ASSOCIATION.

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4. STATEMENT of the CIRCUMSTANCES attending the PUBLICATION of the BIBLE with the RHEMISH NOTES. By the Rev. ROBERT J. M'GHEE. Price 6d., or 40s. per 100.

5. The DOCTRINES PROMULGATED by the ROMISH BISHOPS in IRELAND, A.D. 1832, touching the power of the Romish Church over Heretics, and the Restitution of Forfeited Property. By the Rev. ROBERT J. M'GHEE. Price 6d., or 40s. per 100.

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By the Rev. R. J.

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SECOND ANNUAL REPORT, 1837-38.

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ACHILL MISSION.

A MEETING of the friends and members of the Protestant Association was held in Exeter-hall, on Friday, December 28, 1838, for the purpose of receiving from the Rev. Mr. Nangle some important statements with respect to the Achill Mission, and the general state of Protestantism in Ireland. The Meeting was most numerously and respectably attended. Amongst those present were, the Rev. W. Leake, General M'Innes, Charles Alsager, Esq., Rev. John Cumming, Rev. M. H. Seymour, Rev. Mr. Witty, Rev. James R. Page, Rev. Mr. Maguire, Rev. W. Pullen, Rev. J. Murray, Rev. J. Scott, Macleod Wylie, Esq., George Rochfort Clarke, Esq., H. C. Christian, Esq., George Philip Smith, Esq., Thomas Hartley, Esq., Rev. R. Parkinson, James Cummins, Esq., D. Pau, Esq., J. E. Lyall, Esq., John Mouat, Esq., John Baber, Esq., &c., &c., &c. At one o'clock, JOHN HARDY, Esq., the late Member for Bradford, took the Chair; and after prayer by the Rev. Mr. Thelwall,

The CHAIRMAN opened the business of the day, by observing that, this was a Meeting of the Protestant Association and its friends-an Institution established for the purpose of exciting the attention of the British public to those principles, on which, not only the Reformation, but the Revolution, in this country was founded; principles, which seemed to be either much neglected or forgotten, by many persons, from an impression that under the protection of those principles the Institutions of the country were safe, and that no apprehensions need be entertained that those Institutions could be subverted. He repeated, this Association had been formed to call the attention of the public to the principles on which the Constitution, religious and civil, was founded, namely, the real principles of civil and religious liberty. He said the real principles of civil and religious liberty, because the Meeting must be well aware that there was abroad at this moment a feeling of what was called Liberalism—an ultra principle of liberty, which was as far removed from real liberty, as despotism was from free government. (Hear, hear.) When, ten years ago, the great innovation was made upon the Protestant Constitution of this country with the consent, he admitted, of thousands of well-meaning Protestants, among whom he trusted to be permitted to rank himself, he had been the advocate of Catholic emancipation, because he thought he could rely on the solemn promises made at that period by those who were then admitted to exercise the privileges of the Constitution, that nothing would be done by them to uproot the religious Institutions of the country. Unfortunately, he was now obliged to give his assent to the declaration contained in the eighth volume of the works of that Goliath of the Church-he meant the Rev. Thomas Scott, the commentator on the Bible. That declaration was contained in his essay on the Synod of Dort, written in the year 1817, but which had only come under his (Mr. Hardy's) observation a few days ago. The writer, after alluding to the number of petitions then being presented in favour of Catholic emancipation, said, "that whatever may be urged in favour of allowing Papists full liberty as to their superstitious and idolatrous worship, (for so it doubtless is), this should be done with peculiar circumspection. But to grant them what they claim, and many claim for them as emancipation, and which means nothing else than admission to power and authority (cheers), seems irreconcileable with wisdom either human or divine. (Loud cheers.) It is an essential principle of Popery, however disguised by some, and lost sight of by others, to tolerate none who are not of that Church, and the grant of power to them, till this principle be disavowed by bishops, vicars-general, legates, cardinals, and popes, as well as others, in the most full and unequivocal language, is to liberate lions because they have been harmless when not at liberty; and the event, should this emancipation be fully conceded, will be, that the power thus obtained will be used in the persecution of those who gave it (applause), as

soon as it has acquired a proper measure of consolidation. If the advocates for this measure in our land, should they prove successful, do not themselves live to feel this, their posterity, I can have no doubt, will know it by deplorable experience." (Loud cheers.) That experience he (Mr. Hardy) had lived to feel-nay, he was sensible now, that when he, amongst others, consented to petition for that measure, he had been deceived by the representations which were held forth that nothing further was intended by the Papists, because, if more was intended, it was the duty of those asking for that measure in all fairness to have let the public understand what further they aimed at. (Hear.) Now the Roman Catholics had been admitted into the Legislature, and although there had not been obtained a disavowal of certain obnoxious tenets by cardinals and popes, yet from vicars-general, from bishops, and others, the English Protestant had certainly a direct disavowal of those tenets. (Hear, hear.) Now what was the case in the present day? Look at the situation and state of things in Ireland, for that would be the field in which the great battle must take place between Protestantism and Popery. (Applause.) If tithes were now the great grievance, as he saw them designated in a letter of Dr. M'Hale (who called himself John Tuam, in direct violation of the Act of Parliament)—if, in a letter dated at Achill, the Feast of the Dedication of the Churches of Ireland, Dr. M'Hale called on Lord John Russell, to "appropriate tithes to national purposesto extinguish tithes in reality by such appropriation, and thus to close up the bitter spring of the worst national calamities, designating tithes as the stirps ac semen malorum omnium." Why did he not urge that subject previous to the grant of Catholic emancipation? (Hear, hear.) Now if that subject was then passed over in silence, that silence was a sufficient cause for Protestants to have concluded that tithes were not matter of objection. But they were not silent, for their leading agitators and Bishops assured the supporters of the united Church that tithes would be much more safe after emancipation was granted than they were before. (Hear.) Then had he (Mr. Hardy) not a right to say, that he for one had been deceived by the promises made, and the oaths taken in subservience to those promises. He was not safe with respect to those institutions which he venerated and adored; and not one tittle of which would he have surrendered but for the assurance of protection from danger from that quarter. But now the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, and the leading agitators in that country, had become supporters of the Voluntary system, and had found allies (who were also supporters of that system) to assist them in their attack upon the Protestant Church, and in the same breath they declare themselves the friends of civil and religious liberty. (Hear, hear.) The Meeting was aware that there was in Ireland, an Institution called the Achill Mission. Achill was one of the largest islands on the western coast of Ireland, off the county of Mayo, and in that island, four or five years ago, the Protestant Mission was established for the purpose of carrying into that dark region the light of the Gospel of truth. That was the simple object, and the Mission was instituted and conducted upon the Voluntary principle; there were in Achill no tithes, no glebes, no endowments, but the Mission was wholly supported on the Voluntary principle, and it might have been thought that an Institution so supported and maintained would experience, if not the support, at least the forbearance, of those who had united themselves with the supporters of the Voluntary principle in the grand attack against the National Church. But the Meeting would learn to-day, that the Mission had experienced every species of hostility and persecution on the part of the head of the Roman Catholic Church in that district. The Meeting would learn to-day what sort of persecution was practised in Ireland, though they might have a taste of it from the proceedings of a camelion-faced society which had changed, not its name, but its nature so many times within the last three months. He alluded to the Precursor Society, which at first was to be the forerunner of repeal, and which now was the forerunner of the abolition of tithes. He would read an extract from a speech delivered on the 25th of November last, by Mr. O'Connell, to show the nature of this Society. On that day Mr. O'Connell was filling the chair of that Society, and after speaking of the necessity of increasing its members by the appointment of Committees, said, "It will be the duty of the Committee to bring public opinion to bear upon the slavish individuals in the various parishes in which they reside, who, from interested motives may fear to join us; we shall place those persons in a kind of civil excommunication; as heretofore, we shall use no violence, but it is our duty not only to support our friends, but to take measures to prevent those paltry cowards, as well as our enemies, from injuring our cause." (Hear, hear.) And what was meant by civil excommunication? Why, it was explained in another speech of the same Learned

Gentleman to be this-that if any Roman Catholic dared to keep back from this Society, or to appear at any election to vote for a Protestant candidate, his wife and daughters were recommended to spit upon him, and cast him out of their society. (Cheers.) They dare not hang or burn them yet; but what sort of persecution was that which intruded itself at a man's fireside, and raised up enemies among the members of his family! (Applause.) But this was the language of a Gentleman who, on his examination before the Committee of the House of Lords, on the 11th of March, 1825, in stating that domestic nomination would be a security to the Church, was asked, if it would not be a security to the State rather than to the Church, and answered, "I believe so; and in my answer I coupled the Church with the State in my idea. I conceived as long as the State is secure the Church is secure; as it must be a Protestant State, the State will protect the Church." Mr. O'Connell here set himself up as a prophet, but his prophecy was incorrect, and he was himself the great master of its failure. (Loud cheers.) It was for others not for him (Mr. Hardy) to explain why the supporters of the Voluntary system adopted towards the Achill Mission the persecution it now suffered. He believed, however, that the presence of the Bible in that mission was the great sore (cheers), because Mr. Sheil, in his speech at Thurles said, "that the Catholic Church of Ireland and the Bible cannot stand together." (Loud cheers.) The great distinction between the Catholic and the Protestant Churches was this, that the former was a Church without a Bible, while they, the Protestants, said that a church without a Bible was nothing, and on the Bible they took their stand. The public had also been told that one of the great objects of the Precursor Society was equal laws. The Protestant Association also wanted equal laws. They wanted a law in Ireland for every man to be at liberty to read his Bible, and that no authority, priestly or otherwise, should prevent him; that no individual should have power to judge what book a man might or might not read. But was that an opinion on which the Right Rev. Gentleman to whom he had alluded acted? Why the great point of his letter to Lord John Russell was, to tell the Noble Lord he (Dr. M'Hale) would not obey the law, but set it at defiance. The Meeting would remember that because certain inspectors had been sent to pay the National Schools in Dr. M'Hale's diocese a visit, he instructed all his masters to turn these inspectors out of doors, and then told Lord John Russell that no books should be read in the schools but those authorized by him. He said in his letter, "The National Board have, in the plentitude of their arbitrary authority, sent us a Protestant inspector in a diocese where scarcely any Protestants attend the schools. The masters in Tuain, in Westport, and in all the districts where my instructions reached them in time, refused him admittance. The commissioners have since expended a good deal of stationery in insisting on the dismissal of those contumacious masters. They were not ignorant, I am sure, that these faithful teachers acted in conformity with the instructions of their bishop." In consequence of this the next thing done by the Board was to threaten to take away the pecuniary allowances to the schools. See how Dr. M'Hale treated that he writes, "We are not ignorant that the Board, so far from being an independent body, is the obedient creature of the Ministry. If, then, they withdraw the grant, unless their conditions, which violate conscience as well as the authority of a bishop over his flock, are complied with, allow me to warn you that half a million of people and their faithful representative may soon withdraw their confidence from a Government which would encourage such covert persecution." (Loud cheers.) Such, then, was now the state of things in Ireland. He (Mr. Hardy) would not further trespass on the patience of the Meeting, he prayed their attention to the statement they would hear from the Rev. Mr. Nangle, whom he now begged to introduce.

:

The Rev. EDWARD NANGLE then came forward, and was greeted with the most enthusiastic cheering. As soon as silence was restored, he proceeded to read to the Meeting the following statement. He said, It may perhaps excite your surprise that in making my promised statement relative to the Achill Mission, and the cause of Protestantism in Ireland, with which it is identified, I should use a written communication in preference to the more popular medium of extemporaneous address. The method of communication which I have chosen is however the result of mature deliberation. I considered that the subjects about which I have to treat are of a highly exciting character, calculated to rouse all those feelings of honest indignation which kindle in the bosom when men with the largest professions of truth, and tolerance, and justice, and liberality, and charity upon their lips, are seen to labour for the accomplishment of their purposes by falsehood, oppression, injustice, and cruelty; and as I myself, and those with whom my sympathies are entwined, have been the objects of the oppression and injustice of which I complain,

I feared lest the galling sense of our wrongs might betray me, in the excitement of extemporaneous speaking, into the use of language inconsistent with that calm sobriety of speech which I wish to observe in laying the statement of our grievances before the British public. I, therefore, determined to commit to paper every word which I intended to utter, thus securing the double object of placing my own feelings under a prudent restraint, and at the same time supplying the public press with a document for whose statements I might be held responsible.

That this Meeting may be prepared to enter into the details which I am about to lay before it, it will be needful to make a few preliminary remarks on the spirit of the Church of Rome, more especially as it is manifested in Ireland. Force and cruelty are the means which that Church employs for maintaining her dominion over the minds and consciences of men. Reasoning and persuasion may at first be tried, but when these fail, violence, if circumstances permit, is always employed. "Whosoever shall affirm," decreed the Council of Trent, "that • * all Christians, of both sexes, are not bound to observe the same (confession to a priest) once a year, according to the constitution of the great Lateran Council, let him be accursed." Nor is this enactment one of those obsolete barbarisms of the dark ages, which, our modern advocates of Popery would persuade us, has fallen into desuetude in the light and intelligence of the 19th century. An acute observer of men and manners thus describes its present operation in Italy:- "If every true-born Italian, man, woman, and child, within the Pope's dominions, does not confess and receive the communion at least once a-year before Easter, his name is posted up in the parish church; if he still refrain he is exhorted, intreated, and otherwise tormented; and if he persist in his contumacy he is excommunicated, which is a very good joke to us, but none at all to an Italian, since it involves the loss of civil rights, and perhaps of liberty and property."("Rome in the Nineteenth Century," vol. ii. p. 262.) Again, the same intelligent author writes-"Every Italian must at this time confess and receive the commu. nion. A friend of ours, who has lived a great deal in foreign countries, and there imbibed very heterodox notions, and who has never to us made any secret of his confirmed unbelief of Catholicism, went to-day to confess with the strongest repugnance. 'What can I do?' he said. "If I neglect it, I am reprimanded by the parish priest; if I delay it, my name is posted up in the parish church; if I persist in my contumacy, the arm of the Church will overtake me, and my rank and fortune only serve to make me more obnoxious to its power. If I choose to make myself a martyr to infidelity, as the saints of old to religion, and to suffer the extremity of punishment in the loss of property and personal rights, what is to become of my wife and family? The same ruin would overtake them, though they are Catholics; for I am obliged not only to conceal my true belief, and profess what I despise, but I must bring up my children in their abominable idolatries and superstitions; or if I teach them the truth, make them either hypocrites or beggars.' I shall not enter into the soundness of my friend's arguments, or defend the rectitude of his conduct, but certainly the alternative is a hard one; and I believe there are thousands whose virtue would not be proof against it. For this reason he would not live a day in Italy if he could live out of it, which is not in his power."-(Ibid, vol. iii. p. 160.)

In those parts of Ireland where the Romish religion is dominant, the same moral despotism prevails, with this difference, that its victims, being called British subjects, are supposed to enjoy British law and British freedom, and thus their nominal privilege deprives them of the commiseration and sympathy which an undisguised exhibition of their wretchedness would call into exercise. In the Popish districts of Ireland each parish priest keeps a roll of the inhabitants of every village and every hovel in the parish; at certain periods he attends in each of those villages for the purpose of hearing confessions. If any absent themselves they are immediately suspected of disaffection to the Church. If a Bible-school has been established in the neighbourhood, or if any operations are in progress for the extension of scriptural knowledge among the adult population, the priest does not fail to use his influence in the confessional, to check the progress of light, and to ascertain whether any of his flock have drunk at the stream of knowledge, or acquired an appetite for it; for this purpose it is diligently inculcated on the people that the concealment of any act of disobedience to the Church in confession is a sin of the deepest die, depriving their souls of the benefit of absolution, and plunging them into the guilt of sacrilege! Notwithstanding this, the poor Irish do not fail to exercise their national ingenuity, in eluding the priest's vigilance in the confessional. Though they are taught to regard the priest in the tribunal of penance as God himself, they frequently