The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-18 00:00:00

CHURCH AND ST TEDEMONSTRATION
AT THE CRYST.AL PALACE.

-
The meeting, or demonstration, which had been con-
vened by a special committee, under the auspices of the
Protestant Union, in support of her Majesty's Ministers,
and in opposition to the disestablishment of the Irish
Church, took place, as we have already announced,
in the central transept of the Crystal Palace. The
original arrangement was that it should be held in
the sports' ground, but the weather proving unfavourable,
an adjournment took place to the transept. There were,
including, the platform ticket-holders, about five thousand
persons present, and the proceedingst were exceedingly
orderly throughout. The business of the meeting
having been opened with prayer by the Bishop of Perth
(Australia), the 100th Psalm was sung, and letters were
read from persons who, although concurring with the
objects of the meeting, were unavoidably absent. The
Bishop of Ripon wrote, expressing his cordial concurrence
but pleading episcopal duties ; and a letter from the Duke
of Portland, including a donation of 02,000 for Protestant
purposes, was received with tumultuous cheering.
Lord FiTswsLlEn having been called to the chair by
acclamation, proceeded to say that they had met that day
in an extraordinary place and in an extraordinary crisis.
Their national Protestantism was assailed, but it was net
so for the first time. It bad been established only after
a severe struggle, and had not been maintained without
bloodshed ; but he was proud to think that the great
mass of the people of England were still Protestant to the
backbone, and detested everything like an approach to
Popery. The proposition of Mr. Gladstone—(hisses)—
which they had met that day to oppose, meant simply the
transfer of that country to the Government of the Roman
Catholic priests. There was at present in Ireland a Pro-
testant Church, which as a nucleus did a world of good,
and if that nucleus were taken away he should like to know
what power or what organisation would be able to com-
pete with the power of the Church of Rome. No matter
what might be the intentions of those who proposed
to t'Usestablish the Irish Church, the result could only
be to throw the whole country into the hands of the
Roman Catholics. But he had no fear. The dissolute
Charles and the bigot James had once before sought to
establish Popery in these realms ; but the people of Eng-
land rose as one man, and said, "We will not have
Popery nor will we have its supporters to reign over us."
(Loud cheers.) Those attempts changed the dynasty,
making way for the line to which we owed our present
beloved Queen, than whom no one in the kingdom was
more attached to Protestant principles. (Loud cheers.) He
called on those who heard him to stand by their Queen, and
to support her in resistance to Popery, no matter what
might be the form it assumed. What was their obvious
duty? It was to make the next general election a Protes-
tant election. (Tremendous cheering.) Let them return
no Ritualists to Parliament; but, on the contrary, let
them tell her Majesty's Government that they would be
supported by the whole nation in bringing into Parliament
a measure which should enable every churchwarden in the
country to bring to account whatever person might
attempt to introduce Roman Catholic ceremonies into the
Protestant Church. (Great . cheering.) The noble lord,
having quoted a passage condemnatory of Ritualism from
the Times, proceeded to say that if these Protestant clergy
persisted in practising Ritualism, the only remedy would
be to turn them out. Let it not be delayed from year to
ye sr, till everyone had forgotten the beginning of the dis-
pute. Let it be done at once. (Loud cheers.) He was
proud to say that there was no man in that great assembly
more entirely convinced of the rectitude and propriety of
their bestirring themselves at the present moment than he
(Cheers). Nothing had ever been gained by idle-
ness, and if they did not bestir themselves they might as
well go to sleep for ever. (Prolonged cheers.)
Mr. 11. GIFFARD moved the first resolution : "That this
meeting, composed as it is of all sections of the community,
strongly deprecates the attempts recently made in the
House of Commons to effect a solemn and radical change
in the principles of the constitution by hasty and ill-con-
sidered legislation." That man must have been cold, and
his heart's blood of a sluggish circulation, whose feelings
had not been moved by the noble aim with which
these proceedings had begun. The question was
whether they would have allegiance to the Crown of
Great Britain, or whether they would have an -alle-
giance pledged to the potentate of Rome. (Loud cheers,
and cries of "No Popery.") Let him not be mis-
understood. He never had said, and never would say,
that the attack upon the Established Church began with
the Roman Catholics. It began with a struggle for place.
(Cheers.) But it was impossible not to see that where a
number of forces could be called together, some for one
object and some for another, that an astute and expe-
rienced statesman, finding his followers in the condition
described by Mr. Bouverie, as a rabble, would take advan-
tage of the possibility of combining those elements, dis-
cordant among themselves, but united for the destruction
of the Church of England. It was a " solemn and radical
change" to strive to destroy those great principles of civil
and religious freedom which were established at the Refor-
mation. No legal system would long remain in which the
recognition of the Great Disposer of All was a,bolishe.d.
Had any part of the civilised world at the present moment,
not forgetting their friends on the other side of the
Atlantic, more securities fir civil and religious liberty than
we had? That meeting, held in a place from which no
one could be excluded, was in effect a public meeting.
Was there any other country where the views of speakers
upon a subject on which there was great conflict of opinion
could be expressed so freely ? John Stuart Mill—(" Turn
him out.") From the latest information he had about the
Westminster election, he believed he would be turned out.
(Cheers.) But John Stuart Mill, who might be supposed
to represent what he should call the enlightened philosophy
of modern civilisation, said in his recently-published
pamphlet on England and Ireland : " You are not to
suppose that when you have cashiered the Protestant
Church in Ireland, you will have satisfied the Irish
people. Nothing of the sort." Mr. Mill entered into
a disquisition to shew that as no mortal created the
world, the land could be no mortal's property ; and in
order to satisfy Ireland and make her perfectly pacific
the land was to be thrown into a sort of general scramble
for any one to take it who could, and that was the con-
clusion of philosophy, experience, and science. (Cheers.)
Dr. COWAN seconded the motion.
Mr. FOSTER, who stated that he represented the Orange
lodges of Ireland, assured the meeting that the Orangemen
of Ireland were ready to unite with them in the present

1,V:13.

crisis.
The resolution was put and carried with three dissen.

Cents.
The Bishop of PERTH (Australia) proposed the second
resolution : "That this meeting is of opinion that the
principle of an alliance between Church and State is not
only in strict accord with the wise practice of Govern-
ments in all past ages, but likewise fully sanctioned and
enjoined by the spirit of Christianity, whose holy mission
it is to consecrate things secular by an indissoluble
union with things sacred ; and this meeting hareby invites
all true Chiistians,,of whatever denomination, to uphold
by their vote and influence, at the forthcoming elec-
tion, the union of the State with the Church of the
Reformation." '
Mr. NEWDEGATE, in seconding the resolution, said that
for more than twenty years it had been his privilege to
stand forward in the House of Commons in defence of the
spirit of this resolution. He rejoiced that it was an
Australian bishop he was to follow, because the loyalty
of Australia had been tested by the dastardly attempt on
the life of the Duke of Edinburgh. That attempt was
made by a Popish-bred and priestly-raised miscreant, and
Australia had dealt with him by the law, but with a will
which would have dealt out justice even if the law
had failed. Australia was determined to defend
our sovereign and family—being Protestant. (Cheers.)
Washington, the great American Republican, had
desired that there should be an Established Church
combined with the State in that republic, but he was
defeattd by a Popish cabal, headed by Carrol and Jefferson.
Carrol had a brother a Jesuit, and that brother was tho
first Roman Catholic bishop appointed in. the United
States. They would see, therefore, that the union of
Church and State had been advocated by the greatest
Republican in the great Republic, and was prevented
by the conspiracy of a Jesuit and a Voitairian. It was
only Protestant Christianity that fitted men for self-
government. There was no self-government in Spain, in
Bourbon Naples, or even in France, whilst in Russia,
where there was .a connection between Church and State,
the Pope had plotted against the sovereign, by stirring ur
rebellion in Roman Catholic Poland. Austria, in the
conflict of Sadowa, was conquered because the oppression
which the Papacy induced her to practise upon her sub-
jects, and especially her Italian subjects, rendered only
half her army reliable. She learnt a severe lesson, and
the Emperor asked for a modification of the arrangement
by which his Government was bound to the Papal Church,
inf-rming the Pope that his people would not longer sub-
mit to have all education limited to chnical in.itruction.
The Austrians, in fact, oht...ined a modification of the
ninon, but the Pope denounced the Government of tint
country because it was not blindly obedient to his sway.
Was it possible to have a union in this country with a
Church so arrogant? The people of England were deter-
mined to prevent such an alliance. (Cheers.) Let them,
then, take the matter into their own hands, and say,
Keith their forefathers, " We will prevent the possibility
of an alliance between our Government and Rome, 1.3,
insisting upon the continuance of the connection
between the Protestant Church and the State of Eng-
land." If the Protestant Church was disestablished in
Ireland, there was nothing to prevent the direct establish•
ment of the Church of Rome there. In fact, it was dots
already, for the Pope was so proud, he would not
accept otabli#44pt froplApY.WAtt. but claimed.that