The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-06-01 00:00:00

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effects of sack a society. He alluded totftlE, `tla;
Roman catholic chapels that have been
cent ly. lie had seen a very handsome one egNit ,
field, in Yorkshire; towards which he had heir. a• s
manufacturet s had subscribed under' hreat s from t . ere
that if they did not their trade with Ireland shoold be put an end to.
He mentioned the instance of a Mr. Stables, an extensive ma-
nufacturer, of Huddersfield, who had been cotnpelled by the
Priest there to subscribe £5O towards the new Catholic Chapel,
though a Protestant toad against his conscience, and he wag
told if he did not do so, his trade with Ireland should be put ati
end to, The tame thing had been attempted to be practised in
Manehester on Mr. Wm. Towrishend, but he, much to his
,
credit, had said it was coptrary to his principles, and sooner
than his principles should be corhpromised, he would-sacrifice
his principles. (Applause.) Forty years ago there were only
30 mass-houses in England ; now there Were betiveen 500 snit
600. He called upon the meeting to aid that society in rooting
out that plague spot from the land, and concluded with second-
ing the resolution:
The Rev. Mr. POWELL rose to move the next resolution,
" that the present state of Pcipery in Ireland, and the exertions
of the Church of Rome to exteud the system. in England and
Scotland, are such as ought to awaken in the minds of those
who feel the blessings of the ReforMation; the most intense
desire to counteract this evil, and imperatively call for the
inimediate adoption, on their part, of all those means which
the Word of God supplies and inculcates fur that purpose."
He would not trespass on their tinviiby any lengthened obser-
vations, knowing by whom he to be followed; but as a
friend to freedom he must be an enemy to Popery; because
where Popery existed freedom could not find a being, (Hear.)
He described at Some length the social evils which Popery in-
flicted, in dissevering friends and producing discord in families,
a part of whom were Protestants and the rest Catholics- Such,
however, were the insinuating and snake-like lures of Roman
Catholicism, that in nine cases out of ten the Protestant of a
family of mixed faith was converted to Catholicism.
The Reit. Mr. CUMMING, one of the emissaries of the society,
rose to second the resolution. He spoke at great length, with
surpassing eloquence, and we regret that our time and space
compel up to give but a very brief outline. It appeared to hint
delightful to see the ministers of the Church of England and
of Scotland assisting together in a cause so holy. Scotland and
England had shed their blood, and laid themselves together on,
the same field, but now their efforts were, that their throne
Might he secure, their altars holy, and their people happy.
The institution he advocated was not associated in any shape
with the affairs of the present world, he left these subjects to po-
liticians and statesmen. His call was a sacred call, and he
came forward as au ambassador of God, and would endeavour
to stand forward as he of old, between the living and the dead
-the living protestantism and the dead popery. Some would
say this was a gratuitous insult to the respectable body of
Roman catholics for them thus to insult their religion and their'
faith; but if' he saw au individual in that room ready to drink
off a delicious draft, which was a deadly Risen. and were to dash
the cup from his lips, would that not be the height of humanity to
the individual? So said t hey all to the members of the Church of
Rome; they did not dash the poison from theM which was de-
struction to the body, but which dealt death to the soul. The
Church of Rome hail once proceeded honestly, holding out the
Council of Trent in her left hand and pointing to the martyr's
stake and to the faggot with the other ; but now, in a land where
Protestantism was still triumphant, she knew she dared not
" play such fantastic tricks before high heaven," and therefore
assumed another attitude; she was now .a deceiver; she dared
not roar as a lion, but tried to sting like a serpent. They
were told that the Church of Rome professed to be infallible.
This was just wat they (the PrOteStants) wanted—an infalli-
ble church; but where were they to find the proofs of its
infallibility? ( Hear, hear; hear.) He went to one priest
and he told him the Pope was infallible,- he went to a second
priest and he told him that the General Council was infallible;
he went to a third and he told him that was quite a mistake, it
was the Pope at the head of the council that was iufallible ;
he went to a fourth, and he told him the other was all quite
wrong, that it was only the Pope when he sat in a certaia
chair—the chair of St. Peter—that was infallible. (Loud
laughter.) He had tried in vain to find this philosopher's stone
of infallibility. When he went to one it was here; then there;
and like the airy ghost they read of, they no sooner got a hold
of it, than it sprung from their grasp and got somewhere else.
What mattered it to the sick that there was a panacea for the
plague -if it could no where be found. So it was with the Church,
of Rome; infallibility was a delightful thing, but it could
no where be found. The great boast of Roman Catholics was
that they were united, but that Protestants were divided among
themselves. He (Mr. Cunningham) deplored that there were
sectarians—that there were divisions among them, but take
them all, with the exception of the doctrine of SOcinius, which
he called a religion robbed dell that was divine, and they would
find that Protestants all held one common hope in Christ as a Me-
diator with the Father in the hour of danger, and in theday ofjudg-
ment. It was contended by the Romish church, that intention was
essential to every act done. Therefore, unless it was the inten-
tion of the priest to baptise or to marry, or to administer the saT
crament, a person might go through those rights to no avail, and
be in effect neither baptised nor married, nor receive the sa-
crament. After adverting at great length to the doctrines and
precepts of Catholicism, and their unscriptural foundation,
he proceeded to notice the results if it where it was pro-
fessed. He compared degraded Catholic Ireland with Pro-
testant Scotland and England, and compared Ireland with her-
self, showing the peaceable and orderly demeanour of Ulster
with the unsettled and criminal state of the other three provinces.
Catholicism had ever been found degrading in its effects, whe-
ther in peace or in war. On the battle field, what troops so brave
as those of Protestant Eugland and Scotland; nay, the lash
regiment of Enniskillen dragoons, which was a Protestant
regiment, had proved itself brave in battle, and conducted itself
with heroism; whilst the other Catholic Irish regiments had
been proved to be poltroons. Ile concluded, amidst rapturoug
applause, with seconding the resolution.
The Rev..lo tits M'KuNzta, of Wigan, moved the next re-
solution—" That it appears to this meeting that the British
Society for promoting the religious principles of the Reforma-
mation, is calculated ulider God to carry its object into effect,
and is therefore worthy of our cordial support" He spoke at
considerable length, and with much power in favour of the re=
solution.

The Rev. Mr. WRIGHT, of Warrington, seconded the reso-
lution, which was unanimously adopted, as were all the• resolu-
tions. _ _

A vote of thanks was moved to the Rev. Mr. Parkinson, and
the Rev. Mr. Cunningham, by JOHN CLARKS, Esq., seconded
by Mr. HALTS, and after a doxulogad been sung, the
meeting concluded at half-past nine o'cilek.