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CLERGY RESERVES.-It is with infinite regret we notice the compromize made on this subject between the Government and the Archbishop of Canterbury. By it, the Papists in Upper Canada become entitled to a share in a fund originally most strictly settled on "the Protestant Clergy." We regret this part of the new scheme as a most unhappy and unnecessary dereliction of sound principle, and a melancholy sign of the times.

Since our last number, the Finsbury Operative Protestant Association has had another meeting, at which The Chisholme presided. An excellent lecture was delivered by Mr. Callow, and some interesting speeches were made by the Chairman, G. Holden, Esq., and M. Wylie, Esq. On the 8th July the Tower Hamlets Protestant Association had its first meeting; the Rev. A. A. Champneys was in the Chair; Mr. Holden, Mr. Dalton, &c., ably addressed the meeting, which appeared to be calculated to do much good and which produced much satisfaction. On the 19th, the Rev. Robert Montgomery, of Glasgow (author of the Omnipresence of the Deity), preached a most eloquent sermon for the Protestant Association of St. Paul's Episcopal Chapel, Vauxhall. Branch Protestant Associations have been formed at Sudbury, and Colchester, and much progress has been made with some Societies in the county of Kent.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Our friend "E. T." will find in the Rev. Thomas Lathbury's work, called "The Fifth of November," a full account of the conspirators. We believe that excellent little book is now out of print, but we hope that it will soon be reprinted.

The excellent prayer of the Rev. Wm. Howels has been published in No. XVIII. of the Magazine, page 171. Could Captain Downs send us the whole Petition?

We believe that it is true that the Papists headed the Temperance procession in London on Whit-monday, bearing wands with a crucifix top. We have heard other facts showing the artful use made by the Papists of some of these Temperance Societies, especially in Ireland.

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Our correspondent Beta," will see that we are already supplied with an article on the subject of Church Extension.

The third sentence, commencing "First of all", in page 213 of the last Magazine, and ending "in which I was immersed," was from Calvin; whose naine was omitted.

We thank a "Subscriber to the Protestant Association." His letter was read to the Committee as he desired.

Thomas Wilson, Esq. of Highbury, is the Treasurer of the Fund for the Relief of the Queen of Tahiti; but Subscriptions would also gladly be received at the Office of the Protestant Association.

In common with our correspondent who signs, "Nulla Pax cum Roma," we deprecate the sentiments in the pamphlet he has sent us, and the disingenuous mode of its circulation.

We have received the letters of "C. J. E." and "J.”

In answer to our valued friend at Elgin, we must say that we are not insensible of the important advantage gained by Major Bruce's conduct in Parliament, with reference to the Neapolitan Protestants; and we hope that the questions put by that honorable member will produce a very beneficial effect, by showing that the attention of the English Parliament, and of the Foreign Secretary, has been called to the matter, and that it has been taken up by so deservedly respected a gentleman as Major Cumming Bruce.

We have to repeat that any Subscriber of 10s. annually and upwards, may receive a copy of the Magazine by sending to the Office; but the plan of sending the Magazine round has been reluctantly given up, the expense having been found too heavy.

THE

PROTESTANT MAGAZINE.

SEPTEMBER 1, 1840.

THE LATE SESSION:

WITH PROTEST OF BISHOP OF EXETER, AND CLERGY RESERVES

PETITION.

ANOTHER Session of the Imperial Parliament of the United Kingdom has terminated, Her Majesty having prorogued the two Houses in person on the 11th ultimo. Happy should we be if at this momentous period we could discover in the spirit and proceedings of the Great Council of the Nation anything to inspire hope or confidence in the minds of those who, inasmuch as they wish to preserve inviolate the Christian character of the British Constitution, are Conservatives in the highest sense of the term. From the House of Commons, which had been revolutionized by opening its doors to Papists, Socinians, and enemies of Religion of every description, we had long ceased to expect any other than baneful and anti-christian measures. Yet at the same time we had hoped that the Democratic Branch of the Legislature would have been held in check by the House of Lords, as we acknowledge with thankfulness that it had previously been in a considerable degree. But in the last Session we are sorry to observe that the same firmness of principle does not appear to have been so consistently maintained by the hereditary Statesmen of the Land. Great and vital questions deeply affecting the religious interests of the Nation have been grievously compromised. By the abolition of the Protestant Corporations in Ireland, the power of the Romish party is greatly increased, whilst their animosity is not at all appeased. There is every reason to fear that the Established Church in that Country will be placed in greater jeopardy than ever, and that a still larger majority of Members will be returned to Parliament favourable to the hostile projects of the Church of Rome against Great Britain. The Bishop of Exeter particularly distinguished himself by his bold and persevering resistance to this measure. We have subjoined his Protest against it.

Another act of Government which had been severely contested in both Houses in the Session preceding the one which has just expired, was the appointment by the Crown of the Privy Council VOL. II.-September 1840.

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Committee of Education. Never perhaps was public opinion more decidedly expressed against a proceeding of any Administration. It was loudly and justly condemned from one end of the Kingdom to the other as violating every principle both of Christianity and the Constitution of the Land. Yet in the present Session of Parliament all these sacred principles have been tamely surrendered without a struggle in either House, in consequence of an accommodation having been made by Ministers with the Archbishop of Canterbury on certain points of detail in the mere practical administration of the plan. In the Peers not a single question was asked, and the only remark in the Commons was by Mr Goulburn, who regretted that the Grant had not been made with the concurrence of the other Branch of the Legislature by means of an Act of Parliament. For the utter abandonment of all principle in this transaction there can be no apology. The Privy Council Committee is now firmly and perhaps irreversibly established. Who shall say that this proceeding may not be the first step to the revival of a Spiritual Star Chamber, or to the establishment of a Popish Inquisition in the Land? At any rate what is there now to prevent the public revenue of this Christian Country from being applied in support of Schools where no religion is taught, or for the propagation of Popery or Socinianism, Infidelity, or false religion in any form whatever? Every one who has attended to the proceedings connected with the Institution of this Board, must be satisfied that it was nothing else than an engine framed by Popery and Infidelity for the overthrow of the ancient Institutions of the Land, especially the Established Church. Since then these anti-christian confederates have thus far succeeded, it can hardly be supposed that they will fail to proceed to the final accomplishment of their aims. We see that the Revolutionary party are already preparing to profit by the example exhibited in the Education Scheme of legislating without the House of Lords! Mr. Gillon has given notice of an address to the Crown and a motion for a Grant of money for the support of Mechanics' Institutions. Mr. Wakley has given a similar kind of notice for money from Parliament to build a Trades'-hall for the Working Classes.

The next lamentable compromise of the Session is one by which the Clergy Reserves in Canada have been, we must say, flagitiously confiscated and alienated from their express and original purpose of maintaining the Protestant Religion in that Colony. And this has been done in violation of an Act of Parliament still remaining in force, and which prescribed that these Reserves should be set apart and appropriated to the maintenance of the "Protestant Clergy" in Canada. By the new Act, which is in direct contravention of the original Statute of George III., liberty is given to the Governor in Council to dispose of a portion

of these Reserves in any way that he pleases, and there is nothing to exclude Papists, who already share Government patronage, from a participation in them. It is quite clear that the object of this most iniquitous measure was to admit the Papists, else why refuse to adopt the restrictive term, "Protestant," as was suggested by the Bishop of Exeter. After this shameful spoliation of Church Property in the Colonies, where is our security for Church Property in England, or in fact for any property whatever? Against this illegal and unjust proceeding a petition was presented to the House of Lords from the Committee of the Protestant Association, of which a copy is annexed to this Article.

If we take a view of the other proceedings of the House of Commons, we must acknowledge that Lord Stanley has rendered essential services to the Protestant cause by his able exposure of the frauds and vices committed in the Registration of Voters for Ireland. In consequence of these frauds, a large portion of the Irish Members are returned to Parliament, not by the free and legal suffrages of the people, but by the influence and intimidation of the Popish Priesthood. And it is by this wicked and corrupt abuse of the elective franchise, that the present Popish Adminis trators are enabled to command a Majority in Parliament, and to direct measures of State with such pernicious effect against the Established Religion and the Protestant Institutions. Hence it was that Ministers supported their Master, O'Connell, in using the most dishonest means to prevent, as they finally did, “ by the clock," the progress of Lord Stanley's Bill, upon which in almost every Division the Conservatives had been triumphant. Yet after all these victories Sir Robert Peel, the Leader of the most powerful Opposition that perhaps was ever witnessed in a British Parliament, pursued in the close of the Session a wretched temporising system of tactics, calculated we must say to chill the ardour of Conservative feeling in the Country. He was silent on the Education question, and gave his cordial support to the New Canada Clergy Reserves Bill, as well as to the Union of the two Provinces, against which Act, the Duke of Wellington entered his Protest on the Lords' Journals. Concession on points of principle is always bad policy, but especially in times like the present. It was not by yielding to the torrent of the first French Revolution, but by stemming it with hearts of controversy, that such men as George III., Mr. Pitt, Mr. Wilberforce, and the Constitutional Whigs of those days, who for that purpose joined Mr. Pitt, (we refer to Mr. Burke, Mr. Windham, the Duke of Portland, Earl Fitzwilliam, &c. &c.), prevented the horrors of the first Revolution in France from being extended to our own shore. And there are too many indications, both in and out of Parliament, that the same Spirit which has already set the world on fire, and is set on fire by Hell, is actively at work in this Country. Measures have passed the House of Commons in the last Session which ought

never for a moment to have been entertained in a British Parliament. We here particularly allude to the Bill for allowing Affirmations to be made in lieu of Oaths, and to that for the virtual repeal of Church Rates, by authorizing the release of a misguided but most mischievous recusant without payment of the costs. And we observe that notice has been given of a proposition to be made in the next Session to extend the elective franchise to Householders.

We lament that in the Session now concluded there was so little manifestation of Protestant feeling in either House, and so little anxiety to support those great Christian principles on which the British Constitution is based, by which the throne is upheld, and to which every individual in the Empire, from the Sovereign to the Peasant, is required to render homage and allegiance. As little desire was manifested to vindicate the honour of God, or to check blasphemy and irreligion.

In the Peers the Bishop of Exeter called the attention of the House to the diabolical system of Socialism, but in the Commons we are not aware that it was ever adverted to. No attempt has been made to check the circulation of those impious, obscene, and seditious publications with which the Country is inundated. On the contrary, new taxes have been imposed to make up the Deficiency in the Revenue occasioned it cannot be denied in part by a reduction in the duty on Sunday Newspapers, and others of a levelling, profane, and demoralizing tendency. But the most alarming symptom of the times, inasmuch as it indicates a general decline in the piety of the Country, is the general indifference that is felt on account of the progress of Popery and Socinianism, and a disposition to be sceptical on every question, even where revealed truth is at stake. We live in times when men seem carried away by a love of Gain or pleasure or a desire of eminence. All seek their own and not the things that are Christ's. Little attention is paid to the judgments impending over the Country. But we are informed in Scripture, that they who go after another God shall have great trouble. And ours is the Sin of the People of Israel, of whom it is said in the Scriptures of Divine Truth, "My people have forsaken the fountain of living waters and made to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which hold no water." In the midst of such alarming times, when in the wide field of human affairs there is not a single bright spot on which the mind can rest with any satisfaction, it must be obvious that personal religion ought with every one to be the first and grand concern. But let us not forget that as citizens of a free state, we are invested with public duties to which we ought to attend, and particularly in the exercise of the Elective Franchise, to vote for Members of Parliament who will uphold the Protestant Religion and Constitution of this mighty empire. We believe that there is no safety for either as long as the present

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