awake! Foes our Throne and Altar shake- Ho! watchmen, warders, will ye sleep, Ye who Zion's trumpets heed, Aid her in her hour of need- Treach'ry lurks within the camp, Let not this your ardour damp- Pardons, penance, bans and bulls, By all that's sacred, all that's dear, By your faith, your hope, your fear--- Carnal weapons bear not ye, Sword and spear would feeble wax; LINES WRITTEN ON VISITING LOLLARD'S PIT, I. Such are thy tender mercies, tyrant Rome! The rack, the faggot, or the hated creed- Brief is thy whisper at the fatal tree, II. Here, in this pit, immortal Bilney stood, ON THE MINISTERIAL SCHEME OF EDUCATION. To cultivate the Public mind- To war against the GoD of Heav'n; And men unpunish'd dare blaspheme The King of Kings, and Judge Supreme. * Sir Walter Scott. MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS, IRELAND. In a recent number of the Magazine, we had the satisfaction to announce the defeat of the Popish attack on the Established Church, by the rejection of the Prisons Bill in the House of Lords. That right honorable house has entitled itself further to the gratitude of the country by making such wise and essential alterations in the Irish Municipal Corporations' Bill, as induced the framers of that measure to relinquish it. But in the next session it is to be brought forward again in a form that is expected to be agreeable to all parties. It is to be regretted that the lords should have agreed to the bill at all, even in principle, or listened to any accommodation whatever on a question of such vital importance. The plea that the three countries ought to be placed on an equality with regard to this measure cannot be sustained, because the case of Ireland stands on distinct and peculiar grounds. At the time when the Relief Bill was passed in 1829, it was urged by the advocates themselves of the Popish claims, that these corporations ought to be considered as a sufficient security for the safety of the Protestant church. To destroy them therefore would be a virtual infringement of the terms of that compact, and might lead to the final extinction of Protestantism in Ireland. This is a question of too much magnitude to be disposed of by a mere arrangement betwixt conflicting parties within the walls of parliament. The people of the United Kingdom are deeply interested, and ought to express their sentiments upon it. Of what use is it that England and Scotland return a majority of independent members, if the scale is to be turned against them, and that majority to be cut down, by an importation from Ireland of the partisans and nominees of the church of Rome. That unhappily is the case already, but it would be so to a much more fearful extent if any measure of this kind should be passed. Look for a moment at the demands of the Popish leaders for an equality of rights with England and Scotland. Why the house of lords had proposed the same qualification for Ireland as had been fixed for Great Britain, and yet the Papists are not satisfied! What does all this prove but that Rome now declares herself to be the enemy of social order as she ever has been of true religion? She is seeking to overturn all regular government, in order that by means of a wild and lawless democracy, she may sweep away, as with a hurricane, the established institutions of the land. On their ruin she would establish her own tyranny, not only over the persons but over the consciences of mankind. This she has done in Newfoundland. In a very brief space of time she has, by means of a low qualification of electors, nearly tantamount to household suffrage, brought that interesting and once thriving colony to the very brink of ruin. Give her once the command of all municipal and political power, and Ireland would soon become, probably to a more frightful extent, the theatre of the same scenes of cruelty and oppression which have been exhibited in Newfoundland. Her policy is, and always has been, to reduce a population to the lowest state of poverty, ignorance, and degradation, in order the more easily to render them the dupes and vassals of the priesthood. If the precedent of the Municipal Corporations in England could be applied to Ireland, it is a vicious one, and therefore not to be adopted. Suffer the fires of Birmingham to cast their light upon the question. There we have an example that a corporation formed on these democratic principles, instead of preserving order, is productive only of the most frightful outrages and disturbances, insomuch that the recently appointed magistrates are obliged to be superseded by a special act of parliament. The overthrow of the ancient chartered corporations in England has inflicted a severe wound on the monarchy, which has not yet been healed. Well did the learned counsel observe who argued against that measure before the lords: "Illa dies Utramque ducet ruinam." The fate of the Monarchy might be involved in that of the ancient Corporations. PROTESTANT OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION. (From the Liverpool Standard.) About a month since the following address was forwarded from this valuable association to the Archbishop of Canterbury, through the Rev. J. R. Connor. ADDRESS. "To his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and those other Lords Spiritual and Temporal, who supported his Grace's motion, for an address to her Majesty, upon the late ministerial proposal for an Education Grant. We, the undersigned members and friends of the Liverpool Protestant Operative Association, desire to express to your lordships, our most earnest and heartfelt sense of gratitude for your firm and Christian defence of Scriptural education, more especially at a time when the enemies of the pure Word of God are making such efforts to break down the barriers which exist between truth and falsehood. "The temperate and dignified, but at the same time uncompromising, course which your lordships felt it your duty to pursue, in opposing the late attempt to force upon the country (contrary to the wishes of nearly one-half the House of Commons, and the general sense of the nation as expressed by more than 3000 petitions), a grant for a system of education not only unscriptural in its character, but opposed to the Established Church and the Protestant institutions of the land, demand from the nation at large their most grateful acknowledgments, and for which we first offer our hearty thanks to our heavenly Father for his overruling Providence to this our native land. We rejoice to have the opportunity of thus expressing our gratitude to his Grace, who stood forth as the first prelate of the Church, and to your lordships, both spiritual and temporal, who so faithfully supported him in resisting the encroachments of those opposed to the true principles of Protestantism, which have existed for so many years as the bulwark of the English constitution." THE ARCHBISHOP'S REPLY. "Lambeth, Sept. 5. "Rev. Sir,—I trust that my absence from home on official duties, which occupied the whole of my time during the last three weeks of August, will plead my excuse for having so long delayed my acknowledgment of your letter, and of the address which accompanied it, from the members and friends of the Liverpool Protestant Operative Association. "I am exceedingly gratified by the approbation thus expressed of my conduct, and the attachment implied in that approbation to our National Church: and I beg you to assure the parties who have signed the address, that I consider it as an imperative duty to oppose every measure which may have the effect of depriving any portion of the people of that early instruction in the faith and fear of the Lord, which is only to be found in the Scriptures, and to which every child that is born in a christian country has an undoubted right. "I remain, reverend Sir, "Your humble and obedient servant, "W. CANTERBURY." EXTRACT FROM CORRESPONDENCE. Ir is pleasing to lay before the readers of the Protestant Magazine the following communication, if we regard the Christian spirit which it breathes, and the just and scriptural view which it entertains of the threatening aspect of the signs of the times. They who wish to assist the Protestant cause, may do so, it is humbly submitted, in a very effectual manner, by imitating the example of the excellent writer of the subjoined extract, in promoting the circulation of the Magazine, as a means of diffusing intelligence, and as a connecting link of the Protestant Association with its members. "My dear Sir, "Plymouth, Sept. 12th, 1839 "I have been endeavouring to circulate the Protestant Magazines, and shall endeavour to get subscribers to that most useful publication. The people here seem peculiarly ignorant of the rapid spread of Popery in our land. How fearful it is that such men as Shiel and Wyse should fill those high official stations! I pray the Lord to avert it; but it really does seem as if the Lord was about to command a sifting time for his church |