THE

PROTESTANT MAGAZINE.

JANUARY, 1855.

THE QUEEN'S SPEECH, AND THE WAR.

THE events of the war have rendered the meeting of Parliament necessary at an earlier period than had been expected. With much glory there has been also much disaster in the Crimea. The losses and suffering have been far beyond the ordinary casualties of so short a war, and there appears to be every prospect of a long-continued, stubborn defence, and of great losses of men by battle, by famine, or by disease.

Under the deeply painful, solemn, and impressive events, which attend on some very brilliant achievements since Parliament last sat, we should have felt more gratified if Her Majesty's advisers had imparted to the Royal Speech some more direct reference to the Almighty in vouchsafing us so far blessings upon our arms.

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Parliament was opened on Tuesday, December 12, by Her Majesty in person. "The occasion," says the "Britannia,' was one of surpassing interest, as the session commences at this unusual period of the year in consequence of the bloody and protracted war in which we are engaged with the autocrat of half Europe. The crowd assembled to witness the procession out of doors was, in consequence, enormous; and, in the interior, the Strangers' gallery, as well as the side galleries, were crowded with ladies. Her Majesty, accompanied by the Prince Consort, and preceded by the heralds, pursuivants, and great officers of State, entered the House about a quarter past two o'clock; when the Lord Chancellor ordered Sir Augustus Clifford to summon the House of Commons to the bar. In a few minutes, the Speaker, with Lord John Russell on his right, and a whole posse of Members, poured into the House; the Lord Chancellor, then kneeling, presented the Speech to Her Majesty, who read it in her usual clear and distinct manner as follows:

"MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

"I have called you together at this unusual period of the year, in order that, by your assistance, I may take such measures as will enable me to prosecute the great war in which we are engaged with the utmost vigour and effect. This assistance I know will be readily given; for I cannot doubt that you share my conviction of the necessity of sparing no effort to augment my forces now engaged in the VOL. XVII.-January, 1855. B New Series, No. 49.

TIMES

Crimea. The exertions they have made, and the victories they have obtained, are not exceeded in the brightest pages of our history, and have filled me with admiration and gratitude.

The hearty and efficient co-operation of the brave troops of my ally, the Emperor of the French, and the glory acquired in common, cannot fail to cement still more closely the union which happily exists between the two nations.

"It is with satisfaction I inform you that, together with the Emperor of the French, I have concluded a treaty of alliance with the Emperor of Austria, from which I anticipate important advantages to

the common cause.

"I have also concluded a treaty with the United States of America, by which subjects of long and difficult discussion have been equitably adjusted.

"These treaties will be laid before you.

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Although the prosecution of the war will naturally engage your chief attention, I trust that other matters of great interest and importance to the general welfare will not be neglected.

"I rejoice to observe that the general prosperity of my subjects remains uninterrupted. The state of the revenue affords me entire satisfaction; and I trust that by your wisdom and prudence you will continue to promote the progress of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures.

“GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

"In the estimates which will be presented to you I trust you will find that ample provision has been made for the exigencies of the public service.

"MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

"I rely with confidence on your patriotism and public spirit. I feel assured that in the momentous contest in which we are engaged you will exhibit to the world the example of a united people. Thus shall we obtain the respect of other nations, and may trust that by the blessing of God we shall bring the war to a successful termination.'

"Immediately after the reading of the Speech Her Majesty rose and quitted the House, and the brilliant assemblage broke up. The whole ceremony did not last more than five minutes.

"Their Lordships having adjourned during pleasure, re-assembled at five o'clock. Most of the Ministers were present, and the Opposition benches were also unusually full, all the leaders on both sides being in attendance. The galleries were thronged with ladies, and the whole space in front of the throne and behind the woolsack, which, by courtesy, is supposed to be without the House,' was occupied by Members of the House of Commons and other strangers."

THE "TIMES" AND THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER SERVICE.OUR ARMY IN THE CRIMEA.

OUR readers may not at first see any degree of connexion between the subjects which form the above heading. The Fifth

of November and the Crimea! Where is the connecting link? It is in Popery. But did Romish and Protestant soldiers never before fight under the same banner? Had the British army never any Roman Catholics in it till the battles of Alma and of Inkermann? Are we not, indeed, well aware that the victories gained by Wellington were gained through the joint efforts of Protestant and Roman Catholic soldiers?

No doubt we are; but such facts were never before urged as reasons for the non-observance of the fifth of November. Nor was the observance of that day ever supposed to imply any censure on the Roman Catholic soldiers, as if they had been some of the individuals concerned in the fifth of November plot of 1605!

No! The Act was passed at the time the great national deliverance was vouchsafed; the service was compiled as a memorial of national no less than of individual gratitude to Almighty God, and the day was enjoined always to be observed, in order to keep alive and to perpetuate a sense of the goodness of the Lord, and to caution posterity against the dangers to be apprehended from trusting to the promises and professions of Rome.

This seems to have been a course at once natural, proper, scriptural. Something of the same kind was enjoined upon the Jews after their deliverance from Egypt,-not, indeed, as a matter of triumph over their enemies, but to remind them of the miraculous intervention by which they had been rescued from the hands of those who had enslaved them, and to encourage a feeling of confidence for the future in the power, providence, and goodness of God, who had so wondrously wrought out their deliverance. On turning to the holy book in which the solemn event is so impressively recorded, and its perpetual remembrance enjoined, we find the following words :—

"And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you? Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand: and the Lord shewed signs and wonders, great, and sore upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes and He brought us out from thence, that He might bring us in, to give us the land which He sware unto our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us.' (Deut. vi. 20 to the end.)

Why, if all Scripture be not only given "by the inspiration of God," but written also for our instruction, are we to dis

believe the event recorded, or to disregard the moral, the instruction to be derived from it?

Yet of late, owing to the pseudo-liberality of the age, letters have been admitted into the leading journal of the day against the future observance of the fifth of November.

One Correspondent, with the inappropriate signature of Memor, writes to encourage, if not to enjoin, oblivion and forgetfulness. Possibly there were men of that class amongst the Jews of old, who also encouraged forgetfulness, and many, too, who approved of it; but such forgetfulness was their ruin. We, too, may forget, but it will be to our detriment, and may be to our ruin. Towards the individual Romanists, indeed, we bear no ill-will, but of the system of Popery, taught by experience, we must be on our guard.

"Memor" writes in his letter of the 5th of Dec. as follows:"That, by authority of Parliament, language of the most insulting character and prayers of the most rancorous conception and unchristian feeling were uttered in our churches against our Roman Catholic brethren at the very time when they were pouring out their lifeblood for Protestant England and falling side by side with their Protestant comrades, to be buried in the same graves and covered for ever with the same earth."

One would almost suppose that this was being done by some recent Act of Parliament, and that the Romanists in the army of the Crimea were the special objects of it. The writer proceeds :

"Yes, Sir, at that very time (by order of Parliament) ministers of our Church were calling upon God 'to scatter our enemies that delight in blood;' and yet, not meaning the Russians, and I will not say whom. Even then, when the battle was fiercest, were they invoking the Almighty to strengthen the hands of our Sovereign, not against the power of a vindictive foe, but 'to cut off all such workers of iniquity as turn religion into rebellion and faith into faction 'meaning, if any one were meant, some of, and it may be all, those gallant spirits who were first and foremost to prove that the hour of England's peril was, indeed, their noble opportunity for showing how true their loyalty, how chivalrous their honour, how unfaltering their sense of duty."

If it were not for the solemnity of the subject, this absurd distortion of language would almost create a smile. Reference is here made to all of any creed or country who may plot or do, as those men plotted and did on the occasion mentioned. Yet all of a sudden "Memor," whoever he may be, appears thrown into a state of alarm, and thinks it "enough to bring a judgment upon us," and therefore he urges a repeal of the Act of Parliament. He thus expresses himself :

"And yet, unless Parliament interferes and repeals its own Act, the impious prayers (for impious they really are) will again be