ments were not carried into effect, was on the one side intolerance on the part of Parliament, and on the other side they were very inefficient, so long as they were not carried into effect. Whether Parliament ought not to repeal that part of the law which related to monastic orders altogether, or whether they should take the same securities which they required from Protestant Dissenters, and enact that those houses should be registered and visited, he was not then prepared to say. But this question of religious orders was a great question, because it had been seen what results in various parts of the world the residence of these religious orders had led to, not because they had employed themselves in the practice of religious virtues, but because they had made themselves religious bodies interfering in the affairs of State."

In the prospect of an approaching general election, it is the duty of Protestants to be prepared to stand firm to their principles-to be determined to return men who will vote in favour of the principles of eternal truth-the principles of the Bible.

Human policy may vary; that word changes not.

Human wisdom may err; that alone is truth without any mixture of error.

To the late and present movements in favour of Popery, we may apply the following language; placing only the Roman Catholic for the Puritanical Members of Parliament, and venturing to express our hope that Protestant statesmen will derive from it a lesson of practical wisdom.

"The party were not disheartened, though their measures were sometimes defeated in the Commons, and sometimes rejected in the Lords. As the slightest introduction of morbific matter into the human system suffices to induce disease or death, so, when destructive opinions are once avowed in a legislative body, they continue to work till the crisis is produced; the very strength of evil consisting in its restlessness and activity. The Puritanical Members were always at their post, always alert, and on the watch for every occasion; their opponents too often absented themselves from the House, wearied by pertinacity, or disgusted by violence; many fatally persuaded themselves that their individual presence could contribute little to the preservation of Government, but advantage was taken of their absence to carry the most mischievous questions. Thus a handful of determined voters, first by address and vigilance, then by intimidation and the help of the mob, succeeded in making Parliament speak their language, and many of the best and noblest Members sacrificed at last their fortunes and their lives, defending unsuccessfully in the field, that cause which, if they had never relaxed from their duty in the Senate,

* See Article in January No. of the "Protestant Magazine," on the approaching elections.

would never have been brought to the decision of arms." -Southey's Book of the Church.

Oh! that our Protestant senators would take warning from this too true, and melancholy picture; would that the electors throughout the empire would take warning from it; that our hierarchy, and every member of the Church, would be admonished by it. This applies equally in principle to elections. The blessings of Providence are not promised to the slothful. Popery we have a powerful antagonist.

In

It is a grand system, or rather a great conspiracy against the freedom and happiness of men and nations. It arrogates to itself almost an entire dominion over him and his property, from the cradle to the grave; nor leaves him there. It seeks to penetrate the eternal world, and by professing to have a control over the ideal sufferings of a middle state, would persuade, or intimidate men to part with the whole of their goods in this world to the priesthood, to buy off the penalties of the world to come. No rank, no grade of life, is free from its insidious approach, its tyrannical rule. It commences with infancy. In the dawn of early life, it is associated with the heart's first feelings, and like other superstitions impresses a stamp upon the mind which succeeding events cannot obliterate, and nothing short of the intervention of Almighty grace can remove.

Speaking of the influence of the priests, how early it is acquired, how closely it applies, and how durably it lasts, a modern writer thus proceeds, as to the influence of priests upon marriage :— *

"What an advantage has he in being able to take her quite young in the convent, where they have placed her, to be the first to take in hand her young soul, and to be the first to exercise upon her the earliest severity and also the earliest indulgence, which is so akin to affectionate tenderness, to be the father and friend of a child taken so soon from her mother's arms. The confidant of her first thoughts will long be associated with her private reveries. He has had an especial and singular privilege which the husband may envy. What? Why, the virginity of the soul and the first fruits of the will.

This is the man, of whom, young bachelors, you must ask the girl in marriage before you speak to her parents. Do not deceive yourselves, or you will lose all chance. You shake your heads, proud children of the age; you think you can never be induced to humble yourselves thus far. All I hope then is, that you may be able to live single, and wed philosophy. Otherwise, I can see you even now, in spite of all your fine speeches, gliding stealthily, sneaking like a hound or a wolf into the church and kneeling down before the priest. There they were lying in wait for you, and there they catch you. You had not foreseen it. Now you are a lover, poor young man, and

* See Michelet's work, "Priests, Women, and Families," page 232.

*

will do whatever they wish. I only wish that this girl bought so dearly may be really yours. But what with that mother and that priest the same influence though diminished for a moment, will soon receive its strength. You will have a wife minus heart and soul, and you will understand, when too late, that he who now gives her away, knows well how to keep her. "*

Pompous in external ceremonies, but destitute of intrinsic good, the Church of Rome would allure to her standard, the admirers of theatrical effect. But it is no easy yoke which she imposes on her followers. It is not the less severe for being spiritual.

The power spoken of is not ideal, it is positive, actual power, descending to the minute transactions of private life, dictating the terms on which social intercourse shall be carried on.

We read, as follows, in a letter from Lucerne, of the 28th ult.:

"A new infraction of the treaties in force between France and Switzerland, has just taken place here. M. Jacques Erhard, a young French merchant, established in this town, being on the point of marrying a young lady of one of the first families of the place, applied to the curé to celebrate the marriage. The latter refused, unless M. Erhard and the young lady for some time went through certain religious observances of an exceedingly rigorous character. This M. Erhard refused to comply with, and, proceeding to Strasburg, his native town, he had the civil marriage effected by the mayor, and the newly-married couple immediately returned to Lucerne. The day after their arrival, the director of the police sent a letter to M. Erhard, calling on him, as the civil marriage was not recognized in Switzerland, and contrary to the manners of the people, to get himself married in the church. M. Erhard at once applied to the curé to officiate, but this ecclesiastic replied, that he should still impose the same conditions as before, adding another, 'that the newly-married couple should separate altogether until they had received the nuptial benediction.' M. Erhard refused, and declared that, such being the case, he should renounce the idea of being married in church. Some days after he received another notice from the director of police, that, unless he was married in the church, he would be expelled from Lucerne. M. Erhard, in his turn, signified to the head of the police that he was a French citizen, and that, by existing treaties, he was entitled to reside in Switzerland, without being restrained in any way in his religious belief or observances.

Let us add to this chapter a fact which (being compared with what we have said about ecclesiastical discipline, page 203) inclines us to think that the clergy do not lose sight of the girls who are brought up in the convents under their direction. A friend of mine, whose high position and character, render his testimony very important, lately told me that having placed a young relative of his in a convent, he had heard from the nuns, that they sent to Rome the names of the pupils who distinguished themselves the most. The centralization of such private information about the daughters of the leading families of the Catholic world must indeed facilitate many combinations, and be of especial service to Ultramontane politics. The Jesù if it were so would be a vast marriage office.

The director of the police having maintained his decision, M. Erhard has addressed a complaint to the French Ambassador at Berne."Morning Herald, Feb. 5, 1846.

We see, then, sufficient in each of the three Bills to cause apprehension in the minds of Protestants. The practical operations of Popery, in ancient and modern times, call upon us to be wise and careful, nor rashly to remove what the Church of Rome may call penalties, but which we must ever regard as securities essential to protect ourselves from the full development of her system in our country.

On the various important points in this article we are prevented from now saying more. Enough has been said to call attention to the subjects. We have adduced facts in support of our assertions-facts collected from a variety of quarters.

We must here leave our readers to make their own comments. With reference to the Bills before Parliament, we would call upon all, to make themselves well acquainted with their nature, and to petition against their being passed into law.

It may be that Her Majesty's Government will not give their entire support to these measures. But will they, or those who may succeed them, present a strenuous opposition? Will they, as the Ministers of the Crown, as the confidential advisers of Her Majesty, point out the impolicy, the danger, the ruinous tendency of such measures?

Will they, as those to whom, by long-established practice, the people of Great Britain have been accustomed to look up, as the guardians and protectors of their rights and liberties, see that these invaluable blessings are not trampled in the dust?

Yes, they will, if the electors of the United Kingdom, and all right-minded men, resolve at once to shake off the incubus of Popery, which has been so long depressing the energies of our country.

They have the power, if they have the will to do it.

What forced on Catholic Emancipation, as it was erroneously termed? What the Reform Bill? What the Emancipation of Slaves? What the present efforts to repeal the Corn-laws and protective duties?

What but opinion abused, erroneous, misled, in some instances, and despised in all; till, like smouldering fire, gathering strength from being neglected, it melted, and consumed by its intensity, every element of opposition.

Each evil principle seems now rapidly in motion for the accomplishment of its evil purpose, and every antagonistic power in the cause of virtue, good order, and religion,-evoked from their long slumber, should be wisely, rapidly, resolutely marshalled in defence of all that we hold dear for timeprecious for eternity.

HISTORICAL MEMORANDA OF POPERY.

No. V. CASE OF PROTESTant MartyrS UNDER HENRY VIII.

May there be any hope that these two Churches shall at any time agree, enter friendship one with another, and shake hands together? Sooner shall hell be heaven, darkness light, Christ Belial, than this thing shall come to pass. Therefore, as there hath been always from the beginning, so is there now and ever shall be, perpetual contention between the Church of Christ and the synagogue of Satan, neither shall it have any end till that time come when there shall be one Shepherd and one sheepfold; again, when the Lord with His glorious appearance at the great day of judgment shall destroy that son of perdition, which is the head of the synagogue of Satan, and sitteth in the temple of God, boasting himself to be God."-THOMAS BECON.

"As the conflict grows in its earnestness, let us apply more earnestly to that Divine Armoury, where the weapons are provided for the overthrow of the Christian Babylon; and above all, to that throne of grace, where we may obtain strength for our own duty in the battle-field, and pardon and deliverance for those who are led astray."-REV. T. R. BIRKS.

THE state of affairs in the reign of Henry VIII. was naturally unsettled and vacillating, since the monarch was opposed both to the Papacy as such, and to the Reformed Faith. Protestants have no occasion to lay any claim to this godless king; he was no more one of themselves than Pope Leo X. himself: and the historical cajolings and literary glosses about "bluff Harry," serve a miserable end, if they lead any to suppose that he was a lion-hearted crusader against Rome. He was as malign and dark-minded a persecutor as the cowled inquisitor that had the "bad eminence" of chief craft among his Antichristian fellows; he was as fierce an opposer of Evangelical truth as the ravening herds of ultramontane Popery. Assuredly he had no part or lot in the matter of defending God's resurrection truths of the 16th century; but, on the contrary, fulfilled his part as an enemy to their holy theme by loving darkness rather than light, because his deeds and doctrine were alike evil. He was one of those unruly vain talkers and deceivers that gave heed to the commandments of men which turn from the truth; and bitterly did he calumniate by his pen, and crush by his regal power, the peculiar people that were zealous of good works.

In what then did this prince acquire the celebrity of speeding, and materially speeding, the Reformation in England? Simply by his personal opposition to the Papal supremacy. And thisnot, we undoubtedly believe, from any patriotic and soundjudging opinion that the Bishop of Rome is a self-constituted lord over God's heritage, and that, according alike to scriptural doctrine and primitive usage, he hath not nor ought to have any