The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-15 00:00:00

PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION.
The annual meeting of the members and friends of this
Association was held in the large hall, Exeter Hall, on
Wednesday. The Right Hon. the Earl of Winchilsea in
the chair.

The meeting was numerously attended, the body of the
hall and the gallery being filled; principally by ladies) ; and
upon the platform, surrounding the Noble Otiiairman, were
Sir Digby Mackworth, Sir Brooke Brydges, Captain:Gordon,
Rev. It. G. M`Ghee, Rev. M. O'Sullivan, D.D. Rev.
J. T. Robinson, rector of St. Andrew's, Holborn ; Rev. Dr.
Holloway, &c.
The CHAIRMAN having acknowledged the compliment
and honour paid him in placing him in the chair, pro-
ceeded to remark upon the important crisis which had ar-
rived in the history of the Constitution of this Protestant
country, which he for the last thirty.six years had en-
deavoured to maintain. It was at the early age of seven-
teen that he had first raised his voice at a public meeting
in Kent in defence of those Great Protestant principles
and that Protestant Constitution, the maintenance of which
was the only title by which the house of Hanover held the
crown of these realms—of those great religious principles
which the Whigs looked upon as valueless, and which the
Conservatives—self-styled Conservatives—had made their
stepping-stone to power. And those were the great princi-
ples—the Protestant principles of our glorious Constitution of
Church and State—which they were met to uphold.—
(Cheers.) They had, session after session, of late, been
accuinstomed to see attacks made on the Protestant religion,
as established in this country. The first attack was the
repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts ; and in regard to
that measure he would say, that no man would go further
to relieve the Dissenters from their civil disabilities than
he would, but he said now, as lie had said at the time that
Act passed, do not let us extend the relief to Sucinians and
unitarians; let the relief be confined to Christians. Those
who deny the divinity of the Saviour had no claim to re-
lief. The next attack was the (so called) Catholic Relief
Bill of 1829. He thanked God he had used all his influence
and all his power in opposition to that measure, and the satis-
faction he now felt in having done so he would not exchange
for all the world could bestow. They were told at the time that
that measure would pacify Ireland, and unite Protestants and
Roman Catholics in that country; but so far from that being
the result, they found that the Church of Rome.had used the
power which that Act gave it to undermine and destroy Pro-
testantism in Ireland. The next measure in favour of Popery
was the destruction of the Kildare-street Society—( Hear,
hear)—which had received the support and sanction of the
Roman Catholic hierarchy of Ireland, and the great agitator
of that country and his followers; and what was the ground
for destroying that society ? because Popery found that the
mere reading of the Bible, without note or comment, must
speedily end in the destruction of their religion.—(Hear.)
The next thing done by the Parliament was to show an utter
disregard for Protestant interests and for Protestant feeling in
Ireland, and to abolish at once twelve bishoprics in that country.
The next step was now to follow—and that was that Protes-
tant England was to be called on to endow the Popish.
Church—(Hear,, hear)—for it was absurd to say that a per-
manent payment of 30,000/. a-year for the support of the
Roman Catholic College of Maynooth was anything but an
endowment of Popery, by the State. The proposed endow-
ment of Maynooth was, in point of fact, an endowment of
that religion which they had declared to be founded on
idolatry and superstition. He called on the meeting to take
a leaf out of the Prime Minister's book, and register—

(Hear, hear)—in defence of Protestantism, and to exercise
their influence in their respective counties to ensure the
return in the next Parliament of a body of men who should
uphold the Protestant Constitution at all risks.—(Cheers.)
He had exerted himself, and had been mainly instrumental
in driving from power Sir Robert Peel's Government after
the measure of 1829, and he would not cease to agitate until
he had succeeded in rousing the people of this country to a
sense of their danger, and driving from office a Government
that bad a second time betrayed them.—(Cheers.)
The SECRETARY having read the report of the Committee,
Captain GORDON moved the first resolution, to the effect
that this meeting is convinced of the increasing importance
of the Association, and its claims on British Protestants ;

that the report of the Committee be adopted, printed, and
circulated, and that certain gentlemen named constitute the
Committee for the ensuing year.
The Rev. J. T. ROBINSON seconded the resolution, which
was supported by Sir DIGBY MACKWORTII, and carried una li
-
nimously.
The Rev. R. G. M'CatER then rose to move the following
resolution :—" That from the system of education adopted
at the College of Maynooth, in training up young men for
the office of the Roman Catholic priesthood, from the im.
moral, intolerant, anti• social, and persecuting character of
the books used and the system taught in that college, and
from the principles in which the Roman Catholic hierarchy
are pledged to Rome to train the priesthood in reference to
the Protestant Sovereign of these realms, and in which they
are proved to train them not only in Maynooth, but after
they leave that college and enter into their offices as
priests—it appears to this meeting that the endowment to
the College of Maynooth is.not only irreconcilable with
the duty which Protestants owe to God, but with loyalty
and fidelity to our gracious Sovereign, with due regard to
the safety of our Constitution, and to the laws, the
liberties, and religion of this great empire." It had been
said the subject had been exhausted in the House of Com-
mons, but he contended that as yet the merits of the
question had not been discussed at all, and had not been
permitted to be discussed. Some inquisitorial influence,
not known to the British Constitution, appeared to have
been exercised over the Cabinet, and the result had been
that the Cabinet had studiously quashed all discussion upon
the real merits of the question. The proposition of the Go-
vernment was to endow a college for the purpose of educat-
ing a certain class of men. Now, he contended that the
whole question to consider, in dealing with such a proposi-
tion, was, what VMS the character of the education it was pro-
posed to endow? Surely it must be a very equivocal or sus-
picious education which it was an act of grace to conceal.
But to whom was it an act of grace—was it to the country

or the system?—or was it concealed because the Prinie
Minister knew it would not bear the light? On the 2d of
this month an attempt was made by two Members of the
House of Commons—the Ilonourable Member for Kent
(Mr. Plumptre), and the Member for Newcastle-
under-Lyne (Mr. Colquhoun)—to force on some dis-
cussion upon this the real question, and they had
succeeded in eliciting an impotent, irritable denial of demon-
strable facts ; and upon that occasion the Right Ilonourable
Baronet (Sir R. Peel) had stated that he had heard the dis-
cussion with great pain, because he thought the House of
Commons was a most unfit place for discussions of such a
nature. He was astonished to hear that statement, for to
what did it amount ? That the House of Commons was
unable to legislate upon the subject, for if it could not dis-
cuss, surely it was unable to legislate upon the question.—
(A cry from the body of the meeting, " Three cheers for Sir
R. Peel.") Sir Robert Peel had given notice to move the
third reading of the Bill on Monday next; but would he
do so? He believed that before Monday the Right Hon.
Baronet would feel it to be due to his country and to himself,
rather to bring in a Bill to investigate Maynooth, and
those laws which had been set up by the Papal bishops of
Ireland against the laws of that Sovereign who had entrusted
him with the government of this country. (Cheers.) The
Rev. Gentleman then entered into a long statement of the
doctrines taught at Maynooth, and those of Peter Dens, and
thus concluded :—And if the measure should be carried in
the House of Commons, who would the Premier get to
move it in the House of Lords ? Would he impose the
task on Lord Stanley, as a fitting reward for his exertions in
undermining Protestantism in Ireland, and cutting out the
Bible from the education of his (Mr. M'Ghee's) poor country-
men ?—(Cheers.) Or could he ask the Duke of Wellington
to prostrate his well-earned honours, or the Primate of all
England to sacrifice the Protestant religion at the feet of Dr.
Higgins ?—(Hear, hear.) Or, should he carry the Bill
through both Houses, would he venture to ask the Queen to
give to it the royal assent.—(A voice in the gallery, we be-
lieve, " Yes, he will.") If so, then he would say, Oh ! for
the mighty, indignant thunderbolt of a Chatham's voice to
read in pieces the hollow-hearted, spiritless legislation of the
day. Oh, for its electric power to thrill once more round the
walls of the House of Lords, and call upon the ancestors of
England's nobles to frown from their tapestry upon such an
insult to the British Constitution, and upon the judges to
raise the purity of their ermine, and the bishops to interpose
the sanctity of their lawn, to avert such an evil to this
country.—(Cheers.)
The Rev. CHARLES PREST seconded the resolution in a
speech of some length, in the course of which he stated that
the Wesleyans, though not a political people, were vet
ready, when circumstances required it of them, to come for-
ward and unite with their fellow-Protestants in defence of
the Constitution and the Throne—(Hear)—which, he con-
tended, were endangered by the Government measure for
endowing Maynooth.
The resolution was then put and carried.
The Rev. Dr. O'SULLIVAN moved the next resolution, That
the coronation oath was a great national safeguard; and that
the meeting would use all constitutional means of resistance
to any legislative measure they believed to be at variance
with the spirit of that:oath, and destructive of the objects
for which that oath was and is required by the laws which
called the ancestors of her Majesty to the throne of England.
He had looked anxiously into the Government Bill in the
hope of being able to find something good in it, but he
was convinced that it could only be regarded as a measure
to widen, embitter, and make permanent religious dissension
in Ireland, and lead to tumult, massacre, and the dismem-
berment of the empire. Experience showed that they could
not hope to conciliate the Roman Catholics of Ireland by any
such concessions ; and moreover, they had declared by their
bishops that they did not require this endowment.
DUDLEY PERCIVAL, Esq., seconded the resolution, which
was put and carried.
Sir BROOKE BRYDGES, Bart., moved that the thanks of the
meeting be given to the Chairman, which was carried, and
acknowledged by the Noble Lord in an appropriate speech,
after which the meeting separated.

LONDON AND BIRMINGHAM
RAILWAY COMPANY.
Yesterday a special general meeting of tho Proprie-
tors of this Company was held at the Euston-station ;
Mr. George Carr Glyn, Chairman of the Board of
Directors, presiding ' • to approve of several Bills now
before Parliement, for the construction of extension
lines. There was a numerous attendance of Proprietors.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, said the
meeting had been convened in compliance with the
standing orders of the House of Lords, to approve of
certain Bills now in progress before Parliament ; and as
they had already been brought before the notice of the
Proprietors, and unanimously approved of, it was unne-
cessary that he should enter into details. Two of these,
the Churnet Valley and Manchester and Birmingham
Amalgamation Bills, rejected by the standing orders, '
had been withdrawn for the present. The Chairman
then proceeded to propose seriatim resolutions approving
of the Bills. The first was the London, Wor-
cester, and South Staffordshire, now in Committee. He
would make no comments on the proceedings that had
taken place, but simply say that they expected a favour-
able result. The next Bill was for a branch from
a
Dudley to Sedgley, forming connecting link with the
London, Worcester, and South Staffordshire, and which
had been adopted as a precautionary measure in the
event of the Shrewsbury and Birmingham being thrown
out on standing orders. The Birmingham and Glouces-
ter were applying for a similar line, but it was not a
question of difference between them. The next Bill
related to the Trent Valley line from Stafford to
Rugby. The Chairman here took occasion to allude
to a statement lately promulgated, to the effect that
the London and Birmingham Company were charge-
able with fraud in the transactions connected with the
Trent Valley Bill. This he denied, observing that
Captain Huish, the secretary of the Grand Junc-
tion, had, at the meeting of that Company on Monday
last, stated that no charge of that description had been
preferred in Committee against the London and Bir-
mingham Company. The next Bills he had to propose
were more immediately connected with the main line,
and for carrying our extensions from the Leighton Buz-
zard station of the Birmingham line to Dunstable, and
from the Bletchley station to Bedford, and for leasing
the West London line.