THE TENTH ANNUAL REPORT AND PROCEEDINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION.

THE Annual Meeting of the Protestant Association was held on Wednesday, May 13, in the large room, Exeter Hall; J. P. Plumptre, Esq., M.P., in the chair. Amongst the gentlemen on the platform were Sir Digby Mackworth, Bart.; Major Penley; James Bateman, Esq.; Thomas West, Esq.; J. Knipe, Esq.; J. Farrer, Esq.; General Latter; Richard Nugent, Esq.; the Very Rev. the Dean of Ardagh; Revs. Hugh Stowell, Charles Prest, Dr. Marsh, Edward Dalton, R. J. F. Thomas, Dr. Bennett, Dr. Holloway, W. Shirley, W. Ayerst, A. S. Thelwall, J. Hopkins, Ainsworth, J. R. Robbins, and R. W. Dibdin. The proceedings having been opened in the usual manner with prayer, by the Rev. Dr. HOLLOWAY,

The CHAIRMAN addressed the Meeting to the following effect: I appear before you, actuated by the same feeling by which I have ever been influenced when advocating the cause; I wish to express no feeling of antipathy, no feeling of hostility, no feeling of unkindness, towards my Roman Catholic fellow-sinners and fellow-subjects. God forbid ! On the contrary, I trust I can in some measure feel compassion for them, and a desire that they may be partakers of that glorious liberty wherewith Christ makes his people free. (Hear, hear.) It is heartbreaking and painful to see the slavery in which the Roman Catholics are held, wherever the Roman Catholic religion is dominant and prevalent; and, humanly speaking, in those countries where a strict prohibition is given against the circulation of the Scriptures, and where the priests abound in numbers as well as watchfulness, it seems almost hopeless for these poor benighted slaves to obtain deliverance. The contemplation of multitudes of our fellowcreatures, under such circumstances, must go to the heart of every one who can feel for the present and the eternal welfare of his fellowcreatures. (Applause.) But we have not merely to look to Popish countries abroad. The same system is carried on in the sister island, and I am very much afraid it is growing and increasing amongst us in our own land. I am afraid that that system has been fearfully and shamefully countenanced and encouraged by members of our own established religion, who, embracing in the first instance notions alien from the true principles of the established religion, have been led on step by step, encouraging and drawing others in their train, and have shown at last the tendency of the principles by which they have been actuated, by identifying themselves with the Church of Rome, (Hear, hear.) If we had not to meet together on such an occasion to utter again and again our protest against Popery itself,—that frightful system, dishonouring the great Head of the true Catholic Church, Christ Jesus, the Head of the Church Universal-dishonouring him and enslaving the intellect and the temporal and spiritual interests of our fellow-subjects who are members of the Roman Catholic religion; if we had not to do this, we might well associate ourselves together, and meet together with a determination to do what in us lies to protest against those men to whom I have

alluded-members of the Oxford school,-call them by what name you may,-Puseyites, Tractarians, or whatever names belong to them; to protest against them, not as members of the true established religion of this land, but as members who in heart, and in too many instances, have proved themselves in truth and in fact to be members of the Church of Rome. (Applause.) You have reason to watch against the progressive inroads not only of Popery itself, but of many who may not as yet have openly embraced the religion of the Church of Rome, but who yet belong to the pure Church of the land, and have not yet honestly come out from that Church, but who still, maintaining their position in her, are spreading their poison, are doing infinite mischief in every way to promote their own ends, those ends being neither more nor less than to favour the religion which we as Protestants detest and abhor. (Applause.) We ought to associate and endeavour to strengthen each other as members of this Association, when we remember what has been going on in our country during the last half century. We know the spirit which has been gaining ground among our rulers, and which appears to be still gaining ground. We know that concession after concession has been made to the Church of Rome. We know the privileges which have been granted, which the wisdom and piety of our forefathers thought fit to withhold from the Church of Rome. Step after step has been made in advance; but still that body remains restless, grasping at something which they think they ought to have, and the possession of which will bring them nearer to the attainment of their own ends. ask, is it becoming for us, as Christians, as Protestant men, to sit quietly while these things are going on? (Applause.) It is true, we may have difficulties to contend against, but this is not a time to let our hands hang down and our knees be feeble. (Applause.) If our difficulties increase, our faith and hope should rise up in proportion. If God has permitted incursions to be made on the truth, I trust the effect will be to rally all honest men who love the truth in Christ Jesus, and lead them to see the importance of zealously, stedfastly, perseveringly, contending for the faith once delivered to the saints. No one, who knows the Bible, can for a single moment entertain a doubt as to the result of these trials, for the Lord reigneth, and will reign, and his truth must and will prevail. (Loud applause.) The Secretary read the following

REPORT.

I

In entering upon their Tenth Annual Report, your Committee deem it necessary to review the past and present position of this country with reference to Popery and Protestantism. In doing so, they cannot but feel that whatever cause existed to render the formation of such an association as this desirable in the first instance, events have recently occurred to render its continuance and increased exertions yet more important.

At that period, 1835, Popery was making rapid progress. The confidential advisers of Her Majesty were pursuing a course of a most dangerous kind. Under the name of expediency, they were sacrificing the Institutions of the country. In the name of Justice

to Ireland, they had been persuaded to despoil the Protestant Church in Ireland of her revenues, and to suppress ten of her bishoprics.

Still there was a powerful and vigorous opposition, headed by one who, it was supposed, from his early attachment and often avowed principles, would be prepared to withstand the further encroachments of Popery. But events have disappointed all such expectations. The position in which the country is placed has changed, and not in this respect for the better. Those who were the opposition have become the Ministry, and, as the confidential advisers of the Crown, have supported in office, measures more dangerous than those which, when out of office, they resisted.

The Charitable Bequests Act, the Maynooth Endowment Act, the Religious Opinions Bill, are all steps in the wrong direction. They do not give a favourable impression of the firmness and stability of the British Constitution, nor of the principles of public men. Instead of marching forward, in opposition to Antichristian errors, they represent us as retreating before the power of the Papacy.

Nor have we been less exposed to the encroachments of the Church of Rome, than we have to the betrayal from amongst ourselves. Rome has successively attacked and despoiled, though not yet destroyed, the Church of Ireland. She is now adopting a different course. From attacks upon our Church, Roman Catholics have proceeded to secure the endowment of their own, and by the Act so hastily passed last session, for the permanent endowment of Maynooth, notwithstanding the Petitions of one million and a quarter of people, has laid a foundation on which may be built an elaborate superstructure, for the endowment and patronage of her entire ecclesiastical system.

PETITIONS.-Your Committee have closely watched the proceedings in Parliament. The number of Petitions last year against the Bill for permanently endowing Maynooth, amounted to more than 10,000; and signatures, to more than 1,250,000. This was chiefly accomplished through the agency of the late Anti-Maynooth Committee, of which many of your Committee were members,-they having deemed it wise that the opposition to so dangerous and unprecedented a measure, should be rendered as wide and general as possible.

Though a hope was at one time entertained that, yielding to the loud and strongly-expressed opinions of so large a body of the people, Government might have withdrawn a Bill alike uncalled for, unpopular, and unconstitutional; those hopes were not realized, and the measure passed by a large majority. Your Committee, however, knowing that the nature of idolatry is not altered by the sanction of Parliament, but still exposes individuals and nations to the wrath and punishment of the Almighty, have seen but one course open before them, and that has been, to prepare and adopt a Petition for the repeal of the Maynooth Endowment Act of las session. And they cannot but express their gratification that an Hon. Member, to whom the cause of Protestantism is deeply indebted, has in the House of Commons given notice of a Motion for leave to bring in a Bill to

repeal that Act. They have also adopted a Petition against other measures now before Parliament in favour of Popery, including the Bills of the Lord Chancellor and Mr. Watson, M.P.

SECESSIONS TO POPERY.-Nor can your Committee avoid referring to the many instances of apostacy from our Church to that of Rome. Whilst some, unwilling to confess that their own teaching has led to such results, refer to Exeter Hall Meetings, that which is the legitimate consequence of their own teaching, your Committee must refer to them as the fruit produced by those who have been long beleaguring the walls of our citadel, and instead of watching carefully the vineyard, have been themselves eradicating the vine, and planting Popery in its place. It is not by the attempts made in Exeter Hall, to expose the evil nature of Popery, but by the efforts made in pulpits to conceal them, that these lamentable perversions to Popery have been occasioned. On these points, so deeply important to our Church and country, your Committee have felt most anxious, and have, during the year, adopted memorials to each Archbishop and Bishop of the Church of England and Ireland.

It is worthy of observation, that whilst in England, some not sufficiently versed in the doctrines and principles of the Church which they have left, or that which they have joined, have gone over to Rome; in Ireland, where Popery is better known, many are daily coming over to Protestantism. And when it is considered that in England no danger is incurred by becoming a Roman Catholic, but that in Ireland, each convert changes at the risk of his property, liberty, and life, far greater weight must be attached to one such conversion from Rome, than to several secessions from our own Church. Nor must it be overlooked that the number of Roman Catholic priests in Ireland is only about 3,000, whilst the clergy of the Church of England and Ireland amount to nearly 24,000, so that looking to the proportion of numbers, one convert from Popery out of 3,000 would be equal to eight converts to Popery out of 24,000.

FINANCE. On the subject of Finance, your Committee have to report as follows:-The total receipts for the past year amount to 1,157. Os. 8d. Total expenditure 1,0447. 17s. 10d. Leaving a balance of 112l. 2s. 101d.; with liabilities to the amount of 250l. But the greater portion of these liabilities has arisen from expenditure on account of the special fund, from which the returns have not yet been so great and rapid as had been expected. The value of the stock on hand, including the general and special publications, may be estimated at from 500l. to 600l. But as this cannot be made available for immediate purposes, there is the greater need of funds from other sources to enable the Committee to support their expenditure, and to carry on farther operations.

The Committee have, however, the gratification of stating that there has been an accession of a larger number of new subscribers than during the preceding year, a fact which indicates the increasing interest which is taken in the proceedings of the Association. They feel the more gratified in referring to the increase of members, because of those who have recently joined the Association, the majority are Clergymen. It is, however, to their lay friends and members, that they

chiefly look for co-operation and pecuniary support, and they invite them not only to become members themselves, but to induce their friends also to join and to aid in the circulation of the publications of the Association, and to exert themselves in the formation of branch and local Societies of a similar kind throughout the length and breadth of the land.

PUBLICATIONS.– During the past year, your Committee have added to their special and general publications:-The Sin of England-a reprint of valuable letters which appeared in the "Record" on the subject of Maynooth; An Appeal to the Priests, translated from the French of Roussel; besides tracts on the Mortmain Laws, and the Act of Supremacy.

They have also circulated letters of the Rev. B. Ryder, and have now in the press, or prepared for it, the following works :

1 The Hidden Works of Darkness, or the Jesuits of Ancient and Modern Times. By Wm. Osburn, Esq.

2. Faber's Difficulties of Romanism.

3 Poole's Nullity of the Romish Faith. 4. A History of the Inquisition.

During the ten years referred to, we have read and heard of the activity of Rome in every quarter of the world, and we have felt it at home. It influence theologically and politically is great. Statesmen and theologians seem bowing before it, either in admiration of its meretricious ornaments, or quailing before its power. The truth is, that till very recently, the distinctive marks of Popery and Protestantism have been unheeded, if not unknown, by the great proportion of our people. They have never, or but rarely, and then superficially, formed a portion of education either in public or private seminaries, the public schools, colleges, and universities of the land, nor, as they ought to have done, the points of examination before admission into holy orders. But is this great and still Protestant nation to withdraw her protest ? Shall we undo the work of our ancestors ? Shall we betray the trust? No, assuredly! Rather let past supineness be the ground for increased activity. Let us in the course of what is good, outstrips Roman Catholics in their efforts to promote evil. They have formed their "Catholic Institute," let us invigorate, strengthen, and extend our Protestant Association, till not a city or town in England is left without some of their number united for the purpose of promoting the cause of Protestantism. They are issuing their cheap tracts and books. Let us be more zealous, active, and resolved to extend the circulation of Protestant works in a cheap form that may counteract the baneful influence of Popish error, and Popish misrepresentation.

During this period, the Association have issued more than one million of tracts, and handbills, and more than seven thousand volumes of books on most interesting and important subjects. They have made grants on various occasions to applicants for their publications in various parts of the British empire at home and abroad, in India, Canada, Newfoundland, the West Indies, and even to France and America, where applications have been made. Your Committee have, according to their power, made grants to aid their poorer