The vigilant and severe scrutiny of adversaries has been upon them, and the slightest deviation from propriety has not passed unnoticed. We rejoice that this has been so, but surely it is not unreasonable that we should claim of the impartial and the favorably disposed, that they will look to the result of the scrutiny which our enemies have conducted, and give us the benefit of it. Wherever offence has been brought to light, let the offender meet his deserts-but let the Church of England have its deserts too, if a jealous and malignant enquiry into its character and conduct can find nothing censurable, on which its ministers of every degree have not proved themselves ready and forward to bring down merited condemnation. The persecuted clergy of the established church in Ireland (I may speak of them, for I have not shared in their afflictions) have had, so far as testimony to their worth could bestow it, many a comfort in their affliction. And yet, although compliments have mingled with the condolence offered by parliamentary committees-although confessions of desert have been extorted from enemies-although those who are among the noblest of our noblest rivals have given praise, and we must for ever retain in grateful remembrance the generous panegyrics of Dr. Chalmers and Dr. Cooke-yet, were I allowed to submit the case of the church to a jury of twelve honest men-I would reserve for the private congratulation of friends-the testimony which it might seem that friends had borne-and I would submit, as the only evidence on our behalf which I held it necessary to adduce, the accusations of our most malevolent enemies.

But irreproachable conduct is not now recognized as a ground for claiming protection. The aspect of suffering seems to have awakened sympathies with the persecutor, not the injured; and, as if a contagion of wrong-doing had passed from the lawless to those by whom law should be upheld and administered, sworn advisers of the British Sovereign strive to conciliate the enemies of British connexion, and therefore the enemies of that church which is its stay; not by convincing them that their hostile efforts are unjust and vain, and causing them to know that they are perilous and discreditable, but by co-operating with them in projects which begin with threatening the church, and which, if successful in the

first attempt, will end in the dismemberment of the empire. I will not detain you with proofs of what is now so notorious that it cannot be disguised—that the destruction of the church is contemplated as among the means necessary to effect a repeal of the union. If there be any who doubt, I would refer them to the columns of those journals which are, in Dublin, organs of the two sections, the lay and ecclesiastical, of the repeal party—to the Freeman's Journal, and the Pilot and Register papers. I will not imagine you unacquainted with this unquestioned truth; but I will conjure you by that hatred borne to us, because of our wellknown attachment to England-by the articles of union which we have faithfully laboured to maintain, to listen to us when we solicit, as of right, your strong and affectionate support. You will not forget or disregard assurances pledged, when the Protestants of Ireland gave up the privilege to legislate for their church, that its interests should not suffer from the relinquishment. You will not think it a light matter that assurances to this effect were advanced as arguments during the discussion of the act of union, and when it was carried in the affirmative, were embodied in its articles. You will not be reconciled to the treachery which would, by fair promises, win from the Protestants their power to protect a great national establishment, and then abuse, for its destruction, the privileges, which, in honorable confidence they had confided to your keeping. We tell you that the Protestant establishment in Ireland was unfairly put upon its defence; that in a country where a culprit accused of the most heinous crimes can have his trial postponed, because of hostile excitement fomented against him among the people from whom his jury was to be selected, a similar justice was denied to a persecuted church. We will tell you that it is likely soon to be placed on its trial again, and we beseech you, as you value justice and the honor of old England, be on the alert, that you may secure to us the judgment of an honest jury. It is the common cause of all we plead-the rights of men, the hopes of Christians. Be up and doing. I would supplicate our fair auditors, to remember that they too have a duty to discharge-keep all, who respect your characters and acknow

ledge your influence, in mind, that they owe our menaced and persecuted church protection-that we have taken their engagements to be our friends, in lieu of national independence—and that we will never regret what we have surrendered, so long as we continue to receive the fraternal support it has purchased for us. Let no man henceforward be a representative in this country, who will not bear in mind, that he must oppose the fraud, and fury, and bigot vengeance which would make a howling wilderness of Ireland. Look upon us, for we are troubled. Respect us, because it is for you we are hatedand be it your resolve, and make your resolution known, that you all will withstand the assault of your enemy and ours-that you will meet him where his first parallels are laid, and will include the loyal Protestants of Ireland within your lines of defence.

At a Meeting held in BRISTOL, in the HORTICU LTURAL ROOMS, on Wednesday, November 26, 1834.

Alderman DANIEL in the Chair.

MR. CHAIRMAN-Gentlemen-I wish I could, in suitable terms -and they would not be unsuitable if they adequately represented my feelings-speak my sense of the favours we have réceived since we appeared in this country on behalf of the persecuted Protestants of Ireland.

Had we listened with credulity to the discouragements addressed to us, we should not have undertaken a task which was represented hopeless. It was said by our enemies, England will not add to her embarrassments by protecting the church in Ireland; she will feel danger near enough to her own, and will not augment it by undertaking a cause in which she does not feel a lively interest. Representations of this character did not dishearten us. England, we said, has already made her election. She has incorporated the Irish church with her own. A compact has been made: Ireland surrendered legislative independence - England promised powerful and benevolent protection; and, even if the difficulties which demand her succour were greater than they are, we firmly believe that the English are not a people who will revoke a promise, and violate an engagement, because the keeping it is attended with inconvenience. On the faith of this assurance we obeyed the wishes of the Protestants of Ireland that we should lay their case before you. That we should be received with good will we were confident; but our most sanguine expectations have been surpassed by the warmth of your fraternal and encouraging reception. Henceforth, per

haps, the enemies of Protestanism in Ireland may be more chary of predictions that you will disregard your engagements.

They seem now to have transfused their spirit into adversaries who are here, and who describe my Rev. friend and myself as persons who are guilty of some heinous offence in coming to solicit your support. I can with perfect sincerity affirm, that to him, as well as to myself, the thought of appealing to you in the manner we have been deputed to do, was one to which we submitted only from a sense of constraining necessity. Far more acceptable to me it would have been to remain engaged in the occupations and studies in which, for many years, I have found happiness; but when it became a very doubtful question whether the Protestant church in Ireland would be permitted longer to exist, there seemed to remain no excuse for refusing to undertake any lawful duty by which protection might be provided for it. We, therefore, submitted to the wishes of our persecuted brethren, and the reception with which you have favored our appeal on their behalf, encourages us to hope that it will not be unsuccessful.

And here I consider it expedient to premise an important fact, namely that the statement of their grievances which the Protestants of Ireland have made, or, to be more exact, which have been put forward at their late meetings, remains uncontradicted. I do not, of course, mean to say that we shall, in all the minor details, be found to have stated, with a degree of accuracy which admits of no correction, every circumstance to which we have referred; but I mean to say, that the substantial matter of our complaint does not admit of denial or alteration. We say that there is a conspiracy extensively organized in Ireland, having for its end to extirpate Protestanism, and to separate our country from Great Britain. We say that there cannot be found in the character or conduct of the Irish Protestants or their creed, any thing by which the enormity of this monstrous confederacy could be excused or palliated-and we have proof in the silence and in the personal calumnies of our enemies, that they regard our complaints as subjects of anger and vituperation-but dare not challenge attention to them by hazarding a direct contradiction. I shall continue to repeat this assertion wherever I have opportu