Star.
London, England, 1829-03-17 00:00:00

and worse than nothing, in freland—(Loud cheers).
Bit after all, it is a question which dues not require
the evidence of history for its elucidation. There
shines upon it an immediate light from the known
laws and principles of human nature. When truth and
falsehood enter into collision upon equal terms, and do
so with their own appropriate weapons, the result is
infallible. Magna ere vandal et pravale6it. But if to
ittengt'len the cause of truth, you put the forces of the
statute. book under her command, there instantly starts
tip on the side of falsehood, an auxiliary far more for-
usidable—(Cheers). You may lay an incapacity on the
persons, or you may put restraint and limitation on the
property of Catholics; but the Catholic mind becomes
tenfold more impregnable than before. We know the
purpose of these disabilities. They were meant to serve
as a barrier of defence for Protestants against the en-
attachments of Popery; and they have turned out a
barrier of defence for Papists against the encroachments
of Protestantism. They were intended as a line of circum-
collation around the strongholds of the Protestant Faith,'
and in effect they have been a lincof circumvallation
around the strongholds of the Catholic Faith—(Cheers).
It is to force these now. difficult and inaccessible strong.
holds, that I want this' wall of separation taken down—
(Loud cheer:). When I speak of force, it is the con
bined force of truth and charity that I mean—(lmmense
cheering)—and it is precisely because I believe it to be
omnipotent, that lam an Emancipationist. It is pre-
cisely because I agree with the Duke of • Wellington in
thinking that, tithe political distinctions were done away,
the result would be the spread of Protestantism in Ire-
land—(Loud applaus ). Had we been suffered to mingle
more esteusively with our Catholic fellow subjects, and
to company with them in the walks of civil and politi-
cal btoit.esr, there would at this day have been the trans-
fusion of another f:elrug. the breath of another spirit
amongst them ; nor st ould we have beheld as now the
impracticable countenance, the resolute and unyielding
attitude, of an aggrieved and outcast population.—
I •am sensible of one advantage which our opponents
have against us, and that is a certain command over the
seligious feelings of the population. And yet lam not
a • are of any public topic on which the popular and
prevailing cry ever ran so counter as it does at present
to the a hole drift and spirit of Christianity. What other
instruments du we read of in the New Testament for
.the defence and propagation of the Faith. but the
Word of GOD and the Spirit of GOD ? How does
the Apostle esplai.i the principle of its triumphs in
that age when truth was so mighty to the pulling
down of strong holds? It was because the weapons
Of his warfare were not carnal. He confined himself to
the use of spiritual weapons, the only ones by which to
assoil the strong holds either of Popery or Paganism.—
The kingdom of Goo, atrial is nut of this world, re-
fines to be indebted f.r its advancement to any other.
Itiason, and Scri; tare, and prayerthese comprise, or
ought to compose. the whole armoury of Protestantism;
and it is by these alone that the battles of the Faith can
he successfully tought—(Cheers). It is since the admis-
sion of intolerance, that unseemly associate, within our
estop, that the c iuse of tire Reformation has come
down from its vantage ground; and from the mome-nt
it wrested this engine from the hands of its mica.
sane,. and began to wield and brandish it itself, from
that moment it has been at a dead stand—(Applause).
We want to bidoencumbered of this weight, and to be
restored thereby to our own free and proper energies.
We want tin h and force to be disheveled from each
ooh —(cirers), the aortal and spiritual to he no longer
implicated with the grossly physical; for never shall we
prosper, and never shall we prevail in Ireland, till our
eatoe he delivered from the out, abe and contamination
of so unholy an alliance. It is not because'! hold
Popery to be innocent that I wail the removal of
these disabilities ; • but because I hold that if these
were taken out of the a ay, she would be tenfold more
assailable—(Cheers). It is opt because 1 am indiffe.
teat to the good of Pi otehtantism that I want to displace
these artificial crutches from under her—(Laughter)—
hut because I want that, freed from every symptom of
decrepitude and decay, she should stand forth in her
own native strength, and make macifest to all men how
firm a support she has on the goodness of her cause, and
on the basis of her orderly and well laid arguments—
(Loud sheers). It is because I count so much (and will
any Protestant here present say that I count too much ?)
on her Bible, and her evidences. and the blessing of
GOD upon her Churches, and tire force of her teohtlesa
swath to the conscience and the understandings of men;.
it is because of her strength and sufficiency in these that
would disclaim the aids of the statute-book, and own
no depenJente or obligation whateser on a system of
intolerance—(Cheers). These were enough for her
in the days of her sufferings, and should be more
than enough for her in the days of Per comparative
safety—(Loud cheer:). It is not by our fears and one
false alarms that we do honour to Protestantism. • A
Cis more befitting honour to the great cause is the ho-
mage of our co ,fidence ;for what Sheridan said of the
liberty rf the press, admits of most emphatic'applica.
tion to this religion of truth and liberty. " Give," says
that orator, " give to Ministers a corrupt House of
C mmons; give the ii a pliant and a servile Hutoe of
Lords ; give them the keys of the Treasury and the pa-
nonage of the Crown ; and gore me the liberty of the
press. and with this mighty engine I will overthrow
the fabric of coritipti and establish upon its 'Mils
the rights and privileges of the people" In like man:
Der. give the Catholics of Ireland their Emancipation ;
give them a seat in the Parliament of their country ;
give them a free and equal participation in the politics
of the realm ; give them a place at the right ear of Ma-
jesty. and a voice in his counsels ; and give me the cir-
culation of the Bible; and wi h this mighty engine I
wdi ovei throw the tyranny ot Anti-Christ, and establish
the fair and original form of Christianity on its 'isms.
The deliver of this sdlendid passage. which was
given with prodigious energy, elic.ted the most rapru
ryus and deafening shouts of approbation, which were
thrice renewed. Tire room was crowded to excess in
every part, and with the esception of a momentary and
accidental interruption, the greatest order prevailed.—
At five o'clock, p.m. th..t is two hours after the Meeting
separated, upwards of kifieen hundred Gentlemen had
signed the Petitions.—Caledonian Mercury.

The aignatutes to the " Asiti-Popery Petitions" in'
Iblinburgh. amounted on Friday, we are informed, to upwards of
eleven thousand.
It appeAri that the Chancery suit e,nerrning the
mysterious boa is still pending. Anaffidavit in answer to Captain
GARTIeII is !Watt' to be filed.
At a Meeting if the Journeymen Spitaifieltis S.lk
Weavers. held last evening, it was agreed to present an Address to
his blaaasryseaprambui their grati:ude for his palace= donation,
and describing their decayed and &melancholy conditions

Dif mint
__.
•
°1714- Louse). There are G ntlemen
40
d in the documen.s cf history, but
t•t:.„ • ng to offer half so instructive as the
, - , is now before our eyes. With the
it
6,0,
es to figlu against, the cause of Re-
• 771‘r
Clifyik'"".lMOit every thing in Britain; with the
pains and penalties on its side, it has done nothing.
_ _CI ....A phsbrral.