He has also done it to give opportunity to his own faithful people to shew the kindness and compassion which he has put into their hearts for their poor suffering fellow-creatures.

Many of you, my dear young friends, have heard of the Missionary Settlement in the Island of Achill; in that place the poor people are followers of the Pope of Rome, who is one of Christ's greatest enemies. At first the people were very angry with the Missionaries for telling them this, but, by God's blessing, a good many of them found out that the Missionaries spoke the truth, and they left the Pope of Rome and his wicked idolatry, and became worshippers of the true God.

Now I must tell you, that this Island of Achill is a very poor place; there is very little corn grown there, and therefore, when God made the potatoes to rot, the poor people were left without any food. I write these lines to you, to ask you to help us to buy Indian meal, and bring it from Liverpool in a ship to feed the poor people. I must tell you we have an Orphan Institution at the Missionary Settlement, in which we have one hundred children, and we have two hundred children more in our Schools, who are all taught to read the Bible, to hate the wicked ways of the Pope, and to love and trust in our blessed Saviour Jesus Christ. I want you to help us to feed these poor children during this year of famine, and you can easily do this by a little selfdenial. Suppose that any of you are in the habit of taking only half a glass of wine in the day, the money which that costs would feed one poor child. I mention this to show you how readily you can do what I ask you; I do not mean to say that you all drink wine, but if not, there is some other kind of self-indulgence which you can give up without any real injury to yourselves, for the good of the hungry children of the poor; and and you know how Jesus says, that except we deny ourselves, we cannot be His disciples. To be a Christian, we must be ever striving to be more like Jesus Christ; you know how He had compassion on the hungry people that followed him, and heard his

word; and if you are striving to be like him, I am sure you will do what you can to feed the poor children in Achill, who are learning the word of Jesus, the Holy Bible, in the Mission Schools. The missionaries in the South Sea Islands wanted a large ship to go from Island to Island, to preach to the Heathen, and some good men in England wrote a letter like this to the children, and they gathered all the money that was wanted to buy this big ship, although it cost a great many thousands of pounds. Those children shewed their love to the poor Heathen, and I only want you to shew the same love to our own dear countrymen.

I shall only add one word more. I want you to engage in this good work earnestly and quickly-I say quickly, for I must tell you that the coast of Achill is so wild and rocky, and the waves on the shore, when the wind is high, so very large, that a ship can only land her cargo safely in fine weather, and therefore unless we get money enough to bring a ship load of corn from Liverpool before winter sets in, I do not know what the poor will do; indeed they must die of hunger. So you see no time is to be lost. Think, dear young friends, how Jesus gave Himself for you, and for his sake set about this work of love with all your might. He will be well pleased with your efforts, for he says that a cup of cold water, given for love to his name, shall not lose its reward.

Your collections, if forwarded to me at 41, Upper Baggot-street, Dublin, shall be thankfully received and acknowledged.

I remain, my dear Young Friends, Your faithful servant in Christ, EDWARD NANGLE.

ITALIAN BIBLES GLADLY RECEIVED BY THE ROMAN CATHOLICS IN SICILY.

MR. R., the locum tenens of the Consul, dined on board: during dinner, he made some observations, and quoted several parts of Scripture in support of them: after dinner, I took him aside and said, that, as he seemed to be acquainted with many parts

pation Bill," but, what may be more properly termed, the Protestant Degradation Bill. The evils are numerous-we would enumerate a few.

First, The Irish Church Establishment has been despoiled of her property and her bishops; her clergy have been thinned and impoverished; their widows left comfortless, and their children fatherless. The sons of the gentry, however naturally endowed with thrilling eloquence and superior intellect, have been too often deterred from entering the sacred ministry, from the fear of persecution and insufficiency of support; and the best of the clergy have been left unprovided for, and unrewarded, from a terror of the enemy, who are even now clamouring for its utter destruction.

Secondly, The Irish Corporations have been stript of their Protestant character and destroyed, and Romish bodies constituted in their steadmany members of the old Corporations have been bereft of the means of existence by this change, and their children sent penniless mendicants on the world, or to seek an asylum in the Workhouse, to die there degraded, despised, and forgotten. The old Corporations were founded by English sovereigns to maintain Protestantism, and promote its blessings, and to be a bulwark against Popery, and Infidel liberality; but the new, `alas! have been devised, in part, to establish an opposite system-to pull down Protestant ascendancy, and to banish truth, to exalt idolatry, and to trample on Christian principle, to profane the name of Deity, to prac tise perjury, Sabbath-breaking, and rapine, with impunity; and, in a word, to renew the reign of all that is base in politics and false in religion -the reign of Popery! This is partly the object of the new Corporations in Ireland; and, alas! the design has succeeded most miraculously-far better than the contrivers could have imagined, or their most sanguine expectants could have anticipated. The work is done, and the occupants are now left to revel in the undisputed possession of their rapaciously desired

tion. We do not quarrel with this term, but we deplore its abuse, by a nation professing, at least, godliness -professing the very perfection of Christian truth-the Protestant Faith. The HOLY BIBLE is the standard of truth-the charter of our salvation; it should be the guide to British greatness, and the luminary of our dominions. To deny this is to disbelieve God, to disown our name and parentage, and to provoke the wrath of Him who made us what we areto differ from all the nations of the earth.

Under these appaling circumstance, then, what are we to do? Are we to sit down in sloth, to give way to despondency, to grow more and more hardened in sin, and to offer no resistance to the spirit that threatens national bondage, and our utter destruction?

NO-BRETHREN-NO!-We are to learn, from these events, to cease from man, to distrust the arm of flesh, and to stay upon our God. Our only refuge is in Him, and to Him alone we are to look up for deliverance and revival in our cause. Our own strength is perfect weakness; and when adversity has made us sensible of this, we may hope for a renewal of our former greatness, and an extension of those principles -those Protestant principles-which have made Britain what she is, the friend of religious freedom, and the political mistress of the world.

We do not value our political losses, in comparison with our spiritual gains. We believe that light and truth are spreading, and the rays of Christian knowledge are penetrating into the darkest and most remote places of the earth, notwithstanding the efforts that are made by Popery to arrest their progress and dim their splendour. This success more than compensates for the loss of worldly advantages. We dare not despair, while we reflect on these things. Nay, we rejoice rather, that the fold of the Redeemer is extended, and his name magnified. A religious reformation is spreading at home and abroad, notwithstanding the efforts of the Papacy to counteract its progress. On the continent of

Europe, we see the enlightened in habitants of Germany, of France, of Switzerland, shaking off, in thousands, the false worship and superstition of Rome; while at home, in Ireland, we behold the yoke of Popery yielding to the influence of the gracious Gospel, her priests renouncing the apostasy, and the people giving ear to the message of peace; they are discarding the inventions and impostures of man, and are returning to the ancient early faith of the Irish Church-the faith which was once delivered to the saints of God.

This aspect of affairs is encouraging in the midst of worldly disappointments and deceptions; and evidently points out the way by which the Almighty is working for the accomplishment of his purposes for the spiritual regeneration of the earth, and the salvation of man-not by might, not by power, and earthly wisdom; but, by the word of the everlasting God.

To this last and best and unerring resource, we would now direct your energies, and entreat your constant use and attention. We would call upon you all to be united, according to your means and opportunities, in the application of the one instrument, which God has appointed for the destruction of error "the sword of the Spirit." With this weapon, you may all fight, and by it, you have the promise of Him who cannot lie, you must and shall prevail.

Let no man say that he has no responsibilities-you all possess them in a greater or less degree from the Queen to her humblest subject. The clergy of all the Protestant churches are in the forefront of the battle; and it is expected that they shall valiantly do their duty. Were they to do so, their strength in the Lord would be irresistible. They might by union, and prayerful concert sap the citadel of Satan, blow up the fortifications of Rome, and raze and extinguish her fiery devices for the spiritual subjugation of mankind.

With such a glorious and immortal prospect as this before you, we implore you, Brother Protestants of

the Empire, man, woman, and child, to be up and active, vigilant and persevering; cease not till you triumph in the bloodless victory of millions of your race over the empire of the Man of Sin, the enemy of God, and the destroyer of souls.

You can each of you, according to your circumstances, read-you can teach, you can preach, you can circulate books, tracts, and instructions among the people. And, above all things, you can repent of your individual and national sins and iniquities, and spread abroad that word, which the Author of our being has promised shall not return unto him void-that word, which brought life and immortality to light. Do this, and live-neglect it, and like the Assyrian, the Chaldean, the Persian, or the Grecian Empire, you may decline and perish for ever!!

By the mercies of Him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light, by the atonement of Christ, which hath satisfied the justice of God, by the love which constrained Jesus to lay down his life for sinners, of every age, every degree, and of every clime-by the comfort of Him who will shine into every benighted, willing and obedient heartby the ashes of your pious and martyred ancestors, who braved courageously the faggot and the stake-by the blessings of the Reformation, which shook off the fetters of the Papal yoke, and by the liberty of Him who has restored to you the sonship and adoption of heaven; stand fast, firm and unbending under the banner and clothed in the panoply of Christian truth; and, no matter what others may do, who are apostates to their religion, and traitors to their God, do you "fight the good fight of faith"-lay hold on eternal life-and thus enter into the joy of your Lord.

We remain, Brother Protestants, yours most faithfully and cordially, in the bonds of the everlasting Gospel of Christ,

THE COMMITTEE OF THE PRIESTS'
PROTECTION SOCIETY FOR
IRELAND.

MORALS IN IRELAND.

66 CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME."

To the Editor of the Protestant Oper

ative Magazine.

SIR,—I have been much struck by reading the proceedings of recent Meetings of the Church Missionary Society, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. At these Meetings noblemen and gentlemen, and prelates, and clergymen have alike insisted upon it as a duty, that this country should exert itself to send the blessings of Christianity to the Heathen nations which Providence has permitted to fall beneath our rule. To all this I

most fully assent. It is our duty beyond doubt so to do.

But, Sir, I would seriously, very seriously, ask yourself and your readers these questions; Has not Ireland an infinitely paramount claim upon our attention? how has that claim been attended to? and what is the

present state of morals amongst the bulk of its people ? Let the newspapers of every day be our guides in replying. In them we see accounts of outrages the most appalling committed upon system, and often in the face of broad day, and in the presence of the passer by, no man laying it to heart excepting the Magistrates and the Police in their official capacities. Crimes, it is true, are committed in Great Britain, but the people as a body hate crime, and assist in detecting it. Therefore, morality to a great extent prevails. The laws are, generally speaking, respected, and the inhabitants dwell in quiet.

But the reverse of this is notoriously the case in Ireland, which may, unfortunately, with justice, be called Terra Ira, a Land of Ire, or of Wrath and Bad Passions, though it was formerly "a land of Saints and of Learning." To remedy this state of things many plans have been proposed. Some dictated by political partizanship or religious animosity, and others by that feeling which has gone by the mistaken application of "Political Expediency," an expression which seems to be in itself devoid

of all true morality. These schemes have all failed, either wholly or partially. And hence it is, that those who from their shrewdness of character and made indeed "a fine peasantry," are warmth of temperament, might be that they can scarcely be kept in now become so degraded in morals, order by the presence of the military and the police.

Sir, ought this state of things to continue for one minute longer? Could not some other plans be adopted which would be founded upon a purely philanthropic basis, free from all mere party considerations? The nobility, gentry, and landholders might do much more than they do. The Clergy of all denominations, and especially the Roman Catholic Clergy, could do very much more than they

do.

But far better would it be if a Society could be formed totally independent of religious party or political movements, which might charge itself with the endeavour to improve the moral and physical state of the lower orders in Ireland.

And I earnestly hope, that it may forthwith enter into the hearts of benevolent and enlightened men, on both sides of the Channel, to band themselves together, to devise means to civilize Ireland, and thus exert themselves to wipe off the foul_blot which now disfigures the scutcheon of the United Kingdom.

Trusting that this letter may operate as a small spark in kindling the flames of benevolence towards Ireland, I am, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

PHILO ERIN.

A MODEST APPLICATION. AT the extraordinary presentment sessions for the baronies of Hove and Ballyroe, county Cork, held on Wednesday, Sept. 123d, an application was put in to improve the Catholic Chapel of Timoleague, to cost 3000.

The parish Priest warmly advocated the rebuilding of the chapel by presentment, on the ground of the poverty of the district.