The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-09-29 00:00:00

GREAT PROTESTANT MEETING AT THE

AMPHITHEATRE.

Last evening a large and enthusiastic concourse of the
shipwrights, coopers, and other classes of the free burgesses
of Liverpool, was held at the Amphitheatre, for the purpose
of forming an Auxiliary Protestant Association for the dis-
trict of Toxteth Park, where the " old freemen" of Liver-
pool are chiefly resident. The meeting was Announced to
take place at half-past six o'clock ; but long before that hour
the whole of the vast building was crowded in every part.
In the pit and boxes, as well as on the raised seats behind
the platform, there were a great number of respectably
dressed females, and not a few ladies, nearly the whole of
whom wore conservative favours, thus testifying their attach-
ment to the " good old cause," in defence of which the free
burgesses of Liverpool have stood forth so nobly and con-
spicuously. The galleries also contained a sprinkling of
females. On the platform there were numbers of the ship-
wrights, dressed in their blue jackets and white trousers,
which looked remarkably well. They also wore party-
coloured ribbons and scarfs. The Amphitheatre was pro-
fusely decorated with red and blue flags. Over the chair was
suspended a splendid royal standard, surrounded by the in-
scriptions of " For God, our Queen, and our Country," and
" Success to the Shipwrights."
The following were among the gentlemen whom we ob-
served on the platform :—Rev. H. H. Higgins, Rev. Mr.
Falloon, Rev. W. C. Richards, and Rev. C. Hamilton ;
Messrs. Duncan Gibb, 'l'. 0. Cooper, P. Wright, C.
Boutflower, W. G. Leete, W. Rowett, Francis Foster, Win.
Sharpe, John Peacock, C. H. Horsfall, Thos. Porter,
Harbord, John 'Wright, Robertson, Hall.
Among the ladies in the private boxes we observed Mrs.
Hugh M'Neile and Miss Ward. •
The entrance of the Rev. Hugh M'Neile was the signal
for a deafening and protracted peal of cheers.
Mr. R. CLARKE, a shipwright, moved that the Rev. H.
M'Neile take the chair.

Mr. H. HUGHES, a pilot, seconded the motion, which was
carried by acclamation.

The Rev. CHAIRMAN opening the meeting in the follow-
ing terms. We are sometimes charged with inconsistency
in opening a meeting which is mingled with much inevitable
noise, and may be connected with many political topics, with
prayer. The charge of inconsistency, however, does not rest
upon us, for we are not among those who separate religion
from politics. (Cheers.) We believe that the affairs of this
world, as truly as the affairs of the world to come, are under
the immediate direction of our God. (Cheers.) In his
word it is written of him, " In all thy ways acknowledge
him, and he will direct thy steps." (Hear, hear.) This
has ever been the practice of our country in her great politi-
cal meetings. The parliament of Great Britain is always
opened with prayer. (Hear.) Let the charge of inconsis-
tency then fall back upon the heads -of those who would
banish the Lord our God from the providential management
of the world. (Cheers.) I shall therefore call upon a rev.
brother now near me, to open this meeting, with asking God's
blessing upon us, and all our fellow countrymen, through
Jesus Christ our Saviour. (Cheers.)
The Rev. Mr. RICHARDS offered several appropriate
prayers.
The Rev. CHAIRMAN then proceeded as follows :—Friends
and fellow townsmen—l rejoice in your determination as ex-
pressed in the requisition you have sent me, to form your-
selves into a branch of the Protestant Operative Association.
(Cheers.) And I very cordially comply with the request
made to me by the members of your provisional committee,
that I should be the president of your society, and your
chairman, at this meeting this evening. It becomes my duty
then to remind you, in the first place, of what the true and
proper objects of our Protestant Associations are. (Hear,
hear.) The objects I now read from a printed paper—from a
circular of the Liverpool Protestant Association. prepared
some years ago.

" The object of the Protestant Association is not to mis-
represent—not to calumniate—not to create or foment divi-
sions among our fellow-citizens—as we are unfairly reported,
and as sonic affirm that we do. No ; our objects are of a
different character, and may truly be classed under these two
heads : first, to' combine, in one Christian brotherhood of
self-defence, all who truly love true religion and genuine
liberty—all who sincerely advocate the free circulation of
the unmutilated and the unadulterated word of God—all
who assert and defend the right of private judgment—all
who venerate the inviolable sanctity of an oath—all real loy-
alists, who maintain the unrivalled and universal supremacy
of the King or Queen of England within these realms—that
renounce, abjure, and detest any allegiance whatever to any
foreign power or potentate whatsoever. (Cheers.) Our
second object is, to address ourselves, with earnest affection,
to those of our fellow-citizens who have the misfortune still
to labour under anti-scriptural and anti-national prejudices
—who are denied the free circulation of the pure word of
God, and the right of private judgment—who arc taught that
oaths, under certain circumstances, may and ought to be
broken—and who are commanded to yield their first and
highest allegiance to a foreign ecclesiastical authority."—
(Cheers.)
This second object presents us as the advocates—and I
gladly now take my stand here as the advocate—of millions
of my poor fellow-countrymen who are deprived of their
rights. (Cheers.) I speak not here, or any where else, to
find fault with those who have no choice of their own, and
who are deprived of their rights by tyrants over them. (Loud
cheers.) I allege that this is the condition of some millions
of our fellow-subjects and of my fellow-countrymen ; and I
will, before we go further, supply you with a specimen or two
of the rights to which I allude—the rights made theirs by the
word of God, and of which they ought not to be deprived by
any interference of man. One of the rights to which I
allude, and which I trust my Christian auditors will know
how to appreciate—for this is a christian meeting, and I
know no difference between Protestantism and christianity,
—(cheers)—one of the rights, I say, to which I allude is
this—the right of receiving the cup in the supper of the
Lord. (Hear.) It is commanded of our Lord Jesus Christ,
" Drink ye all of this :" and if it be alleged that when he so
said be spoke only of ministers of the Gospel, it is said of the
Apostle Paul addressing an entire church—the Corinthian
church—" as oft as ye eat of this bread and drink of this cup,
yea do show the Lord's death until he comes." (Hear.) It
is their privilege not only to eat of that bread but to drink of
that cup : I say here is a privilege of which millions of my
fellow-countrymen are deprived—the cup is taken from, no
opportunity is afforded them all the year round or all their
lives through of obeying that commandment, of com-
plying with that instruction, and of enjoying that pri-
vilege of our common christianity. (Cheers.) And why so ?
Not because the scriptures warrant that the cup should be
kept from them. There is nothing of that kind in the scrip-
tures. I have shewn you that the scriptures command that
the cup should be used by them ; and need we go beyond
scripture for the proofs of our arguments ? (No, and cheers.)
I recollect that our Lord himself—our great example in con-
troversy—when he held controversies with the Pharisees, and
Sadducees, and Herodians, appealed only to the word—the
written word. He told them that they had made it void by
their traditions ; he did not take tradition by tradition, but
he appealed only to the scriptures. (Cheers.) He did not
attend to the objections now urged and which might have
been urged then—" an appeal to the scriptures is but an
exercise of private judgment, the Pharisee appeals to it, the
Sadducees appeal to it, they differ in opinion, and therefore
we must have something else besides the scriptures." No :
our Saviour refers to nothing else, and following his example
we need. refer to nothing else. (Cheers.) It is the high
principle of protestantism that we have the Word of God as
the only standard of infallible authority, and that no opinion
of man is infallible or can be infallible. (Cheers.) But sup-
pose we leave this vantage ground, and come down among
the records of antiquity, what then ? I hold in my hand a
book dear to Englishmen, and that ought to be known by
Englishmen better than it is known—(cheers)—a book that
I hope will be studied more than it has been, and especially
I recommend it to my reverend friends, I :mean " Chilling-
worth upon the Religion of Protestants." (Loud cheers.)
Chillingworth tells us the origin of the defrauding of our
brethren of the cup which our Saviour desired they should
have. The commencement of it was in the council of Con-
stance, and it is most remarkable that the men composing that
council were of God to record their own condemnation. Here
is the canon of the council, as given by Chillingworth—

" Although Christ, after his-supper, instituted and admi-
nistered this venerable sacrament under both kinds, although
in the primitive church this sacrament was received by the
faithful under both kinds ; yet all this, notwithstanding,
this custom, for the avoiding of scandals, (to which the pri-
mitive church was as obnoxious as the present is) was upon
just reason brought in that laics should receive only under
one kind." .

So, although Christ ordained it in two kinds, although the
primitive church received it in two kinds, yet the ?mined ot
Constance brings it in that the laity should receive it only in
one kind. (Hear, hear.) Now, my friends, I say 1 stand
here as the advocate of millions of my fellow countrymen who
are deprived by the tyranny of an anti-Christian priesthood,
of their scriptural rights, of their Christian birthright.
(Cheers.) Ido not stand here to abuse, as they say I do,
our Roman catholic fellow countryman, and our Roman
catholic fellow subjects. (Hear.) Ido not abuse them, but
I will tell you what I do—l take their part against their
priests. (Loud-cheers.) There is another right they are
deprived of. It is the right of every man to have Christian
instruction in the language that the man understands—(hear,
hear)—to have Christian prayer in a language that the man
understands. (Cheers.) Our own church says "Itis a
thing plainly repugnant to the word of God and the custom
of the primitive church, to have pUblic prayer in the church,
or to minister the sacraments in a tongue not understanded
of the people." Now, I say that these men who defraud
our Roman catholic fellow countrymen of Christian prayer
and Christian sacraments by saying the prayers in Latin and
administering the sacraments in Latin—l say they are thieves
and robbers. (Loud cheers.) This they call abusing our
poor Roman catholic fellow subjects ; but I call it advocating
their rights, and detecting the thief. (Continued cheers.)
How would the Christian congregations of England like to
have their prayers said for them in Latin, to have all the
services of. the church in Latin ? I say that the minister
would be a barbarian to the people and the people barbarians
to the minister. (Cheers.) This is what St. Paul said-4' If
he speaks in language that the people do not understand he
is a barbarian to them and they are barbarians to him ;" and
how can a man that occupies the place of the unlearned say
Amen to one giving of thanks, when he does not know what
he says ? (Cheers.) Strange things any of the popish priests
might say, and when the right time comes how can the poor
people say Amen when they do not know what it is to ? Ido
not think it is possible for me to convey the full force of this
to your minds without saying something in an unknown
tongue to your ears. (Cheers.) I shall, for the sake of
advocating the rights of our Roman catholic fellow subjects,
make myself for a moment or two a perfect barbarian—
" Cosi al megro fanciullo porgiamo aspersi
Di suave licor gli orli del vaso
Succhi amari ingannato intantoei beve

E dal inganno suo vita receve."
This is from an Italian poet called Tasso. I have done this
in order to make you, not to laugh at, but to feel for, the
depths of the deprivation in which my poor Roman Catholic
fellow-countrymen are kept by a set of ecclesiastical tyrants
who say prayers in Latin. (Loud cheers.) If it be alleged,
well, but he does not speak against the people, he speaks
against the priests. I never deny it. I never did and never
will deny it. (Cheers.) There may be some of them sincere,
but for the most part many, who have learned these things
themselves, and are capable of arguing about them, must,
according to the constitution of the human mind and consci-
ence, know in their hearts that they are keeping the people
wilfully in ignorance. But, perhaps, this is a " calumny ;
perhaps this is one of those " falsehoods" propagated against
our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen ; perhaps there is
no such thing as communion only in one kind; may be,
they give the cup to the laity in the popish chapels ; perhaps.
also, they never say any Latin prayers—for it is hard to get
at the truth now-a-days. I remember a piece of truth that
was told about penance, and when it was tried in a court of
justice, it was pronounced to be a falsehood. Perhaps it is
entirely false that they say Latin prayers, entirely false that
they keep the communion from the people in the cup; per-
haps, also, it is entirely false that they keep the Bible from
the people. I have a very remarkable document brought
me by the post this very day. It is the last number
of the .Achill Missionary Herald; and it contains a letter
from the Rev. Edward Naugle, addressed to the Rev. Hugh
Stowell. With regard to what passed upon the subject of