The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1845-10-21 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

APPEAL TO THE PROTESTANTS OF ENGLAND.  An adjourned meeting was held in Belfast, on Friday, which was attended by noblemen and gent eaten from the several counties in the province of Ulster, the Earl of Roden in the chair. Air address to the Pr,testants of the British empire, proposed by the Earl of Erne, and seconded by the Hon. Somerset Maxwell, was unanimously adopted, and ordered to be signed by the chairman on behalf of the meeting, and of the Marquis of Downshire, the Earl of Enniskillen, Viscount O'Neil, and several other noblemen and gentlemen. This document has not yet been made public ; but the substance of it is to the following effect :—lt sets out by calling on the Protestants of lireat Britain to give the case of their Irish brethren a calm and unprejudiced hearing, as they believe that their fall would be the signal for the fall of Protestantism throughout Christendom. It then refers to the strenuous support the Irish Protestants gave to the present Government on their accession to office, notwithstanding the mlsgivings of others whose fo,esight has now fully justified the course they have adopted ; still they dieclaim any indisposition to co-operate with Ministers in a conciliatory policy towards the Roman Catholics, but it must be on terms of equality with both parties; that the advancement of the church of Rome is not to proceed part passu with the depression of Protestairism. They object to the endowment of Maynooth, contrary to the remonstrances of a million of British Protestants, while a peremptory refusal wag given to the reasonable petit it n of the Irish Protestants for some slight did towards tie intruction of their cLildren in a manner which they conceive to be conformab!e to their faith ; they are therefore driven to the startling conclusion that it is the design of the Minister to govern Ireland through the medium of the Catholic party, whose influence is to be purchased at any hazard or by any concession. Under such circumstancts, they naturally enongh are led to suppose that the next step will be the project of endowing the Roman Catholic clergy—one which, they hesitate not to say. would strike at the maintenance of the established church, and thus shake one of the fundamental articles of the Act of Union. Reference is then made to the general state of Ireland—the murders, the conspiracies, the immunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of the tautest deeds, and the comparative innocuousness of the power of the law. To meet these evils, they propose to associate with their English brethren in the spirit of men who can appreciate the value of religion, confident in that veneration for constitutional liberty which makes an Englishman jealous of any encrom hment of his right of free expression of political opinions. The recent dismissals of magistrates are then instanced as acts both harsh and arbitrary, and as an attempt to establish a principle that to unite for any purpose, however legal, may expose the parties to the same penalties as if their objects had been unlawful. To carry this principle out, any Government so inclined might convert the Irish magistracy into a body of political partisans, and all confidence in them by the people would be at an end. The appeal concludes by calling on the Protestants of the kingdom to strain every energy to secure a taithful representation in the House of Commons, and no longer to neglect the registries, if they would not have their political influence wholly paralyzed. Further apathy, and the triumph of the foe would be comp lete.  On Sunday week, and on Thursday last, being the Romish festival of St. Wilfred, Mr. Newman, and the gentleman mentioned as having joined him in his secession (with the exception of Mr. Christie), attended mass at the Roman Catholic Chapel at St. Clement's.