sorrows, of the souls of a much-wronged people; that he might exact wages, earned by practices which distracted habits of industry, and inflamed feelings of disaffection; that he might agitate again a harassed and afflicted land, and, it must be said, -not without shame to this country, and amid the darkening crimes and miseries of Ireland, gather in again his opprobrious remuneration.

I cannot allow myself to believe that measures of a character like this can find favor in your eyes-that whether you regard the honor of England or the duties of a Protestant people, you can look on calmly, and, without strong remonstrance, can permit a gospel light to be extinguished in our afflicted land, and connive at the practices of that unprecedented coalition which seems as if it had no other cement and attraction than a mutual hatred of religious truth. I will not believe that you can look on with indifference while murder, in our land, leagued with a spurious liberalism and sordid expediency in yours, is warring upon a true branch of the church of England, which even in the very hatred it provokes has acquired a new claim on your protection. Why is the church hated? What is the avowed reason why its overthrow is desired? Because it gives Protestants in Ireland a strong interest in the preservation of the legislative union with Great Britain-because it is the only obstacle to the establishment of Romish ascendancy. Therefore is she hated; therefore is a spirit of animosity called forth against her which will not discern good from evil in means to effect a great end, will never know compunction or peace, until it has been controled by a mightier power, or smitten and subdued, which it would be vain to hope, by the aspect of the ruin it has effected.

We ask you, is it at a time like this the church should be put upon its trial? And we ask, was it rash, or wrong, that at such a time, we turned our thoughts to seek your succour? We have had the assurance of our gracious King, that he will guard, to the last, the principles which placed his royal house upon the throne. Should we have approved ourselves wise or conscious of truth, if we did not make our condition known to the generous people of England, and solicit them, if they considered our re

presentations just, to stand by the throne for the maintenance of our institutions? What would such abstinence imply? Would it indicate respect for you? Would it imply honest dependance on our cause? If we thought you a people indifferent to what was just and true—or that you had not a humane and fraternal feeling for those who pray in your tongue, and who have never been without a sympathy in your adversities and your triumphs, we know what is due to our sense of worth and honorable reputation; we perhaps might then have provoked the calumny of adversaries for not making our cause known to you, and we would have borne it with as much composure as we now allow their indignation to pass by, because we have dared to use the privilege of standing on the British soil, and have hoped, that where, even in ancient days, the fetters of the slave fell off, persecuted Protestants shall be free to speak their grievances. Have we wronged you in cherishing this hope? Confiding in it, was it fitting that we should leave our injuries unspoken ?

Once, and only once, England supplicated foreign protectionwhen the cry of her children was, that the barbarians pursued them to the sea, and the sea drove them back upon the barbarians. That sea is now her wide and glorious dominion-those barbarous enemies, under her happy sway, have taken their place among the noblest of the human race. Her station since has been a station of power, her flag the ensign of sovereignty, and her voice has been command. The generous need not severe or frequent lessons of adversity, and England has ever been prompt to afford that protection which it was once the condition of her weakness to solicit. She has been the champion of the human race against a mighty despotism. She has listened from afar for the complaint of the slave, and smote the scourge from his oppressor's hand, and vindicated him to the rank of man. Is it only to the Protestants of Ireland her protection is to be denied? We seek no extravagant acts of favor-we implore only that you will not suffer us to be made or to remain outlaws of the constitution that you will cause law to be obeyed-that you will protect the church which you have incorporated with your We do not ask of you to spare a single defect—but, we

own.

entreat you, do not work, in the abused name of reform, the vengeance of a body which hates the church because it exists, which, the more excellent it is, will clamour the more loudly against it, and will never feel its rage abated until the object of its hatred has been rendered inefficient. Do not indulge this fell passion. Do not countenance the preposterous notion that Popery would reform the reformed religion. Encourage those who love your name, with an assurance that you are not regardless of their origin and their faith; and let the common enemy be warned, that he must not hope for your alliance in his persecutions of men whom you consider as united with you in the bonds and the brotherhood of pure and undefiled religion.

At a Meeting held in the Assembly Room in Bath,

on December 6, 1834.

The Lord Bishop of BATH and WELLS in the Chair.

MY LORD, I have to express to you, and to this great assembly, my deep regret that affairs of much importance have constrained the distinguished individual with whom I had been associated, to return suddenly to Ireland. I lament the loss which our cause must necessarily sustain by his absence, and the disappointment it must occasion here. I am painfully conscious that, in such an absence, my efforts cannot do justice to the case of the Protestants of Ireland, or afford you satisfaction; but I will not allow this feeling to incapacitate me from endeavouring, however imperfectly, to discharge my duty; and I will encourage a hope that, as the difficulty of my position is increased, you will regard my defects with more than ordinary indulgence.

When it was determined, by the Protestants in my country, to send a deputation to England, the resolution was, it may be said, extorted from them, by a sense of persecution and danger. They could not be blind to the repeated proofs that their interests and the public peace were not wisely consulted for by those who exercised legal rule over Ireland; and they saw, with increasing alarm, that in the same proportion as law became despised, and legislation capricious, and the government, apparently, more supine, purposes of alarming magnitude shewed themselves more openly in the avowals of those whose enterprises they had reason to dread-and crime was perpetrated with attendant circumstances, which betrayed more clearly the system to which it ministered. They saw that, in obedience to the dictation of an

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individual, the pledged enemy to British connexion, a grievous wrong was attempted against their church; and they heard this prospering enemy declare that, had he succeeded to the extent of his demands this year, he would stand upon the present success, and demand next year a further concession. (A) They learned, that the disorganized and distracted state of their country was such as to compel from a reluctant ministry, an act having for its object to restrain disturbance, and prevent crime; and they saw that the irresponsible dictator was successful in mutilating the measure so as that faction should be free. They knew the inseparable connexion between agitation and outrage; and they felt that where an excitable people were denied protection against the influences of public meetings and passionate harangues, it was of no moment that, for a time, they were restrained from outward acts of violence. (B)

How could the Protestants of Ireland behold such a state of things and not complain of the evils they suffered, and the dangers they apprehended? They saw, that, from the policy of the government and the purposes of a large portion of the people, the permanency of a religious ministration was severely shaken; security for life and property seriously diminished; and the bonds of British connexion rendered more precarious and uncertain; and then, and not until then, when their existence was felt to have become a question, they determined that they would submit a statement of their wrongs to the people of England, and ask of you, shall these things be so ?

Better hopes have risen upon them since they resolved upon this appeal. The King has rescued us and you from the domination of men whose measures would in the end have led to the separation of Ireland from this country. But still the Irish Protestants feel that upon you, under God, it must depend whether their hopes shall be confirmed. They know that our gracious Sovereign is resolved, to the utmost of his power, to protect the right. They believe that he will now have as his counsellors men who will not, in scorn of every thing that is honorable and just, advise injustice because they can uphold it, and it is clamorously demanded. They know, also, that with the people it