The Sun.
London, England, 1825-10-19 00:00:00

PROTESTANT UNION.

The ADDRESS of the PROTESTANT UNION tO
his Royal Highness the Duke of Youx was presented to its
Royal Highness, at Audley House, on Friday, the 14thof
October, 1825, ley a Deputation, consisting of the followbg
Members, viz.—
The Rev. W. L. Fancourt, Thos. Saunders, Esq.
D.D. Thos. Bensley, Esq.
The Rev. W. Mann, A.M. F. W. Carter, Esq. /
Secs.
The Rev. J. S. Sergrove, I Mr. J. Eedes.
LL.B.

According to a previous appointment, made by Sir Herbet
Taylor with the Secretaries of the Union, the above-nal-mil
Deputation --aited on his Royal Highness, who received then
with the most gracious and condescending affability. After tis
first introduction, the Secretaries advanced, bearing the opei
Address ; and having made their obeisance, Mr. Eedes, as ors
of the Secretaries, introduced the reading of that document, b;
'
addressing his Royal Highness in the following words :
" May it please your Royal Highness,
" The Protestants of the United Kingdom are so deeply in. ,
debted to your Royal Highness, as the illustrious defender oil
their best rights, privileges, and immunities, both civil and ec..l
clesiastical, that if there can be one method of expressing their
sentiments more sincerely complimentary, or more respectful,
than another, it becomes their bounden duty, as well as their
delight, to adopt that method. Actuated by this feeling, the
Members of the Protestant Union have had the heartfelt gratifi-
cation of unanimously voting the Address which we hold in our
hands, and which, by the gracious condescension of your Royal
Highness, I am now permitted to have the honour of reading in
your Royal Highness's presence."
The Address was then read as follows :

" TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF TOME AND

ALBANY, &C.
" SIR—We, the undersigned Members of the Protestant
Union, beg leave respectfully to approach your Royal High-
ness with sentiments corresponding with the language in whick
we have the honour to address you.
" Under the auspicious and purely Protestant sway of the
Illustrious House of Brunswick, our highly-favoured country
has surmounted the assaults of foreign and domestic enenies—
has sustained the falling thrones of Europe ;—and, amids: the
dire events that have agitated her convulsed continent, the
British Empire, rising as the beacon of the universe, has at-
tained to a pitch of prosperity and renown unparalleled in 'the
history of nations.
" For these important benefits, we feel ourselves imperi-
ously called upon to offer our first and most grateful acknow.
ledgments to the Supreme Disposer of all events ; who, in
sovereign wisdom, directs the course of nations in the develop-
ment of his inscrutable designs in providence, and who has
been pleased not only to favour Great Britain with the esta-
blishment of internal peace, and civil and ecclesiastical liberty,
but also to crown her efforts for the dissemination of religious
truth, and for the consolidation of those moral and political
principles which are supereminently calculated to civilize and
bless mankind. _

" While thus we offer our humble tribute to the Great First
Cause of all good, we are not, Sir, we cannot be insensible of
our obligations to the honoured instruments by whom these
benignant purposes have been effected. Your august ancestors
the Monarchs of the present British dynasty have invariably
proved themselves the uncompromising guardians of the civil
and religious rights, and consequently of the best interests, of
their faithful people. His present Majesty is the worthy suc-
cessor, not only of the throne, but also of the principles of his
progenitors. Long may he reign, to receive the heart-emanat-
ing plaudits of his admiring and affectionate subjects, and to
witness with unmixed gratification, the successful efforts of
his Royal Brother, the next Prince of the Blood, to protect
and perpetuate those bulwarks of our Protestant Constitution,
to which, under Providence, we are indebted for the general
prosperity of our country, and the secure and tranquil en-
joyment of our invaluable privileges and immunities as in-
dividuals !

" In the attainment of this nationally exalted position, your
Royal Highness has held a most prominent station. Great as
was the prowess of British arms in former days, it has been
excelled by the triumphant atchievements of modern times ;,
and we cannot but remember that the unparalelled victories,
which consolidated the honour of the British name, and re-
stored peace to the world, were acquired by an army under
the supreme administration of your Royal Highness, whose
name must therefore be connected with the glory of your
country in the records of the future historian, as it is also
entitled to the unfeigned gratulations of every honest Bri-
ton—of every patriotic contemporary. .
But, Sir, the external relations of an empire, however
prosperous, would be insufficient to the maintenance of its
security, unless accompanied by a strict adherence to the wise
and salutary laws by which its internal economy is regulated.
Here, then, we at once recognize a recent act in your legis-
lative capacity as a Peer of the Realm, which must endear
the name of your Royal Highness to every real friend to his
country, and to those liberal establishments and institutions
under which her growing prosperity has been fostered and
matured. When artful foes, aided by Well-meaning but mis-
taken friends, assailed the bulwarks of our excellent Pro-
testant Constitution, and insidiously aimed at the re-introduc-
tion of that system of civil and ecclesiastical tyranny under
which our since happy country so severely suffered in former
times, your Royal Highness, inheriting the genuine stamina
of native patriotism, and.actuated by the spirit which ani-
mated the leaders of our glorious Revolution, boldly stepped
forward to bead the efforts of those Noble and Honourable
Statesmen, whose strenuous exertions in behalf of the best
interests of the nation, had, in spite of contrary apprehen-
sions, excited an intense interest, and an ardent hope in the
breast of British millions. The truly constitutional senti-
ments of your Royal Highness—the just and conscientious
appreciation of the solemn compact subsisting between the
King and his faithful people—and the judicious and well-
timed interference, in the speech delivered by your Royal
Highness on that critical and memorable occasion, exact the
voluntary tribute of unqualified approbation and grateful
thanks. These we most respectfully tender to your Royal
Highness, for the essential benefits thus conferred on ourselves,
oar families, and the United Kingdom in general.
" By this well-timed interposition, and its happy results, a
national degradation has been averted—the hopes and expec-
tations of the loyal, the liberal, and the peaceable, have been
strengthened and encouraged, and our beloved Sovereign Las
been relieved from the liability to an invidious responsion tin-
der which he ought never to be placed, but which we feel
assured would have been given, had circumstances rendered
it necessary, in the strictest accordance with his Royal en-
gagements on acceding to the Crown of these realms. Your
Royal Highness may possibly meet the puerile censures of a
few misguided and misinformed individuals • or may be sub-
jected to the indecorous ravings of the still fewer factious ene-
mies of our Constitutional establishments, • of whom to be dis-
praised is no small praise.' But your. Royal Highness will
stand unmoved under these ebullitions of disappointed malig-
nancy ; anti our humble but sincere plaudits will re-echo the
voice of conscious satisfaction in your own bosom, and rever.
berate through the immense majority of the British dominions.
" Long may your Royal Highness live in the enjoyment of
health, to aid the prosperity of the country, and to witness her
progressive advance in all the arts and institutions that can add
stability, honour, and dignity to the British name.
" Your Royal Highness's most dutiful, grateful, and obe-
dient Servants."
Signed by upwards of sixty Clerical Lay Members of the
Union.
The Address, which was printed in gold letters on vellum,
ornamented with a rich border, and emblazoned with the Arms
of the Royal Duke, was then delivered into the bands of his
Royal
Highness, who immediately returned the following
answer

" GENTLEMEN—In receiving the Address presented to me
by you, en the part of the Protestant Union, I beg to express
to you how much I am gratified by the sentiments of loyal
and zealous attachment and devotion to his Majesty, which it
breathes, as well as flattered by the assurance, conveyed in
terms so friendly, of the approbation which my endeavours to
discharge my
various duties, during a long course of public
life, have been so fortunate as to experience from the Members
of the Protestant Union, more particularly with reference to the
important question upon which I was induced to declare my
sentiments in the House of Lords.
" The Members of the Protestant Union cannot appreciate
more strongly than I do the blessings of a free Constitution,
which secures to his Majesty's subjects in general the posses.
sioa of Civil and Religious Rights, and the tranquil enjoyment
of invaluable- privileges and immunities as individuals; nor
can they feel more anxious than I do, for the continued peace
and prosperity of a country, which has so well merited the pro-
tection and support of Providence, by the spirit and steady
perseverance with which it has maintained its independence
during the late arduous contest."
The Deputation having thus been honoured with a moat cor-
dial reception, withdrew, highly gratified, and indulging the
hope that their example may be further followed, and that the
principles so justly inculcated in the Speech of his Royal High.
ness, and so congenial with those of the Protestant Union, may
be acted upon by their fellow-subjects throughout the British
dominions,