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obviated. But if this simple mode of procedure had been adopted, ministers must have foregone a most prolific source of Radical patronage. Such an excellent rider upon that other iniquitous whig measure, the Poor-law Bastile Bill, presented an admirable opportunity to darken heaven with a fresh flight of desolating commissioners. What the locust left was to be devoured by the palmer worm; and meanwhile Government looked on, irresponsible for their deeds, and unimpeached for their appointment. It only remains to add, that according to the provisions of the law as it stands, there is a noteworthy distinction between the celebration of marriages in licensed chapels and the parish church; the former is recognised simply as a civil contract, the legal ceremony being performed, to all intents and purposes, by the registrar, without whose presence it would not be valid. In the Church, on the other hand, the civil registrar cannot intercede, the marriage being solemnized by the officiating clergyman; and the fact of its being accompanied by sacred rites constitutes its validity. Government was well aware that in the metropolis, and indeed most of the large towns, the income of the clergy depends in a great measure upon fees and presents at marriages, small charges for registration (which, however, we earnestly recommend henceforth to be universally dropped), burial fees, and the charge for issuing certificate of the above. There is, however, no compensation allowed for the loss of these, consequent on the new Acts, and the starting of cemetery companies, which will cause many marriages, baptisms, and burials, to be withdrawn from the Church. Clergymen are saddled with additional, and most obnoxious obligations, at the same time that their remuneration is to be sensibly affected; whilst dissenters of every variety of denomination may celebrate the humiliation of the Establishment, albeit that in other respects they profit little by their triumph.

IRISH PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION.

On the last day in August there occurred a great meeting in Belfast, with the object of establishing a Protestant society based on the same principles as those adopted by the associations of Liverpool, Glasgow, &c. It was a most respectable and influential assemblage, summoned in consequence of the necessity imposed upon Protestants to unite in defence of the rights which are now openly assailed throughout the empire. We wish that the example thus set could be generally followed. It is high time that all subjects of the United Kingdom should interpose to save from subversion the institutions bequeathed to us by our pious forefathers. And we know of nothing better calculated to further, and indeed accomplish, this end than the formation of Protestant Associations in the principal towns and cities. If the

Reformation was worth achieving-if it be worth having-it is worth our making a struggle to retain it: if the purity of christian doctrine was worth dying for three hundred years gone by, it is certainly worth our defending to the last gasp in these days, when Popery is once more in the ascendant. If the bishop of Rome's usurpation of authority within the realm of England was an evil to be cast off at every peril, it remains an evil to be kept off by every lawful and righteous means. And if Romish usurpation was rejected, and the purity of the christian truth vindicated, and the Reformation achieved, by the instrumentality of the faithful and determined and persevering efforts of our fathers, all these inestimable blessings can only be maintained by the instrumentality of similar faithfulness and determination and perseverance by ourselves. The Romish system hath ever been, and will ever continue to be, a system of aggression. Its aim is universal spiritual despotism, and, virtually at least, universal temporal dominion. Its blasphemous perversion of prophecy is,"The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of the Pope and of his church."

"We have scotched the snake, not killed it."

The slime of the venemous reptile is over us; and, bruised and torpid as it appeared, it is now fast recovering its pristine vigour, and preparing to sting to the heart its too confiding benefactor; and all the while the thing seemed tame, and even caressing. We have tolerated Popery, not extirpated it; and, however for a season checked in its career, it has never for an instant lost sight of its lofty pretensions and ambitious views. For the final accomplishment of this cherished design, the church of Rome would sacrifice all moral and religious considerations. Political circumstances, as they successively arise, are made to subserve her ends the tenets most dear to her nature, and constituting, so to speak, her essential attribute, are waived whenever it suits her purpose. She has a means of compounding with her instincts; and they tend to the subjugation of the human mind to one de grading and unchristian level. But the principle which secretly actuates her as a church is never dissolved, though, to serve her politic ends, she may give it a long prorogation. Whether she reach at a projected good by the road of some moral purgatory, or pursue virtuous courses as a blind to some horrible catastrophe, depends entirely upon circumstances. Therefore is it that the church of Rome, waiting for favourable opportunities, is prepared to accommodate itself to every alliance to every association→→→ to every polity, however naturally repulsive to her principles. Whatever is conceived to hasten the advent of that universal supremacy, which the church has never for an hour lost sight of, takes the character of an imperative obligation. The inquisition or liberalism-secret societies, such as that of Ribbonism, or the

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phrenetic fire of schism-absolutism or republicanism, are one and all taken into league. For it is an axiom with Romanism,that rock on which her institutions rest, that pivot on which her policy revolves, that it matters not what are the means, so that they be justified by the end:-and what end can be more sacred in her eyes than the exaltation of the church of Rome on the ruins of morality and religion?

It is a fact proved by documentary evidence, which cannot be gainsaid, and which has been plainly and repeatedly laid before this nation, that the archbishops and bishops of the church of Rome in Ireland have solemnly disclaimed on oath, before the Imperial Parliament and Protestant England, doctrines which they were at the very time, and had been for many years, circulating with authority amongst the priests, and through their agency amongst the people of distracted and benighted Ireland.

In illustration of this truth,-namely, the Jesuitical combination of public denial and secret propagandism,-it was proved amongst other instances at the meeting, that the works of Bellarmine are being taught quietly to the priests, whilst his doctrines are loudly and solemnly abjured by the titular bishops. Now, is it not obvious, that against a system which scruples not to resort to subterfuges so vile, the means of defence ordinary to men of integrity and truth can never be effectual? Accordingly we find, that, so far as regards the British empire, progressive success has attended the machination of the system. The time has arrived, when, if England be not roused to suspicion, investigation, and, as a necessary consequence, to vigorous action, she must look to fall the dupe of Romish casuistry and falsehood.

With the view of averting this ruin, we 'call the attention of the public to the formation of the Association in Belfast; and earnestly recommend, that similar societies be instituted elsewhere, for the examination of documents, and the dissemination of facts. The Protestants of England, Scotland, and Ireland should be roused by the true state of the case being made known-so that at all events we no longer proceed with our eyes blinded. God forbid that the country should renounce the Protestant faith! but if such be her determination, let her act boldly in rivetting her chains,--not walk blindfold, and in dogged indifference, to the stake. The supineness which has hitherto prevailed, arises mainly from an opinion, that what happened three centuries ago is unlikely to occur again,-in fact, is out of the question in this enlightened era. We are told that the Pope is an old woman, and that the bulls of the Vatican are innocuous in his hands. In reply, we beg to inform our countrymen, not before alive to the fact, that conversion to Popery is proceeding with rapid strides all over the kingdom-that the fascination of that faith involves the prostration of the human intellect: and the offence to Heaven has ever been punished by earthly retri

NO. IV.-VOL. II.

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bution. France is no example of political strength in a nation being compatible with the existence of the Roman-catholic faith. Whatever religion there is in France, is Protestant. It is to Italy, and to the three provinces of Ireland we must look, if we would behold Popery in its rank luxuriance. Would Englishmen wish to be like Italian slaves and sensualists-the only growth that dwindles in the land of the Cæsars-or Irish slaves and anarchists-with the curse of Cain upon them, acting through policy and upon system the barbarities of Torres Straits, and surpassing their prototypes in their ingenuity of torture? Yet such would seem to be the inevitable consequence of Rome being permitted to impose her shackles on a people without resistance. In the strength of Satan, which is atheism and infidelity, there is no doubt, that a state with Romish institutions might acquire a vigorous growth, albeit of little worth in the eye of the righteous statesman; but pure defecated Popery, uninformed by the spirit of infidelity, with no intoxicating ingredient to impart an apparent strength, is necessarily destructive to the political importance of a kingdom. The spell, in all its power, may perhaps be shaken off by a patriotic and unsuperstitious people; as English history demonstrates, long anterior to the Reformation; or it may not have a deleterious influence, in consequence of there being no purchase on the national mind, owing to a deplorable absence of all feelings of devotion;-of which the annals of France for the last century are an instance. But when the system is allowed full swing, Popery and servitude are identical evils, as the most self-sufficient Radical-plus sage que sages, as the comedian has happily expressed it,-who voted for the ex-member for Middlesex would find to his cost, if the Jesuits who now swarm in the British Isles are suffered to encroach much further, and bring their incomparable machinery a little more into operation.

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As nuclei, around which the Protestant strength of the empire might rally, Associations, such as that lately formed at Belfast, cannot but be productive of good, if only in putting the public on their guard against the rapid but insidious inroad of Romanism on the land.

We trust that other places will immediately follow so admirable an example, until the sound portion of the empire be roused as one man to the defence of what should be dearer to them than their lives,--the religion and the liberty bequeathed them by their forefathers.

THE RIBBONITE CONSPIRACY.

WE have perused, with considerable interest, a series of articles which have lately appeared in an evening journal, whose mode of handling a difficult subject has long been as much to our taste as its rectilinear politics; so much so, that we cannot

but believe, that after contemporary affairs shall cease to interest, "The Standard" will again and again be resorted to by all good judges, as furnishing a model of that idiomatic, facile, and masculine style, peculiarly adapted to a diurnal newspaper.

The articles which have attracted our attention relate to the fact of a wide-spread and unfathomed conspiracy having for nearly half a century been in existence in the sister kingdom; and the circumstance is most ably brought to bear on certain dark passages in Irish history, and to untie many knotty problems, which have ever been felt hard to unravel, in the condition of the unhappy Irish. By the evidence of witnesses free from exception, it would appear, that, at all events since the year 1791, there has existed in Ireland a conspiracy for the severance of the empire, and the extirpation of Protestants. This is demonstrated by the evidence of Wolfe Tone-of Plowden-of the witnesses upon Keenan's trial-of Mr. Daniel O'Connell, before a committee of the House of Commons, and elsewhere. All go to prove the existence, the universal diffusion, the extent, as well as the treasonable and murderous character, of this conspiracy.

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The Standard shows, by the evidence of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the existence of the "Ribbon" conspiracy to have been almost co-extensive with the Roman-catholic population forty-six years ago; by the evidence of Plowden, that about forty years ago it had assumed a complete military organization. The history of Emmett's Rebellion, originating in "a conspiracy of unfathomed depth," as it has been called, and truly called, proves that in 1803 the plot was alive and active in undiminished power. evidence upon Keenan's trial shows, that the conspiracy continued to flourish vigorously in 1822. By the evidence of Mr. O'Connell it is clear, that it existed to a very great extent in 1825: according to Mr. O'Connell's charge against Mr. Gorman O'Mahon, it existed in 1830. The Standard shows, by the mandate of Dr. Curtis, treating ribbonism as a reserved sin, and by the consequences of that mandate, that the conspiracy had not retrograded in 1832;-also by the evidence of a Ribbon-man, sworn before a magistrate, whose name is given, that nine out of ten of the Roman-catholic population were sworn Ribbon-men so late as the year 1834. By the same evidence, that at least two Romancatholic members of the House of Commons were sworn Ribbonmen; and that the affectation of discountenancing ribbonism by these persons, and by the Roman-catholic clergy, was resorted to merely for the purpose of fraud. By the evidence of Lord Gosford, a Whig, it is proved, that about the same time, the Ribbonmen were in the habit of parading, armed, in vast bodies, by night. By the evidence of Mr. Wyse, that on one day a million of Roman Catholics (he says a million and a half, but that is an evident exaggeration) assembled simultaneously at a signal from Dublin. By the evidence of Mr. O'Connell, that in 1835 there were forty

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