one Protestant Episcopal Church, to be called the United Church of England and Ireland; and the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the said United Church, shall be and shall remain in full force for ever, as the same are now by law established for the Church of England; and the continuance and preservation of the said United Church as the Established Church of England and Ireland shall be deemed and taken to be AN ESSENTIAL AND FUNDAMENTAL PART OF THE UNION." In 1833 the United Church was, by legislative enactment, treated as two; ten Irish bishops were cashiered; their revenues were applied, among other objects, to the relief of Papists from vestry cess; and the Popish party, who had supported the bill from the first, opposed it at last, only because ministers could not do what they ardently wished, and had even promised, to do-confiscate a portion of the Church's property to secular, or more properly, Popish uses. Since that time, Popery, with her menials, Infidelity and Schism, has been incessantly at work; a commission was actually obtained to number the Protestants of Ireland for confiscation and proscription; but O'Connell will not now permit his vassals to wait for the report of their own commission; he has issued orders to them to gulp their words without delay-and the command has been promptly obeyed. Accordingly, Lord John Russell, Mr. O'Connell's overseer of parliamentary slaves, moves a resolution affirming the right of the House of Commons to rob the Church of Ireland-to endow Popery with the spoils of Protestantism. And now let us mark the result. When Sir Robert Peel introduced the wretched measure of 1829, he appended an oath to be taken by Roman Catholics, which, he said, gave every security that an oath could give. True; but the amount of that security we predicted, and here it is. FORTY PAPISTS, in the very face of that oath, voted for Lord John Russell's resolution! Yes, in six years from the enactment of that fatal measure, the Popish bill, forty Papists are in the House of Commons! and these forty are strong enough to eject the ministry! For be it remembered that Sir Robert Peel, during his late administration, has enjoyed a British majority on every question. The Irish Popish party now literally commands the House of Commons-and the Minister is sent out because he will not consent to ratify the violation of the Union ;-because he will not consent to commit an act of robbery in order that Protestantism may be depressed and Popery elevated. So much for the Anti-Popish securities so much for the paucity of Parliamentary Romanists. O most just retribution! Sir Robert Peel is hurled from office by the very party whom his unenglish policy raised to power! Do we exult in the event? No, indeed! none can more grievously deplore it. Whatever may have been Sir Robert's past errors, he has shewn himself resolved to spare no sacrifice to redeem their effects; he has

given up health, peace, and comfort for his country—and with him his country seemed to fall. We say, seemed; for we think we see indications that may sustain in us the old Roman hope-" Nunquam desperandum de Republicâ."

The question, however, is now fairly brought before us, whether we are to endow Irish Popery, or not. The British people, by the majorities they have given to Sir Robert Peel in the House of Commons, have recorded their opinion very decidedly—and this too with all the disadvantages resulting from the mob constituencies created by the Reform Bill. But Daniel O'Connell has willed otherwise! and it is for the people of Britain, and for the intelligence, loyalty, and piety of Ireland, to say whether both countries shall be at the mercy of a Popish adventurer. The men unhappily now in power, the dregs of all parties, can never combiné for good. As well might we expect good wholesome soup out of the weird sisters' cauldron, as a wise and healthful government from a decoction of Russell, Palmerston, and Spring Rice. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one." An administration like the present can only possess the abhorrence of every man who has the smallest tincture of regard for the religion, the honour, or the welfare of his country. With respect to his Majesty, he is unblamable; the Ministry is forced upon him by a faction which has wrested his prerogative from his hands. But, if any waver, let him consider for a moment, what that system is which it is proposed to endow in Ireland with the spoils of true and scriptural religion. We desire no stronger arguments against the establishment of Popery in Ireland than the facts which Mr. Croly has stated in its favour. Mr. C. argues that the absence of such endowment is the reason of the present scandalous state of the Irish Popish church. But we think this allegation ought to be proved with mathematical rigour, before an experiment so tremendous as the perpetuation of such a system is attempted and this we say, omitting altogether the obvious considerations of justice, which forbid the alienation of property without consent of the owner.

According to the statements of Dr. Croly, himself a Romanist, and a priest, (though an eminently enlightened one) the Romish priest in Ireland "keeps sporting dogs, controls elections, presides at political clubs;" will these objections subside before a government pension of 2001. or 300l. per annum? But then he also turns the most sacred and solemn rites of his religion into displays of cupidity and ferocity

and these, it is argued, would be got rid of by a legislative provision. We much doubt the fact-but, could we believe it, to what would it amount? Decency would not indeed be outraged, but would the Romish clergy be more spiritual or more pastoral? What but a premium for insolence and violence would be given, when the meek and apostolical ministers of Protestantism are starved according to law, while persons thus described by one of themselves (though one vastly superior in intelligence, learning, liberality, and candour, to the generality of his brethren) were, for the very reason of their godless outrages on sanctity and decency, rewarded with government pensions?

In the words of Britannicus,

Shall our brethren, who are suffering for the maintenance of our most sacred privileges, be left to contend alone, unsuccoured and unbefriended? Shall our fellow-citizens, whose obedience to the laws-loyalty to the King, and fidelity to their union with England, have never been called into question, be exposed without our sympathy and assistance, to injury and injustice? For no fault of theirs, but, avowedly, for the purpose of conciliating the Roman Catholic portion of the community, whose insubordination to the laws has become proverbial-whose disaffection has manifested itself, whenever occasion offered, in open and bloody insurrection, and whose treason to the empire is now avowed in openly advocating the Repeal of the Union. Are they to be surrendered to their enemies? Listen to the appeal of one of their eloquent advocates:-" Against enemies such as these, if we stand alone, we must fall: we must look abroad for allies; and shall we not find them in the sound, the constitutional, and the religious portion of the people of England,-the friends of religion, and order, and law-whose blood runs in our veins-whose fathers were our fathers-who kneel before the same altar, and worship the same God? Let us say to them: Look to the page of your own history: where were your calamities in which we did not sympathize-where were your dangers, that we were not at your side? Call to your presence our calumniators and foes; tell them to point out one occasion in that roll of history in which, during any period of English difficulty-any period of Irish suffering-the Irish Protestants abated in their affection, or wavered in their fidelity to the English people; tell them to take the map of their blood-stained country, and ask them to explain the deep crimson tinge of the three Catholic provinces, and account for the verdure of the green plains of Protestant Ulster, the country of maiden calendars and of white gloves, and of order, and loyalty, and lawask them is it reasonable to expect you to punish loyalty, and affection, and fidelity to yourselves, and to reward sedition, and insurrection, and murder? Under God, we have no assistance, but from our brethren in England."* Shall, then, we ask, the free and generous Protestants of Ireland be left to sink in shame and contempt? We do not believe that the spirit of Protestantism is yet so extinct in England. We do not believe, if sectarian violence has not impaired the vital functions of the heart, that such aggressions will be permitted; and we are still sanguine in the hope, that such a determined expression of mind will be shown throughout the Kingdom, as the evil Genius of the MOVEMENT will not be able to gainsay or resist.-P. 13.

We hope this appeal of our persecuted Irish brethren and their eloquent advocate will not be made to bloodless hearts in England. If

• Boyton.

practical measures be not immediately taken by those who constitute the real strength and intelligence of the people, -the empire is lost.

We may, perhaps, be accused of recommending the convocation as a panacea for all ecclesiastical diseases-and we do not deny that we are almost inclined to do so-this, at least, we think ;-that, if the convocation had subsisted in its legitimate operation to the present moment, the present position of our Church must have been very different indeed and we see no alternative between a return to the privileges of convocation, and the utter destruction of the Established Church. We are not prepared to say we would wish the convocation again to tax the clergy-although we think it was an evil day for the Church when that privilege was renounced. While convocation had a check on the royal purse-string, no Minister would have dared to suggest its virtual suppression; the voice of the Church must have been heard, and listened to. But we still say, let the laity petition earnestly, firmly, boldly, for the convocation. It is what the Church is entitled to; the absence of it is that leak in the good ship Ecclesia, which would sink her in the calmest weather, but, in the present boisterous state of the elements, must soon indeed prove her destruction.

As for the restriction of the spoliation system to Ireland, none can credit it for a moment. If there be any who profess themselves English Protestants, but who would neglect the defence of their injured Irish brethren on the selfish ground that the persecution will not return across the Irish sea, they are cherishing a fond delusion. There is no Irish Church distinct from the English; and it would be as reasonable to contend that a blow on the limb is no injury to the body, as that the stroke aimed at the Church in Ireland will have no effect on England. The Destructive prints, in the heyday of triumph, do not pretend to disguise the fact. Take the following from the Courier:

Those freeholders of Devonshire who shall vote against Lord John Russell, because he supports the principle that the Legislature may appropriate the property of the Church, will vote against the power of the Legislature to reduce the tithes of England below their present amount. If the Legislature must not take a shilling of that property-which is what the Tories contend for- how is it possible that the Legislature can shorten the claims of the tithe owners in England? We hope that the farmers and freeholders of Devonshire will be made aware of this fact in time, and be sensible that in voting for the Tory dogma as to Church property, and in veting for Lord John Russell's opponent, they are voting, in fact, in favour of clerical tithes in England.

The Examiner speaks out no less clearly:

The Establishment must be put down by law, or the people will put it down

BY METHODS WHICH LAW DOES NOT SANCTION, BUT IS UNAVAILING TO PREVENT.

No measure, short of ABOLITION, will meet the popular demand. The grievance of the Establishment is not that it exists in this shape, or after that fashion, but THAT IT EXISTS IN ANY SHAPE, OR AFTER ANY FASHION- in a word, ITS

being is its crIME. (!) Into No shape can it be modelled, in which it would not continue to affront reason and shock the first principles of the science of government. Too much has been said of its unchristian affluence, and too little of its immoral nature. The nature of spoliation depends not upon the quantity of booty the robber decamps with; a farthing unjustly acquired, violates morals as much as a plum. No reduction, therefore, of the wealth of the Church Establishment in Ireland would remedy this vice of the institution. Were its revenues pared down to A SIXPENCE PER ANNUM that sixpence remaining a charge upon a Catholic population for the benefit of a Protestant hierarchy and priesthood-the moral objection would remain also; the Church would be no whit less radically dishonest than it is at presert, with all its pristine opulence in its coffers.

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And will Churchmen, will men who have any thing at stake, wilfully blind themselves after all this?-Will they talk of "conciliating" the enemies of the Church? "Its BEING is its crime!" Yes-the crime of the Church is that it has yet a sixpence per annum" ungrasped by Popish and schismatical rapacity. And, humorously enough, we have the highwayman charging his intended victim with "robbery." Every body knows that Protestant estates pay the great aggregate of tithe— and everybody ought to know that, properly speaking, the holders of those estates are rather trustees for the payment of tithe than actual payers-and do, in truth, no more pay tithe than an executor pays a legacy. And, further, these very persons who are so exceedingly squeamish about the dishonesty of Papists paying a Protestant priesthood, make no scruple to recommend the taxation of his Majesty's Protestant subjects to support a Popish priesthood. But it is in vain to track the doublings of dissent.

Nothing under Providence can save this devoted country from a revolution equally extensive, and perhaps not less sanguinary, than that which first overthrew the dynasty of the Bourbons, except a clear knowledge of our enemies and our dangers, and a firm, united, uncompromising, energetic resistance to both. All temporizing, all negociating, is fatal. We are in the Thermopyla; if there are no traitors amongst us, we shall yet overthrow the tyrant and the slave.

"This England never did, nor ever shall,

Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,

But when she first did help to wound herself.

nought shall make us rue

If England to herself do rest but true."