then took up a book and read something which she did not understand. Coatley interrupted the Reverend Gentleman, and asked whether his father might come in. Some days after the marriage, Coatley left her, and witness went to Dr. Ferguson to inform him of the fact, and to ask him for a certificate of her marriage, which he cut from a book and gave her. She told him that was not a proper certificate, and that her father would not believe she was married; whereupon the doctor said he could not give her another, and gave her a shilling, with a request that she would not say any thing more about it. Cross-examined by Mr. Sergeant Shee.-Coatley did not tell her that he was a Roman Catholic until a month before her marriage. Taking the facts as they had been opened by the Learned Counsel for the prosecution, and proved by the witnesses, he submitted that no offence had been committed. Baron Alderson dissented from the opinions of the Learned Sergeant, and contended that the same restrictions which were laid upon the Church of England were laid upon Roman Catholics; where there was a specific Act of Parliament, it was the duty of all parties to comply with it. Baron Alderson (to the Jury).-Gentlemen, under these circumstances you cannot but find Dr. Ferguson guilty. The Jury at once found the prisoner guilty. Baron Alderson said that the simple object of this prosecution was to defend the law; and that it was the prisoner's duty to obey the law under which he lived, and which gave him protection. If he had any scruple against the law, he must cease from performing the marriage ceremony at all. No hardship was put on him that was not put upon the Established Church, and every Protestant Dissenting body in this country. He could not expect more, and he ought not to have less. The sentence of the Court was, that he enter into his own recognizance of 500l. to be of good behaviour and to obey the law for twelve calendar months, and that he be imprisoned until the rising of the Court. Dr. Ferguson then entered into his recognizances, and was forthwith discharged. PIEDMONT. THE POPE'S ADMONITION TO THE GOVERNMENT OF PIEDMONT.- -The "Ami de la Religion has an address delivered in the Consistory on the 12th of January, by the Pope, relative to the affairs at Piedmont. The Holy Father, after deploring the obstinacy of the Sardinian Government, says:-" But things have come to that point, that it is not sufficient to deplore the injuries done to the Church, if we do not in addition employ all our cares and efforts so as to put an end to them. In consequence, fulfilling what is in our charge, in the midst of your solemn assembly, we raise our voice anew with apostolic liberty, and we censure and condemn, not only the whole and each of the decrees already issued by that Government to the detriment of religion, of the Church, its rights, and the authority of this Holy See, but also the law recently proposed, and we declare the whole null and void. Moreover, we most seriously warn, not merely those by whose doing and order the decrees themselves have been already promul gated, but also those who have not hesitated to favour, approve, and sanction in any manner whatever that project of law, to weigh continually in their minds and souls the pains and censures denounced by apostolic constitutions and the canons of the sacred councils, especially of the Council of Trent (sec. 22, c. 11), against all persons that carry off and profane sacred things, all violators of the power and liberty of the Church, and all usurpers of the rights pertaining to the Holy See." A Turin correspondent reminds us that such words have been spoken to Piedmont before now, and recalls the answer made by Amadeus II. to Pope Clement, who had launched against him the thunders of the Vatican:"Although I was prepared for the greatest injustice, I did think his Holiness would have reflected before causing so great a scandal in the world. His Holiness must look to find in us the greatest firmness in maintaining that reason and justice which are so evidently on our side." The Times" has the following:"FEBRUARY 8.-The Pope's monitorio has not yet obtained so much notice as it deserves, which is chiefly to be accounted for by the pre-occupation of the public mind on other matters. The King, however, is said to feel acutely the want of consideration towards himself in publishing such a document in his kingdom at the moment when he was oppressed by heavy domestic afflictions; and the Government has given instructions to all magistrates and law-officers of the Crown that they are to take notice of the reading from the pulpit or preaching on the monitorio, as bringing priests within the meaning of the Act passed last session for the modification of the penal code, whereby 'Ministers of religion who, in the exercise of their ministry, pronounce in a public assembly a discourse containing censure of the institutions and the laws of the State, shall be punished with imprisonment of from three months to two years.' The first day after the publication of the monitorio people were only inclined to laugh at it, but they are now beginning to treat it more seriously, and the result will probably be a vast amount of petitions from all parts of the country in favour of the Convent Suppression Bill, if they do not even go further. Some papers already speculate on the possibility of his Holiness pronouncing an interdict, and set forth what the duty of the Government would be in such a case in resisting the foreign pressure. The effect of shutting up churches and withholding religious rites has generally resulted in Italy in accustoming the people to do without them altogether, as was the case in Ferrara some years past, but in this country there is happily a better alternative at hand than abstaining from religious worship. There is within the nation a body of Christians who have long suffered persecution from those who are now threatened with castigation themselves. Their churches are even now constantly filled with those who nominally belong to a different sect, and therefore it may easily be imagined what would be the result on a population strictly devout, though without much respect for their clergy, if they found themselves suddenly deprived of one system of Christianity with another more comprehensible close at hand. The whole of the documents relative to recent diplomatic transactions between Piedmont and Rome are in course of publication here, and will tell a different tale, it is asserted by those who have had access to them, from the mangled correspondence published at Rome on the same subject."-Times, Feb. 14, 1855. AFFAIRS AT ROME.-ROME, FEB. 6. -"Money! money! money!" is the constant and agonizing cry of the Papal Government at the present moment, and the anxious endeavours of Monsignor Ferrari, the Minister of Finance, tend solely to discover what diggins' are likely to furnish the requisite supply. The usual and fatal resource of people in pecuniary difficulties-another loan-is already on the tapis, to the amount, as is stated, of 3,000,000 of scudi, but the mode of effecting it is still undecided, as hopes are entertained, before realizing the plan, of squeezing something out of the King of Naples, as purchasemoney of the Principality of Ponte Corvo, which territory, like that of the Duchy of Benevento, although surrounded by the dominions of his Bourbonic Majesty, recognizes the Roman Pontiff as its temporal Sovereign. How to effect this transaction without incurring the blame of having diminished the patrimony of Holy Mother Church, is what as yet puzzles Pio Nono. The ultimate intentions of his Holiness's Government with regard to the finances of the country are totally inexplicable, except on the poco curante system, which is content with patching up grievances for the time being. An annual deficit, and an annual loan, must, ere long, bring on bankruptcy, unless the enormous property of the Church and the religious corporations be made to contribute to the emergencies of the State, which would be only an act of justice, when it is considered that the salaries of the cardinals, merely as ecclesiastical dignitaries, are paid out of the temporal purse of the public, instead of, as one would suppose, the fat benefices of the Church. Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London. THE PROTESTANT MAGAZINE. APRIL, 1855. THE MAYNOOTH COMMISSION REPORT. THIS Report is now published. It will disappoint the expectations of but very few, we are inclined to believe. For what was to be expected under a friendly Commission, limited in its extent, appointed by those who wished to defend Maynooth, and carried out by those who were its friends, and professors, and students, but that the Report should be on some points favourable? But the grand questions at issue have been evaded rather than fully investigated and decided; and the Report, with all the evidence, consisting of about 800 folio pages, does not present one single feature to reconcile Protestants to any longer continuance of the grant. It is not shown to be consistent either with sound principles or with true expediency, any more than it is with scriptural religion. In Mr. Lord's letters, given at another part of this periodical, will be found remarks on this important question. Arrangements are being made on an extensive scale to commence and carry forward a vigorous assault upon this stronghold of Popery in the British dominions, from which issue those who continually make inroads on the Protestantism of this country. It will be seen, on referring to the first of these letters, that twenty-four Roman Catholic priests brought up at Maynooth are now in England. That in the colonial and tributary dependencies of the British Empire there are dignified ecclesiastics, who have been brought up at Maynooth; amongst whom stands the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Calcutta. Thus the Protestants of England support a Church Missionary College, sending out missionaries to India and elsewhere, to bring men out from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God; and they do at the same time, most inconsistently, and so as to excite the surprise of friends and the triumphant ridicule of foes, support Maynooth, whose emissaries, wherever they go, are directly opposed to the Gospel of peace and salvation. We send out a Protestant VOL. XVII.-April, 1855. H New Series, No. 52. Bishop of Calcutta to advance the interests of Protestantism there; and we educate at Maynooth a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Calcutta, to obstruct our own work and proceedings. Let. us, as a Church and people, hold fast to Christ Jesus, the Great Head of the Church, the only, but all-sufficient Saviour of sinners; then may we expect a greater blessing from above upon our country, our Church, our missionary and philanthropic labours. But we may rest assured of this, that as no fountain can send forth both sweet water and bitter, so no Church or people can, safely and consistently, protest against Popery on the one hand, and on the other contribute from the national exchequer, for the propagation of those errors against which it has so solemnly protested. THE DAY OF HUMILIATION. THE March number of this periodical contained some remarks on the above subject. Since then, a day has been appropriated for the nation to humble itself before the throne of the Most High, and supplicate from Him that aid which its own wisdom must ever be inadequate to supply. That day was in many respects well observed. From many a bereaved home, and from many a heart made desolate by the rude hand of war, there have ascended prayers and lamentations, we hope not unmingled, however, with hope, and adoring praise to Him who in wrath remembers mercy. Throughout the nation a cry has, we trust, gone up to Heaven, prompted by a sense of national dependance upon Almighty God, by a consciousness of having offended Him, and of having departed from that entire recognition of his holy Word and will, in compliance with which the true glory, the solid peace, and lasting prosperity of a nation can alone consist. It seems important we should still bear in mind :That during the last few years Ireland has been visited with the fearful scourges of blighted crops, famine, fever, and pestilence, frightfully diminishing the population of that country; that pestilence has visited England and Scotland; and that now, engaged in a gigantic war, our army, one more splendid than any which before left the shores of England, has been well nigh destroyed, and that, too, in a way and under circumstances in which no army ever was, and from causes which might have been foreseen and prevented; while many of our vessels engaged in the transport service have gone down with all their cargo, at a moment when the safe landing of their contents seemed essential to the comfort, nay, to the safety-the very lives of thousands of our brave soldiers. Must we not, considering these things, infer that the Sovereign Lord of the Universe is displeased, and has visited us with judgments, in order, we may hope, for our repentance and return to Him? Many evils pervade the land, provoking most justly his wrath and displeasure. But the one which seems to tower above them all, as constituting national sin, and illustrating national ingratitude, is the propagation and endowment of Popery. If as a Church and people professing to be followers of Christ Jesus, the great Head of the Church, the only, but all-sufficient Saviour of sinners, we at the same time continue to endow and teach the antichristian errors of the Papal apostasy, what can we expect, but that we partake of the displeasure of the Almighty, which Holy Scripture assures us will sooner or later visit backsliding and unrepenting communities, whether they be Churches or nations? PROTESTANT ACTION AS TO MAYNOOTH COLLEGE. A GREAT work devolves upon the Protestants of this country. It should be entered upon in an humble spirit of faith, of prayer, and of love. How else can the work of Christ Jesus, the great Head of the Church, be successfully carried on? The Protestant Committee appointed by the Conference are charged with the following amongst other duties: To summon an aggregate Meeting of Protestants from all parts of the country on the 17th of April. To endeavour to insure at such Meeting the presence of not less than three influential Protestants, appointed (if possible) at a public Meeting, from each constituency. We hope to see the whole movement on the question conducted on such an extended basis as to secure the co-operation of all sound-hearted Protestants through the whole land. The services of the existing Societies have been valuable, and will, through the Divine blessing, continue to be so; but, in a movement of this kind, wherein the whole energies of the country require, for the time, to be concentrated upon one point, a new centre of action from which to move, seems essential; the movement, however, still being carried on in perfect harmony with existing Associations. Though many Romish questions are before us, a certain primary work is to be done that is, the repeal of the Maynooth Endowment Act of 1845. This, it is generally felt, should have precedence of other subjects. Other Societies, while expressing their sense of the importance of the work thus undertaken, and without any departure from |