The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-10-09 00:00:00

our poor fellow-countrymen are grievously abused, and that
it belongs of right to a great Protestant community, like ours,
to have compassion on them, and to endeavour to rescue
them from this thraldom. (Cheers.) More than this; there
is a matter that will touch the temporalities of our poor peo-
ple, and be felt more as a privation than either of the two I
have named. I Loldly charge the Romish Church with de-
priving our poor fellow-countrymen of their lawful weekly
wages. What arc the lawful weekly wages of a labouring
man in any country ? Complying with the commandment of
God, which says, " Six days hit thou labour, and do all
that thou hest to do :" the lawful weekly wages of a labour-
ing man are wages for six days' labour. Are the poor Roman
Catholics allowed to work six days? Nay, verily. They are
not allowed to work on the saints' days. Their priests will
not allow them. There is, indeed, a measure of discretion.
You have heard something from the chairman about discre-
tion. The priests know how to be discreet. The saints'
days are very numerous. It depends upon the priests how
many are observed. In England the number is very small.
Many in this place may know of Roman Catholic labourers
who are allowed to work six days. They know what they
are about, and where to forget the saints. (A laugh.) In
other countries, where is not the same politic reason for
forgetting dead saints, in order to keep well with living men,
they do enforce the observance of the saints' days. The
working of it in Ireland is frightful, and tends in a great
measure to keep the poor people in abject penury. Festival
after festival, groups of labourers are to be seen about the
villages and public-houses, idling all the day through. They
may not work. And if yon ask them why, their only n
a-
swer is, " The priest forbids it." " What saint is it ?"
" I do not know." They cannot even name the saint they
are honouring by idleness. (Hear.) Themselves very ill
provided, their families but one remove from stary
oration,
work may be ready from some private employer, the
contractor for some public undertaking. But they must
not work. 0, this is a heavy burden ! 1 might appeal
to your feelings and those of the community—l might de-
scribe a poor family in distress—l might set before you the
hungry children screaming- for food—their anguished mother
has none to give them—l might represent the self-denial of
that mother, refraining from the sustenance required for her-
self and her infant, to divide the more among the elder ob-
jects of her love—l might call your attention to the father of
that family turning away from that hovel where the sight of
his distressed wife and children sends pangs to his affection-
ate heart—turning away and dashing with his finger the start-
ing tear that bedews his manly cheek,—l tell you that another
half-bushel of potatoes would, supply them the week through
—that the man is able to earn the price—that his Protestant
neighbour is willing to employ him that he might earn it—
but no—the priest says no—you must not do it. (Much ap-
plause.) To be a faithful servant of the church you must be
adamant, you must be iron, to all the tender feelings of hu-
manity.. (Much applause.)
Oh, sir, the priest does not know what a husband's heart is.
Ile may indeed be a father, but he cannot know the honour-
able cherished feelings of a father warm in his heart, by the
thoughts of his child. He has no wife. He has no feeling
either for wife or for child. He keeps the poor man starving
from his wages, from honourable employment, from his work
upon saints' days; while trembling and famishing; he shows
the tyranny of his church, and by the mockery of the system
he keeps the people slaves. Oh, sir, it is worse than mockery
to call this an affair of conscience, of religious opinions, and
to repudiate interference upon the ground that religious
scruples should be respected. It is not a matter of religious
opinions; it is a matter of irreligious practice. (Hear.) As
well might you respect the liberty of a fraudulent gamester,
so long as he could succeed in deceiving and defrauding wil-
ling dupes. We shall be told by our liberals, " these people
are willing to act as they are bid by their priests—they are
willing to refrain from their labour, and wby do you inter-
fere ? Who can believe it—that a man such as I have de-
scribed, the father of that family, is willing to be idle?
(Hear.) No ; he is willing to work ; he loves his family • he
desires to provide for their sustenance. He would a thou-
sand times rather toil all day, and carry home the happy
supply, than idle about and go home at night to cries of
misery that rend his heart. But lie has a tyrant over him ;
he has a tyranny, an iron tyranny that grinds him down, and
which will not allow his affection to his wife and children to
be practically present in his life, but which keeps him in re-
membrance of the galling yoke of his church, even whilst his
poor family are screaming with destitution in his ears, or
thrown out a nuisance upon the neighbours, begging from
door to door, because their father who was able co provide
for them if he wrought six days in the week, was kept by his
priest two or three and sometimes as many as four days a
week, in honour of the saint's memory, from turning a spade
or doing a hand's turn at work. (Hear.) Oh, sir, this is
frightful : (Hear) Is not this tyranny? Is not this a case
for interference ? Well did Mr. Stowell ask why we inter-
fered upon behalf of the negro, why we interfered to rescue
the poor slave from the grip of his task-master? An African
expedition is now preparing to leave this port to interfere
between the African chiefs and the poor slaves they were
ready to sell, and the barterers who were ready to buy. And
why ? Because it is a righteous interference ; because
humanity claims it at our hands, because it is a lawful in -
terference, that when one man is trampled upon by another,
we should step in with wisely regulated laws, restrictive upon
one side and protective upon the other, to save the wretched
and to restrain the oppressor. (Hear.) Here is one of the
things you have to complain of. Here is one of the things I
wish to press upon the minds of this great community—that
these saint-days, these hindrances of the popish priests pre-
venting the poor people from getting their lawful weekly
wages, is a point intelligible by every man. Here is no the-
ological speculation, no doubtful matter, no references to
old books, but a matter that will teach Englishmen, and I
trust in God will make them feel or say that some effort is to
be made to rescue our Roman Catholic countrymen from the
thraldom of their priesthood. (Hear.) But there is more
still. Not only are they hindered from earning what they
might and oug,ht to earn, but a large proportion of what they
do earn is taken from them by fraudulent pretences. (Hear.)
I charge the Romish priesthood with depriving our poor Ro-
man Catholic fellow-countrymen of a large portion of their
scanty earnings by fraudulent pretences. And what are
those pretences ? They pretend they can get the souls of
their *hers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles,
aunts, great grandfathers, and I do not know who, out of the
fire. (Hear. hear.) They make the people pay for their
masses for this purpose, (Hear.) I have here a very curi-
ous tract. It contains an article originally published in the
Church of England Quarterly Review, being the review of a
book entitled—" The Church of Rome's Traffic in Pardons,"
written by Archdeacon Hodson, and the reviewer gives some
curious extracts from Romish books upon the subjects of
pardons and massess: " Nothing is given," says the re-
viewer, " in the Roman Court but for cash." The original
words are here taken from Encas Sylvius, who was himself
a Pope. (Hear.) " Nihil est quod absque argento Romana
curia dedat. Nam et ipsx menus impositiones et Spiritus
Sancti dona venduntur. Nec peccatorum venia nisi numma-
tis impenditur."—Nothing to be had without cash ! (Hear,
hear.) There is another very remarkable testimony quoted
in this tract from Cardinal Cajetan which has a strange sound
—" Taciturn donant quantum sonant." Their value is to be
measured by their sound. (Hear, hear.) That requires
some little explanation, because we have money now that
can be given without noise. Paper money .does not
sound ; but when this was written there were only the °boll,
the denarii, the sestercii, and the soldicii, all good hard
coins ; and when large sums of money are put down in hard
coin, it tells—tantum donant, quantum sonant.” (Hear,
hear.) 1 have good hope that good will come of this, be-
cause this was the very thing that roused the flames that
burst forth in the reformation. (Cheers.) I will now read
a passage from a bull of the famous Pope Leo, entrusted to
Tetzel, of celebrated memory, to sell, and the sale of which
roused the lion-spirit of Martin Luther. (Hear.)
" May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, and
absolve thee by his most holy passion ; and I, by his autho-
rity, and that of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and of
the most holy Pope, granted and committed to me in these
parts, do absolve thee, first, from all ecclesiastical censures,
in whatever manner they have been incurred ; and, then,
from all thy sins; transgressions, and excesses, how enormous
soever they may be : even from such as are reserved for the
cognizance of the Holy See ; and as far as the keys of the
holy church extend, I remit to you all punishment which
you deserve in purgatory on their account, and I restore you
to the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity of the
faithful, and to that innocence and purity which you posses-
sed at baptism ; so that, when you die, the gates of punish-
ment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight
shall be opened; and if you shall not die at present, this grace
shall remain in full force when you are at the point of death.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost."
This was the document which Tetzel went about selling in
Germany. Here is a more modern one, sold in my own na-
tive land, to be found in the lst volume of the State Trials,
page 464, and produced before the Court of King's Bench,
upon the trial of Connor, Lord Maguire, on the 10th Febru-
ary, 1644 :
" Ad futurum Rei Memoriam Urbanus Octavus, Bt.c. It
recites, that having taken into his serious consideration the
great zeal of the Irish towards the propagating of the Catholic
faith ; which kingdom (for their singular fervency in the true
worship of God) was of old called the Land of Saints : and
having certain notice, that in imitation of their godly and
worthy ancestors, they endeavoured by force of arms to de-
liver their thralled nation from the oppressions of the heretics,
and to extirpate those workers of iniquity, who had infected
the mass of catholic purity with the pestiferous leaven of their
heretical contagion, by virtue of his power of binding and
loosing, which God had conferred upon him ; to all and every
the aforesaid Christians in the kingdom of Ireland, so long as
they should militate against the said heretics and other ene-
mies of the catholic faith, he did grant a full and plenary in-
dulgence, and absolute remission of their sins, desiring all of
them to be partakers of this precious treasure ; dated from
the Vatican, or St. Peter's Palace in Rome, May 25,1E43,
and in the twentieth year of his pontificate.' "
These things are still acted upon. I want now to show you
the rules of one of the societies established with regard to
these indulgencies. There are Purgatory Societies, and these
are not far off. I have a paper, which I will read just now,
a transcript of the rules of one of these societies, now in full
operation in LiverpOol :
" PURGATORIAN SOCIETY,
INSTITUTED JULY IST, 1813, AND HELD IN SAINT JAMES'S
CHAPEL.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost. Amen.
' It is therefoz c a holy and wholesome thortght to pray for
the dead, and they may be loosed from their sins.'
Maccabees, chap. xii. ver. 46.
THE members who compose the society of the office for the
dead, commenced on the above day, at the said place,
adopting the spirit and meaning of the above sacred text,
and wishing, in conformity to the divine precepts of the
Holy Catholic Church, to extend their charitable views
beyond the grave, by relieving, as far as in them lies, the
suffering souls in purgatory, and inviting all tender-hearted
Catholics, who have a feeling sensibility of the duty they
owe their departed parents, relations, and friends, who
probably may stand more in need of their commiseration
at present, than at any period of their life time, to assist
in the charitable and pious purpose of shortening the du-
ration of their sufferings by the most easy means imaginable,
have agreed to, and adopted the following rules
:
The rules are long, and I need not read them all; but I will
show you some of the " easy means" they have adopted :
Rule 1. That the affairs of this institution shall be regu-
lated by the Superior, Rectors, and six of the members who
compose the office for the dead, who shall attend on every
'Wednesday night, at half-past eight o'clock, throughout the
year, at the above named place, or any other place which may
be hereafter appointed, and there, with attention and devo-
tion, recite the office for the dead, agreeable to the intention
that shall then be mentioned.
2. That every well-disposed Catholic, wishing to contribute
to the relief of the suffering souls in purgatory, shall pay
one penny per week, which shall be appropriated to the pro-
curing of masses to be offered up for the repose of the souls
of the deceased parents, relations, and friends of all the sub-
scribers to the institution in particular, and the faithful
departed in general.
3. That on the first Monday of every month, a mass will
be offered up in the parish chapel of St. James, at ten o'clock,
for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the subscribers of
this society.
4. That the Superior, Rectors, and Council shall continue
in office for six calendar months, at the expiration of which
thee, candidates shall be nominated by the persons in office,
who shall give due notice to the whole body of members
who compose the office for the dead, that they may punctu-
ally attend on the first Wednesday nightin July, at half-past
eight o'clock, and on the first Wednesday night in January,
for the purpose of electing a Superior, Rectors, and Council,
to serve the ensuing six months, and so in succession.
5. That each subscriber, on entering this society, do pur-
chase a copy of these rules, in order to defray the expenses
incurred by printing and other contingencies, and that the
money arising from the weekly subscriptions shall be dis-
posed of to the most necessitated clergymen, Rho 0124 be

required to give receipts for what they are paid.
b. That the spiritual benefits of this institutipn, shall be
conferred in the following manner, viz, Each subscriber
shall be entitled to an office at the time of their death, ano.
ther at the expiration of a month, and one at the end of
twelve months after their decease ; also, the benefit of masses
which shall he procured to be offered, by the money arising
from subscriptions, and which shall be extended to their pa-
rents, relations, and friends, in the following order : that is
to say, their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts,
and if married, husbands, wives, and children, if they have
any departed who lived to maturity.
7. That every member of the office for the dead, who
serves the society in the capacity of Superior, shall, at the
time of his death, be entitled to three masses, to be offered
for the repose of his soul ; and, also, every member who
serves the office of Rector, shall be entitled to the benefit of
two masses, and every subscriber, without distinction, shall
be entitled to the benefit of one mass each, provided that
such member or subscriber shall die a natural death, be six
months a subscriber to the institution, and be clear of all
dues at the time of their departure ; that care shall be taken,
by the surviving Superior and Rectors, that such soul masses
are punctually obtained, agreeable to the interest and mean-
ing of this institution.
8. That the Superior, Rectors, and Council, be empowered
to make (as occasion may require) such bye-laws as they
shall think expedient, provided they do not interfere with the
spirit of these rules ; said bye-laws are to be laid before the
body at large, for their approbation, and that four shall form
a quorum on the council.
9. That the Superior shall, on every All-Souls'-Day, ad-
vance to the parish priest of James's-street chapel, whatever
sum is necessary for obtaining an insertion in the mortality
list of the altar, the names of the parents, relations, and
friends, of all the subscribers to this institution, to be re-
commended to the prayers of the congregation at every mass
throughout the year.
Subscriptions received, and subscribers registered at the
chapel, on every Wednesdsy evening, from seven o'clock
until nine, and in the school-room adjoining the chapel, on
the first Sunday of February, May, August, and November,
being quarterly days, from ten o'clock until one.
The books to be opened for the inspection of subscribers,
price Three-pence."
These are some of the rules of a society established some
years ago in Dublin, and still in operation there. There is a
place in this town called " St. Mary's Chapel." There is a
great advertisement going about now, inviting subscriptions
for the rebuilding of St. Mary's after a manner suitable for
the Catholic church. At St. Mary's, then, they are making
great efforts to get money. A friend of mine saw a label
hanging upon the inside of the rails, and he went in and co-
nieSit. He assures me this is a verbatim copy of the label,
and with your permission I will read it :
St. Mary's t Society.
" Of the Altar.
" What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that
he bath rendered to me.'—Ps. 115.
" Nothing contributes more effectually to promote piety,
and command the respect due to the house of God than the
solemnity of divine worship, and the beauty and decency,of
the temple in which the Majesty of Heaven dwelleth.
" To answer these ends, by procuring for the chapel of St.
Mary's, suitable vestments, abbe, chalices, and every other
requisite, is the laudable object of this society.
"Each member will subscribe sixpence per month."
Now there is no objection to this ; there is no objection to
their procuring for the chapel of St. Mary's suitable vest-
ments, ebbs, chalices, and to have other requisite decencies
for carrying on public worship : that is a thing done with
open eyes, and it is what we ask our people to do, but now
comes the false pretences.
" In return for their pious exertions and liberalities, a
mass will be offered on the first Thursday of every month,
for the members of the society, and a sacrifice will be offered
by each of the priests of St. Mary's, for the repose of the
soul of any deceased member.
" Two ladies of the committee will attend in the vestry to
receive new subscribers every Sunday, after the last mass
and evening service.
" Donations in money or materials serviceable for the
altar will be thankfully received.
" All subscribers and benefactors to the society will be
gratefully remembered in the sacrifice of the mass.
" President, Rev. Richard Croft—Treasurer, Rev. James
Wilkinson—Committee, Miss Bradshaw, Miss Dearden,
Miss H. Dearden, Miss Anne Dugdale, Miss Haskayne,
Miss Johnson, Miss Jump, Miss Moss, Miss Newton, Miss
Pulford, Miss Shepherd, Miss Waterivorth."
And so it is going on here. Now unless these men can shim
that there is some return for the money paid, unless they can
prove value received, I do not know whether our courts of
justice would not take cognizance of them. I am not sure
that an action would not hold against them if we could get
one of these poor men to give evidence. unless they could
prove he had received a return for it. What is the return
for their money ? (Hear.) Is there any value received ?
(Cries of no, no.) It is said that the value received is masses
said for the souls of deceased members. This involves the
question of their whole system of masses. Now where does
the word of God give any countenance to that system ? No-
where. The whole thing is got up for the purpose of making
"—(cheers)—they
are donant quantum sonant
are withdrawing the hard earned pittances of our poor Ro-
man catholic brethren by fraudulent pretences. (Cheers.)
'I lately heard a very curious story with regard to St. Mary's
Chapel and the proposal to rebuild it. What I am going to
tell you is unwritten tradition. " Tantum donant quantum
sonant." Having told you it is unwritten tranition and there-
fore about as much to be relied on as any other sort of tra-
dition, I will tell you the story. This same St. Mary's, it
seems, as the advertisement tells us, was built in times of
persecution, and it is altogether unfitted for the purpose for
which it is now designed ; but it turns out upon enquiry, ac-
cording to tradition, it was then rebuilt. (Hear.) And upon
enquiry how came it down, and why it had to be rebuilt, the
history of it comes out. (Hear, hear.) In the beginning of
the French war there was a frigate built in Liverpool. Un-
happily, on her first voyage, before she had got through the
channel, she fell in with a French man of war and she was
taken. The news came of the frigate having been taken, and
the people were in great distress about it ; but it seems ac-
cording to tradition that not all were in distress, for some
parties connected with St. Mary's Chapel, got a model of the
French man of war, and set it up as a token of triumph over
the heretical frigate. (Hear, hear.) The tradition proceeds
that this circumstance got wind in the good old town—not so
big then as it is now by half—and the people of the good old
town, who were not so well instructed in " toleration " as
they are now, hearing of the model of the Frenchman being
stuck up in the chapel, surrounded it, and when they found
such an insult to their country within it, tradition says they
set to work and demolished the chapel down to the ground.
(Loud cheers.) Now, Mr. Chairman, I am as far as any man
in Liverpool from vouching for the truth of tradition. I know
that I am happy enough to have you as a coadjutor in that
opinion, and that we place very little reliance indeed upon
unwritten tradition. However, it is worth what it is worth,
and if it revives a little of the good old British spirit of
loyalty in these perilous times, when we know not how soon
our country may be involved in the awful and unspeakable
terrors of war, it will have done good, (Loud cheers.) But
we do not make war with stone and lime ; we do not make
war with carnal weapons ; we do not pull down Romish
chapels ; we do not use brick bats, and bludgeons, and crow-
bars, but we do make war and fall down upon Romish
doctrine, upon Romish intolerance, upon Romish tyranny.
against Romish abuses of every kind, and with what ? With
the glorious brightness of the Gospel of the grace of God.
(Immense applause.) Sir, this is the rallying point at this
time. Our enemies have stolen a march upon our great men.
You have heard how they deceived that great man Mr. Pitt.
Mr. Pitt was a great statesman, but he did not understand
Van Espa, Cardinal Cajetan, Thomas Aquinas and the rest
of them, half so much as Mr. M'Ghee does, and he was de-
luded by the answers he received from the foreign universities.
(Loud cheers.) The statesmen of the present day are de-
luded, The Roman Catholics still carry on the delusion.
It is the fashion with our young statesmen of the prasent
day to take statements, and not to investigate the Popish
controversy. One came down here and astonished us by
his wondrous eloquence—l mean Mr. Canning—be, too,
carried on the delusion. He was a man of the greatest
liberality, but he did not know the Popish controversy. He
was a great statesman, but a very poor theologian. Our
present statesmen left their colleges unpledged in these
matters ; they have not been instructed in the deep things of
the word of God, nor the deep dark designes of Popery.
(Hear, hear.) They were certainly instructed in the history
of their country, but they read only part of it with effect.
(Hear, hear.) They were instructed in the great things of
antiquity, into.the minutes of the histories of ancient Greece
and Rome ; but in this one point, the papacy was more than
a match, for she stole a march upon them. (Hear, hear.)
They gained admission in high places, and they carried their
point—at least they thought they had carried their point.
They thought to have carried the people as well as the
ministry with them. They did get some of the clergy of the
church upon their side. That was a grand step. If they
could have got the clergy of the Church of England among
them, they would have damaged the whole structure of our
constitution. They hoped to lay the country bare before them,
but what stopped them ? What was it that stopped that pro-
gress which had being going on for years before and for a little
while after the year 1829 ? What has checked it? It is still
indeed going on among high places, it is still going on among
the great ones : they are getting inte the council chamber and
the treasury. but what has arested their progress among the
people ? What has made England stand for it, for sbe is
beginning to stand for it ? (Cheers.) It is the gospel of
the grace of God that has done it. (Cheers.) It is the lin-
gering power of the holy gospel in the hearts of some of her
true presbytery—it is the protest we have raised. (Cheers.)
A very few we were at first. There were some who pro-
claimed that England's protest against popery would be Eng-
land's shield—who declared that when she withdrew her pro-
test she would have the battle to fight half naked. We told
this to the people—we toiled for a long time without any per-
ceptible effect, but we have now the reward of our labours,
for wherever we erect our standard, and wherever our poor
unworthy names are mentioned, the largest house in the
town is not lage enough to bold the people that come. (Loud
cheers.) Our rulers are beginning to feel this. First of all
they called us—although Exeter Hall had not precedence in
this matter—Exeter Hall madmen. Had the movement
stopped there they would have continued to laugh at it ; but
behold, some more of this feeling sprung up in Liverpool !
(Cheers.) When we began, the Music Hall was big enough ;
and only the other night, on Monday week, hundreds went
away unable to get in here—the Amphitheatre. (Loud cheers.)
And indeed, whenever we throw open this place, let it be
at a time when the poor men are free from work, when the
honest Protestant labourer—who would work six days a week
according to God's commandment—can come, and the place
is filled. I was delighted the other night to see some of the
operatives' wives here, with infants in their arms, enjoying
the Protestantism which delighted their ears. I rejoice to
tell you that this feeling which is spreading throughout this
town is not confined to this town. (Hear.) I suppose if it
were only in Exeter Hall and Liverpool, our rulers would
sneer and repose, and take very little practical notice ; but
I believe another fire has broken out in Manchester. (Loud
cheers.) I remember when I first spoke to my reverend and
beloved, namesake about this matter he had some doubts—
not about the propriety but about the practicability of doing
it right; and I shall never forget the day lie first tried. He
tried a mid-day meeting—be was afraid of an evening meeting
—a mid-day meeting of all other places in the Corn Ex-
change ; so delighted was lie with the tone of the opera-
tives upon and since that occasion, that he became
bolder ; and now when Protestantism is the object, he dares
open the greatest room in the town—they then flock round
him in hundreds and in thousands, and now I should say my
dear friend is the most powerful man in Manchester. (Loud
cheers.) But this is not all. (Hear, hear.) I suppose if
the Protestant feeling had been confined to Exeter-hill, and
Liverpool and Manchester, our rulers would have gone on
dozing quietly as usual ; that they would have said these
manufacturers are gone mad—do not mind them." But, lo !
another and another fire broke out—one in Bristol, another
in Bath,
mathu,rraanyotehaellrsinnsfactiousHereford.
fi r
ebLr
aolud i
ds ch. e‘evr
es .) N
have
agi-
tators for Protestantism throughout England. Wee ohbaewve wonder
en na dn ei r:
mated the country ; we have had meetings in Glasgow, Edin-
burgh, York, Newcastle, Hull, and next week, if all be well,
I shall be at Norwich. (Loud cheers.) Here it is, north
and south, east and west ; and I protest that I think the Pro-
testant tone, which is rising in these large towns, is so pun-
gent, that even the liberal papers cannot keep clear of it.
(Cheers.) I have heard that some of their friends advise
them not to notice these meetings. Say they, " If you no-
tice them you write them int,' consequence—into importance;"
but somehow or other they cannot let them alone. (Cheers.)
The fact is, when we open this Amphitheatre thsinethpterenoouapgleh
to let
come, and the town is move and then they are moved too.
able, d quietwb thisen—no r
spreads
ewa
de
t(bCehrneebrse.)quiThet_e
willthe
fifth of No-
vember. (Cheers.) There was a train of a very different
kingdom, here ilcahweiPellrroslto—etstant train laid for the
kind laid on the fifth of November eorne Yore Ago ;. arc

sorry to let the rernembranap of that train die away, there-
fore we are preparing ourselves, like well-disciplined soldiers,
to have a great explosion on that day. (Cheers.) These are
things that make even drowsy premiers start upon their
couch. (Cheers and laughter.) These are things that are
strengthening the Protestant Operritives of England—these
are things that are carrying the pledge proposed by Mr.
M‘Ghee—a noble proposal to separate the hierarchy from the
people, to give every man an opportunity, who loves truth
and honesty and loyalty, and who hates persecution and in-
tolerance, an opportunity of saying, " I will take that pledge,
for these principles are not in me." (Cheers.) I can under-
stand a Roman Catholic gentleman saying, " Did I think
those principles are held by our priests, I would forsake
them." " They are," is the reply. " Prove it," he says.
" They are in the books, your priests are sworn to." " In-
deed, are these the articles my priest has sworn to ?" " Yes."
Here, then, enquiry was set on foot. I can readily under-
stand a man like this acting upon enquiry—he will say, "If
the priest is bound to these principles, he and I will be two.
The priests are aware of this, and when they are put upon
their trial, they do not hesitate to deny their principles.
When brought into court the other day. and asked whether
certain penances were imposed by their church, most simply
one of them answered, " I have no knowledge of it"—" not
to the best of my knowledge"—and " I know nothing about
it." (Hear, hear.) He absolutely denied that such things
belonged to his church. Oh ! I had better take care what I
say. (Laughter.) " Examined by Mr. Hoggins.—Accord-
ing to the discipline and practice of Roman Catholic worship,
has any individual priest authority to impose that penalty
upon any sinner?—Answer.—He had no such power. Good
news for Roman Catholics ! (Cheers.) But instead of tak-
ing it so, when I read these answers of this man—" Is there
any power in your church, in any of the functionaries of your
church, to impose penance by crawling upon the ground?—
Answer-1 know of none"—l protest I feel disposed to con-
gratulate the Rev. James Crook upon his renunciation of
Popery. (Cheers.) Why, Mr. Stowell, this man is not a
Papist. (Continued cheers.) Which will you have ? If he
is a real son of the church, his answer, upon cross-examina-
tion, is what I choose not to describe. It his answer is what
I delight to think it is—the real truth—then he has flung the
church behind him. (Cheers.) He is no longer a Papist.
(Continued cheers.) We cannot call the Rev. James Crook
a Papist. He has renounced Popery ; and here is his recan-
tation. (Loud cheers.) Send it abroad, throughout the
world, that the Rev. James Crook is a convert. (Renewed
cheers.) Do you not see how the principles of this test
would split the Papacy in two ? It would separate the man
who detested such principles from the men who are imposing
them. But how are we to get it? (Hear.) Petition parlia-
ment ? What is a petition good for ? Mr. M‘Ghee says,
" get your members to support your petitions." Very well;
but how are we to get members that will support it ? if you
say we have them already in this town, first of all I say,
" take care you keep them"—(loud cheers) ;—and, secondly,
if you ask, " how are they to be had in other towns ?"—I
protest, sir, I believe, without canvassing a vote, without
speaking to any single man of the community about how be
is to vote—l believe, for the sake of gaining this high Pro-
testant project, we are taking the right course, namely, by
making a Protestant democracy—(cheers) ;—by making Pro-
testant principles popular among the people ; by sheaving
them the value of the Bible; and by manifesting to them the
all-sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the utter
repudiation of masses, and penances, and purgatories,
and all the other trumpery, tantum donant, quantum
sonant. (Loud cheers.) We are taking 'the right course,
I say. We are preparing the right tone, which will tell
in good time, and I would, add that by setting this thing
plainly before our female friends we are also taking the right
way. (Cheers.) We shall be told by and by that seven-
eights, nine-tenths—[casting his eye round. the place)—l am
not looking for the fact, I am thinking what the lie will be
(laughter)—that nine-tenths of the assembly were ladies ;
and that the remainder were insignificant persons, nobody
knows who they were, (cheers, laughter, and a VOICE—
‘• We'll let them know who we are.") Well, but the ladies
are very influential: they know how to speak a word in
season, and I do not envy the man who is incapable of being
moved by such a word so spoken. (Loud cheers.) At all
events, sir, our opponents must confess that we have the
ladies (hear hear) and no wonder, for it is protestantism that
has placed the ladies upon their proper level in society.
(Cheers.) It is popery that exposes ladies to the prurient
curiosity, to the aching anxious villanies, to the prying en-
quiries of a dastardly bachelor—(loud cheers)—asking his
filthy questions. (Renewed cheers and some laughter.) Oh,
my dear friends, long may you be able to laugh ! Let me
tell you that it is no laughing matter to be brought into the
confession box. (Cheers.) 'Well we are getting a noble
phalanx for the support of our protestant movents. The
snowball is enlarging as it rolls, and I believe it will produce
such an increase of good protestant members in the House
of Commons, that if England falls she will not fall soft.
(Cheers and laughter.) I see some of my fair friends are
tired; and it is dinner time, and I must have done. (Cries
of go on.) Well then, if I must go on, I will tell you why I
am engaged in all this. I find that there is in me, and
I doubt not that there is in every one of you a con-
sciousness of guilt against God. I find that there is no
mode of procuring peace but one—no mode that meets my
apprehensions of God's majesty, and my convictions of my
own misery, but a way high enough to reach the majesty of
God, and low enough to reach the sympathies and the wants
of man. (Cheers.) That way is "He who is God and man
in one Christ,"—(cheers)—performing a work which man
should have performed, enduring a penalty which man de-
serves to endure, and mingling every act and every pang
with a meritoriousness of full dimensions to meet the
majesty of Jehovah's character, to harmonize the perfections
of Jehovah's government, so that God shall be justified and
the justifier of the ungodly, so that all my apprehension of
his majesty not only remains untouched, untarnished, but
that it would be elevated by the contemplations of his good-
ness, which at some moments pervaded all my consciousness
of iniquity, and offence against his law. (Cheers.) It is be-
cause Jesus Christ, the way of truth and the light—the day-
star of the bible is also the day-star of protestantism—(hear);
—it is because the papal system has raised clouds and mists
and fogs to obscure that star from the longing view of my
poor fellow-countrymen, leaving them toiling in darkness
below, misled, deceived, by every will-o'-the-wisp, by fire
kindled by human tradition, and kept blazing by covetous,
ambitious and interested priests, so that they are kept toiling
in vain to establish a righteousness and to obtain a peace—
thus daubing the wall with untempered mortar, and laying
the flattering unction to their soul that penance to-day takes
away the sin of yesterday, and that penance to-morrow will
blot out the sin of to-day, and so going on niortitying the
flesh one day and transgressing the next. (Cheers.) It is
because of this torture, of this turmoil, of this toil here and
of ruin hereafter, imposed by the papal superstition upon the
people, and because we can not only tell what is wrong but
because we have glorious Flad tidings to tell you, we so act—
because we have the Lord,Jesus Christ to preach, the end of
the law for righteousness, the repudiator of penances and
masses and purgatory and all the inventions of man to take
away the sin ; of man it is because we have to tell of this in
his character—if man alone were concerned he might toil
successfully, but the character and government of God are
concerned. (Cheers.) In the eyes of angels, and principa-
lities and powers, here we have the glad message to tell you
of one able and willing to protect the work, that he has pro-
tected the work, and that whoso believes in Christ has ever-
lasting life. (Cheers.) My friends, my brethren, my fellow-
townsmen and women, my reverend brethren, and my dear
sir, this is oar strength. this is our motive, this is our hope—
Jesus Christ, all in all. (Cheers.) If we engage in any
collateral object, if we speak about your parliament, about
your Protestant duties as Englishmen, about anything that
has a political bearing, it is with reference to this end, that
you may secure the circulated English Bible, which testifies
of Jesus Christ ; the circulated English liturgy, which testi-
fies of Jesus Christ ; the true English clergyman, pledged,
against all errors, to preach Jesus Christ, the end of the law
—it is that you may have, by the laws of the country, se-
cured, as long as you live, and your children after you, the
glorious gospel of the grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Cheers.) This is our cause, this is our motive, this is our
strong and glorious hope. If we are asked what we are
about, we reply, we are defending the gospel. If you ask us
by what means, we say, by rousing the Protestants of Eng-
land. (Cheers.) How is it to be defended otherwise ?
(Hear.) How are our missionary societies to be supported
otherwise ? How can the missionary cause in England go on
if our Protestantism gives way ? (Hear.) The Protestantism
of England is the spring of missions. What is, too, to be-
come of the Jews ? (Hear, hear.) Popery has done more
to keep the Jews from christianity than anything else. The
Jews know, by the history of their forefathers, what it is to
offend the Almighty by image worship ; they have felt the
power of God in consequence of image worship. (Hear,
hear.) Whatever else they may be, the Jews abhor image
worship. With popery there is image worship ; the putting
of a little bambino of alabaster in the bosom of the images
they bow to—these are things that Judah abhors. The Jews,
indeed, can never approach Christianity whilst any part of it
is identified with image worship. (Hear.) The papacy is a
part of Christianity, and whilst it is so the Jews can never
approach Christianity. (Hear.) Brethren, as you value
your church, as you value all the 'blessings of Old England—
'‘ No Popery !" (Tremendous cheers, in the midst of which
the reverend gentleman resumed his seat.)
Mr. CHRISTOPHER BUSHELL seconded the resolution in
an appropriate but brief address, in the course of which lie
exposed the proceedings of the papists in the Protector So-
ciety, the object of which is to swamp the constituency with
Irish papist voters.
Mr. RIGBY moved a vote of thanks to the rev, chairman
for the able manner in which he had presided over this im-
portant meeting.
The motion was seconded by several gentlemen, and car-
ried by acclamation.
The Rev. Dr. TATTERSHALL returned thanks for the
compliment paid to him in a short address.
The doxology was then sung, and the meeting dispersed
shortly before five o'clock, highly gratified with the whole
, I proceedings.
it

SCOTCH CHURCH, OLDHAM-STREET.—We understand
the Rev. John Cumming, of London, is to assist at the ad-
ministration of the sacrament in the Scotch church, Oldham-
street, on Sabbath next, and to preach this evening in the
same place.
IMPORTANT TO OWNERS OF PASSENGER-SHIPS, AND
OTIIERS.—We had some weeks ago occasion to notice in
terms of commendation, the beautiful manner in which the
great cabin of the steam-ship, " Oriental," was ornamented
with tablets of papier mache, forty-eight in number, covering
the upper pannels of the wood-work round that magnificent
room. We have since seen in the saloon of her sister ship,
" The Great Liverpool," ornamental panels of the same ma-
terial, but, if possible, more delicate and tasteful in design,
and more splendid in effect, though this last point, of course,
involves a matter of taste. Both are from the works of
Messrs. Jennins and Bettrudge of Birmingham. The tablets
under notice are ornamented in arabesque, on a ground colour
of the pale blossom of the primrose. They are brilliantly
polished. The ornaments in foliated and scroll work are in
three shades of gold, the dead and white, forming leaves and
tendrils ; and these are relieved by the coral and sea-weed,
in green gold beautifully executed. The flowers comprise
many of the most beautiful and popular, and are blended to-
gether in pleasing harmony. The pendant tendrils in white
gold die away gradually in the ground work, showing the deli-
cate and free touch of the artist's pencil ; for these tablets
(we must add) are entirely executed by hand, and though
they so far resemble each other at a short distance as to ap-
pear precisely alike to the casual observer, a nearer examin-
ation immediately shows that they are separate and elaborate
works of art, comprising varied and pleasing combinations.
The mouldings, forming, as it were, the frame of each tablet
are also beautiful and novel, and are of the same material.
The mode of gilding is the recent invention in papier =chi
of Messrs. Jennins & Co., and was, we learn, first employed
by them in decorating some splendid furniture for the Queen.
The ornaments resemble inlaid tortoise shell, but far surpass
it in richness and effect. The whole saloon appears like an
entire palace. The papier rnache; as prepared by Messrs.
Jennins & Co., we may remark, possesses many advantages
alblesfop
for ornamental work of this description, as well as in the
making of many beautiful articles. It is even more durable
Asmis
than oak, and is not subject to be worm-eaten or to decay
from dry-rot. Neither is it combustible or liable to be
broken. It is made of various thicknesses, according to the
bebe applied.
iog decorated
to
etoere-
us. It is about half an inch thick, and resembles a piece of
eviamrieonusopfutrbpeosemsatteoriwalhpicrheviitooiss
hard wood. We doubt not but ere long it will come into
extensive use, not only in the cabins of fine ships, but in the
principal rooms or boudoirs in the mansions of our wealthy
countrymen.
Mr. John Barnett, the popular composer, in conjunction
with Mr. Morriss Barnett, the comedian, has taken the
Prince's Theatre (Braham's), for the express production of
original English operas. Arrangements are being made to
opt' the theatre early in November next.