College of Maynooth-viz., Lord Fingal, Lord Ffrench, Sir Patrick Bellew, and Mr. Hussey-had an interesting interview yesterday with his excellency the Lord-lieutenant, at the Viceregal Lodge, for the purpose of soliciting an increase of the grant to Maynooth College; and also for the extension of similar grants to provincial establishments for ecclesiastical education. We understand that the deputation met with a most gracious reception from his excellency." We make no comment here on this valuable and striking piece of information, as our readers will see in our address that allusion is made to the subject, and to the course of action proposed by the Protestant Association. ROMISH MODE OF PROSELYTING.-(To the Editor of the Wolverhampton Chronicle.)" Sir, I beg your insertion of the following facts; they need no comment, and I shall therefore add none :-I have connected with my church at Bilston a society for the distribution of religious tracts in my district of the parish ; these tracts are enclosed in a cover, bearing the name of the minister of the district, and containing a few words of admonition to the readers. Last week, Mr. John Hutton, one of those who kindly perform the office of distribution, brought to my curate, the Rev. J. E. Troughton, four Romish tracts under my covers, which had been circulated as if under my direction. The St. Mary tracts had been torn out, and these Romish tracts substituted in their place. I shall send the tracts in question to your office, in the humble hope that my brethren in the neighbourhood who may chance to read this paragraph may be upon their guard against a similar ingenuity. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, “J. B. OWEN, Incumbent of St. Mary, Bilston.", PROTESTANT MEETING AT KEnnington.-A crowded and highly respectable meeting was held at the Horns Tavern, Kennington, on Friday, Dec. 14th, Capt. Alsager, M.P., presided, and the meeting was ably addressed by the Rev. W. Curling, Rev. M. Hobart Seymour, Rev. Dr. Kenney, John Woolley, Esq., James Cummins, Esq., and Macleod Wylie, Esq. A petition against the annual grant to Maynooth was adopted, and received nearly five hundred signatures; and a collection of £ 13 was made at the doors. PROTESTANT Meetings at WARRINGTON.-On Tuesday, the 11th Dec., the anniversary meeting of the Warrington Protestant Association was held at eleven o'clock, at the Lion Hotel, Warrington. The attendance was numerous and respectable, Trafford Trafford, Esq. in the chair. The meeting was addressed by the Rev. J. Wright, Rev. Thomas Nolan, and a very powerful speech was delivered by the Rev. Dr. O'Sullivan. An evening meeting was likewise held the same day, which was densely crowded. PROTESTANT MEETING AT ASHBY-DE-LA-ZOUCH.-The third annual meeting of the Loughborough and Ashby Protestant Tract Society was held on Wednesday, November 21st, at the Royal Hotel, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, when W. W. Abney, Esq. of Measham Hall, presided, and very able speeches were delivered by the Rev. M. D. Babington, E. B. Farnham, Esq., M.P., Rev. F. Merewether, W. Herrick, Esq., Rev. E. H. Hoare, Rev. J. Piddocke, Rev. J. C. Moore, Rev. T. Fell, Rev. W. Holme, Rev. J. Dalby, and the Rev. E. C. B. Cave. At the meeting of the Presbytery of Greenock, Dec. 5th, notice of a motion was given to be brought forward at the next meeting in February,-That the Presbytery petition Parliament for the repeal of the Catholic Emancipation Bill. OTHER RECENT PROTESTANT MEETINGS.-We regret that our limits do not allow us at present any detailed account of the fine demonstrations of protestant feeling which have been witnessed in different parts of the country. At Hereford, Liverpool, Guildford, Manchester, and other places, there have been crowded and enthusiastic meetings. Reports of some of them have been published, and can be obtained at the office of the Protestant Association. We can heartily recommend them to our readers. PROTESTANT MAGAZINE. FEBRUARY 1, 1839. EXCLUSION OF PAPISTS FROM PARLIAMENT. "Ex illo retrò fluere et sublapsa referri res Danâum."-ÆNEID. And ebb'd much faster than it flow'd before."-DRYDen. A FORM of petition on this subject, recommended by the committee, was laid before the readers of the Magazine in the first number. The Protestant Association have determined that the repeal of that fatal enactment commonly known by the title of the Roman-catholic Relief Bill, is án object for which it is their duty to strive by every lawful means, in order to restore the integrity of our protestant constitution, and to reinstate every freeborn Englishman in the full possession of his birth-right. The question is no longer that of an untried theory, or one of mere abstract speculation; it is unhappily decided already by the irresistible testimony of bitter experience. After a lapse of nearly ten years, the nation has now arrived at a position to be enabled to judge of this disastrous measure from its practical consequences. Space is wanting at present to enumerate these consequences in detail. But it can be clearly proved, that the country is fully entitled to the repeal of the act in question, on the ground of the violation by the Romanists themselves of all those engagements which were framed under the weak supposition that they would prove a security for our protestant institutions. So far from this, the measure in its effects has shaken terribly both the altar and the throne, and given to the church of Rome a vantage-ground and elevation from which she already begins to anticipate the day when our beloved country shall again be subjugated to the papal yoke. Rome has, in fact, acquired that preponderating influence in the national councils, and that degree of political power, whereby she virtually exercises a "jurisdiction in these realms," from which she had long been excluded by the wisdom and piety of our ancestors, and which, in the Articles of the Church of England, we deny that she ought to have. Let, then, a sense of the dangers to which we are exVOL. I.-Feb. 1839. C posed, and from which no individual can be exempt, awaken us to the duty of petitioning for the repeal of a statute which has placed the country in these awful circumstances. Are we not as a nation evidently withering beneath the divine displeasure, and can we as a Christian land expect a blessing from the Most High whilst we remain in alliance with an idolatrous and apostate church? The Duke of Newcastle nobly led the way last session by presenting the first petition on the subject to the House of Lords. He was ably supported by the Earl of Winchilsea and Viscount Lorton. The discussion which arose was interesting, and of beneficial tendency. Nor can it be denied that the question was fairly and respectfully entertained. The formidable task of presentation to the House of Commons was admirably performed by John Pemberton Plumptre, Esq., who was seconded by Sir Robert Harry Inglis. Here the petition had to encounter a strong opposition; yet, in spite of all obstacles, the way seemed at length to be providentially opened for its reception. Those of the Romanist and self-styled liberal party treated it with the utmost derision and contempt. And cause of real triumph would indeed be afforded them, if after this first attempt the Protestants of England should relax in their constitutional efforts, or recede from their determination, to recover their lost inheritance. May we not rather say, looking at the present critical position of our country with reference to the church of Rome, that the time is now arrived, and the case has arisen, when Sir Robert Peel may be fairly called upon to redeem the pledge which he gave on introducing this obnoxious bill into the House of Commons? The following is an extract from the speech he then delivered : "If, unhappily, my expectations (of domestic peace) shall be disappointed; if, unhappily, civil strife and contention shall take place; if the differences existing between us do not arise from artificial distinctions and unequal privileges; if, on the contrary, there be something in the character of the Roman-catholic religion not to be intrusted with a participation in equal privileges, or anything short of superiority; still I shall be content to make the trial. If the battle must be fought, if the contest cannot be averted, let the worst come to the worst-the battle shall be fought for other objects, the contest shall be on other ground; the struggle will be, not for equality of civil rights, but for the predominancy of an intolerant religion; and, I say, we can fight that battle to greater advantage, if, indeed, these more gloomy predictions shall be fulfilled, and our more favourable hopes shall not be verified,-we can fight that battle against the predominance of an intolerant religion more advantageously after this measure has passed than we could at present." Can we conclude these remarks better than in the language of the ably-conducted journal* to which the public are indebted for the above quotation?" The time is come; there is a strugglean aggressive struggle-on the part of those whose hands Protestants have unfettered by the so-called Emancipation Bill. It cannot be any longer said, that it is for an equality of civil rights. For what, then, can it be, but for the predominance of an intolerant religion?"" 6 The petition lies for signature at the Society's Office, No. 2, Exeter Hall; and the committee express their hope that the example of the Protestant Association will be followed generally throughout the country. MAYNOOTH COLLEGE. In the last Number was inserted the petition recommended by the Committee of the Protestant Association on this subject. They have since printed a circular, to be sent to their friends throughout the country, for the purpose of urging the necessity of increased exertions, during the ensuing session, against the annual grant of public money to a seminary for propagating principles of sedition, idolatry, and religious animosity, in Ireland. On a question of this kind, affecting so deeply the interests of Great Britain, both in a religious and constitutional point of view, the opinion of a truly liberal and conscientious statesman, the late Mr. Wilberforce, must be received as high and decisive authority. That opinion is fully stated in the following letter to his friend, William Hey, Esq. : : London, April 2, 1807. "MY DEAR SIR,-I am uncomfortably circumstanced, in respect to the late ministry. They (at least, the leading members of the cabinet) supported the Abolition Bill so strenuously, and were, to such a degree, the instruments of our success, that it gives me pain to appear to desert them, so soon as they have done me all the good they could. I am glad that I happened, some time ago, to state to Lord Grenville my difference of opinion, as to the right policy to be observed towards the Roman catholics in Ireland; that, after all you could grant them, so much would still remain behind as to prevent their being ever cordially attached to a protestant government, of which a protestant church establishment formed a part; that so long as the bulk of the Irish should be Roman catholics, the protestants, and the friends of Great Britain, would be, in truth, a garrison in an * See Times, December 31st, 1838. enemy's country; and that our great endeavour ought to be, to enlighten, and thereby, as I trust, to convert the Roman catholics. Much, I verily believe, might be done in that way in twenty or thirty years; and on the contrary, the College of Maynooth, [a vote for the doubling the foundation of which passed a few weeks ago, so as to send out four hundred Roman-catholic priests every four years, the most pernicious measure, in my judgment, which has been assented to for many years,] the College of Maynooth alone will, if not checked, increase beyond measure the Roman-catholic body." * * * But as facts, as well as authorities, must be appealed to against Maynooth, the Committee of the Protestant Association have published the two following tracts on the subject, which they earnestly recommend to the attentive perusal of their readers :The Speech of J. C. Colquhoun, Esq., M. P., against the Maynooth College Grant. The Popish College of Maynooth, by the Author of " Progress of Popery." ILLUSTRATIONS. BY CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. NO. II. If it were possible from some elevated seat to take a bird's-eye view of the British isles, with power to recognise and to trace the actual workings of hostile agency throughout their length and breadth, the spectacle would resemble what I have sometimes looked down upon with mingled admiration and repugnance. Popery would be seen, like an ugly black spider, busily employed in manufacturing, spreading, and strengthening a web, that from the delicacy of its texture is scarcely yet perceptible to a heedless eye, though the skilfulness of its arrangements, and the unity of design pervading every part, render it all-sufficient for the destructive purposes contemplated by the wily artisan. Here we behold a delicate filament stretching across from point to point, seemingly too slight to answer any important end; there, a number of radii, diverging from the central station, judiciously intersecting the external cords, so as to bring them into immediate communication with the innermost recess, and bid them announce the faintest vibratory contact to the concealed watcher within. Not a shoot can issue from the shrubs below, nor a nail protend from the building behind, nor a brick present its irregular surface, but each and all will be made subservient to the grand design. Meanwhile, the artist, with noiseless rapidity, unwearied diligence, and undivided attention, pursues the work, instinctively anticipating the moment when all other occupation |