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Church, in an elaborate speech, which occupied three hours in the delivery:"The question of the Irish Church," said he, "must be looked fairly in the face, if you would give peace to Ireland."

And again,

"The Protestant Church is only known to the Irish people for more than a century and a half (meaning since the Revolution in 1688), as being the cause of oppression and misery to the great mass of the people."

It is said, that since his Lordship's accession to office he has evinced great anxiety to act upon the opinions which he had previously expressed; and that he has only promised to remain silent with regard to this subject, on the promise from his colleagues, that the Irish Church question should be solemnly entertained, provided it was suffered to rest until after the election.

In reference to this matter the Standard has the following welltimed observations :

“We have a right to demand," remarks that journal, "whether any Cabinet pledge, direct or implied, has been given as to the adoption of Earl Grey's opinions? And whether the Noble Lord is prepared to propose any measure approaching to their realization? We call upon the champions of our holy religion to have this question set at rest by a direct appeal to Earl Grey himself, or to Lord Lansdowne, in the presence of Earl Grey. Every Protestant in the empire, seeing what has happened, has a right to have the recorded pledge of the Cabinet on this subject-or its recorded refusal to give that pledge that the constituency of England may be prepared to act. We hope, also, the question may be framed, so as to allow neither escape nor loophole."

The country can have no confidence in an Administration, in which there is a Romanist Master of the Mint, Mr. Ward, of appropriation notoriety, Secretary to the Admiralty, a Prime Minister who has declared himself favourable to the endowment of Popery in Ireland, and every member of the Government sharing in Earl Grey's unfavourable sentiments towards the Irish Church. The timely

warning now given by the "Standard" ought not to be despised. Rather let it animate every Protestant to greater exertion in defence of that holy religion, which is now exposed to so much peril-and that from men who by their office are in duty bound to protect it.

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REV. MR. SIMEON ON ROMAN CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. IN the "Memoirs of Mr. Simeon," p. 576, Mr. S. says:- · Old Mr. Grant, with Professor Farish, called on me and dined with me. It was a grief to me that I could not vote for his son on Tuesday next; but I told him, that I regard my vote for a Member of Parliament not as a right, but a trust, to be used conscientiously for the good of the whole kingdom; and his son's being a friend to what is called Catholic Emancipation, is, in my eyes, an insurmountable objection to his appointment. Gladly would I give to Catholics every privilege that could conduce to their happiness: but to endanger the Protestant ascendancy and stability is a sacrifice which I am not prepared to make. Viewing this matter as I do, I could not vote for Mr. Robert Grant, if he were my own son."

POPERY RAMPANT.- PLACARDS INCITING TO MURDER! (Extract from the "Nenagh Guardian.") ONE of the most audacious placards we have ever seen, has been extensively circulated through our town during the Assizes, and persisted in with impunity in the presence of that judge who denounced it as an impudent and audacious document. A bell-man was sent about the streets, and the "recommendations" given to the description of a long-barrelled gun, which he carried on his shoulder as a specimen of those offered for sale, were, that it would "shoot a parson, a bailiff, or a proctor, at 150 yards-take down a pay-clerk at any distance," and "was a receipt in full for the November rent." How, we simply ask, will the Government, who have given this dangerous facility to the people to arm themselves, permit the sale to be continued, as it were,

under their sanction, and on such recommendations as we have stated?

EXTINCTION OF PROTEST

ANTISM.

MR. WATSON's Bill in favour of Popery is thrown out by a majority of thirty-nine, the numbers being against the measure 158, and 119 for it.

We cannot give here even an epitome of the debate, but select the speeches of the Earl of Arundel and Mr. Plumptre, as indicating, on the one hand, the principles and dangers of Popery; and on the other, the spirit in which the Protestants of this country will act.

Though we differ very much as to the facts, arguments, and conclusions of the Noble Lord, we yet give his speech, illustrative, as it is, of the real designs and tendency of Romanism :

"The Earl of ARUNDEL trusted he might be allowed to trespass for a short time upon the attention of the House on a subject which must engage the attention of every reflecting man, and which had peculiar interest for him, one of those loyal subjects of Her Majesty who acknowledged the spiritual authority of the Church of Rome. He would abstain from entering into any question as to the merits or demerits of any particular class of the clergy of Rome, and would take his ground on the necessity at this time for general religious freedom. It would be his endeavour, in the observations which he was about to offer to the House, to avoid giving offence to any. Church of Rome had been accused by many Hon. Members of persecution. He was not prepared to deny the imputation. (Hear, hear.) He admitted that on many occasions members of that Church had been guilty of acts of persecution, but he might mention that each of those acts was to be estimated according to the temper and spirit of the time. (Hear, hear.) He might point to the Old Testament as containing much that might appear to authorize the persecution and extinction of unhallowed creeds. He alluded, of course, to the wars of the Israelites, and the extermination by the chosen people

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of the nations whom they encountered in their progress to the promised land. Previous to the sixteenth century the whole of western Europe was of the Catholic faith, with such trifling exceptions as to be undeserving of notice. In the sixteenth century, however, the whole relations of society were overturned and upset by the general rise of the Reformation, and many heresies sprung up which_had continued to the present day. Here he was anxious to point to the very sensible distinction made by the Church between heretics and members of a heresy. A heretic was one who, having once belonged to the Catholic Church disputed the dogmas of that Church, and stood up for some different profession; but a heresy once founded, the members of that heresy could not be considered guilty in the same degree, if at all, and were not held to deserve the same punishment or the infliction of the same penalties. There were in all the heresies which had come down to the present day men of the utmost sincerity and of the greatest virtue, and he believed that if the Catholic faith were properly proposed to those, they would not refuse to embrace it. With such men it would be impossible to use any means but such as the apostles resorted to in promulgating the Gospel. The evils attending the adoption of any other means were forcibly pointed out by what took place when the dragoons of Louis XIV. were sent to force the Protestants to submission. The bold refused to submit, and were slaughtered on the field; the timid obeyed, and became Catholics in name, but their repressed opinions continued under the surface of society, the wide ulcer continued to spread, and the disastrous events which happened at the end of the last century were the consequence. In fact, he believed that France still laboured under the effects of that illegitimate repression of religious feeling. He, therefore, argued that it was utterly impossible to control the minds of men by force, or to throw obstructions in the way of any profession of faith, by any other than the legitimate means of persuasion and explanation. His Hon. Friend who had just sat down, had said that the

Church of Rome was antagonistic to Protestantism. He perfectly agreed with him, and as long as the world lasted it would continue so, until Protestantism was extinct. (Cheers and counter-cheers.) He recollected in Greece, about ten years ago, being guided to some ancient temple ten miles west of Marathon, where he found a stranger also engaged in studying the ruins-he was a Mexican of Spanish blood. The reflection rose upon his mind, that in the immediate neighbourhood of these temples-thousands of years old-the force of the Persians had been repelled; that they had since witnessed other conquests, and had groaned under Ottoman power. In the presence of this scene stood a descendant of those few brave men who overthrew Montezuma from his throne, and conquered the vast continent which they afterwards for centuries retained. Protestantism had also her representative there. Looking over the whole face of the plain, he thought how many mighty empires had vanished, how many religions had been forgotten, or were remembered in poetry alone: thinking which religion, Catholic or Protestant, was most likely to survive to the last hour, he came, in his own feeble way, to the same conclusion as that to which the grasping intellect and historic learning of the Right Honourable Member for Edinburgh had arrived, and in the long vista of forthcoming events he saw the traveller from New Zealand, in the midst of a vast soli tude, taking his stand on a broken arch of London-bridge, to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's, and the religion of the successor of St. Peter still subsisting in undiminished vigour. The struggle for religious freedom must go on, but in that struggle he was not inclined to relinquish one iota of the claims of his Church. He should of course support the Bill of his Hon. and Learned Friend. (Hear, hear.)

Mr. PLUMPTRE thanked the Noble Lord for the candour and fairness with which he had admitted that the contest between Popery and Protestantism must go on till Protestantism should become extinct. (Hear, hear.) Such was the Noble Lord's assertion, and such was his intention, as far as

he represented his Church; and he would say further, that this Bill was part of the contest which the Church of Rome was carrying on against Protestantism. What Protestants generally had to lament was that they knew not where to find their enemy, who might be bold, honest, and faithful when it suited his purpose, but held his peace when it was not convenient to show his power. He told them that the purpose of his Church was to continue and maintain the struggle till Protestantism was for ever extinguished. He would tell him that the Protestants of this country were prepared to meet those words with corresponding language. (Hear, hear.) He agreed with his Hon. Friend the Member for the University of Oxford, that nothing could be more painful to him than to say anything which might wound the feelings of any Member; but they must not refrain from speaking the truth from any such fear, and it became them not to remain silent after the_language of the Noble Lord. The Protestant part of this country was increasingly alive to this subject, for they could not help seeing the progress which Popery had made of late years. They were told before 1829, "Oh! grant us this Bill; remove our civil disabilities (loud cheers); we shall be very thankful, and you will receive no further trouble from us.' What had been the state of the Church of Rome since that time? Had they been pacified by those measures? (Hear, hear.) Anything but pacified, but every reflecting man knew at the time that they were only granting a boon to future agitation. (Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord had told them that the contest should go on till Protestantism was extinguished in Popish ascendancy. He feared no such result. The Romish Church might cause much unhappiness and misery; she might be a persecuting Church, as the Noble Lord admitted she had been, and went to Scripture for a justification. (No, no.) The argument appeared to him very inconclusive, but he certainly understood the Noble Lord to refer to the Old Testament, and to cite the example of the Jews, in exterminating the nations in their way to the promised land, as a justi

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fication of the ancient acts of the Church of Rome. But when the Noble Lord asserted that Protestantism would become extinct under the foot of Rome, he told him that he was satisfied the Protestant Church was founded on a rock; but he regretted that the present Bill would revive the struggle, as it would no doubt tend to promote the interests of the Church of Rome. He would oppose the Bill, and every other measure of the same character, which went to destroy or endanger the Protestant faith or the Protestant Church. If he spoke warmly on the question, he at least spoke honestly; and while he differed with Hon. Members on the matter, he did so with the kindest feelings. It was not on personal grounds that he opposed the measure, but because he considered it based on a bad principle.

Reader!

MISCELLANEOUS. THE SURE FOUNDATION. you hope to go to heaven when you die! so that man hoped for safety who built his house upon the sand,

as well as the builder on the rock.

Each had a house, but only one of them had a foundation, as our Saviour tells us ; "Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like he is like a wise man which

built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock." (Luke vi. 48.) Now, are you building on Christ for salvation? Do you hear his voice, and follow him? for "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." If not, you are building your house on the sand, against which, when the stream shall beat vehemently, "it will immediately fall, and the ruin of that house will be GREAT." GREAT, because it will be ruin without remedy, and that ruin eternal. But you may perhaps feel persuaded that you are going to heaven: but it is impossible, unless you are building on the rock Christ Jesus, the only "sure foun

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PRAYER FOR IRELAND. BRIGHT Sun of Righteousness, arise, And beam effulgent from the skies, On Erin's misty isle:

O, let the clouds of error's night
Dissolve before thy matchless light,
And thy propitious smile!
Hover around her fated shore,
Till ignorance and strife no more

Taint nature's favour'd land:
Concentric on green Erin shine,
With dazzling power thy rays Divine

In native radiance, grand.
Now set her captive children free,
From Rome's accursed tyranny,

And burst their bonds in twain:

And may God's sacred truth succeed The Man of Sin's apostate creed,

And overthrow his reign! Then shall the Emerald Isle resound With sacred note and thrilling sound,

And grateful praises ring, Thro' hill and dale;-and mountains high,

Shall raise the echo to the sky,
Proclaiming CHRIST as King!
S. PHILLIPS DAY.

London, April, 1847.

NOTICES OF BOOKS.

Popery Subversive of Christianity. Six Sermons by the Rev. W. G. COOKESLEY, M.A., one of the Assistant Masters of Eton College. Eton: Williams. London: Hatchard and Son. Pp. 190. IN this small volume there are several

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INTELLIGENCE. REFORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES.-The work of Luther and of Ronge is going on here. We cut the following from the Journal of Commerce :-" One of the largest and most interesting Meetings ever held in this city, assembled on Sunday afternoon, in the Tabernacle, to witness the formation of a religious Society of Germans, who, from the study of the sacred Scriptures, have been led to secede from the Roman Catholic Church, and to organize themselves into an independent congregation, under the pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. Guistiniani, formerly a Roman Catholic priest of the Order of St. Francis. The Tabernacle was throughout overflowing with those strongly attracted by the extreme interest of the occasion. The hearts of the great assembly were animated; and we almost imagined the spirit of Luther was present, and that the place trembled, as once did Germany, and even Europe, beneath the tread

of freedom." By the declaration and confession of faith of the Society, it appears that the members reject the doctrine that the Pope is the visible head of the Church, and that special dignity is conferred on the priesthood by ordination. They also reject the celibacy of the clergy, auricular confession, the invocation of saints, and the worship of images, indulgences, fasts, &c., and the doctrines of Purgatory. Their adopted creed corresponds in substance with those of most Reformed Churches. This may be a movement pregnant with results beneficial to our land, wherein the great spread of Romish doctrines has been the cause of most serious thought. It is a countermovement to that doctrine and Church discipline, which is contrary in spirit, in its Jesuitical forms, to Republican institutions.-Buffalo Commercial.

DERBY.-The Anniversary Meeting of the Tradesmen's and Operatives' Protestant Association was held on Monday evening, April 5, in the Mechanics' Hall. A large party of several hundreds assembled for tea at five, and the proceedings of the Meeting commenced about seven o'clock. The Rev. Roseingrave Macklin, as President, took the chair, and the Meeting was addressed by James Lord, Esq., Rev. James, of Liverpool, &c.

LONDON. MUSIC HALL, STORESTREET, PROTESTANT LECTURE.—Mr. Lord delivered the first of the two Lectures announced in our last number, on the Protestant character of the British constitution.

N.B.-We are again compelled by want of space to postpone many Notices and Communications to a subsequent Number.

THE ANNUAL MEETING of the Members and Friends of the PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION, will be held (D. V.) in the Large Hall, EXETER HALL, on WEDNESDAY, May 12, 1847. J. P. PLUMPTRE, Esq., M.P., will take the Chair at Twelve o'Clock. Rev. HUGH M'NEILE, J. E. GORDON, Esq., and Rev. EDWARD BICKERSTETH, will address the Meeting.

The ANNUAL SERMON will be preached in CHARLOTTE STREET CHAPEL, PIMLICO, on TUESDAY EVENING, May 11, by the Rev. ALEXANDER DALLAS, M.A., Rector of Wonston, Hants. Divine Service to commence at Seven o'clock.

Macintosh, Printer, Great New Street, London.

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