Holland-One, if not both of them, being reputed of Socinian sentiments, and Lord Holland actually being one of the last persons to whom Christians would confide the charge of public instruction. Both have received their training in the school of modern infidelity, have always been associated with it in all the relations of public life, and their whole ministerial career has been marked from the beginning to the present moment with the most virulent enmity to the National Church.

Rome, then, having secured to herself a stronger position in the State, proceeds as the presiding genius over a Board of Education created by herself, to dictate the terms on which the Grant of the House of Commons is to be distributed. A more exquisite piece of Jesuitism has seldom been exhibited. He makes it the first grand and indispensable condition, that the Board shall have the power of appointing Inspectors. But, being full of all subtlety and of great experience in plots and treasons, she is accustomed to take long views in the formation of her plans. She understands too when to bully and when to cajole, and knowing that the opinions of an overwhelming majority of the people of England have been recorded as hostile to this infamous project, she therefore judges it expedient to proceed with all due caution. in carrying it into effect. The harsh condition of Inspectorship must therefore be administered in the most palatable form. Every thing, of course, is to be made as agreeable as possible to all parties concerned, and to the members of the Church of England in particular. There is to be no interference with religion-no, nothing of the kind-and these so-much-dreaded Inspectors are to do nothing more than "collect facts." But in reply to this plausible proposal of the great Papal conspirator against all Governments, we have to observe, that facts must be collected for some object, and to be applied to some use. And our experience of the conduct of Rome in former matters of this kind has given us a little insight into her designs. In a publication of one of her own Societies, for such we consider the Central Society of Education, it is made a grand objection to our National Schools, that too much time is consumed in teaching the Catechism and Formularies of the Church of England. As we believe the Ministerial Scheme to be framed after the model of that of the Central Society, we cannot suppose that the same fact would fail to be reported by the proposed Government Inspectors. Again, in teaching the Apostles' Creed, the article, which expresses Faith in the Holy Catholic Church, would naturally be explained as having reference to the invisible Church of Christ, which is universal, and embracing all the nations of the earth, in opposition to the Church of Rome, which is partial, bigotted, exclusive, and confined. Then in another part of the Church Catechism which relates to the Sacraments, belief is expressed in two Sacraments

only, as necessary to salvation, and these ordained by Christ himself. This little word only, holds out a strong and decided protest against those Sacraments of the Church of Rome, which being of mere human fabrication, must therefore be considered in opposition to the two which were instituted by Christ. In teaching this portion of the Church Catechism an explanation would necessarily be given to this effect. But we cannot for a moment suppose that the Inspectors belonging to a Board erected and conducted under Popish influence, would allow such facts as the above to pass unnoticed, when we find in the same publication of the Central Society, that nothing, according to their system, is to be allowed to be said against the Church of Rome, any more than against the Church of England. The work from which we have quoted, as well as the system which it recommends, is completely of an Infidel character, and published under the direction of Mr. Wyse. We are justified in assuming that it will be handed over to the Committee of the Privy Council, to be adopted by them as the guide of their proceedings. But we need not long be at a loss to know the purposes for which the facts that may be collected by these Inspectors are to be applied. We are told in a Government Pamphlet, entitled "Recent Measures for the Promotion of Education in England," that the Infidel Monarch, Frederick II., of Prussia, was the first author of the Scheme of Education unhappily about to be established in this country. At last then the secret is out, the Conspiracy is brought to light. We believe that a compulsory system is intended to be introduced into England, similar to that which exists in the Continental States, and that the facts reported by the Inspectors will form the basis of this ultimate proceeding. If this be the object, we are indeed arrived at a crisis in which, according to the words of the immortal Nelson, "England expects every man to do his duty."

Our duty as Protestants must be discharged in a Christian spirit, and in the exercise of faith and prayer. At the same time we must seriously warn our fellow-countrymen, that a tyranny is rapidly approaching, such as was never yet felt or experienced in this our Christian land. It must be obvious to all who give the least attention to passing events, that both our Queen and Country are sold by men in power-literally sold—and actually delivered over into the hands of those who hate us, for the base consideration of "place," and a longer continuance in office. We believe the Queen of England to be virtually at this time as much a Vassal of the Church of Rome, as was the faithless John himself, when he crouched in abject submission at the feet of the Legate of the Pope. It is, we believe, by the hands of Popish intrigue, that serpents, morally speaking, have been conveyed into the apartments of the Palace, to be made the medium for infusing the deadly principles of Popery and modern Liberalism into the

mind of the royal victim. And we fear that the fatal effects may be too soon apparent. We live in continual apprehension that in each succeeding number of the Magazine, we may have to announce the signing of the death-warrant of our Religion and our Constitution, by the instrument of a marriage-contract which the agents of the Papacy are understood to be negociating for the youthful and unsuspecting Queen of England. We feel the present alarming period to be one of great anxiety, and loudly calling for strong supplications and prayer from every Christian on behalf of our Queen and Nation. For what else can we expect, but that national transgressions, such as this Ministerial Scheme of Education, and the presentation at Court, by Lord Melbourne, of the Leader of a body of avowed Atheists, must bring down national judgments on the land.

In these Regulations there is a hypocritical shew of preference to the existing Societies, the British and Foreign, and that of the National Schools, from which accustomed channels it is pretended that no deviation shall be made except for special cases; and one is, that of places in which the population is large and indigent. But this exception opens a sufficient door for the accomplishment of all the purposes that Rome and her confederates can wish for. It is in large manufacturing towns, such as Salford, (mentioned by Mr. Shiel in his speech), and in the suburbs of the Metropolis, where the population has rapidly increased, so as to outgrow the means of Church accommodation and Spiritual Instruction, that Popery and Infidelity are rife, and making the most fearful ravages. It is awful to think, that in such places as these the Grant will be distributed with profuse liberality, to the high gratification, no doubt, of the enemies of true religion, but to the eternal ruin of the rising generation and the souls of the children of the Poor.

In the midst of this dreary prospect there are a few green spots on which the mind can rest with satisfaction and with hope. The Wesleyan Methodists, always faithful to their country and the cause of true religion, have nobly refused to accept of any portion of the Grant. We hope and believe that the National School Society have also come to this conclusion. And we trust that every Clergyman will be of the same mind in this matter with one who recently declared in a public company, though greatly distressed for the means of building his School-rooms, "God forbid that ever I should touch the accursed thing." It is only by an inflexible determination never to concede a single point of religious principle in this arduous contest, that we can hope to be finally conquerors under the blessing of Almighty God. At the Battle of Waterloo the British Commander is said to have thrown himself into the midst of his troops, and with his watch in his hand, to have implored them to hold out a little longer, until the

Prussian succours should arrive, at the same time addressing them in these words: "What will they say in England if we are defeated?" We might enquire at this time, with the utmost reverence, since the conflict in which we are engaged, is purely one of a religious character, what would be said in heaven, if there should be any giving way in the ranks of Christians in such a cause? for we cannot but believe that the Angelic Hosts survey with intense interest the mighty struggle that is now going forward betwixt the Church of Christ and all the power of the enemy.

If it be asked is there then to be no public instruction for the people? We answer, Yes-the People shall be educated, and that too by the most legitimate and scriptural method, according to the wise institutions of our ancestors, and under the superintendence of the Clergy of the Land. They shall be educated according to the precepts of the Bible; in which it is written, "For the soul to be without knowledge is not good." The only proper and satisfying knowledge for an immortal soul must be of a religious nature, and taken from the word of the ever-living God. We may add further, that the people shall be educated without expense to the State. For we believe Education to be a work belonging to Christian Individuals, and Christian Churches. And after the great efforts which have been and are now being made by the National School Society, we do not despair that the undertaking may be accomplished out of the funds of private Benevolence. The revenues of the State might then be applied to the extension, so much wanted, of the means of Church accommodation.

Finally, as to the fruits to be expected in England from the establishment of the proposed Normal Schools, which derive both their name and their origin from the most sanguinary period of the French Revolution, we give the following passage from Dr. Southey's Account of the Result of the Experiment then made. "So notable a plan (as these Normal Schools,) excited great enthusiasm in Paris. It soon excited as much ridicule. In the course of three months both pupils and professors discovered in how absurd a situation they were placed. It was acknowledged in the National Convention that the scheme had altogether failed; and thus ended what was properly called, the organized quackery of the Normal Schools."

Meantime the irrecoverable years were passing on, and the rising generation were sacrificed to the crude theories and ridiculous experiments of sophists in power. When the subject was renewed under a Consular Government, the frightful consequences had become too plain to be dissembled. The following view of the moral and religious state of France is drawn up from Reports, which were sent in from every official department, in which it was acknowledged that the children throughout the

Republic had been left to run wild in idleness during the whole preceding course of the Revolution: They are without the idea of a God,' said the Report, without a notion of right and wrong. The barbarous manners, which have thus arisen, have produced a ferocious people, and we cannot but groan over the evils which threaten the present generation and the future.'

THE TENDENCY OF POPERY,

SHEWN IN SOME PLAIN REFLECTIONS ON THE

GUNPOWDER PLOT.

(BY A CLERGYMAN AT MANCHESTER.)

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"Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."—Gal. v., 1.

THE object of those who devised what is commonly called the GUNPOWDER PLOT, was, as the reader ought to know, to sacrifice the lives of King, Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled. Had not the superintending Providence of GoD averted the blow, what a night would that have been! How similar to that dreadful night when "there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead." (EXOD. xii c. 30 v.) What anarchy and confusion must have followed the success of the scheme! Truly, when so wonderfully delivered, we have full reason to exclaim, "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us; then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us." (Ps. cxxiv. v. 2. 3.)

"But what is that to us, in these latter days," many are wont to exclaim? I will briefly tell you. We are not invited to commemorate this sad event because it was a conspiracy; but because it was a conspiracy founded on Religious Principles. It is a remarkable circumstance, connected with the Gunpowder Plot, that the principal men who planned and devised it, were men who had a zeal after GOD, though not according to knowledge; men who verily thought within themselves that they ought to do many things contrary to the law of Jesus of Nazareth, as believed and expounded by Protestant Christians. They were not men bankrupt in purse, ruined in character, or to whom the elements of discord, strife and agitation were either congenial or necessary. On the contrary, they were men of acknowledged wealth and influence, men of supposed probity and integrity, men in private life esteemed, and in public life respected; and we have the recorded testimony of two of their number, and these, principals among them, that the desire to promote the glory of God, and zeal