The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-19 00:00:00

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On Friday evening the annual meeting of this society
was held in the Concert Hall, Lord Nelson-street. The
hall was crowded to excess, and notwithstanding the
assertion to the contrary by one of our Saturday's con-
temporaries, the great majority were males, and a large
body of the most respectable class of society. Another
pleasing feature in the meeting was a revival of that en-
thusiasm which manifested itself with such powerful
effect a dozen or fourteen years ago, and before which a
•government, disposed to foster and encourage Popery, was
compelled to quail and shrink into deserved contempt.
There must have been nearly three thousand present, and
multitudes more would have been present if the hall
would have contained them. The chair was taken by the
Rev. Dr. M'Neile, and amongst those present we noticed
the Revs. Dr. Carpenter, D. James, F. Parry, Mr. May-
nard, Mr. Thomas, F. Barker, S. Fenton, Mr. Councillor
Tyrer, Mr. ex-Councillor Glazebrook, &c. &c.
On taking the chair, the rev. doctor called upon the
Rev. T. Nolan, who opened the meeting with prayer.
The Rev. CHAIRMAN then rose to address the meeting,
and was received with loud cheers for several minutes.
When silence was restored, he said,—My Christian friends
and brother operatives : It is with sincere satisfaction
that, as your President, I meet you once more in this
good cause : the cause directly of true religion as it has
been graciously revealed from heaven ; the cause, indi-
rectly and by consequence, of true liberty, both civil and
.religious, upon earth. (Hear, hear.) We have all along
had sound argument on our side, when we represented
Protestantism as the genuine foundation of liberty. We
have now facts, great and important facts, not of ancient
history, but of daily and weekly occurrence in these our
own times, all on the same aide. (Hear.) For three
centuries, the distinguishing characteristic of England,
as compared with the great bulk of the Continent of
Europe, has been Protestantism ; and now, the distin-
guishing characteristic of England is her combination of
authority respected and liberty enjoyed. True it is in-
deed we pay for our blessings, as I was told by a French-
man a few days ago : when in conversation I said to him
that here in England we have tranquillity and liberty and
true fraternity, he cut the enumeration short by saying
abruptly, " You pay well for all this." We do so, and
willingly. (Applause.) For what better treasures, I
would ask, can money be given ? Our taxes are high :
our rates are high : our luxuries are dear, compared with
the Continent. Be it so. I am not one of those who
have learned in the new school to idolize cheapness.
(Cheers.) I do not see that it is a real improvement
either to poor or rich, either to wages or rents. The
labouring classes in England were in a better condition
when everything was dear, very dear, than they have been
since everything bas fallen to comparative cheapness.
There is one article, however, in which I do delight in
cheapness ; and in this we have the advantage of the
Continent again, for in this there is no such cheapness in
the world as in England. The article I allude to is one
of great importance—of greater importance, in a national
point of view, if all were duly known and duly considered,
than our public men seem ever to have dreamed of. I
mean the article of Bibles in the language of the people.
(Loud cheers.) The Pope has indeed solemnly affixed
his infallible anathema on that bright star of England's
prosperity, our noble Bble Society ; and wherever his
anti-Christian authority is paramount, Bibles are scarce.
One of the most conclusive and triumphant proofs of how
little authority he has in England, is, that Bibles are
plenty. Compare these facts with other facts. Different
minds will draw different inferences from the same facts ;
but I now speak of the facts themselves, and, taken sim-
•ply as coincidences, they are sufficiently remarkable. In
Spain Bibles are scarce, and have long been scarce; and
Spain has long been degraded, and is now distracted by
civil war. In Austria Bibles are scarce; and Austria,
disgraced by bloodshed and cruelty in her capital, and
handed over to the Imperial sway of a lad of 18, is endea-
vouring to spell out a free constitution for her diversified
population. In France Bibles are scarce ; and France is
a proverb of revolutionary madness, recklessly and re-
peatedly staining the streets of her metropolis with the
blood of her citizens. In Italy Bibles are scarce ; and in
Italy democracy is in the ascendant, not sparing even the
Pope himself, who is dethroned and a fugitive. (Applause.)
In England Bibles are plenty; and in England we have
tranquillity, and liberty, and true fraternity,—authority
duly respected, and freedom richly enjoyed. We have
indeed exceptions to deplore, we have offences to record
in England, but they are the exceptions and not the rule,
and some of them are of a most instructive character.
Witness the following, which has just occurred in Bir-
mingham, and is thus made public by the clergyman of
the district. [The rev. gentleman here read the letter
which we gave last week from the Rev. J. Greaves, rela-
tive to the burning of the Bible at Birmingham by
a Roman Catholic priest, and which has since been
acknowledged by the priests of that town.] It is
quite clear that if we would preserve plenty of Bibles in
England, we must preserve England from Romanism.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) And why did I omit Ire-
land in my enumeration ? Ireland, which presents in
hereself a most characteristic and instructive sample of
both Romanism and Protestantism ? In the south and
west of Ireland Bibles are scarce, and in the south and
west of Ireland you have a Romish population disaffected
to the Crown of England, and not to be trusted with the
administration of the laws of England. During the re-
cent state trials, her Majesty's Attorney-General, though
himself a Romanist, yet being put on his mettle as a law-
officer of the Crown for the due administration of public
justice, felt called upon to exclude from the juries the
members of his own rebellious church. In the north-
east of Ireland Bibles are plentiful, and there you have, in
a most salutary proportion, a Protestant population, the
Morn defenders of the British constitution, as condensed
and ratified in the Bill of Rights, passed under William of
glorious memory (tremendous applause), and accepted
with public solemnity at the coronation of every British
sovereign since. It is in the face of these facts, and such as
hese, that the public mind has been excited by rumours,
which grow in urgency from week to week, that her .
jesty's ministers intend to propose to parliament a bill for
the national endowment of the priests of Romanism in
Ireland, and of course, by consequence, in England and
Scotland. Every constitutional opposition which the
Protestants of the empire can offer to such a disastrous
measure, ought to be instantly and efficiently offered.
(Hear, hear.) Already the movement is in progress, as
the recent elections in Devonshire and Yorkshire, as
well as public meetings in different places abundantly
testify. Such a meeting has just been held in Manches-
ter, where my reverend friend and namesake, our noble
fellow-labourer in this noble cause, gave utterance to such
spirit-stirring appeals on behalf of our national Protes-
tantism, and in such a strain, or' rather such a torrent of
fervid eloquence, as those persons can form very little ides
of, who have never heard Hugh Stowell. (Cheers.) And
this evening in Liverpool, I have no doubt sentiments
and arguments, well deserving the most serious consider-
ation of our people and our rulers, will be uttered by
those gentlemen on this platform who have been invited
by your committee to address this meeting. On this
question of the proposed endowment of the Romish
priests, two questions are very frequently asked. By the
friends of the present government we are asked, what mo-
tive can her Majesty's ministers have in desiring this ar-
rangement, if they do desire it, except the general good of
the country : and from their position and the information
they possess, were they not better qualified to form an
opinion of what is indeed best for the country than
any individual, however intelligent he may be, who
moves in the more circumscribed walks of private
life ? And then, not only by the supporters of
the present government, but also by a large class
of despairing politicians, who think everything else
has been tried in vain, we are asked what is to be done,
what can be done for Ireland if you don't do this ? With
regard to the objects which her Majesty's ministers may
be supposed to have in view, I do not think that they can
be fairly accused of any abstract love of Romanism as
such. On the contrary, I believe that the noble lord at
the head of the government very much prefers Protes-
tantism every way, and that if he saw his way to govern,
and to continue to govern—(hear, hear)—the coun-
try, without any further concessions to Romanism,
he would gladly adopt it ; but it must be remembered
that concessions have already gone so far that the
noble lord is in a serious difficulty. With parties
so balanced in Great Britain, that it is no easy matter
to secure even a working majority in the House of
Commons, how can any noble lord or right hon. gentleman
who wishes to carry on the government, dispense with tne
thirty or forty votes of those Irish members who are
neither more nor less than the nominees and mouthpieces
of the priests ? (Hear, hear.) And how can he secure
those votes on an emergency, except by compact with
their reverend masters ? Is this enough to account for
the non-prosecution of known offenders amongst the
priesthood, a measure tending to rivet on the minds of their
ignorant followers the disastrous superstition that their
priests bear a charmed life, or, at least, are not amenable
•to the jurisdiction of heretics ? (Cheers.) Is this enougt
to account for sop after sop, in the hope of at last drug-
ging Cerberus into quiescence, if not into friendship ?
Doubtless her Majesty's ministers possess extensive infor-
mation, and are so far in a favourable position for forming
a sound judgment ; but we know that a straight stick
thrust obliquely into water, will look like a crooked stick,
and we know that information, viewed through the denser
medium of love of place and power, will look not what it
is, but what it is wished to be. (Hear, hear,) But who
are to blame, that the executive government of our Pro-
testant Queen are in such a humiliating dilemma as to
hold their places at the mercy of the Romish priests of
Ireland. for it really amounts to this, when stripped of all
subterfuge and special pleading ? Clearly and undenia-
bly, the blame is with those electors of Great Britain
who have allowed secular considerations or personal in-
terests to prevail with them at the hustings to the dispa-
ragement or neglect of our national Protestantism. If
the Protestant electors of Great Britain had done their
duty, the Ministers of the Crown of England might have
been in a position to govern with dignity, instead of being
obliged meanly to court the priests of the Roman schism
in Ireland. This reproach falls, I will not say on any of
you who are here present, but certainly on many who pos-
sess the elective franchise in this borough. By preferring
Peelisns to Protestantism, and by so fraternizing with
Tractarianism as to divide their strength, they played into
the hands of their opponents, and so managed or misma-
naged as to send members to Parliament on whom no
really Protestant Minister of the Crown would place any
confident reliance in any great Protestant struggle.
mention this in honest plainness, because this, and pro-
ceedings similar to this, here and elsewhere, consti-
tute the real root of our national disease. If the
electors of Great Britain returned a Protestant House
of Commons, we would very soon have a strong and
-effective Protestant government. (Loud cheers.) But
what then, it is asked, could be done for Ireland ?
I will take the liberty of answering the question, first, ne-
gatively, by saying that the endowment of the priests
would do nothing for Ireland, in the sense intended by
the question. The endowment to any practicable amount
would have no effect whatever in either attaching the

south and west of Ireland to England. or in tranquillising
those districts in themselves. The priests would take the
Saxon money, and act the Celt just as before. The grace
of the grant could not be damaged by the insulting con-
dition of the subsequent good behaviour of the recipient;
and if it be supposed that gratitude for a free and una-
lienable gift would attach the priests to the government,
I venture to suggest that an attachment to their own
system in which they have been brought up, and the
operation of which is to invest them with more than hu-
man importance and 'dignity in the eyes of their fellows,
will prove stronger than any new-born attachment pur-
chased by £2OO or £3OO a-year. Endow Romanism in
Ireland to-morrow, and you will still have there—nay,
you will have strengthened and consolidated there—a
church which, as has been well and truly observed in the
London Standard of last Monday—
" Delegates the power of the Deity to man—which proclaims
itself exclusive and infallible—which grants indulgence to sin,
and guarantees salvation, and both for money—which surren-
ders reason to the priest, and shuts up revelation from the
paople—which substitutes the sens s for the understanding—
which trades in miracles, and se Is impunity, and discounts
transgression—which consecrates human merits and human
bones and man made idols, and gives its sinful populace of
saints a Gospel mediation ! Is this a fiction ? We appeal to
Ireland. That Ireland in which Rome loudly boasts a pure
unbroken hierarchy from St. Peter. Was earth ever before
defiled with more living pollution in the shape of man? See
what priestcraft does ! But they pray. Yes, through beads!
But they hear prayers. Yes, in Latin. But they have the
Bible. They have not, and if they had, they could not read it,
and if they could, they dare not ! (Cheers.) But they have
their chapels. And what have been the lessans from the altar?
The truth is, they have the church in place of the gospel. And
that church, what with its saints days and holidays, its confes-
sional tyranny, its vendible indulgencies, its mock miracles
its exclusive salvation, its assumed infallibility, its dispensing
power, and all the mummery of song and paint, and images
and relics, the working tools of priestcraft, have made them
what they are—a filthy, idle, lazy, ignorant, importunate, and
restless compound of mendicancy and treason. (Hear, hear.)
This is the seventeen century work of Rome Papal in Ireland.
Does any man doubt this? Let him visit the "green island.'
This is Romanism in the nineteenth century ! Still the
question remains, what can be done for Ireland ? First,
make burning a Bible, or insulting or molesting a
preacher or teacher of the Bible. felony ; and let any man
who is guilty of the foul offence, whether priest or pea-
sant, be transported or incarcerated, without favour or
partiality. (Loud cheers.) Secondly, establish, endow,
and protect, an efficient Christian mission, for the con-
version of the idolators of the south and west. Let sta-
tions for missionary preaching be appointed by authority,
and punish instantly and severely any man who attempts
by any violence to prevent any other man from attending.
Thirdly, let an act of Parliament be passed, declaring
that no man who professes any allegiance. spiritual or
temporal, to any foreign potentate, prince or prelate,
shall be eligible to serve on juries in any part of the
United Kingdom. (Hear, hear.) Let Great Britain
shew herself Protestant in good earnest, and Protestant
boldness will assuredly be crowned with Protestant suc-
cess. Let Popery be thought of and spoken of, as a thing
to be got rid of—a darkness to be dispelled by the light of
the Gospel—and not as a branch, though a corrupt one,
of Christ's Church, to be preserved in secula seculorum.
I am happy to see the rise and progress of movements in
the right direction. Only this day I find in a London
newspaper a letter from an Trish clergyman, the Rev. W.
Digby, containing this announcement—
"The diocese to which the writer belongs is actually taking
measures to recommence forthwith an aggressive missionary
movement more systematically and comprehensively than ever
in order to rescue our countrymen `out of the hands of those
who have served themselves of them,' and to make ready a
people prepared for the Lord.' Some of our friends in England
have proffered to us their pereonal help in this matter. But we
deem that we ought to be fitter in our place according to our
bounden duty, for the work that is to be done ourselves than
any strangers, however able or zealous they might be. And
when we have first raised the standard from our church towers
and nailed it to the mast—' No PEACE WITH ROME,' we can,
then, with a better grace and more effect, accept of, or even
solicit the help of our brethren from without. But we. begga-
red as we are, shall want money from our English friends to
work the press, and, above all, we shall want their prayers."

The Gospel, and nothing but the Gospel, can meet and
supply the real wants of Ireland.

" Concerning all the secular efforts of Great Britain on be-
half of Ireland during the last half century, it is only necessary
to say, that while they have supplied themes for interminible
controversy, both in and out of parliament, their practical fail-
ure is notorious to a proverb. In vain has a conciliating go
vernment and a compliant legislature passed every measure
that could add to the political influence of Roman Catholics.
In vain have political privileges, national and municipal, been
followed by poor lac s for their relief, and large grants of public
money for their employment. In vain has the legal property
of the Established Church been reduced one-fourth, and the
remainder changed from a tythe payable by the occupier, into
a rent charge payable by the owner of the land. (It should be
remembered that while in three provinces the occupiers are
chiefly Roman Catholics all over the kingdom the owners are
chiefly l'rotestants.) In vain has the national education of the
country been uncbristianised to meet the prejudices of Roman
Catholic priests ; and a national endowment made and consoli-
dated for the more enlarged support and instruction of those
priests. In vain are facilities given for the sale of encumbered
estates, and laws devised to fetter or coerce landlords in their
bargains and arrangements with their tenants. All in vain.
For now, after all, wherever Romanism prevails, the due ad-
ministration of British law is impracticable, and disaffection
and disorder, tumult and crime, are the characteristics of
the district: whereas, on the other side, as if to leave no excuse
to the inquirer, wherever Protestantism prevails, law is para-
mount as in Great Britain, and the government can dispense
with military intimidation, the people themselves being the
champions and defenders of loyalty and order, industry and
peace. Of an army of occupation now amounting to forty thou-
sand men, only two regiments are in the large and populous
province of Ulster. And why so? Because of the two millions
and a half of Protestants in Ireland, nearly two millions are in
the province of Ulster. Facts themselves can make nothing
clearer than this—that Romanism is the bane of the United
Kingdom, locally,in its social and moral mischiefs, and nation-
ally, in the prodigious expense thereby incurred. On these
grounds, independent of the still higher considerations which
ought to actuate Christians for the everlasting welfare of their
fellow-men, we deem it the obvious, urgent, imperative duty of
the Christian churches in Great Britain and Ireland, to make
conscience of a decided and determined effort for the conver-
sion of the Roman Catholic population. There is nothing chi-
merical in such an attempt. To think so would be to harbour
an unworthy want of confidence in our divine religion. What
the glorious gospel has accomplished in England and Scotland,
it can accomplish in Ireland also, if zealously and prayerfully
administered. Already, from conspiring coincidences, political
and social, and by the operations of the Irish Society, a great
and effectual good is opened; and although there are many ad-
versaries, yet an unprecedented willingness exists amongst the
Roman Catholic people to give ear to the Word of God, if read
or spoken to them in their native language."

The crisis is favourable. The head of the Papal system,
supposed to have been infallible, has made a great mis-
take. (Cheers and laughter.) He promised last year
what he was unable to perform, and now he is dethroned
and a fugitive. The existing eovernment at Rome has
pronounced a rescript of his Holiness to be of no value,
and continues its proceedings in defiance of the impotent
man. His rescript in condemnation of the Irish colleges
founded by our Government, has in like manner been treated
as a document of no value. All things are conspiring_ to
deliver men's minds from the prostration and thraldom
of this overgrown superstition. But political events
however they may open favourable opportunities for the
advancement of the gospel, are not to be depended upon
in themselves for any permanent and useful change in
men's minds. (Hear, hear.) Wo must bring the
light of truth to shine into the dark den of the
man of sin. And truly he provokes the contrast.
Even now he proclaims to the world the astound-
ing blasphemy against the cross of Christ, that his
present misfortunes are endured to make an atonement
for his sins and the sins of his people. But I must now
release you from this long address. Tt is said of us,
" Why have meetings of this kind at all ?—why say
things that create prejudice or irritation in the minds of
Roman Catholics ? ' I should like to answer this ques-
tion by asking another. Why should public agitation be
all on one side ? (Hear, hear.) Why should the advo-
cates of conciliation—the advocates of treating all creeds
alike as equally beneficial in a national point of view—
why should they have it all to themselves? (Hear.)
Why should it be commendable zeal in them to propa-
gate their principles, and narrow-minded bigotry in us to
propagate ours ? I ask you—as Cobbett used to call you
—the honest, thinking people of England—why should
they have it all on their side ? (Hear, hear.) You
have something in the Mercury from week to week
opposed to our principles : why not have something in
the Standard, in accordance with them ? (Cheers.)
We don't object to their meetings—we don't cry them
down, and say, " Look at those bigots—they had a fine
soiree last night." (Cheers.) I think we owe something
to our poor Protestant people as well as to Roman Catho-
lics. We must take means to have a tone of Protestant
feeling in England ; and if those in high places will not
listen, those in low places must. (Hear.) We say
nothing and think nothing unkindly of them, and why
should they so think of us ? (Applause.) I should like
to have these questions answered fairly in the liberal
papers, as they are called. I don't say that with any
unkindness towards them. It makes people think, and
the more we think the less Popery we shall have. (Cheers.)
But still there is a duty due to Protestants—to inculcate
hatred to all falsehood, by whomsoever told, which is
opposed to the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I
believe that properly administered it may be done with-
out any indecorum or violence to the Sabbath from
the pulpit, and must be maintained from the pulpit.
The Reformation was won by the pulpit. (Loud
cheers.) But at that time the people did not read near
so much as they do now, and as I would not have the
reporters to break the Sabbath by reporting what we say
from the pulpit, I think we ought to come sometimes to
meetings like this, and say things that will get into the
newspapers, and so give a tone to our countrymen. That
tone should be maintained—the tone that sustained the
labours, day and night, of Wickliff whilst he toiled in
the translation of the Word of God into the English
language—the tone that fortified the voice and heart of
Lord Cobham when he stood in Westminster Hall,
and addressing his judges, said—" My Lords, these right
rev. gentiemen, so long as they knew me addicted to blas-
phemy and debauchery, never issued any summons—never
addressed to me any remonstrance, but so soon as they
knew I was reading and translating the word of God by
Wickliff, they have brought me here to be unjustly con-
demned by this tribunal." The tone that sustained La-
timer, Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, and others, who, amid
burning fagots, would call out—" None but Christ, none
but Christ." The tone that sounded most royally in the
Queen's English, when Elizabeth said—" Let no Popish
Legate come nearer England than Brussels." The tone
calmly, but firmly, uttered by the seven Bishops who
preferred the Tower to any compromise of their Protes-
tant principles—the tone thundered through the kingdom
on the acquittal of those Bishops—the tone that, recog-
nising a desperate necessity for change, yet retaining a
high -principle of legitimacy as far as the higher interests
of true religion would permit, invited the Prince of
Orange, excluded the Stuarts, and established the house
of Brunswick—(cheers)--the tone, finally, that was re-
echoed with emphasis, on the day of her coronation,
by our gracious Sovereign Lady, Queen Victoria. (Loud
and continued cheers.)
The Rev. F. PARRY rose to move the first resolution,
and was received with loud cheers. He was happy in
again having the privilege of attending a meeting of the
Protestant Association, for their opponents had been ready

to conclude that it was defunct, and not a few who bore
the Protestant name would have been quite glad to say
of it requiescat in pace. For his part, however, he would
mucli rather say esto perpetua, as long as the times re-
quire it. (Cheers.) The chairman had mentioned Wick-
liff, the morning star of the reformation, which reminded
him of an anecdote told of him. In his boldness in the
cause of truth, Wicidiff caused great consternation in the
minds of the friars, and on one occasion he was very ill
when a number of them surrounded his bed. He lay for
some time in such a state that it was believed he was
dead, and those near were congratulating themselves on
the removal of their great opponent, when he suddenly
opened his eyes, and said with fervour, " I am not dead, but
live, and shall confound the lies of the friars." (Cheers.)
So he hoped would the Protestant Association. He trusted
it would awake to life, and, like a giant refreshed, prove
too strong for the enemy. (Loud cheers.) He was quite
aware that sneers had been cast upon our Protestant
meetings, not only by enemies but by pretended friends
to the rause, and he thought such friends, if they disap-
proved of them, would have done well to have pointed
out a substitute for them as a means of defence for our
common Protestantism. (Cheers.) For his part he could
not understand the great tenderness with which it was
wished they should regard error, and he was glad this
state of things was not to continue, but that these meet-
ings were to be revived. (Loud cheers.) The resolution
which he had to move pointed out a very plain duty—the
duty of contending earnestly for the faith once delivered
to the saints,, and in the performance of this duty much
obloquy had been thrown upon them, and in proportion
as a man would be faithful as a soldier of our Lord Jesus
Christ, in the same proportion must he expect obloquy
and derision from the world around. (Hear, hear.) Efforts
and strenuous efforts were, however, required, for Popery
was making great strides and receiving great encouragement
even in this country. It was very strange that the experience
of the past was lost upon us. What had they been told
when protesting against the Roman Catholic Emancipation
bill ? Why if this were only granted, Ireland would be
tranquillized—that all would be sweat peace, serenity,
and sunshine, where turbulence, storm, and anarchy had
reigned. But what was the result ?—this healing mea-
sure as it had been called, had produced no healing effect
in Ireland, but just the reverse. Our legislature had gone
on making concession after concession, and instead of
rendering popery inoccuous it was ten times more turbu-
lent than ever. ( Hear. hear.) What then was to be done
for Ireland ? Why take away popery and they would
very soon find the beneficial effects of such a measure.
There was great reason for the duty inculcated in the
resolution, because it was a duty we owe to ourselves to
maintain the protest against popery by every legal, con-
stitutional, and Christian means—it was a duty-we owed
to our children, to our country—because real liberty is
bound up in ,our Protestantism. (Loud. cheers.) The
rev. gentleman then referred to Macaulay's History of
England, and to the lives of the Queen's of England, by
Miss Edgeworth, a Protestant lady, but who bad distorted
facts, so that he felt it his duty to administer the caution
that all therein stated should not be taken for granted.
In truth, she was very little to be relied upon where a
Popish or a Protestant Sovereign was the subject. (Hear,
hear.) The rev. gentleman concluded by moving the
resolution, and resumed his seat amid loud cheers.

The Rev. Dr. CARPRNTER rose to second the motion,
and was most enthusiastically received. In proposing the
resolution, they professed to be guided by a certain pre-
cept in the Word of God, i.e., that we should earnestly
contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. This
command they would find in the general epistle of Jude,
and the circumstances under which it was given were very
remarkable. It was thus, as described by the apostle :
" For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were
before of old ordained to this condemnation—(He was not
applying this to Romanism)—ungodly men, turning the
grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the
only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." He was
only stating this to show that in the days when Jude wrote,
there were men in the visible church who had crept in and
were corrupting it—they, therefore, re-echoed the words
—" Ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints," and especially when that
faith is assailed. He repeated—it was now their duty to
contend for that faith which is founded on the Word of
God, because men have departed from it and would
lead many more to follow their pernicious ways. (Hear,
hear.) It was far more congenial to his feelings rather
to confine himself to his district—it was contrary to his
taste to come forward on the public platform and take
part in public meetings, but there were times when it was
necessary to deny oneself and do something not altogether
agreeable. (Cheers.) He had come forward at the mis-
sionary meeting to manifest his love for missions, and had
he not then appeared some might think he was no Pro-
testant ; but, (added the rev. Dr.) my friends, the longer
I live, the more Protestant I become, and I hope it will
continue to grow with my growth, and strengthen with
my strength, and I hope to die as I live—a Protestant.
( Loud cheers.) He was there, then, to manifest his Pro-
testantism, and he trusted he should induce them to agree
with him that they ought to protest against the principles
and practices of Rome.. There was another passage from
the Word of God to which he wished to call attention.
When Paul, the Apostle, was before King Agrippa, Festus
said,—" It seemeth to me unreasonable to sencha prisoner
and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him,"
and it would seem to him ( Dr. C.) illiberal to ask them
to condemn the principles and practices of Rome, without
showing the grounds for it. (Cheers.) When a number
of men were lately put upon their trial for high treason
in Ireland, though every one in the world knew they
were guilty, they pleaded not guilty. This was an
old Irish trick, for hundreds of times he had heard
papists charged with practices contrary to the Word
of God, and they had uniformly and invariably denied
it. (Hear, hear.) lie bad frequently heard members of
the Church of Rome charged with praying to God through
the merits of saints, and he had as frequently, he might
say, heard that charge denied, and he did not remember
a single instance in which they had pleaded guilty to that
charge. They have said they prayed through the inter-
cession of saints just as they would ask them to pray for
one another, but they never asked for the mediation of

saints. The Rev. Dr. then produced a Roman Missal,
published by Rockliffe and Duckworth, for the use of the
laity, at page 18 of which was the following prayer :
" We beseech thee 0 Lord, by the merits of thy Saints,
whose relics are here, and of all the Saints, that thou
wouldst vouchsafe to forgive me my sins." (Hear, hear.)
If any doubted there was the book to read for himself.
(Cheers.) The Rev. Gentleman then quoted another
prayer, offered through the merits of blessed Osmond .
and a third, " that the glorious merits of our blessed
Mary Magdalene may make our offerings acceptable" to
God. He asked would they protest against that, or
would they stand by the Word of God ? (Yes, yes.)
Again the Church of Rome had often been charged
with leaving out of her catechisms the second command-
ment, which prohibited the worship of images, or the
bowing down to them, though it was found in the
Bible, and found too in the Bible of the Church of
Rome—(hear, hear)—but in the catechism he held
in his hand, which was that of Dr. James Butler, revised
by the Bishops for the use of Ireland, it was omitted al-
together. Was it, therefore, too much to protest against
that sort of dealing with the Word of the living God ?
(Cheers.) The rev. speaker next produced a book enti-
tled " An Abridgment of Christian Doctrine, with proofs
from Scripture, revised by the Rev. J. Doyle, for the use
of Maynooth," from which ho quoted as follows :
" When is theft a mortal sin ? A. When the thing sto-
len is of considerable value, or causeth considerable hurt
to our neighbour." And the Scripture text referred to
was I. Cor. vi. 10. But he confessed he saw no distinc-
tion between mortal and venial sins. From the same
book the speaker produced other proofs showing that the
Church of Rome worships saints and angels, and garbles
the Scriptures to countenance her idolatry in that respect.
In the catechism she asserted, in answer to the question
" What is the Mass ? " that it was the sacrifice of the
body and blood of Christ, which are really present under
the appearance of bread and wine, which are offered to
God by the priest for the living and the dead. Against
this he quoted several passages from the Bible, proving
that Christ was once offered for the sins of the world—
that he was not to offer himself often—and that, having
made one atonement for all, he has sat down at
the right hand of God. The rev. gentleman concluded a
powerful speech with the relation of several most inte-
resting anecdotes, illustrative of the effects of the truths
of the Bible when pointed out to Roman Catholics, and
resumed his seat amid loud cheers.

The resolution, having been put from the chair, was
unanimously carried ; after which a collection was made
for the purpose of defraying the expense of the meeting.
The Rev. D. JAMES rose to propose the next resolu-
tion, and was greeted with loud applause. He said, after
all, the question had to be argued, and he was prepared
to argue it, if time permitted, and would show the great
value of Protestant truth when brought home to the
hearts and consciences of Roman Catholics. (Cheers.)
The resolution he had to propose commended the estab-
lishment of the Christian religion as a blessing to the
State; whilst it condemned the establishment of Popery
as one of those sins which would be a reproach to any
people. The rev. gentleman then referred to a pamphlet
of Dr. Wiseman, on the supremacy of the Pope. This
was the point behind which the Romanist, when beaten
in argument, generally sheltered himself—behind the
supremacy cf the Pope as successor of St. Peter, and the
assumed infallibility of the Church of Rome. They were
prepared to meet them on their own ground, to attack
their citadel, and show that the supremacy of ,the Pope
was a fiction, and that the infallibility of the Church
was without truth and reason in the Scriptures,
i
He was prepared to show that even f they ad-
mitted the Church of Rome to be true in her tenets
and pure in her principles, that after all she had
not the least right to exercise any authority over the
subjects of Queen Victoria. (Cheers,) When they looked
at the subject, they found this to be the fact, that the
first Christian church was established at Jerusalem by
our Saviour himself, and superintended by his Apostles,
and especially by one called his brother, i. e. St. James.
On the Day of Pentecost, in the year thirty- three of our
Redeemer, when the spirit was poured out, and thousands
were present, not less than fifteen dialects, or languages,
were mentioned, and amongst the rest strangers from
Rome, who, having received the Holy Spirit and in-
struction through the preaching of the Apostles, went
home and established a church. After that, Philip went
to Samaria, and introduced the Christian religion, to
whom the Apostles sent Peter and John on a visit. They
would afterwards find Peter went to Antioch, and if at
any time he did go to Rome, and sat there as President
over the Christian Church, which was maintained by the
Church of Rome, he (the speaker) still contended that
that did not give the Bishopof Rome any supremacy, for
whoever succeeded him at Samaria or at Antioch had
a superior claim to have the keys, if keys there be,
to open the Kingdom of Heaven. (Hear, and cheers.)
If, however, the Church of Rome had any apostolic
authority at all, it was derived. from St. Paul, and not
Peter; for when St. Paul writes to the Romans in the
year 60, he mentions no less- than twenty-six eminent
Christians, tw) of whom had actually a church in their