Bear

of human beings had been sacrificed to the resentment of Rome! witness the shameless declaration of modern Popery in its Anglican dress, writing in the "British Critic”—

"I confess a satisfaction to the infiction of penalties for the expression of new doctrines, or a change of communion."

He would beg permission to read an extract from a letter of the notorious burning Bishop Bonner, given by Mr. Gorham in his last precious legacy to the Church-his book named "Gleanings of the Reformation." This trulydevout servant of Rome is writing to Cardinal Pole, and having begged very hard for certain lands to be restored to his see, he adds with still greater earnestness of solicitation

"Further may it please your Grace, concerning certain obstinate heretics that do remain in my house, pestering the same and doing much harm in manie waies, that some order may be taken with them, and in myne opinion it should do well to have them burnt at Hammersmith, a myle from my house here, for then I can give sentence against them very quietly in the parish church and without tumult, and having the Sheriffe present I can put them to execution in the said place.' And they were burnt-six poor simpleminded people whose only offence was having met in the open air to pray and to read God's holy Word. Such were the tender mercies of Rome; and Rome, unchanging and infallible, is now and ever the same. Having contrasted the two Churches in several minor points as in their respective views about monks and nuns, miracles, relics, and in the effect of their teachings as bearing upon the morality and the enlightenment of the masses, the speaker said he would ask his hearers to which of the two Churches did they belong? If they said to neither, holding both to be wrong, he would still ask to which of the two ought English Nonconformists to give their sympathies, and, so far as they were called on to interfere in the struggle, their active support? He knew that they had one point of agreement with the Tractarians, viz., their common desire to see a separation of Church and State; but let those Tractarians tell the Dis

senters what their beloved Pope of Rome thought about the separation of the temporal and spiritual power in his own person. There was a time when a supposed political necessity united them with the Papists in this country; but that time was gone. Let not the Dissenters play the game of those who, however they hated Protestant Churchmen, must certainly hate Protestant Dissenters with a more intense hatred still. But some men occupying Church of England pulpits, and living on Church of England pay, were clamouring for the union of Christendom-for union between the two Churches. But on what terms does Rome consent to union? Let them consult the oracle of history; let them seek an answer in the very nature of the claims of the Church of Rome. She has but one unalterable decision on the subject-entire unqualified submission to her authority. He for one would say, "Oh, grief, oh, shame; here are ministers, vowed and pledged ministers of the Church of England, knowing all this, and yet straining every nerve, plying every artifice, to bring their Church, bound hand and foot, to the knee of her haughty and inexorable rival." The organ of this shameless party was the "Union." He had examined its pages, and would give them some specimens of its audacious and unmitigated Popery, thanking God that at least they had found the enemies of Protestantism speaking out plainly, so that here could be no mistake about their real views. The speaker then read several extracts from the "Union." He showed that it advocated the suppression of the Protestant Church in Ireland; it avowed the identity of the principles of its writers with those of the original Tractarians; but they in their day were compelled to "economize" (that is, to practise the most flagrant dishonesty), whereas the Unionists would advocate their system openly; it branded all who held the Protestant view of the Eucharist as heretical maintainers of "the Real Absence;" it embraced every opportunity of lauding Romish saints, and recommending Romish legends and devotional books. Bishop Trower had stated, in a letter recently published, that he could positively

affirm that, within the last twenty years, two thousand perverts had left the Anglican community for that of Rome. He remembered the time when the perversion of but one English clergyman made men start as if they had seen a bright fixed star fall from its place in the sky above. A recent melancholy event in their own neighbourhood was again directing public attention to this most painful subject. He would speak very guardedly in self-defence, for if in any statement on this question he made a mistake but of five minutes of time as to the date of any occurrence, some red-hot champion of Tractarianism I would rush into the field and brand his whole statement as a "Protestant lie." Some people flattered themselves that the snake of semi-Popery in the English Church had been killed, or at the least grievously wounded. He was afraid it had never been more vigorously and mischievously alive. The hatred of a certain school against everything connected with true and bold Protestantism had never been more intense. The other day he had been invited to give a lecture at Halstead. Having spent very pleasant evenings when lecturing there on previous occasions, and always wishing to give his poor support to Literary Institutes, he accepted the invitation. It so happened that there was a very scanty audience; immediately a cry of triumph was raised, and writers in the newspapers gloried in the fact that no one would go and hear the lecture, even on architecture, of a gentleman who held such shocking Church principles as were held by Mr. Coleman ! This was in itself a very trifling affair, but it showed into what little coves and corners of the heart the broad, deep river of Tractarian hatred of Protestantism will send its current. He was quite content to lecture to empty benches, to give up lecturing on literary and scientific subjects altogether, but there was one thing he would not do-he would not be gagged into silence on the subject of the great, the all-important question of the struggle between the two Churches. If, indeed, his Bishop but hinted a desire that he should not attend their

Protestant meetings at Sudbury, though he had never made the Puseyite profession of unlimited obedience to Episcopal authority, he would yet do as the Puseyites never did when a Bishop decided against them-he would obey at once. Against all other hindrances he would persevere. Again, he would ask his hearers to which Church they belonged? If they said to the Church of England, he would ask in what did they belong to her? In occupying her pulpits, in receiving her wages, in name and outward profestion, or in spirit and in truth? Would they work for her, speak out for her, maintain her in her purity and in her simplicity, and defend her against all enemies within or without, on the right hand or the left? And if, which God avert, the Church of England, which in his very heart he believed to be the source of unnumbered blessings to the land, was doomed to fall-if her foes, the foul system of Rome, and the treacherous apostacy of her own children, were to stand in triumph on the scattered foundation stones that were cemented once in the blood of Protestant martyrs, he hoped that he and his hearers would never be amongst those to whom it would be said, "Why came ye not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty?"-Essex Standard, April 7, 1858.

PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION.

THE TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING will be held (D.V.) on THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1858, in St. JAMES'S HALL, PICCADILLY, and 73, REGENT STREET. The Chair will be taken at Twelve o'Clock. The Lord Bishop of RIPON, W. LONG, Esq.; JAMES BATEMAN, Esq.; Dr. CowAN, of Reading; Rev. W. CURLING, Rev. C. PREST, and others, will address the Meeting.

The ANNUAL SERMON will be preached (D.v.) by the Rev. R. J. M'GHEE, Rector of Holywell, Hunts, at REGENT-SQUARE CHURCH, St. PANCRAS, ON WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 16. Divine service to commence at Seven o'clock.

PROTESTANTISM IN GERMANY.

-GERMAN COMMITTEE OF

CORRESPONDENCE.

WE can only here very briefly notice the new and interesting project, for the carrying out of which a Committee has recently been formed.

Late in the autumn of last year, after the return of many friends who had taken part in the Conference at Berlin, it was deemed desirable to have a permanent organization in the metropolis of this country, to carry on correspondence with friends in Germany, and elicit from time to time facts as to the status of Protestants and Protestantism there; and convey, as occasion might require, sympathy and advice in any plans and movements which might tend to the glory of God, and the welfare of immortal souls for whom Christ died.

That Committee have now issued their first publication. It contains:

"1. The names of Committee, with a brief statement of the origin and objects of it.

"2. The addresses they issued in the form of a circular letter to VOL. XX. June, 1858.

"2. Professor Dr. Heppe, Professor of Divinity in the University of Marburgh.

"3. Professor Dr. Dorner, versity of Gottingen. Professor of Divinity in the Uni

"4. Dr. Sack, the Chief Consistorial Councillor of the Province of Saxony, and formerly Professor of Divinity at the University of Bonn.

"5. Dr. Steir, Superintendent New Series, No. 222.

THE above subject is one of very great importance. The Protestant public, we fear, are scarcely alive to it in its full magnitude and bearings. There is now before us a Blue-book containing "Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education," comprising "Corre"Correspondence, Financial State ments, &c., and Reports of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools," for the year 1857-8, as "presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty."

It shows an amount of money given to Popish schools which few would have expected to be the case. But this is neither the beginning nor the end of the evil. The thin end of the wedge has long been driven in; and the Report of the Privy Council-Board on Education, for 1856-7, discloses the fact of various sums, amounting to about 67,788., having been then already given to Roman Catholic schools.

Disguise it as people may, is it not obvious that Popery is manifesting a determination to gain all the influence she can in the affairs of this country; and that, in carrying out such determination, Rome displays a zeal, an energy, and an activity, worthy of a better cause? Protestants, it is true, are sending out missionaries to pagan nations. Rome is sending missionaries to this Protestant country-seeking to turn us from the pure faith of Christianity to the fond things vainly and wickedly invented by the mystic Babylon. How are we meeting these efforts of the Papacy? It cannot be said that we are doing nothing. The pulpit is not altogether silent, the press occasionally makes a stir, and there exists a certain amount of organization for the avowed purpose of antagonizing the great enemy of our faith and our institutions; nor are we without those who raise their voice within the walls of the House of Commons to protest against the sinfulness of endowing a seminary for training up the Papal priesthood.

Admitting all this, it yet amounts to very little as compared with the exigencies of the time in which our lot is cast. The pulpit, which ought

the sin and danger of fostering Papal institutions, is too often and too generally compromising or silent; and we must add, with feelings of mingled shame and sorrow, is, in too many instances, even an advocate of what, by the very terms of its existence, it ought to oppose.

The Press, though here and there, and and now and then, taking up the matter, yet, as a whole, is sadly below the mark, and inflicts frequently severer blows upon the opponents of Popery than upon Popery itself. To the organizations to resist Popery, feeble and inefficient as they are, whether viewed in their separate or combined and aggregate operations, we are indebted for much that has been done to warn, enlighten, and arouse. By their instrumentality much evil has been prevented, and good accomplished.

Yet is there generally a want of that comprehensiveness of view, that statesmanlike policy, that firm adherence to sound constitutional principles which characterized those who, three centuries ago, and subsequently, did battle with the Church of Rome, who were enabled to curb its insolent and tyrannical interference in our affairs, whether foreign or domestic, and achieve that twofold deliverance from Papal superstition and arbitrary power which too many Protestants of the present day are prone rather to admire than to imitate.

Protestant Association will take place in the course of the present month. Particulars respecting it are given in the advertisement on the wrapper of this number.

The important events which are continually transpiring in this country, and in Roman Catholic countries, render needful continued watchfulness and activity on the part of Protestants.

We doubt not but that these points will be aptly and forcibly urged upon the Meeting, as well by the Chairman as by those who will take a part in moving or seconding the Resolutions then to be submitted for the adoption of the Meeting.

THE MAYNOOTH QUESTION. THE Maynooth question again? Yes, it is even so. It is not settled, nor can we cease our opposition till it is.

The late Russian war occupied for a long time the attention of Englishmen, we might say, intensely occupied it-but not solely. It had the effect, however, and necessarily so, of interfering with many other questions of a public character, to which attention would otherwise have been directed.

The war which has arisen in consequence of the mutinies in India has not less intensely occupied the attention of our fellow - subjects. Indeed, it seems more closely, more intimately to have come home to them, than even the war with