ject drop, to which they certainly will not refuse a due regard. It is for all sincere lovers of the church of England to take care, that we justify not the boasts or the sneers of infidelity; that we do not authorize one of the insinuations of scepticism, that which goes to subvert the distinction of the Sabbath, as a day of rest, by leaving it to be inferred that public worship is a conventional duty grounded upon a prejudice, and that its only origin is in the artifice of the wise and the credulity of the multitude. With what consistency, with what face can the clergy preach sermons to the rich upon the solemn and sacred duty of going to church, while the guiltless poor are cut off by certain by-laws, in free and Protestant England, from the congregation of the faithful ? The conclusion is obvious. Either they recommend from the pulpit what they do not in their hearts believe essential, or they connive at an unexampled cruelty. It behoves the Establishment, as it would avoid the horns of this dilemma, to protest against the tyrannical conduct of the Poorlaw commissioners. Our advocacy, at all events, shall not be wanting. The cause is its own warrant; and it is a small matter how feeble the pen that is engaged in defending such a suit. It carries an irresistible appeal to every virtuous bosom; and, "thanks to the human heart by which we live," he needs but little power of eloquence who stands up to "defend against the world" the weary and heavy-laden, to make common cause with the oppressed and the spiritless, and to shield from the last, worst evil which can befall humanity, those worn-out and decrepit beings, who hover on the verge of the grave, and whose sense of suffering can alone be alleviated by that prospect, which, after darkening for them every vista of hope in this life, the Poorlaw commissioners are bent upon shutting out-the prospect of the life to come!

THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT.

SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, in a letter announcing his intention of accepting the Chiltern Hundreds, incidentally, but characteristically observed-"The fact is, it is they who make the assertion, who have changed, and not I; like men in a ship, who fancy the shore in motion, instead of themselves." The position which the honourable baronet holds at this hour in the eye of Great Britain, is most interesting, and pregnant with reflection. That since he began his political existence, a marvellous change has come over the spirit of the land, as evidenced in the altered feelings and sentiments of the community, no man of ordinary observation, who can recall the various phases of public opinion in respect to the member for Westminster, will be disposed to deny. The fact might even almost admit of demonstration, and we need only point attention to his anomalous position in the.

late election to substantiate our averment. The Radical clique who called upon him to resign, woefully miscalculated their strength. But on that auspicious occasion, the genius of Great Britain was in the ascendant.

The insensibility of Englishmen to a movement obvious to the rest of Europe, arises from its eccentric and irregular precipitance, leaving no leisure to take an observation. But facts will alarm us, however wrapt in happy ignorance; and when we look back and fix our mental gaze upon some fading landmark in the distance, we become fatally assured of the rapidity with which we have been drifted from the shore. But where breathes the navigator in whose prescient eye of genius we dare confide? Where should we look for the political Columbus, who, sending his thoughts over the boundless expanse of that ocean, which the vessel of the State cleaves in her voyage of experiment, and shaping Atalantes in those dubious clouds which lie along the horizon, but always fly before him, can say to the helmsman, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further;" yon speck shall be the terminus of our venture, there will we cast anchor, there "set up our everlasting rest?" Long enough have our eyes ached over this illimitable prospect; let us turn our view and our choice to the pilot who is destined to guide the vessel into port. Let us not forget, that by the blessing of Providence there does indeed remain to us a statesman, who endowed, as we willingly believe, with every good and great qualification, is competent to our preservation. He will seek to find the haven where we may cast anchor-the spot where we may rest; within whose landmarks are enclosed that building whose corner-stone is immovable. A serene beauty will be spread by true religion upon her tabernacle, and we shall feel, and own-" It is good for us to be here!"

EXCLUSION OF ROMAN CATHOLICS FROM PARLIAMENT.

A FEW weeks since there was a meeting held at Exeter Hall, for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of petitioning the legislature for the exclusion of Roman Catholics from both houses of parliament. We are strongly of opinion that a capital error was committed in 1829, and it arose from the country regarding the repeal of the Catholic disabilities as a question purely political, while it was, to all intents and purposes, mainly a religious one. This is the fountain of those bitter waters of which, through an hundred different conduits, the State has drunk until she is ready to burst; her bosom swells with its freight,

"For 'tis of aspicks' tongues.'

97

This is a topic upon which, for obvious reasons, we could wish to be silent. It is most unpleasant to the feelings to have to

allude to the expulsion of gentlemen from parliament on the score of their religious sentiments. We stand in a truly distressing alternative, but in the election among evils, we hope better things from government, being freed from a new control, unknown to the constitution, than from disqualifying a species of men, who, by a sort of sinister piety, cherish the discords which are the parents of all their consequence.

Never, we fear, will Great Britain and Ireland fall back upon their true centre of gravity, and natural point of repose, until the ideas connected with "the Protestant administration" which came in in March 1807 be resumed, and steadily pursued. Meanwhile we would recommend, as a means of obtaining a first instalment of that debt of justice which an erring legislature owes to the Protestant people of these kingdoms, that petitions be got up all over the realm, for a REVISION of that Act which goes by the name of Repeal of the Catholic Disabilities. It is manifest that Sir Robert Peel, and hundreds of members in both houses of parliament, did not intend that measure in the sense in which the Irish Catholic members are pleased to construe it. Those securities which would have been strong as links of iron to the consciences of Protestants, are as impalpable as air to the obtuse vision of papistical casuistry. The legislature passed the Act under a delusion, carefully instilled and encouraged by the language of Roman Catholics in those days. The leopard feigned to lay aside the rabid taint of his inheritance, and presented his lithe back to be admired and fondled; but, even at the time, there were not wanting observers, who proclaimed that his spots darkened and his skin glistened in the irrepressible consciousness of his duplicity. The country was forewarned that to suppose that the oath (which we subjoin)* to be taken by every Roman Catholic ere he could exercise the functions of member of parliament, would be any security for the safety of the Establishment, were to think of muzzling the lion with a cobweb. It was remarked at the time-but the premonition was cried down and disregarded, as being unfounded

ROMAN CATHOLIC OATH.

"I Do swear that I will defend, to the utmost of my power, the settlement of property within this realm as established by the laws. And I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and solemnly abjure any intention to subvert the Church establishment as settled by law within this realm. And I do solemnly swear that I never will exercise any privileges to which I am or may be entitled, to disturb or weaken the Protestant religion or the Protestant government in the United Kingdom. And I do solemnly, and in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, that I make this declaration, and every part thereof, in the plain and ordinary sense of the words of this oath, without any evasion, equivocation, or mental reservation whatsoever."

and libellous-it was remarked, that the Roman Catholics would feel no hesitation in premeditatedly compromising their word, in the assurance of absolution; that however rash the venture, they would not scruple, if they conceived the end justified the manœuvre, in disregarding their most solemn vow. The minority in 1829 at this hour stand absolved and justified before their country. Occulta veritas tempore patet. "Time hath awakened truth."

The solemn engagements of the Romanists are proved to be like the temptations of spiritual iniquity,—

"The equivocation of the friend,

That lies like truth."

They have all the juggle of the witches in Macbeth, "That palter with us in a double sense,

That keep the word of promise to our ear,

And break it to our hope."

Such is the very essence of papistical casuistry in all ages. The careful guardianship of that constituted estate of the realm to which we have alluded elsewhere, would have afforded us some security against the jesuitical character of a religion, where the wisdom of the serpent hath ever been more conspicuous than the meekness of the dove. In default of that superintendence, it is awful to contemplate how matters are progressing. When we take a survey of what the misnamed legislature hath done, and what a majority of the House of Commons meditated, it would defy the wit of man to say at what point, save in anarchy and rebellion, the dislocation of the State, and the subversion of the Protestant establishment, these innovations are to stop. The desires of a certain party in this and a neighbouring kingdom, are evidently so like the grave, as never to be satisfied. We repeat that there is nothing left but to retrace our steps. If we would save the Establishment in Ireland from being transferred into the hands of the majority of the people in that section of the empire; if we would avert a repeal of the union, Roman Catholics must be excluded from both houses of parliament. The introduction of popery into the legislature was a national crime. From the whole experience of our Protestant history, we might have augured that evil would follow-and evil has followed! yet if we mind not, it may prove "but the beginning of sorrows." We should at once testify our repentance by retracing the ground we have trod; and as a first step, let us AGITATE from north to south, and east to west, for a REVISION of that calamitous Act of 1829, which compromised the religion, and freedom, and the integrity of the empire.

THE ANTI-CHURCH ADMINISTRATION.

By patience and sufferance of the people of England, and the combined exertions of their aiders and abettors in this conspiracy against all that is venerable and to be venerated in the country, the Melbourne administration still continue to "prank them in authority," to draw their salaries, and unworthily to occupy those places, by virtue of which they think they rank higher than able and deserving men. We will not assume a sorrow that we do not feel, nor affect regret that this venomous abortion, whose windings are to be tracked by slime, continues to crawl on. We would not that it should perish untimely, but rot away, a revolting spectacle in the sight of the world. We would have it decay slowly, in the perpetration of its "soul-hardened scheming,' loathsome in its own leprosy, and "festering in the infamy of years." In our opinion, the contemplation of the detestable as well as of the illustrious actions of mankind, however unpleasant at the time, has its salutary use. It may be abhorrent to our feelings, but, "like the toad, ugly and venomous, it bears a precious jewel in the head."

By allowing their negative example room and verge enough to display itself, the Melbourne administration will remain a monument to future generations, to deter wicked men, clothed with human authority, from ever after bartering away the virtues and well-being of their country, for any miserable advance of ambition, or indulgence of spleen. Let those slaves of office drink to the dregs their own bitter draught, that hereafter no man may have the shadow of a pretence to say, that if they had not been interrupted they meant to have retrieved their character. They meditate no such thing; they know that their doom is sealed, and that their tenure of office is now a mere question of time. They will cling to power to the last convulsive gasp, and in the meanwhile resolve to do all the mischief in their competence, partly out of their natural love of misrule and spoliation, but principally with the hope of rendering the difficulties of their position too arduous for any weight of talent and character to surmount; and so, perhaps, by leaving the nation without a glimmering of hope in this thick night, which they have thought fit to spread about us, prevent others from venturing to succeed them. It would be a vain endeavour to analyse the complication of motives which impels this miscreant ministry to subject every civil and ecclesiastical department, consigned to their honour and keeping, to a cool, calculating, systematic process of malversation and plunder. Never were statesmen less embarrassed by the mechanism of inoperative laws, or with the difficulty of committing to the fittest agency every appointment under the crown. If an Establishment be obnoxious to them, they lop off at a stroke just so much of it as suits their purpose; they mow down without