something rather disrespectful, as touching the comparative influence of the fair sex in this matter. But, Sir, they have influence. A timely remembrance, "a word spoken in season, how good is it?" when spoken with tenderness and affection. A word of remembrance,

at the moment when the crisis is upon us, or before it comes; a word to-morrow morning in the ear of a brother, or father, or friend, who has shouted his coincidence in the pledge to-day-" John, my love, what have you done with that card? Help us, then, you can all help us. I do not want you to go and carry the card about; do not do any such thing, my friends; but tell John, and Tom, and Dick, and Harry, that every one of them should go and get these cards signed. And so it shall come to pass, that the Resolution passed this day is not merely a form; but the electors, as they have been invited, and as they will be pledged, if they pass this Resolution, will "exercise the elective franchise as a solemn and sacred trust reposed in them, for the glory of God, and for the good of their country."

The Rev. Gentleman was most enthusiastically cheered throughout the whole of his address.

Mr. PLUMPTRE, having business in the House of Commons, vacated the chair, which was taken by Mr. Story.

Sir DIGBY MACKWORTH seconded the Resolution. Within the last few weeks there had been a large number of applications from friends of Protestantism, requesting to be told who were fit persons to represent them. If there were any difficulty in getting candidates to come forward from the higher classes, let them go among the classes among whom were to be found the spirit and principles of real Protestantism. (Cheers.) Protestant feeling was fast spreading; and, if the Meeting acted up to its Resolutions, it would spread far wider.

The Resolution was carried unanimously.

E. D. SALISBURY, Esq., of Lancaster, in moving the vote of thanks, observed, Mr. Chairman,-Did I not feel assured how agreeable the duty devolving upon me would be to this assembly, I should shrink from the performance as unable to do it justice. But I have only to speak of a vote of thanks, coupled with the name of Mr. Plumptre, to ensure a cordial response from all now present. (Cheers.) Yes, Sir, we have in Mr. Plumptre the portrait, the exemplification of a Christian statesman ! One who, taking the Bible for his guide in public as well as private life, has never yet sacrificed principle to expediency. Faithful in his religion as his politics, he has no apostacies to answer for. True as the needle to the pole, but with this difference, unmoved by the tossings of the ocean, he has never yet wavered or swerved from his consistency. Sir, I have much pleasure in proposing," That the cordial thanks of this Meeting be given to J. P. Plumptre, Esq., M.P., for his kindness in presiding on this occasion, and for his persevering, Christian, and consistent efforts in support of the Protestant institutions of the country."

The Resolution was seconded by the Rev. A. S. THELWALL, and carried unanimously.

A Doxology was then sung, and, the benediction being pronounced, the proceedings terminated.

A SHORT ADDRESS TO ELECTORS, IN THE ANTICIPATION OF A GENERAL ELECTION..

PROTESTANT Electors of Great Britain! How do you mean to act at the approaching election ?

Much depends upon you; remember your great responsibilities, and be faithful. A single vote may decide the fate of a candidate. How important, then, that each man should vote aright!..

These are no ordinary times. Our country is at this moment visited by two of God's most awful judgments,—famine and pestilence. Your fellow-subjects in Ireland are dying by thousands, of fever and starvation; and the evil appears not yet to have reached its crisis, -" the plague is not stayed."

In Scotland, again, the frugal, industrious inhabitants of the Highlands have suffered severely. In England, distress is fearfully on the increase amongst the labouring classes; and while a stagnation in many branches of trade has taken place, the necessaries of life are daily becoming dearer. The politicians of the country appear to be at their wits' end,-wisdom has departed from the wise. Why do we draw attention to this sad state of things? Because it calls for deep consideration, and will force itself upon the attention, and excite the alarm of the most thoughtless ere long; and because it is our firm belief that God is now chastening us for our national sins, and that He will not withdraw his hand until we “repent and do" our “first works." And what is the sin which, in an especial manner, has provoked the wrath of a long-suffering God? Let us answer the question by asking another. What was the sin which drew down God's heaviest judgments upon His ancient people, the Jews? and for which they were visited with pestilence, fever, and famine (see Deut. xxviii. 22, 23, 38-40), and finally carried into captivity by the Babylonians? You answer without hesitation,-Idolatry. Surely "they were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works;' and God said concerning them, "Ephraim hath joined affinity to idols: let him alone." And has not England been guilty of the same thing? Has she not encouraged the Roman Catholic religion at home and abroad? Is she not at this moment giving 30,000l. per annum from her treasury for the education of priests of that idolatrous system which teaches its poor deluded votaries to pay divine honours to a woman, and invests its Pope, a fallen son of Adam, with the attribute of infallibility, which belongs to God only? thus aiding Rome in keeping the Irish peasantry in spiritual bondage, when hundreds of them are panting to shake off the yoke. We hesitate not to say this sin has been the peculiar cause of the judgments which now so sorely afflict us. Look at the past history of our country, and learn that whenever Protestant principles have been acted upon by our Legislature, we have prospered, and that, on the contrary, whenever Popery has been favoured, disastrous have been the results. God has blessed England in a manner quite unparalleled in the history of any other country. He has given to this little island possessions so vast, that, as has been truly said, "the sun never sets upon her dominions." And why is this? Because, since the glorious Reformation, our country has been an essentially Protestant country-a land of Bibles. We might almost appropriate to our

selves those precious words spoken concerning Israel of old, and say, "What nation is so great, or hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? But England is fast falling from her high estate. One after another of those laws which were the safeguards of our Protestant Constitution, have been removed from the Statute-book; and unless you, Protestant electors of Great Britain, come forward to prevent it, all will be swept away. And what will be the result? Let us remember the judgments that have followed past concessions, and tremble! Christian men have foretold (taking the Bible as their authority), that God would punish England for the memorable Act of 1829, by which she admitted Roman Catholics into her Houses of Parliament to legislate for the nation. And were these men true prophets? Let the disturbances which broke out immediately afterwards throughout the kingdom, and that dreadful scourge of God-the cholera of 1830, which slew its thousands and its tens of thousands, answer the question. The Parliament, in opposition to the Petitions of one million of British subjects in 1845, voted (as has been already stated) 30,000l. per annum to endow the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth in Ireland, thus extending to that seminary of sedition a degree of countenance and support which it bestows not upon our Protestant Universities. And what followed this measure? God sent an insignificant insect to destroy the potato crop, and this great and mighty empire has been made to tremble; and instead of the proud boast, heard but too frequently, "I sit as a queen, and shall see no sorrow,"-" lamentation and mourning and woe" have filled the land, and who can tell what the end of these things shall be?

Surely, then, it is not without reason that we address you, that we implore all who have the fear of God before their eyes to seek to rescue their country ere it be too late.

Once again, we repeat, much depends upon the coming election : the acts of the new Parliament may save, or they may ruin, our country. See, then, that you send men of the right stamp to represent you,-men whose guide is God's Word, and whose Protestant principles are fixed and decided.

Free-born Britons! Advocates of civil and religious liberty! Will you tamely stand and look on while your Senate is making one concession after another to that system which is the open enemy of both, and the object of whose members is to hand over our country, bound hand and foot, into the power of a foreign potentate who would soon reduce it to the condition of Spain and Italy, those regions of bondage, misery, and crime.

Protestants! will you prove unworthy of the name? Will you cease to protest against Popery? Can you forget the blessings which in Protestant England are yours? Shall this proud title be no longer hers? this name, which distinguishes her as yet among the nations? Have you so soon forgotten the speech of Lord Arundel in the House of Commons, in which he said, that " Popery would continue antagonistic to Protestantism, until Protestantism should be extinct?". Can you hear this, and remember what Rome is doing to accomplish this object, and remain inactive? Are you so few, so feeble, that you can do nothing,-that you must submit to be despised and disreVOL. IX.-June, 1847. New Series, No. 18.

garded? Shake off this reproach, which is not, however, without an apparent foundation in the comparatively small number of your representatives in our Legislative Assembly. The infidel has no lack of advocates there, the ultra-Liberal, who would endow every religion alike, equally indifferent to all, is represented by not a few. The Popish party is strong indeed, but how small is that of the Protestant! True, it is composed of able and faithful men,—men who are valiant for the truth, who deserve the gratitude of their country, but who receive instead the taunts and ridicule of the ungodly. They have been "faithful among the faithless," and their enemies, seeing the consistency and uprightness of their political conduct, have been, it would seem, compelled to take up the language of the accusers of Daniel, and say, “We shall not find any occasion against these men, except we find it against them touching the law of their God." (Dan. vi. 5.) They have made a noble stand in defence of the good old principles of the Constitution, but they are overborne by numbers and cannot effect impossibilities. Will you leave them to maintain the fight unaided? Will you not send them such a reinforcement as will strengthen their hands and compel the Legislature to listen to them with respect?

Christians! Men of faith and prayer! Men who value the truth of God above all earthly considerations! Will you be idle at the present momentous crisis? Will you calmly stand by and see the precious Word of God set at nought, its promises and its threatenings alike disregarded by men who, but for you perchance, might have never obtained the power which they so mischievously employ? Do you believe that the Church of Rome is that Babylon concerning which the command is given, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her plagues?" And will you behold your socalled representatives paying her homage, educating her priests to keep the wretched victims of their unhallowed policy within her pale, giving mutilated extracts from the Bible to the poor Irish children who look to them for instruction, in the vain hope of conciliating her, at the bidding of what they falsely call expediency? Have you forgotten the exhortation of him who hath bought you with his blood, to "contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints?" Rome robs him of his glory, exalts the creature above the Creator, puts other mediators in the place of the one Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus; attempts to add to his glorious and finished work the wood, hay, and stubble, of man's own works, his fastings and penances and almsdeeds. Can we, then, see our rulers fostering such a God-dishonouring, Antichristian system, and remain passive? Oh, let us not so dishonour Christ! Let us not bring down guilt upon our own souls. Christians! Protestants! Englishmen ! be not unfaithful to your country, your religion, and your God! Churchmen and Dissenters, forget your minor differences, and unite in defence of your common Christianity. Whig and Tory! look upon political considerations, important though they be, as merely secondary at the present crisis. If you can procure men who, agreeing with you in politics, will promise to support the Protestant cause, well! But, if not, vote without hesitation for the man who, however opposed to your political creed, will take this pledge. So shall you do good service to the cause of truth, and bring down blessings upon your country.