"The christian solicitude evinced by your Majesty to succour the persecuted inhabitants of the Ziller Valleys, the promptitude with which your Majesty acted in their behalf, when the cry of oppression and distress entered your Majesty's royal ear, and the happy homes provided for those who were rendered outcasts and destitute for their attachment to God's word, demand from us expressions of unmeasured praise. 66 Experiencing as we now do, even in this Protestant country, the pressure of the fearful power of Rome, we are the more sensible of the difficulties with which your Majesty is surrounded, and can the more fully appreciate the heroic and christian firmness with which your Majesty has opposed her encroachments. "Having observed with intense interest the noble stand which your Majesty has made in resisting the usurpations of the Papal See, and believing that the strength with which such a formidable power can be effectually resisted must come from above, we beg leave most respectfully to assure your Majesty that our prayers shall be offered up to God that your Majesty may long be spared to throw the shield of your Majesty's protection around His truth and His people, and that your Majesty may not only be a father to your Majesty's faithful subjects, but a father in Israel among those who honour and adore that name at which every knee shall bow." NOTICES OF BOOKS. WE beg to recommend the following Publications: A Course of Sermons on the principal Errors of the Church of Rome. Preached in St. Andrew's Church, Liverpool. A Course of Sermons on Romanism. Preached in St. Michael's Church, Liverpool. Importance of the Controversy between the Church of England and the Church of Rome. By the Rev. Hugh Stowell. The Third Address of the Herts Reformation and Protestant Association on the duty of Prayer at this time. Signed by the Rev. E. Bickersteth, F. J. Faithful, and J. Olive. An Address to Protestant Parents. A small Tract adapted for the Poor. Signed, A Friend. The following Tracts have been recently published by the Protestant Association. Jezebel. A Speech of the Rev. H. McNeile, at Market Drayton, in answer to the libellous charges of the Popish and so-called Liberal Press. 8vo. pp. 28. Anecdotes from Protestant Martyrs, Wickliff, Cranmer, Latimer, &c. &c. 12mo. pp. 12. The want of a Narrative series of Tracts for the poorer classes has induced the Publication of the foregoing as a commencement. The following Handbills have been published. Address of the Protestant Association to the Electors of Great Britain and Ireland. Address to the Protestant Operatives of Great Britain. We sincerely trust that the above handbills will be widely circulated, especially as a General Election is supposed to be approaching. A PAMPHLET entitled "Self-Defence," has been laid before us, which we cannot recommend as it manifests a spirit unfriendly to the Church of England, and in favour of Dissent. The Protestant Annual for 1841. Ir gives us much pleasure to inform our friends that we understand a treat is preparing for them under the above title, on which Literary talent of the first order, under the ennobling influence of Christian and Protestant principle, will be engaged. The illustrations and embellishments by the first artists of the age. INTELLIGENCE. TOASTING THE POPE BEFORE THE QUEEN.-At the Annual Dinner of the "Christian Doctrine Society,' ," in Belfast, the first toast was "Our Holy Father, Pope Gregory the 16th,"--and the next, "The Queen.”—Belfast Paper. Coleraine Roman Catholic Total Abstinence Society.-The following toasts were proposed:-"His Holiness Pope Gregory the 16th,"-" The Queen,"-"The Very Reverend Theobald Mathew," "Dan. O'Connell." The position of the Queen is here rather curious. His Holiness marches first-then Her Majesty-then Father Mathew and Daniel O'Connell !—A most loyal body-guard, truly, for a Protestant Queen of England! The introduction of Father Mathew deserves a passing notice. This being a Temperance Society, his name may, in some sort, seem appropriately located; but he knows little of Irish affairs, and of the way in which Popish treason has always proceeded in Ireland, who does not see that this temperance miracle imposture is a branch of the ramified conspiracy now moving this unhappy people to their own castigation. Frauds and miracles and lying wonders are no good guarantees for moral reformation. Father Mathew is evidently neither fool or fanatic; and the sight of multitudes prostrating themselves in abject renunciation of all symptoms of intelligence, and credulously (or hypocritically?) admitting that a priest can work a charm upon habits of long years of inebriety, by his own miraculous power, which no moral or gospel motive or influence could effect, is rather a strange one to be lauded by liberal and unthinking Protestants as it has been. When we recollect, too, that previously to former great Popish, treasonable, and murderous, outbreaks, a sudden sobriety was successfully inculcated upon the population, it is well to look to these temperance affairs. The man who cannot keep a secret cannot be a good conspirator, and the drunkard is proverbially a babbler. The temperance pledge too, we are informed, is a sine qua non with the Ribbon Lodge. These things deserve more than a passing consideration. MARCH OF POPERY.-For many years past the Chapel of Thorndon Hall was sufficient for the Popish part of the population of the Hundreds of Barnstable and Chafford; within the last three years a large Popish Chapel has been added to Brentwood: and now by the exertions of the same zealous priest (Rev. J. Sidden, Lord Petre's confessor), negotiations are on foot, and likely to be immediately carried into effect, for the establishment of another Popish station in the small Town of Grays.— Essex Standard. PARISH OF ASHLEY, SHROPSHIRE.-An Address to the Queen and a petition to the Commons against the recent Popish appointments, have been forwarded from the above Parish. ABOLITION OF PILGRIM TAX.-It gives us, and we are sure it will give our readers, the greatest joy to learn that the Pilgrim Tax of Gija and Allahabad, is abolished. We have received the information on good authority. Thus has the British Government cut its connection with the abominable system of Hindoo idolatry, superstition, and licentiousness, so hateful to the living and true God, at two most important stations. The money raised and received into the government exchequer, which has now been sacrificed, amounts, we believe, to nearly £20,000 a year. The poor pilgrims to Allahabad, a few years ago, mustered above 200,000, though the town has a population of only 20,000. This is cheering intelligence.-Scottish Guardian. MAYNOOTH.-Petitions against the annual grant to this Popish seminary have been adopted at the following places:-Clare, Macclesfield, Rape of Bramber, Norwich, Finchingfield, Wickham St. Paul's, Edinburgh, Starbourne, Gosport, Ramsgate, Liverpool, Haverford West, Northiam, Warrington, Ashley, Almondbury, and Bampton. GREAT PROTESTANT MEETING AT MARKET DRAYTON, SALOP.-The friends of Protestantism in Shropshire are exerting themselves nobly. Scarcely had the effect of the great demonstration at Whitchurch subsided, when the spirited inhabitants of the loyal town of Market Drayton resolved to establish a Protestant Association. The meeting was most ably addressed by Lord Bradford, Sir Robert Hill, the Rev. Hugh McNeile, Henry Justice, Esq., the Rev. James Lee, the High Sheriff, and the Rev. Mr. Pigot. A Protestant Association was formed, and an Address to the Queen against the recent Popish appointments adopted. WARRINGTON PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION.-A very numerous and respectable Meeting of the members and friends of this Association was held on Tuesday Evening, Dec. 17th, and the proceedings were highly interesting. The Chair was taken by Peter Langford Brooke, Esq., who opened the business in an able speech. The meeting was subsequently addressed by Gilbert Greenall, Esq., Dr. Meyler, of Dublin (a convert from Popery), Wm. Hall, Esq., Professor Butt, of Trinity College, Dublin, who delivered a most powerful speech, which excited intense interest and vehement applause; by the Rev. James Wright, of Warrington, and the Rev. Charles Gayer, of Ventry, County Kerry. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. We cordially concur in the suggestions of "C. J. E." respecting the formation of "Youths' Auxiliaries to the Protestant Association, wherever Branch Societies exist." The subject is touched upon in the Letter of Oxoniensis. We are sorry that we have been obliged to postpone for the present, the insertion of the Course of Lectures against Popery at Aberdeen. We feel obliged to Mr. Bennett Harvey, for his communications, particularly that entitled, "Ten Minutes' Ramble in the Garden of the Soul." We fear, however, that our limits will not admit of its publication in the Magazine. Communications from "A Consistent Protestant," "Mr. W. House," and "T. M." are thankfully acknowledged. The Letter from " C. E." on idolatry in India will appear in our next. ERRATUM. In a communication in the last Magazine, under the head of Intelligence, relating to the Sisters of Mercy, the Parish of Rotherhithe was mentioned by mistake for Bermondsey. PROTESTANT MAGAZINE. MARCH 1, 1840. THE CONSERVATIVES AND PROTESTANTS. AFTER the recent extraordinary debates on Sir John Buller's motion for a vote of want of confidence in Her Majesty's present unprincipled and worthless Administration, we feel it to be incumbent on us to express our sentiments concerning the present state of parties, and the consequent duties of all Protestants at the present crisis. We are not party men; or if we belong to a party at all, it is the Protestant party. We are Conservatives only in a certain sense, and to a certain extent; we are not Conservatives of the Emancipation Act, of the Maynooth College Grant, of the concessions to Socinians, or of any other of the foul stains in the Statute book of the land that have tended to weaken the Protestant character of the Constitution, and to reduce this free monarchy into a state bordering on anarchy-to the verge of a fearful revolution. That we are Conservatives, if by that term be meant, persons resolved to resist all spoliation schemes, all plans of Infidel education, all further patronage of Popery; and to strive earnestly and heartily against the most degraded cabinet that ever professed to direct public affairs-a cabinet that exists only by the favor of a most wicked man-a Popish demagogue, whose notoriously seditious proceedings have been censured in a speech from the throne drawn up by the very men who now depend on his favor. So far we are Conservatives; and happy shall we be, when the party that bear that name succeeds in driving from office those who now disgrace it; when the reins of power will no longer be held with a nerveless grasp; when the dignity and possessions of the British throne will be perilled or wantonly sacrificed no more. We do, indeed, believe that such a change will be a blessing to the country. There are many things-too many things-in the past career of the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, of Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham, of Lord Francis Egerton and Lord Aberdeen, that cause us to look to these statesmen with suspicion; but their courage and resolution, their unrivalled VOL. II.-February 1840. F talents, their zeal in the public service, their open-bearing and honorable disdain of the petty acts of mob popularity, create a feeling of confidence that they will never descend so low as the timid, vacillating, and imbecile Administration that now is lingering out a miserable and despised existence. As friends and lovers of our country therefore, we shall rejoice at the formation of a Government powerful in abilities, eminent in respectability, and independent from the high position, wealth, and character of its members; but we will not insinuate that from the next Administration, we expect a much more honest resistance to Popery than the present Cabinet gives. The speech of Sir Robert Peel on the 31st January, plainly shews, that he intends, when in office, to make Popish appointments, to maintain the Emancipation Act, and generally to conciliate all those who clamour against "bigotry," i.e. hostility to error, and fidelity to truth. We fear, too, that under Sir Robert Peel, the Maynooth College Grant, the Colonial Endowments of Popery, and the Irish system. of Education would be untouched, and uncensured, and thus, so far as Protestantism is concerned, very little would be gained we apprehend, by the ejection of the Melbourne Administration. Now, under these circumstance, very many people in the country who have at elections and elsewhere hitherto supported the Conservatives, being however themselves uninterested in party struggles, and careful only for the maintenance of Protestantism, may be expected to relax in their efforts, thinking that as Sir Robert Peel and all the leaders of the Conservative party have been so careful to throw Protestantism overboard, they have no further occasion to leave their homes, and to preach Christian watchfulness for political activity. But this result, however much it may be well merited by the Conservative party, will not, we hope, ensue. We earnestly beg of all such persons, yet a little while more to be content to struggle on, albeit with allies who distrust, and for leaders who neglect them; for there are considerations that press on our own minds with great force, and induce us personally thus to act, and so far as lieth in us, to persuade others to do likewise. The most weighty of them is, an examination of the constitution of the Conservative party, of the men who support, and of those who sanction it. For instance, the Conservative party in the House of Lords, though doubtless, there are some in it as worldly, and a few as profligate as the worst on the other side, contains Lord Bexley, Lord Calthorpe, the Marquis of Cholmondely, Lord Galloway, Lord Lorton, Lord Winchelsea, Lord Farnham, Lord Dalhousie, Lord Mountcashel, Lord Harrowby, Lord Roden, Lord Rayleigh, and the mass of the Bishops; and in the House of Commons there are Mr. Plumptre, Lord Ashley, Sir George Rose, Lord Sandon, Mr. Kemble, Mr. Pringle, Mr. Colquhoun, Lord |
