The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-05-12 00:00:00

GREAT PROTtSTAiCIT MttTlNd

On Wednesday the annual meeting of the Protestant As-
sociation was held in the great loom in Exeter-hall, which
was well filled, but, as usual, by far the greater number of
those present were of the gentler sex.
Mr. J. P. PLUMPTHE, M.P., took the chair at 12 o'clock ;
and after the meeting had been constituted by a prayer from
the Rev. Dr. Holloway, he congratulated the meeting upon
its numbers, because it proved that they were not yet all un-
protestantized. (Cheers.) Ile called attention to the num-
ber of Catholic chapels which were in course of erection, but
more especially to the popery which had sprung up within the
establishment itself, and contended that these were circum-
stances which not only fully justified the association in the
course it took, but urgently called upon them to extend their
efforts. In relation to the latter circumstance, lie said he
was sorry that the episcopal trumpet of the whole bench had
give❑ so uncertain a sound against the doctrines sent forth
from a place in which they had a right to expect other things.
(Cheers.)
The SECRETARY the❑ read the report, which was a very
voluminous document. The committee lamented the success
which the Catholic church had met with since the revival of
the order of Jesuits. It was evident to them that the church
of Rome was determined to spare no effort or expense for the
purpose of extending her influence in this country, by which
means she hoped to extend it through the world. They in-
stanced as one of the signs of the unblushing effrontery of
Romanism, that a Catholic member had placed on the books
of the House of Commons a notice of motion to abolish the
oaths of supremacy and abjuration. The receipts during the
year were £1528; the expenditure £1399. After paying off
£lOO, the debt remaining was about £BOO. They called for
the continued and increased exertions of the friends of Pro-
testantism, which was now threatened with great danger.
Major BROCK moved that the report be adopted, printed,
and circulated, under the superintendence of a committee.
The Rev. E. BICKEFLSTETH seconded the motion. After
reading a charge given by the Archbishop of Lyons, which
had been published under the sanction of the present Pope,
Gregory XVI., in which the Virgin Mary was set at the
right hand of God, he said that proved that the Pope was the
Anti-Christ—the man of sin—the very Babylon of the Reve-
lations. (Cheers.) As to tractarianism, he deeply lamented
that it had shown itself within the establishment—he disliked
the name they had assumed—Anglo-Catholic ; it looked so
like Roman Catholic—(cheers)—they were too much like
twin sisters. The present Pope had most accurately described
the Tractarians, when he said " they wanted Popery without
the Pope." (Cheers.) They wanted to make the church
the Pope. Let all his reverend brethren preach Jesus ex-
alted, and Popery, and Tractarianism, and all bitterness to-
wards Christian Dissenters would fall to the ground, and
they prepared for their heavenly home.
The motion was passed unanimously. _ _

The Rev. R. J. M`GirEe was then'called upon, and said.
that after a period of severe sickness, in which he had calmly
and deliberately reviewed all his conduct in connexion with
the association, he was prepared to say, that he could not re-
tract one single expression which he had ever used against the
Papal apostacy, or against any individual he had felt it his
solemn duty to impugn, from the first time he had stood on
that platform till that moment. (Cheers.) On the contrary,
the more calmly he considered, the more accurately he inves-
tigated the principles of the Church of Rome, and watched
the conduct of those in her hierarchy, and her demagogues
who were carrying out those principles, the more he was
persuaded of the truth of the awful inscription which the
finger of God had placed upon her forehead, " On her fore-
head was a name written—Mystery." (Cheers.) The rev.
gentleman then went into a history of his exertions, and
those of the association, against Romanism up to the pre-
sent time, a full record of which, with full proofs of his
charges, he had lodged in each of the universities, and he
challenged any Roman Catholic, clerical or lay, to go to either
of them, arid deny the truth of one of them. Dons Theolo9y
was a decent book in comparison with many which had been
published under the sanction of the Pope and his bishops iu
Ireland. He then quoted largely from a hook written some
years ago by the present Pope, in order to prove that he
claimed the powers which the Pope claimed in the days of
Hildebrand,—he claimed that the government of the Pope
was the government of God; that, as Christ's vicegerent on
earth, his government and power were equal to those of the
Son of God ; that he was infallible, and therefore he was
entitled to an absolute submission, which was to be enforced
by excommunication, which was an awful power, when act-
ing upon the mind of a benighted though sincere believer in
the doctrines of the church of Rome. The next document
he used was the pastoral letter issued by the Pope upon his
accession to the popedom in 1832, wherein he enjoined the
clergy of his church to adhere strictly to the directory for
priests, in which it was asserted that the Pope had power
over all princes ; that no heretic prince could rule over the
faithful (Roman Catholics); and that the Pope had power to
excommunicate princes, and absolve those owing their alle-
giance from all oaths, until they (the princes) had made their
peace with the church. Also the bull in which it was de-
clared that it was necessary that the Pope should have both
temporal and spiritual power; that he should wield both
swords for the salvation of souls. Bellarmine was an old
writer; undoubtedly he was; but a reprint of his book was
now issuing from the press in Rome, under the sanction of
the Pope himself; yet, in that very work 18 reasons were
put into the mouth of a heretic why lie should not be put to
death ; the whole 18 were overruled, and it was decided that
all heretics should be put to death wherever the Pope had
power. (" Shame.") In the same book, now being pub-
lished by the Pope, it was laid down, that the Pope could
not err in morals (a laugh) ; ay, even if the Pope should say
that crime was no crime, every Catholic must believe it—he
was bound to do so under pain of spiritual censure. Had the
Pope, in those days, acted upon the claim he made to tempo-
ral power? In 1841 he issued an allocution on the subject
of the affairs of the church in Spain ; and in 1842 he com-
manded a jubilee in Ireland in favour of that church, which
jubilee the hierarcy in Ireland were obliged to order. On
that occasion the Roman Catholic Bishop of Ossory issued a
pastoral letter, wherein he called the attention of every Ca-
tholic within his diocese to the seizure of the funds of the
church in Spain; and told them, that the aristocracy of Ire.
land now enjoyed the property which had been wrested from
and of right belonged to the Catholic church. The allocu-
tion to which he had referred denounced the government of
Spain and threatened all with spiritual censure who obeyed
them. The Pope had also grossly interfered with the govern-
ment of her Majesty in a recent instance in Gibraltar. There
was a Catholic church there, which hitherto had been ma-
naged by laymen. A priest from Maynooth hz d been sent
out, and he claimed to have the whole management centered
in himself; he was resisted, and the laymen appealed for
protection to the magistrates of her Majesty, who decided
in their favour. An appeal was had to her Majesty's Privy
Council, who also decided in favour of the laymen. The
priest then appealed to the Pope, and he showered his censures
upon his opponents, and denounced both the magistrates and
her Majesty's Privy Council as heretics. He had before proved
that bulls which he had brought to light,and which were denied
by the Irish Roman Catholic bishops, were now in force in Ire-
land. He would ask were the Roman Catholic statesmen of
Europe less ignorant of the nature of those bulls than were
English statesmen? Yet the Roman Catholic statesmen had
refused toallow them to be published in their various countries;
it was only in Ireland they were received, where they worked
for the overthrow of the Queen's throne and the subjugation
of the liberties of her subjects. God forbid that he should
say a word against the poor Irish Roman catholic ; no, it
was for him he was pleading, against the villany of the Ca-
tholic hierarchy. The question must now engage the atten-
tion of Parliament; it had become a question of strength
between the Government of the Queen and the Government
of her Majesty in her own dominions. The system of agi-
tation which was now going on in Ireland was no more of a
political movement on the part of Mr. O'Connell than it was
of his (Mr. M`Ghee's.) (Cheers.) It was only one part of
a widely spread organization for aggrandizement ordered by
the Pope. The rev. gentleman concluded by moving, " That,
from the statements laid before the meeting, and the satis-
factory manner in which they had been proved, it appeared
that the daring assumption of the Pope, and the advance
made by the Papist apostacy to obtain spiritual influence and
temporal power in this country, it was the duty of all who
were faithful to the cause of Christ's true religion, who were
loyal subjects, and who were anxious to maintain civil and
religious liberty, to do all in their power to rescue our fellow.
countrymen of the Roman Catholic faith from their anti-
Christian yoke, and to maintain that civil and religious
liberty which was established at the time when the Protestant
Sovereign was placed on the throne."
Colonel VERNER, M.P., seconded the resolution, which
was put and agreed to unanimously.
The Rev. H. STOWELL moved,—" That at the present
juncture of ecclesiastical affairs the laity are specially called
upon to ascertain their spiritual rights and maintain their spi-
ritual liberties, since they are as deeply interested in the great
struggle which is now going on within and without the
church of England as the clergy themselves." He had not
ti-,n to deal with political Popery ;he felt with his brother
WOUse that that part of the subect was now taken out of
tutu hands, and must very soon pass into those of the Go-
vernment and the Legislature. It was his duty to call their
attention, not to what was transacting out of the church, but
to what unfortunately was taking place within her own
bosom. Were they living in the 19th century, in the 4th of
our blessed reformation, and yet, in the words of his
motion, was it to be asked whether the laity formed
part of the church or not ? (Cheers.) Were the laity
going to stand by, and supinely allow the faithful of
the clergy to fight the battle of civil and religious liberty,
and the principles of the blessed refoomation, without their
support ? Were the clergy to be placed in the fore front of
the battle, to put down the mummeries of the " modern
Jesuits in disguise," unshielded by their powerful support?
(Cries of " No," and cheers.) The clergy were made for
the laity, and not the laity for the clergy, as the Tractarians
now taught ; which the rev. gentleman proved by reference to
several of the Epistles to the Apostles. The laity must hold
by the right of private judgment. If they once gave that up
to the Oxford divines and their followers, they put out their
own eyes, and the clergy would have them as fast bound in
chains as ever the Philistine had the man of strength. Those
divines were carrying their followers so far on their way, that
they found it impossible to stop short of that goal to which
their teachers, had they been honest, ought to have preceded
them—the bosom of the church of Rome.

The Rev. CARUS WILSON seconded the motion, which, like
the others, was passed unanimously.
A vote of thanks to the chairman, for his kindness in pre-
siding over the meeting and for his able and zealops exer,
tions in the cause of Protestant truth, w” moved, seconded,
and passed with acclamation.
Mr. PLlJaro,p briefly returned thanks, and the meeting
separated.
Amongst those present were—Mr. J. Hardy, M.P., Mr.
Round, M.P. ; Captain Harcourt, R.N. ; the Rev. Mr.
Thelwall ; the Rev. Hobart Seymour, Mr. J. Lord, &c.

We have heard it confidently stated, previous to the late
examination for fellowships at Oriel College, that the candi-
dates were required to give a distinct disclaimer of the prin-
ciples of interpretation advocated by the notorious Tract 90.
If this should be the case, it would seem to imply a declen-
sion of a certain influence, latterly supposed to be paramount
in that society.—Orford Chromele.
We are informed that, in the year 1841, Air. Burn, of
Helsington Laithes, an extensive farmer in the immediate
neighbourhood of Kendal, on purchasing a flock of half-bred
government saeadna:t—e contemplatesh.e'l dai
effecting
Leicester sheep, at Penrith, gave for them the average price
of 335. per head. In 1842, the flock bp,oluacgeh,tiibi
gentleman, of similar age and quality, cost but 275. per head ;
and, on Monday last, he purchased a stock of the same kind,
yalltirwespsaenactes
particularly in the article
equalfroAm r theutol thatosuamr peorfeplvesar4isl
los n,
that ioarn
Idg7oasvt.
Mercury.
a considerable saving by reducing. the price of " savings" of
provisions in her MaiestY's shlPs,.
of biscuit. For every pound of biscuit which seamen do not
take ue as their allowance they are paid the sum of 21id.,
which is eq,uivalent to Is. Bd. the gallon of bread of 8 lb. It
is expected that henceforth th e pursers will be ordered to
pay the sum of Id. per lb. only! which will then make the
8 lb. of bread ls. ; and as the price, varies from 10d. to 11(1.,
the men will still be able to purchase white bread if they pre-
fer it.—United Service Gazelle,
o event connected
and anxiety as the
mysterious disappearance of the President, and the conjec-
tures that her supposed fate has called forth, are innumerable.
If the most ample room for fancy afford the fairest field for
fiction, never was a theme more amply suited to tne pen of
the romance writer. We have been given to understand in
literary circles, that the well-known author of " Cavendish"
has availed himself of this powerful-incident as the chief sub-
ject of his new naval romance called "The Lost Ship"—a
circumstance that will, no doubt, create the greatest interest
towards this new production of his popular pen.