ligious one. Her foot already hangs over the edge of the precipice. It must be retracted, or her empire is but a name. In the clouds and darkness which seem to be deepening upon all human policy, in the gathering tumults of Europe, and the feverish discontents at home, it may even be difficult to discern where the power yet lives to erect the fallen majesty of the Constitution once more. But there are mighty means in sincerity. And, if no miracle was ever wrought for the faithless and despairing; the country that will help itself the generous, the high-hearted, and the pure, will never be left destitute of the help of heaven.

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ON THE

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DELIVERED AT EXETER HALL, WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 1837.

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THE EARL OF WINCHELSEA IN THE CHAIR.

J. E. GORDON, Esq., who was loudly cheered, proposed the next Resolution and said,―

My Lord, when I stood by your Lordship's side, at the formation of the Protestant Association last year, it then became my peculiar duty to state in detail the particular objects which it had been instituted to promote, and to point out the extent to which it differed from another Society to which it was by some very erroneously supposed to be in opposition. I allude to the British Society for promoting the religious principles of the Reformation, an Institution which was framed to meet the Church of Rome upon purely theological grounds. The object of that Society is entitled to the countenance and support of every right-hearted Protestant in the British empire. But while it behoves Protestantism to oppose the religious principles of the Reformation to the doctrinal errors of the Church of Rome, it is not less incumbent upon Protestants of the present day to oppose the political principles of the Revolution to the political encroachments of the Papacy. It must ever, my Lord, be borne in mind, that the system of the Church of Rome is a politico-religious system, and while the British Reformation Society is fitted to intercept the theological stream of error, the political part of the inundation is beating with increased strength against the already shattered defences of the Constitution. With politicians, as such, the Protestant Association has nothing to do, and it will never degrade itself to the office of an arbiter between the claims of politically conflicting parties. With Protestantism it has every thing to do, and the creed by which it proposed to test the merits of every political party of the State; is made up of the religious principles of the Reformation, and the political principles of the Revolution of 1688. That, my Lord, is the Protestantism of the British Constitution. That is the only attitude in which Protestantism can oppose an effectual resistance to Popery. That is the only form in which it can be made to extend an equal front to the religious and political encroachments of the Church of

Rome. As an illustration of the difference that exists between the British Reformation Society and the Protestant Association, and an argument in favour of both, I shall instance the case of Dens' Theology, and the persecuting notes of the Douay and Rhemish Scriptures. It is known to most of those whom I now address, that the doctrines contained in these works unite religious error with political persecution, or rather exhibit religious error as the motive cause of civil persecution. Now, while it consists with the plan of the Reformation Society, to hold up the religious error to public observation, it would be contrary to its principles to show the political bearing of the error upon the interests of Protestantism. It was necessary, therefore, that a Society should exist for the representation and defence of the political as well as the religious interests of Protestantism. I shall now, my Lord, advert to the Resolution with which I have been entrusted. That Resolution affirms two propositions. First, "That the admission of Roman Catholics to legislative power is directly at variance with the Protestant principles and character of the British Constitution." Secondly, "That the members of that communion who, by the Act of the year 1829, for the relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects, were admitted to Parliament under the security of an oath, have violated the condition of their admittance." I am sure, my Lord, it will be admitted that the man who undertakes to support these propositions is entitled to the sympathy as well as the attention of the Meeting. They are no ordinary charges which I am about to allege against a body of my fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects, and I feel, and feel most deeply, the moral responsibility which I am about to incur by the very attempt at the proof of such charges.

The first proposition affirmed by the Resolution is, “That the admission of Roman Catholics to legislative power is directly at variance with the Protestant principles and character of the British Constitution."

In supporting that proposition, the first question which Protestants have to consider is the true nature of Roman Catholic principles. The second is the character of the British Constitution. What, then, my Lord, is the character of that system of belief and practice against which Protestants have to contend? I have no hesitation in asserting, upon the authority of my Bible, the testimony of experience, and the solemn affirmation of a national oath, that it is gross idolatry. Yes, I repeat the charge, and I repeat it upon the testimony of the Word of God. I repeat it on the testimony of all the Churches of the Reformation. I repeat it on the consentient testimony of the best divines, annotators, and scholars which these Churches have produced. I repeat it on the testimony of the Church of Rome herself. But if the system of the Church of Rome be what, upon the evidence of these authorities, I affirm it to be, then it must be not only in opposition, but in direct hostility to the principles of the British Constitution. For what, I would ask, are the distinctive characteristics of the British Constitution? Is it not the boast of that Constitution that Christianity, in its scriptural form, is part and parcel of the law of the land? Does it not stand upon the testimony of our ablest jurists, that nothing