Publications

Your Committee must take leave to remind you that this department of their operations has been necessarily attended with considerable expense.

The correspondence of the Society has been greatly extended during the past year; and your Committee cannot refrain from submitting to your attention the following few extracts therefrom:

"Ulverston, April 24.

"I would it were in my power to promote the objects of the Protestant Association here; the general feeling is decidedly favourable to them; almost every man you meet is not only a professed friend to Protestantism, but to the Established Church as the grand visible bulwark of it among us; but with this is connected (not unnaturally indeed under the circumstances) a quiet persuasion that the efforts of Papists, though backed by Radicals and Infidels, are too insignificant to excite alarm, and need no union of Protestants for their frustration, the calm good sense and right principles of the population in every locality being deemed quite sufficient; the very mistake which unhappily prevails in more important districts, among persons of higher pretensions than those who inhabit our humble market-town."

"Manchester, November 10, 1837. "Having with much satisfaction seen at Exeter Hall the noble efforts in practice for the re-establishment of constitutional power, I would now beg as an operative Conservative of Manchester, that some steps may be taken to move our energy in support of the Protestant Institutions of the country. We are willing at Manchester, but want animation. We, as operatives, are working people who associate together as Protestants and as determined friends to the Constitution, and we would wish to be acquainted with every motion that is made in the advancement of our cause. I knew nothing of the preparation of Petitions for the expulsion of Papists from Parliament until I saw it at Exeter

Hall. I wish that grand Resolution to have publicity in Manchester."

Hereford,

"We are all here deeply anxious for the welfare of your Association. We cannot doubt that much good has attended the circulation of the publications, and the efforts that have been made; but we are painfully convinced that it requires precept upon precept, line upon line;' and instead of our exertions ceasing, there is a greater necessity than ever for the most strenuous efforts to be made. You will at all times find us most happy to co-operate with you in every possible way. We are sure, so far as we circulate truth, God's blessing must attend it; and knowing that every thing we hold dear and esteem as valuable in our hitherto highly privileged land is at stake, we hope to be permitted to bear a faithful, though it may be a feeble testimony to the truth, and lift up our protest against that evil which so terribly threatens to overwhelm us."

Before concluding this Report, your Committee cannot refrain from pressing upon all their friends the importance of establishing local Associations. The Societies already in existence have contributed materially to awaken public attention to the great principles of the Association. Your Committee have assisted, as far as their funds would allow, in their formation; but they feel bound to inform you that it has been with deep regret that they have found themselves incapable, from the very limited income of the Society, to avail themselves of many valuable opportunities of usefulness which have from time to time presented themselves; whilst your Society remains burdened with a debt of about 3007., which, if not removed by the kind and united exertions of the friends of the Association,

your

must still have the effect of materially impeding its operations. Your Committee, therefore, urgently entreat you, by the consideration of the vast importance of the work in which they are engaged, the good already effected, the extending sphere of operations rapidly opening before the Society, and the extreme and increasing exigency of the times, to redouble exertions in behalf of the cause, not only by means of your contributions to the general fund, but by seeking to enlist new supporters, and by omitting no opportunity of enforcing and disseminating the pure scriptural principles on which your Society is based. Your Committee would beg you to recollect that with our Protestantism stands or falls every thing we hold dear to us as men, as Britons, and as Christians; that whilst other Christian Societies are pursuing their important objects, and carrying on their labours with fresh zeal and increased prosperity, their utility and success, nay, their very existence, depends upon the maintenance and continuation of Protestant ascendancy. Your Committee feel bold to assert, that your Society, which has planted its standard in the forefront of the battle, in defence of the British Constitution, alike the great fountain and charter of our national privileges, and civil and religious liberties, deserves the strongest and most energetic support from all who venerate the Word of God, and are attached to that Protesant Constitution from whence we have derived our national prosperity and greatness, and our social and domestic comfort and security.