subtle in diplomacy, the most artful in manœuvre, the most skilful in the science of government-men who have grown grey in the practices of their church; we have these men continually, a given number of them at least, in attendance at the Propaganda every day throughout the week-unless Sunday be excepted; we have there a number of secretaries, he tells me, who can write and read the languages of all the different parts of the world in which Rome has power; we have dispatches and letters going from the Propaganda to Ireland. to Canada, to America, to England, to Scotland, and to every part of the world. And there is not one mighty movement to be put forward, not one grand scheme to be attempted-no, not even from an endeavour to prevent a poor Protestant parson like myself from lifting his voice in the cause of Protestantism, up to the mighty movements of the Cabinet and the Court---not one single step but what is first deliberated on, digested, concocted, and determined on in the secret counsels of the Propaganda. Just conceive, then, what a mighty, fearful engine is here set at play; just conceive what a moral influence it brings to bear on the Popish party, while the Protestant party is deserted by its friends, and betrayed by its nominal adherents. Just conceive how we have all the mighty_force of the Romish Church brought to bear on old England—the Thermopyla of Protestantism at this moment. If the Pope and his emissaries win old England, they know they will win the world. Oh! my friends, we are fighting, not the battle of our country's freedom, our country's liberties, our country's church, our country's Bible alone; but we are fighting the battle of the spiritual liberties, the spiritual truth, the glorious Gospel, the salvation of a perishing world. If England fall, she cannot fall alone. Her going down must be like that of one of her glorious men of war, which in the vortex that it makes, sweeps and sucks down with it every lesser craft that comes within the whirl of the gulf and eddy that it makes as it descends. And therefore it is not a puny nor a paltry thing that awakens our zeal, or animates and stirs up our holy fire on this occasion. It is the battle of our Redeemer, of our common faith, and our common Christianity; not of Protestantism nakedly as a protest against Popery, but of Protestantism as involving the ark of God, "the truth as it is in Jesus," the destinies of the world. This-and nothing less-is the stake, for which we contend; this—and nothing less-is the watchword of the battle that we wage.

My lord, Popery cannot co-exist in power with Protestantism; she will endure no rival; she will use every addition of power to grasp at more; she will never rest satisfied while we have one tatter of our glorious constitution left; she will never rest satisfied till our kings kneel again in homage at the feet of the Pope, and receive their sceptre, as the Queen of Spain did lately, at his hand, and swear that they will tolerate no heretics in the land, but send us to the rack and the block. Then, and not till then, will she be satisfied; then, and not till then, may we expect that she will say, "It is enough." Till then, like the grave, or the horse-leech, she will never say, "Enough." Till then our concessions, by which we seek to pacify her, will only serve like pouring oil upon the flames, or taking drops from the ocean; we can never quench, we shall only kindle the one-we can never lave, we shall only enlarge and swell the amplitude of the waters of the other.

What, then, is to be done? One simple word will express it: REPEAL-REPEAL -REPEAL. Yes, my lord, they ply us with "Repeal" from the other side of the channel; and we will answer back, not boisterously and agitatingly, but calmly and loudly and emphatically-REPEAL-REPEAL FOR OLD ENGLAND! Yes, my lord, and if they find fault with us, we will answer-The fault is your own; be quiet, and we may perhaps try to be quiet. But you dare not; your priests will not let you ; your Pope will not let you; your principles will not let you. We pity you; but we deprecate and deplore your abominable system, that will not let you be quiet that will not let you enjoy the sweet land of your nativity, that will not let you join heart and hand with Protestant Christians for the common good of all, but will make you be sapping and mining and worming at the citadel, until you have overturned what remains of the Protestant constitution, and raised the altar of Rome on the ruins of the constitution of Old England.

Then, my lord, before I sit down-that I may complete my remarks on a motion so pregnant and so momentous-I would just briefly meet a few of those objections, that I see staring us in the face at the first step, at the very threshold of this attempt. And first of all, we are told-It is the law of the land, and are you clergy going to fight against the law of the land, and to resist it? My lord, we are not going to resist it, but to repeal it. While it is the law of the land, we will obey it, for God

has told us to "obey the powers that be;" but we never will sanction it ourselves, we will lift our voices against it, we would die saying, "No Popery, no Popery; repeal the Emancipation Act." We are told, that that great statesman, Pitt, said with his dying breath-"Oh! my country." I believe he said with a still later breath-(and it was meet and fit he should do so)" I, like too many more, have neglected prayer so much in my life-time, that I have little reason to think it will avail me now;" but springing up with wondrous energy, he threw himself forward and said—" I cast myself on the mercy of God, in Jesus Christ." But if these were his last words, as Bishop Tomline tells us they were (and meet and fit they were, resting on no priest for mercy and no crucifix for support, but on the crucified Saviour alone for acceptance with God)—yet we believe the next last words but these were-" Oh! my country, my country!" And were we dying-were that true-hearted, English, patriotic nobleman, occupying the chair, dying-I believe the next words to his last closing prayer committing his spirit to God might justly be-"Oh! my country, my country! beware of compromising the Reformation, beware of taking in Popery, beware of offending God, and so perishing for ever,"

My lord, I for one disapproved of the measure taken by this Society in getting up petitions against the Popish appointments; I refused to get up one in Manchester, or to have anything to do with it, because I thought it was opposing the law of the land. It is only consistent to put Papists into place, while the law of the land allows them to be put into place. And, my lord, allow me to say, we shall be but grasping at shadows and fighting in the mere outskirts, till we come to the citadel itself the Roman Catholic Relief Bill. You may lop off a few withered branches, you may let fall a few strokes: but till you repeal that Act, there is no security for our Protestant succession, there is no security for our Protestant ascendancy, there is no security for our Protestant church, no security for our consciences, Bibles, laws, liberties, lives. They are all at stake, till you fling round them the glorious rampart, that in an evil and sad day we gave up-God would never have given it up, but we were such traitors that we deserted it and gave it up.

My lord, we are told, as another formidable objection, that the Roman Catholic Relief Bill has not had a fair trial; that it only requires to be worked by Conservatives, and to be guarded against in its mischievous tendencies, and it will work harmoniously and well. In my solemn conscience I believe it, my lord, and I speak it not rashly or unadvisedly, that that Bill will never be worked by Conservative statesmen, until they come into place on the express understanding that they will try to work it off and work it away as soon as ever they can. I for one am determined, though I am no politician, save as a Christian citizen, and a Christian watchman on the walls of our Protestant Zion-I am resolved, (and I wish I may inspire the resolution into every free-man who has the responsible right of the elective franchise) what I will do when again I give my vote. For I vote, though I never canvass and never mingle in political squabbles; and I wish that our mendacious, liberal newspapers, while they speak of such meetings as these, would have the candour to speak of the priests in Ireland, who drag the trembling wretches to vote at the poll against their landlords and against their consciences; I wish they would show up John M'Hale leading a mob upon the hustings, at Castlebar, and seconding the nomination of the liberal candidate, because he was a supporter of Popery. Let them do evenhanded justice. I do not find fault with them for giving utterance to their sentiments, but if they would gag the mouths of Protestant parsons by a cry of 'Breaking the peace,' let them stop the mouths and the efforts of Popish agitators across the water too. Let them do justice to each party. But, my lord, I was going to remark, that I have formed a solemn resolution, that I will simply and merely write to the candidate who next presents himself at the borough in which I have a vote, and the county in which I also have a vote, and I will ask but this one question- Are you resolved, in your place in Parliament, to do what shall lie in you to uphold Protestantism and restore it to its integrity, and to oppose Popery and abase it into its only safe place?" And if he says, "Yes," he shall have my vote; above all, if he is a Christian man, that will give me his piety in pledge for his sincerity, so that I shall be able to reckon upon him, because he does not stand on the shifting sands of political expediency, but firm on the rock of the Word of God. Christian voters, will you go and do likewise? My lord, shall I be guilty of exaggeration if I compute, that in this vast assembly, containing a far greater proportion of men, than I ever saw within these walls-shall I be exaggerating, if I compute that there will be VOL. II.-June 1840.

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a hundred voters from a hundred different boroughs or counties throughout our great country? If those hundred men would adopt in prayerful sincerity and humility the resolution that I have pressed upon their minds, and would say to themselves, We will urge it upon our brother voters, we will moot the question boldly, and set an example at the next election-my lord, we should have a Protestant party, at the next election, in Parliament, that-not caring for Conservatism, nor Whiggism, nor Radicalism, nor bigotry, nor any other ism in comparison with "the truth as it is in Jesus"-would compel our Popish party into moderation and decency (if they can practise them), and coerce our time-serving Protestants into a manly avowal of Protestant principles, and a daring to tell forth the dictates of truth and conscience and Scripture, before the majority-no, then a minority on the other side of the house. Now, my Christian friends, we are sometimes tauntingly told-You get vast meetings, and you excite, and you agitate, and you declaim, and you clap your hands, and you go away and nothing is done. Here is a practical result, that will tell to an extent that God only can say what may be the ultimate consequence. Carry it out, my friends. Do not forget it when you leave this Hall; bear it to your country residences, to your country towns, and your villages, and say, We will have Protestant members in the next parliament; we will have none but sound Protestants. My lord we have heard much in latter times of unrepresented bodies in the state, and it was the great plea with the Papists that they were unrepresented; in a Protestant government they ought to be unrepresented, for they are there on toleration and sufferance, not by right-not by right-I say, not by right. It was their complaint, however, that they were unrepresented; and masses of our poor people complain that they are unrepresented. I am not going to moot any or either of these questions; but this I am going to declare-There is a vast, an intelligent, an influential, an honest, a sound-hearted, an English body in this nation, that is not fairly represented in Parliament. It is the Protestant part of this country, my lord. If there were a man in parliament, that had the boldness and the honour and the honesty to stand up, and God gave him the eloquence and mastery of mind that would command attention, and if he were to lift up the standard of Protestantism and unfurl it in the House, he would gather round it many of our timid men that are afraid for want of such a leader; I am persuaded that he would have a gathering and a growing party, as great, and greater than that of the good and holy Wilberforce-mistaken but in one point, and that one his charitableness towards Popery; good man! he could think no evil of any; but we are bidden to be "wise as serpents" though "harmless as doves," and a good man ought not to be a fool, though he ought to be a charitable man. I say, that such a man would gather round him a body of representatives of such a character; and more would be coming at every election to reinforce the little band, and they would soon be able to say to Her Majesty's ministers if in power, on the one hand, or to our Conservative leaders, if in power, on the other-" We are here, it is true, in the highest sense of the word, Conservatives, or Tories if you please to call us so, but we are Conservatives and Tories on far higher than perishing or party grounds; we are Conservatives and Tories on the grand ground, that we would conserve the State for the sake of the Church, and not the Church for the sake of the State; the Church first, the State next; the Bible first, man next; God first, the Queen next; eternity first, time next; principle first, expediency next." Would to God that such principles and sentiments as these were manfully and boldly avowed; we should soon have Sir Robert Peel and those that act with him using a different language, and they would begin to fear (if they did not fully sympathise in) the Protestant spirit of this great Christian country.

My lord there are two objections more, to which I will very briefly advert. The first is that the time is not yet come to moot the question. When will it be come, my Lord? Will it be come when nothing is left to contend for? Will it be come when the Papists have got such strength that they will just laugh at our puny efforts? Will it be come, when they have their foot upon us and trample us in the dust? Will it be come when our Lord Lieutenantcy is gone, when our Lord Chancellorship is gone, and our monarchy, it may be, is gone?-when they will seek to set aside the law of succession, and to make it lawful that a Papist should hold the sceptre of England? My lord, it is no wild idea that they should do so; they are already planning it and plotting it in the back ground, and we might see it in the leaving out the word "Protestant -thanks be to the Duke of Wellington, that it was not left out. Yes my Lord, I trust it is a sign, that the hero of a hundred fields,

and the conqueror in every one of them, who never took a step in retreat, till the hapless one he took in St. Stephen's in the case of the Roman Catholic Relief Acta sign, I trust, (in the language of my esteemed friend, if he will allow me to call him, The Chisholm) that he has determined no longer only to seek to keep what we have got, but that he has taken a step in advance, and is going to repair the injury which he did. My lord, if the Duke of Wellington would come forward and head the Protestant party, and try to leave our glorious Constitution integral and perfect as he found it, it might be said, he had added to the laurels of Waterloo, and of a hundred fields, the more glorious laurel of having conquered the pride of consistency, and dared, when he was mistaken, to correct his error. That, my lord, would emblazon his name on the records of our nation, with a brilliancy of light, and an imperishable glory, that would cast all his other achievements into the shade; for "he that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city;" and he that has the moral courage to acknowledge when he has done wrong, and try to undo the wrong that he has done, is the noblest victor in the sight of God and man; for he conquers that spirit, that often remains unconquered in the breast of the conqueror of everything beside.

My lord, there is but one more, the last objection that I shall advert to-and I beg pardon of my brother M'Ghee for keeping him so long from addressing you. This objection is perhaps the most formidable of all. We are told again and again, You are attempting an impossibility. I have no doubt that many of my cooler friends behind quite accord in that sentiment-(Cries of "No, No," from that quarter.) Pardon me, then, my friends, for suspecting that the thermometer of my blood was higher than yours; but I would just notice the objection, as I have ventured to name it. If you cannot go along with the Protestant Association in this one point, why not go along with it as far as you can ? We are not urging the repeal of the Roman Catholic Relief Act, as though it were the only object of this Association. The one object of the Society is to uphold Protestant Christianity in its purity and integrity, and to defend our country from the curse of Popery and the Pope. You are all of one mind on that. Then, my friends, let us agree to differ, and differ to agree on this point; but let us be of one heart and hand for our common Protestant Christianity.

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My lord, that it is impossible is deemed I believe in the Parliament a thing as clear as any problem in Euclid is to the greatest mathematician in our Universities. the leader of Conservatism, I believe, himself said "Repeal the Roman Catholic Relief Bill! they might as well attempt to stop the seasons." Now I would remind that Right Hon. Baronet, that as wonderful things as stopping the seasons have been done. I would remind him, that there was a lowly leader of the Lord's chosen people, fighting against the uncircumcised that were doomed to destruction, who said, "Sun, stand thou still in Gideon, and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon;" and it was done; because the voice of the man was the echo of the voice of the Maker of the sun and the moon and the stars. And, my lord, "if God be for us " now, "who shall be against us?" If it is the cause of Christianity and of Christ, He for us, it matters not who is against us. "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ?-shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us."

My lord, we believe it is not a political, but a religious question, that we are advocating. The question is not whether Conservatism or Whiggery are to be in power and place, but whether Popery or Protestantism is to be the religion of Old England; whether the blood of martyrs is to be trampled in the dust, or the glorious fabric they cemented with their blood is to stand intact and undestroyed for our children and our children's children, till Old England shall be no more.

We do not understand it here, my lord, as they do in Ireland. When there a few weeks ago, nothing struck me more than this-and my brother M'Ghee will bear me out in saying it-in Ireland you do not hear of Radicalism, Toryism, Whiggery, Chartism, and all the subdivisions that break up our political strength, and sow discord and disunion among us here; but you find only two grand parties absorbing all others; and they are baptised by two names, not political, but religious-the Popish party on the one hand, and the Protestant party on the other. It is not this leader against that leader, nor this partisan body against that partisan body; but is is Popery against Protestantism, and Protestantism against Popery. And it will be soon on this side the water the same. All men must take their place, and stand in

it; all men must fall into rank. The Conservative trimmers must either boldly go into the Popish camp, or come back firmly to the Protestant side. And my lord, the sooner it comes the better; the less terrible will be the struggle-the more speedy will be the issue -the more pacific will be the result-the more glory will be brought to God, the more "peace to earth," the more "good will towards men"-the more strength, stability, beauty, and benediction to our ransomed and rescued country. And, therefore, my lord, if God be for us, and our watchword be, For God, our altar, our church, our Bible,' I think we may say in the language of one of old"Nil desperandum Te duce," "nil desperandum Te duce."

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The Resolution was carried with one dissentient.

J. HARDY, Esq. moved the third Resolution,-"That the invasion and subversion "of Protestant principles and Protestant institutions by the political influence and power of the Papacy, as exhibited in the education schemes for this country and "Ireland, the attempted appropriation of Protestant property to Popish purposes "in Canada, the proposed payment of Popish chaplains in the prisons, and the con"stant development and increasing activity of Popery at home and abroad, render "it necessary that efficient measures be taken to diffuse among all Protestants "information as to the perjury, the perfidy, and the tyranny of the Church of Rome, "and to call on all Protestants, of every denomination, as men and as Christians, to send representatives to Parliament who will maintain our Protestant principles "and Protestant institutions, who will endeavour to deliver themselves and their country from the yoke of Papal tyranny, and their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects "from an anti-Christian system alike hostile to the word of God and destructive of "the temporal and eternal welfare of the human race." (Hear, hear.)

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The Hon. Gentleman, in allusion to his former support of the Catholic Emancipation Act, said, that both he and the country had been grossly deceived by the false professions which the Roman Catholics made in order to wheedle the Legislature into a compliance with their wishes; and now, of all their promises, and all their oaths, too, it might be said to England as it was said to the Church of Ephesus of old," Thou hast tried them, and found them to be liars." ("Hear," and cheers.) The Rev. J. R. M'GHEE, on coming forward to second the Resolution, was greeted with loud and prolonged applause. He hoped he should be obliged to propose some practical mode of carrying out the principle for which Mr. Stowell had pleaded-the restoration of Protestantism in the British empire. Taking up the several topics of the Resolution, the Rev. Gentleman observed, first, that the question of education lies in a nutshell. It was said, "You established schools for the purpose of coercing men, and making it imperative that they should read the Scriptures." The answer is,-" God has made it imperative on men and children that they should be taught the Scriptures, and you have no right to contravene the will of God in order to accommodate yourself to the guilty apostacy of your fellow-worm." ("Hear, hear," and applause.) The " perjury, perfidy, and tyranny of the Church of Rome," was proved by the conduct of the Romish Bishops in introducing Papal laws into Ireland to supersede the laws of the lawful sovereign, and in organizing and upholding a system of sedition there. Independent of their evidence before both Houses of Parliament, they published a declaration, in the form of an oath, denying the principles of not keeping faith with heretics, of persecuting Protestants, of interfering with the property of the Established Church of Ireland or with the forfeited estates, and also denying that the Pope had any authority directly or indirectly in these realms. But what were the facts? From the time that Maynooth College was founded, the Propaganda de Fide prescribed the books to be used there, and the system of theology to be taught to the Priests, in which system all those very principles which those persons had denied upon their oaths were insisted upon as matters of conscience. (Hear.) It was held that any person having been baptized in any other community was a subject of the Pope, a deserter from the true Church, and must be brought in by force. A law for the restitution of the forfeited estates in Ireland was recognised, notwithstanding all the solemn asseverations of Dr. Murray and Dr. Doyle to the contrary. (Hear.) Lord Plunkett, the present Lord Chancellor for Ireland, when Attorney-General, produced evidence in public court that there were clubs formed in Ireland confined exclusively to Roman Catholics, and this organization had been proved by subsequent and abundant evidence, as well as that the members of these clubs are sworn to obedience to the Church of Rome, to recover the forfeited estates, to exterminate Protestants from Ireland, and to throw off the