deemed useful to obviate calumny, to explain Catholic tenets, defend the purity and truth of Catholic doctrines, and circulate useful information on these subjects."

No. 12. Resolved, "That the Committee shall also undertake the examination of all cases of religious oppression, or of deprivation of rights of conscience of the poorer and less protected classes of Catholics, under any circumstances.” *

No. 13. Resolved, "That the Committee shall be authorized to appoint sub-committees of not less than five members out of their own body, for any purposes of the Institute, and also to organize local Committees, and to solicit and avail themselves of the co-operation of individuals in different parts of Great Britain and the Colonies."

The result of this plan has been an arrangement for the complete organization of the whole Roman Catholic population. Not only are there to be district Committees, but also there are to be parish Committees, and these again are to be subdivided. This arrangement, in all its parts, bears evidently the stamp of Mr. O'Connell's authorship. It is precisely like those organizations which he has formed in Ireland sometimes publicly-sometimes in secret-for the purpose of overbearing the Government. We hope, then, that this will convince the Protestants of Great Britain, if everything else fail to excite them, that Popery is preparing for greater movements than have hitherto been made. It seems that now the Roman Catholics deem themselves strong enough to follow the course of their Irish brethren, and are preparing to consummate their intrigues by intimidation. Such was the policy adopted in Ireland. At first, nothing was heard but professions of loyalty, nothing but promises of peace; but when the time came to speak out, first for emancipation, then against tithes, and afterwards for repeal, all cloaks and coverings were cast aside, and the tremendous machinery so long preparing was suddenly unveiled to view. Nor let it be supposed, that those appliances and means which, in the sister island, have given Popery such victories, are here wanted. Every element of strength in one place, is enjoyed in the other. The priests are equally diligent; the public press (at least in London) is, to a very great extent, in the hands of the Roman Catholics the Government are disposed to assist in any "heavy blow or great discouragement to Protestantism." These are all most important matters. The moment is propitious. In our Church has sprung up a new school of semi-Popish divinity, recommended by the virtues and talents of its professors, eating its way to the very core of the Protestant system of theology.† Modern Liberalism, Infidelity, ultra High Church doctrines, the principles of political expediency-all these things have joined to help Popery forward in its prosperous and triumphant career. No secret is made by many, of their indifference to its rise, no sufficient impedi

*The first fruits of this Resolution was the clause in the Prisons' Bill to which we have alluded. It was introduced immediately after the formation of the Institute.

† We allude to those unfortunate and deeply to be regretted publications-"Tracts for the Times," "Froude's Remains," and Palmer's" Church of Christ," "Newman's Sermons," &c. &c. The time has gone by when those works can be passed over without notice, and the hope that their influence would fail, is now dead.

ment is offered to its plans; and we regret to add, that the Nonconformists-those whose ancestors were boldest in their hostility to the then rampant heresy-are too generally either passive spectators of its progress, or active auxiliaries of its political designs. Public opinion, which formerly always evinced more or less of a Protestant spirit, now indicates no symptoms of that healthful and necessary characteristic. Bulwark after bulwark of our Constitution and our religion, has been lost through perfidy, apathy, or defeat; and now, at the present time, this nation, once renowned for the integrity of her counsellors, and the Christian principles of her Parliament, is at the mercy of a profligate demagogue, intent on the introduction of a grovelling superstition, and a humiliating foreign despotism. We can no longer look for that providential care which for ages was the guide and guardian of us as a Protestant people; we are no longer, as even in Cromwell's days, the acknowledged safeguard of the Protestants of Europe. All is changed; our power is weakened, our prosperity has decayed, and the prospects presented to our contemplation are such as in the days of old would have aroused the population as one man, to manful exertions for the preservation of their freedom and their faith. Too long, alas! have we been deluded by the vain idea that the enlightenment of this generation was proof against the assaults of Popery. Bitter experience now calls on every preacher to warn his people with the solemn mandate— "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." To that warning we add our feeble counsel, and bid every man who pretends to patriotic feelings, to look around on the portentous signs of the times, and fearlessly to do his duty to his country and himself. We all have now a common enemy thundering at the gates, and he is a traitor who refuses to repel the danger; doubly, then, is that man a foe to the land in which he now enjoys ancestral blessings that his children may claim to have handed down unimpaired, who gives up a single post he was bound to guard, or meanly sells his birthright for honours, or places, or from base sectarian ambition.

In concluding our glances at this question, we have only to proceed as we have proposed, to call for vigorous and united exertions in the Protestant cause. We do so from a most deep, and painful, and conscientious conviction of the important consequences to which resistance or assistance to Popery under present circumstances must surely lead. We do so from a knowledge of the necessity of immediate efforts, and with a hope that our appeal will not be entirely in vain. Little has yet been done by the friends, and much, very much, by the enemies of the Constitution. There never was a time before in this country, not even during the reign of the last infatuated monarch of the Stewart dynasty, when evils more terrible threatened the land. At that period, memorable in the history of this country, which was then marvellously saved-memorable in the history of Europe, which has often since owed its rescue from oppression or Popery to the contagious spirit of this emancipated island-at that period our Universities, our Legislature, our Executive Government in England and in Ireland, our corporations, and our Court were for a time in the grasp of the Popish tyrant, and were content to impose on the people the scornfully rejected thraldom of

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apostate Rome. But by the providence of God, the Protestants of Ireland rallied round the banner of their faith, and drove their proud foreign invaders from the shore. Popery then called forth all its energies, and throwing forth its whole force on the stubborn and awakened population, broke itself on the rock they had erected, instead of sweeping every vestige of its strength from the surface of the land it protected. Like the heroic Dutchmen, when they conquered the power of Spain and expelled the Inquisition, the people exclaimed "Turks rather than Papists." Thus Popery fell prostrate before the determined spirit of a Christian nation, that knew and could value it privileges. We ask our fellow-countrymen why the same agency should not overcome the same evil now? Away with the petty jealousies which prevent men from co-operating together, which give the country and its interests a secondary place in the hearts of all who have a crotchet to prate of, or a paltry prejudice to display. Away with all maudlin sentimentality about "the religious have nothing to do with politics," at the time when all the means of disseminating Christianity in the country are assailed through the instrumentality of political partisans. We do not ask any to become party men, we ask only for justice and for consistency. To the Dissenters we say " You declare yourselves against endowments, behold Popery endowed both at home and in the Colonies." To the Whig who still affects to act on the principles which distinguished his ancestors and placed the family of Brunswick on the throne, we say, Inquire if Government is now carried on with the objects the Whigs of 1688 professed to have steadily in view." If a man call himself a friend of freedom, we ask him if he hopes for that blessing, when the iron hoof of the Papacy is crushing the land, and the poisonous falsehoods of her superstition are corroding the hearts of the people? No matter what any one may avow himself, Dissenter, Whig, Liberal, or Conservative, Churchman or Patriot, we appeal to him to deceive himself no longer-to believe, ere it be too late, the facts which it is impossible to deny, that Popery, the same now as when the whole western population groaned in bondage, is gaining ground by crafty devices and open violence, is coming forth from the dungeons of persecution and the cells of bigotry, once more to prostitute Christianity, once more to conquer and to enthral. To the simpleton who talks of Popery being changed, we retort, with the evidence of "Dens' Theology," the assumption of infallibility, and the recent instances of violated oaths; and if the Papist himself impudently take up this contemptible jargon, we know of no answer but to laugh him to scorn. A very short time will prove who is right, and will show whether our statements are as fanciful and our fears as absurd as some will pretend to believe them. To the verdict Time will give, we refer all who are too ignorant to know the truth and too idle at once to seek it; but this we beg them to remember, that each increase of danger increases the responsibilities of those who, being warned, neglected to avert it; and further, as dangers aud responsibilities augment, so also do difficulties, pari passu. We therefore once more earnestly call on all who value Protestantism, on all to whom the blessings we enjoy are dear, to acquit themselves of a solemn duty now resting on every one who has the

slightest influence and the smallest power. Every thing worth preserving is at stake; policy and each higher obligation unite to excite us to exertion; the means of usefulness are possessed by all; the evils of delay increase and accumulate; we have experience of the past to guide us, and hopes of the future to excite us, and above all, the noblest cause that ever yet animated the spirits of free-born men. The choice is between the system enthroned in the passions of corrupted nature, that has cursed every land on which it has trampled, the master-contrivance of priestcraft and fraud, which has dignified the insolence of pride and monopolised the presumption of power, which has palliated crime, indulged depravity, and restored idolatry, which for centuries has warred against the temporal and eternal happiness of man, and derogated from the honour of God; and, on the other hand, that mild benignant sway that inculcates piety and promotes peace, succouring the afflicted, protecting the oppressed, giving freedom to the enslaved, that shines on the spirit of human kind with beams reflected from the clear refulgency of heaven. It is the cause for which martyrs have perished, for which our purest patriots have courted peril, and which now alone affords to all classes of the people the promise of liberty and knowledge.

Macintosh, Printer, 20, Great New-street, London.

ACHILL MISSION,

AND THE PRESENT STATE OF

PROTESTANTISM IN IRELAND:

BEING

THE STATEMENT

DELIVERED

BY THE REV. EDWARD NANGLE,

AT A MEETING OF THE PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION,

IN EXETER HALL, DECEMBER 28, 1838.

LONDON:

PUBLISHED BY THE PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION:

AND SOLD BY NISBET, BERNERS-STREET; SEELEYS, FLEET-STREET; HATCHARDS; RIVINGTONS; DALTON; SHAW; FORBES AND JACKSON; AND MAY BE OBTAINED OF ALL BOOKSELLERS.

No. XVII.

M DCCC XXXIX.

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