permission? The Earl of Moira had the thanks of the Westmeath Popish Meeting on Thursday, August 27; and on Monday, September 14, his name was connected with a Popish Chapel. MOIRA Chapel! His Lordship is now preparing to leave England for India, where an opportunity may, perhaps, be found of returning the compliment to the Noble Marquis; if, indeed, the religionists in India have as yet been inoculated with the putrid pus of European liberality. I much doubt, however, whether his Lordship will meet with three liberal devotees of Bramah, Buddha, and Mahomet, who after the Governor-General shall have laid the first stone of DOWNSHIRE Chapel, will kindly unite in laying a second. But I must now state the transaction to which I would call the attention of your readers.-I transcribe from the Courier a paragraph, which appeared in many newspapers. "Moira Catholic Chapel. On Monday, September 14, the laying the foundation of the New Parish Chapel of Moira, took place. The Marquis of Downshire performed the ceremony. The first stone having been laid by his Lordship, a second was raised by the united hands of the Catholic, Protestant, and Presbyterian Clergy present, and laid on the former. After the ceremony, his Lordship and the company were invited by the Rev. Mr. Jennings, the parish priest, to partake of a cold repast, on the green, adjoining the chapel ground."-I must here quote the words of an eminent Romish Divine to whom I was under obligation in my former let ter, Father Foigard I mean,-" Upon my shoul, a very pretty sheremony!" How craftily have the Papists managed matters in Ireland! How completely have they blinded the eyes of many Protestants,Episcopalians alike and Presbyterians. The stupid, or contemptuous, writer of this paragraph, uses such language as might lead an ignorant man to suppose that a Presbyterian is not a Protestant. The Papists, I trust, will find to their confusion, that the Presbyterians are as fully aware of the errors of Popery, as prompt to contend against them, and as competent to expose them, as any class of Protestants whatever. All Protestants are not so lulled by the opiates of Popery as some of those in the neighbourhood of Moira Chapel. They are not so easily imposed upon.Arsenic though sugared-over is still poison. The Stylus Romanus VOL. I. [Prot. Adv. Dec. 1812.] X once spoken of by Fra Paolo, has not yet lost its point, though it be sheathed in velvet. I lament that any Protestants have been duped by the specious artifices of the Romanists. The Order of the Jesuits is at an end; but the Spirit of Jesuitism survivessemper idem. How could these Protestant clergymen be so gulled? Methinks I see the Romish Priests calling up a smile to conciliate the Marquis and the Protestant Clergy;-I see their efforts to counteract the twitchings of the refractory muscles so long habituated to the sneer of contempt, and the scowl of detestation. No doubt their hands were bathed in holy water, and the Aspergillum had well soused their robes on the morning of September 14, lest they should be defiled by coming in contact with heretics; and I cannot but think that, in the darkness of the succeeding night, the stone itself, by the light of such a lanthorn as Guy Faux once carried, underwent a profuse ablution. Once the cry of Protestants was-" come out of her," "be ye separate" from the woman sitting on seven mountains ;-now it is," associate with her; promote her idolatries; add to her purple vestments, and lengthen the train of her scarlet mantle; deck her once again with gold, precious stones and pearls, and replenish with new abominations the golden cup which she holds in her blood-stained hand." If Popery is to resume her power in Ireland, what have these infatuated Protestants to expect? - Toleration? No.-Not even the privilege to say their prayers in their mother tongue. "But some men will say "-is it true that the Papists believe every Protestant excluded salvation? It is most true. The Romish catechism instils this horrible doctrine into the minds of babes and sucklings." Here follow the very words put into their mouths yet white with their mothers' milk, and inculcated in their minds from their earliest years. 2. How do you call the true Church? 4. The Roman Catholic Church. 2. Why are all obliged to be of the true Church? A. Because none can be saved out of it.*—If the Romanist be sincere, he cannot meet Protestants on equal terms; and whenever he seems to do so, he is only acting a part, to serve a purpose. The Popish Clergy then present, understood, * See more on this subject in "The Claims of the Roman Catholics considered;" most able work, which was reviewed in our first number. in all its parts, and viewed, in all its hopeful results, the ceremony at Moira Chapel. The Protestant Clergy assisting at it, were in the predicament of the unsuspicious Amasa, when Joab took him by the beard to kiss him. I have thus pointed out the dangerous folly of this singular affair. I have poured upon paper all that came into my mind. If the Protestants are to fall; let them not be parties in their own destruction; and destroyed they will certainly be in Ireland, if the Papists get the upper hand.-But that they shall never do, on either side of St. George's Channel, if I can prevent it: and I heartily wish that the same attachment to Protestantism, and the British Constitution, and the same horror of Popery, influenced the hearts of thousands more able to defend the former, and combat the delusions of the latter, than Nov. 2, 1812. JOHN EACHARD. ON THE CONSEQUENCES OF " CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION.”. To the Editor of the Protestant Advocate. : MR. EDITOR ;-The complexion of the present times falsifies all past experience. He who should peruse the annals of foreign countries, or of his own, in former periods of their history, and compare what he finds therein, of the modes of thinking and acting, which are said then to have prevailed, with what passes every day, under his own observation, must either suppose, that human nature is now essentially changed, or close the book in disgust at a series of fictions, more improbable and unnatural than the dreams of romance. For what will he there read? He will read of nations who maintained a noble contest against tyranny and op pression who sacrificed their property, their repose, their lives, to preserve the liberties and independence of their native land: -and what will he now see?-the same nations, sinking, without a struggle, under the iron yoke of slavery :-and surrendering, with scarce a murmur, all that their ancestors purchased by such arduous struggles. Even in our own country, he will read with astonishment, and scarcely with belief, of the ecstatic transports with which the Light of Reformation was hailed ;-of the learning, the wisdom, the patient diligence, the resistance, even unto blood, by which the PROTESTANT CHURCH OF ENGLAND was originally reared;-of the filial love and fond attachment which, at subsequent periods, were displayed in vindicating, securing, and protecting her; when he beholds the indifference and levity with which attacks, both systematic and irregular,-the bold assault and the secret sap,-the haughty claim of the Papist,-the plausible comprehensiveness of the latitudinarian, and the contemptuous sneer of the sophist,-are now regarded by those who still call themselves her sons, and have not yet deserted her communion. Have, then, objects lost the intrinsic value which they once possessed; or men, the faculty duly to appreciate their worth? is pure religion less necessary to salvation is the public profession of it less necessary to society? or are national establishments of religion, a cumbrous and useless machinery, the further employment of which is disgraceful to an age of improvenient and illumination? The first of these propositions is worthy only of deists and infidels, of whom the number is, I am persuaded, extremely small among our legislators and statesmen. The second will scarcely be maintained by any but a few speculative admirers of paradox and theory. In the present day of new lights, the last alternative may be suspected of having gained some ground among men who ought to know better; and to have received a countenance which it little deserves, from views of a narrow policy, and an ill-judged parsimony. When we consider what Revelation is :-that it is addressed to us as free agents;-that its proofs are not, therefore, so self-evident as to compel our assent, but are necessarily attended with some degree of ob scurity; are liable to some specious objections, and, consequently, require defence and vindication :—that the book which contains its doctrines, perpetually refers to countries and ages far remote,-to laws and customs, and opinions, and modes of reasoning long since obsolete ;-and the whole conveyed in two dead languages, one the most ancient, the other one of the most difficult in the world,-and therefore requires to be illustrated and explained; it is hardly possible to controvert the necessity of having a body of men educated so as to be equal to this important task. And when we remember the solemn manner in which the Founder of our religion pointed out the specific persons who should teach it; when we observe the measures taken by those persons to continue the succession of teachers, and read the declarations of some of them," that they who "preach the Gospel, should live by the Gospel;" we cannot hesitate to acknowledge, that it was the intention of the Almighty, that there should be such a body of men. I would not be thought to speak lightly of the labours of those illustrious laymen who have stood forth in defence of Christianity but, indeed, if the gates of Hell have never yet prevailed against the Church, it has been owing, under God, to the use of those means which He ordained for its support: to the fact, that (with one exception, which would be found, on closer examination, to confirm the general position), no nation has yet been found rash enough to dispense with the services of a peculiar class of society, set apart and publicly endowed, educated and trained up, to vindicate the truth, and to rescue the interpretation of Revelation from the host of objections and heresiesdaily starting up against it. Nor is this all. Religion has its duties to be enforced, as well as its doctrines to be defended and explained: and how shall the people be instructed in those truths which are to make them wise unto salvation, except by a profession separated from the rest of mankind for this very purpose: exempted from the cares and business of ordinary life; and thus disposed to cultivate their intellectual powers, and to maintain a decorum of conduct, and a sanctity of character, that may enforce by example those duties which it is their office to inculcate? Thus deep in the constitution of our nature, and the demands of society, are laid the foundations of the clerical profession. It is not unusual to hear wellmeaning men say, "no matter by whom the Gospel is preached, as long " as it is preached." But though we may give such persons credit for good intentions, we can allow them little else: certainly not deep penetration, or accurate judgment. That the Gospel should be preached is doubtless indispensable to society: but that is the very reason, why we should take the utmost pains to provide such means as shall be most likely to ensure its being preached in the greatest purity, and with the best effect. Is it really a matter of indifference, whether the people be taught to walk steadily in the path of practical piety and sober religion, or be intoxicated by the delirious conceits of fanaticism? Are men content to leave it to chance whether they shall have upright and enlightened lawyers, skilful and learned physicians? Fences are set round those professions. Privileges and rewards are annexed to the honourable exercise of those functions, that men may be encouraged to devote themselves to the study of departments of science so essential to our welfare in this world and shall the administration of religion, which nearly concerns us, both here and hereafter, be thrown open to any man who fancies himself qualified to teach it? We find no such indifference authorized in the word of God: and it does not seem to be the way to improve the condition of religion. Rather is it doing all in our power to debase its dignity, and to banish it out of the world. If these things be so, it behoves us to pause very seriously, before we advance any further in relaxing the laws enacted in support of the Church of England. The ostensible aim of the propositions now so strenuously urged, is to give complete satisfaction, and to terminate religious discord. But, can any man of sense for a moment believe, that those who are now so |