sought to be accomplished. Unqualified Concession the breach, through which all this destruction is to pour in, and overwhelm. On that breach we are to remain immoveable or fall. We deprecate the fall, and the contest, with true good will. We would stretch our hands to our countrymen with all that the Constitution can give, without despoiling itself. We feel this to be the crisis of the fate of the English settlement of this country. Its well-being-its peace-its existence is at stake. We implore your Royal Highness to be its Protector; and against the delusions of Theory, the machinations of Party, and the assaults of Faction, to oppose immoveably the Ægis of the Constitution-and IF the venerable fabric of that Constitution is to be taken down, TO PROVIDE SECURITY, SUBSTANTIAL SECURITY; for what shall remain, and raise a bulwark for its defence, which shall be made sacred against the possible success of all future encroachments!

Sligo, Aug. 12, 1812.

We pray Safety-We pray Rest.

H. KING, Chairman.

-

Dublin Castle, 18th September 1812.

SIR, The Lord Lieutenant having transmitted the Address to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, from the Protestant Inhabitants of the County and Town of Sligo; I have the honour to acquaint you, by his Grace's command, that he has received a letter from the Lord Viscount Sidmouth, one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, signifying that His Royal Highness was pleased to receive the same very graciously.

I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

F. S. Cooper, Esq.

Moserea Castle.

ROBERT PEEL.”·

"A Second Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese of St. David's," by the Rt. Rev. the Bishop of that See, will be noticed in our next number. In order to prevent any misconception respecting a difference of opinion subsisting between the Bishop of St. David's and Dr. Hales, we beg to say, that their sentiments on the subject of the Roman Catholic Claims are in perfect unison ;-the matter in question relates to the simple fact of St. Paul's preaching the Gospel in Britain.

THE

PROTESTANT ADVOCATE,

FOR JANUARY, 1813.

"I suppose, what many profess to believe, that POPERY is not Now just what it * was in QUEEN MARY'S DAYS, is to suppose that POPERY is not POPERY; which is "an absurdity as great as to imagine that a thing is not itself."-Madan.

REVIVAL OF PROTESTANT SPIRIT.

WE most sincerely congratulate the friends of the Constitution, on the spirit which is now rising throughout the country. The Papists, and the besotted friends of the Papists, thought that the Protestants had become indifferent concerning the claims preferred with such eagerness, and pressed with so much importunity. The calm silence, however, preserved by the Protestants, was only the natural result of the religion which they profess;— bland, mild, tolerant, liberal, not easily provoked;" but when moderation begins to be mistaken for connivance, when a dignified silence is interpreted into unqualified assent; when the enemies of the Constitution (which is established in pure Protestantism) endeavour to argue an implied acquiescence in their views, from the placid forbearance of its friends-it is high time to undeceive them; it is high time to declare that Britain is not yet prepared to submit to that yoke which our fathers were not able to bear ;-is not yet so subdued as tamely to crouch under the accumulated burthen of Popery and arbitrary power. Those glorious rights gained under WILLIAM, it were disgraceful to surrender under GEORGE THE THIRD! Unable as our beloved Sovereign now is, to be gratified by the reflection that his Protestant subjects are rallying round the throne, the great example which he set them, has not failed of its effect; his people are resolved to maintain inviolate that Constitution which he bound himself by an oath to preserve; the jewels of his crown shall never be picked out to adorn the Papal tiara; and should Divine Providence be pleased to hear our prayers, and VOL. I. [Prot. Adv. Jan. 1813.] Ꮓ

restore him to our hopes, he shall find that the radical laws of England have not been changed;-and when his son and heir shall in due time succeed him, he shall receive that Constitation unimpaired, which is the glory of this kingdom and the envy of the world; he shall not be abridged of the obedience so justly due to him; he shall be (to use constitutional language), “ under God, the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other his dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual, or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal; neither shall any foreign prince, prelate, state, or potentate, have, as he ought not to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within his realms, dominions, and countries."We speak with firmness, in the full persua sion that the Legislature will listen to the voice of the country; and that THE COUNTRY WILL CAUSE ITS VOICE TO BE HEARD; 'seeing that its silence has been so grossly misinterpreted. Petitions are now pouring in. The tables, in either House of Parliament, will shortly groan beneath them. The friends of the Papistical claims already are alarmed, as plainly appeared when the Archbishop of Canterbury, on the 9th of December, presented a petition to the House of Lords from the dean and chapter of his metropolitan church. A wish was expressed that the Roman Catholic Question might be discussed at an early period, after the Christmas recess. Whether the newspapers have made a true report of what was then said in the Upper House, we know not; but surely after Parliament shall have received petitions from all quarters of the United Kingdom,-from the Universities, the established clergy, and the Protestant dissenters, the counties, corporations, the grand juries, and other collective bodies of men in the United Kingdom; we cannot entertain a doubt but that the Constitution, as settled at the Revolution, will remain unaltered, and the coronation-cath continue unrepealed.-Those who have already presented, and those who have signed, petitions, have our best thanks; and we shall be proud to be honoured with their advice and assistance. We hope that we shall not be deemed to act invidiously in particularizing, where so much has already 'been done, and where so much is still doing; but we must be allowed the gratification of mentioning the diocese of St. David's,

which is so organized as to be enabled at any time, on very short notice, to bring all its members and minutest subdivisions to act in concert. The archdeaconry of Leicester has particularly distinguished itself;-the admirable Charge of the Bishop of Lincoln, printed in the Leicester Journal (which now lies before us), has had its complete effect in that part of his diocese, and we are confident that it will produce the happiest results elsewhere, not in that diocese only, but throughout Great Britain. It has been printed by an individual, and circulated with great advantage in Ireland.

There is a subject which we have much at heart; and we beg leave to bring it before our readers, for general consideration-we are fully convinced that it would be followed by the most beneficial consequence to the country, and the preservation of the Protestant ascendancy; we mean, A SOCIETY FOR THE SUPPORT OF THE PROTESTANT RELIGION; were such an, association formed, either by counties, by dioceses, or by any other sections of the community-corresponding with a Protestant Board in London (there is a soi-disant Catholic Board in Dublin), the artifices of the Papists would soon be exposed; the combined learning and ability of Protestants would act with a MAXIMUM OF vigour, vis unita fortior-the comparative smallness of the Popish population would presently be known-Popish insolence would be repressed-the friends of the Constitution would know, and mutually strengthen each other, in these "days of rebuke."-The good people of England are almost totally ignorant of the auda city of the Papists in Ireland. We shall instance in one case only. The editor of "A Statement of the Penal Laws which aggrieve the Catholics of Ireland"—has received the thanks of a Mecting of Roman Catholics of the county of Dublin:-this, in an address to the Catholic Board, holding its session in Dublin, he calls (could he do less?) receiving " the thanks of the IRISH PEOPLE." This honour [as he calls it], in the hour of disappointment would prove his consolation:," what then must it be in the day of [here he prints in capitals] THAT TRIUMPH, ACQUIRED BY CATHOLIC STRENGTH, AND CATHOLIC PERSEVERANCE!" He warns the public against a spurious continuation of "The Statement," which says, "will probably affect the language of reserve and mode

ration:"but, says he, "the time is now passed for such caution ; the language of the Catholic rises in progressive confidence. [This is most true.] The tone of dignified ambition [John Bull thinks the Catholic an humble petitioner, but much is he deceived,] and none other [well said,] can now [what? so sure?] belong to his cause-whoever publishes for him a less determined sentiment is an impostor."-(See Dublin Journal, Nov. 12.)

The IRISH PROTESTANTS have now taken an alarm. On this subject we have received the following communication from Dublin; and we offer it to the attention of our readers.

"" PROTESTANT

PETITIONS ΤΟ PARLIAMENT

ASCENDANCY.

AGAINST CATHOLIC

The spirit of PROTESTANTISM, which began to be kindled in the intelligent and loyal counties of the NORTH of IRELAND, in Armagh, Sligo, Carlow, Fermanagh, Monaghan, Cavan, Longford, Leitrim, and Roscommon, has at length, reached the capital, and produced the following petitions and resolutions of the Protestants of the City, and of the Grand Jury of the County of Dublin, the temper and moderation of which, are strongly contrasted with the violence and menaces that pervade the Roman Catholic Requisition, not Petition; and will, we trust, induce the BRITISH LEGISLATURE to adopt the wise and prudent suggestion " to defer consideration of the great question of the Catholic Claims, until the Catholics shall be prepared to urge them with due temper and moderation, and in a mode that might better tend to allay those jealousies and suspicions on the part of their Protestant brethren which their recent conduct has justly excited."

These petitions and resolutions will speedily, we trust, be followed up, by similar petitions aud resolutions of the Protestants of the South of Ireland; in order to undeceive the Legislature, to make known the genuine sentiments of the loyal, respectable, and still powerful PROTANTS of Ireland, and to rouze the English Protestants from their torpor.

COUNTY DUBLIN GRAND JURY.

The Resolutions of the Grand Jury of the County of Dublin, of Michaelmas Term, 1812.

Resolved-That within the period of the last five years, we have observed several appeals to the Crown and Parliament from our Catholic fellow-subjects, praying relief from disqualifications which still remain unrepealed.

That we have seen without regret the past concessions which have been