temptible a thing as hardly to deserve notice; only that it may serve to shew how well a Papist can spell, and write, and put a few sentences together; and how easily we can detect, and how completely expose a silly fallacy.-N.B. The letter is printed verbatim et liberatim.

SIR,-As a pamphlet you state to be of the first possible importance (price 5 shillings very dear* indeed) has by accident fallen into my hands I take the liberty to tell you that your advertisement alone contains an errant falsehood-" Historical fidelity, you say, compels you to record, that after this solemn declaration &c. &c. the greater part of the Catholic's withdrew their signatures... Now Sir my signature is in page 15, and I solemnly declare that no Apostolic Vicar ever ask'd me, to withdraw or erase my name, and it was never erased by myt consent... It is true, that when several of us clergymen, who had been emploi'd many years in London, and had sign'd the Catholic petition at Slaughters Coffeehouse St. Martins lane, were informed by Mr. Chs. Butler that we were to be call'd" Protesting Catholic Dissenters" such an appellation caused great emotions of disgust: Mr. Br. then said that Government required it, or similar words. As an Asterisk is placed before the Revd. Rob. Banister's]} name (p. 18) and the only name in the list; perhap's he withdrew it of this I am not sure, as he then lived in Lanchashire, but of this I am, that no Person withdrew his name at Sts Coffee house. Hence before you dip your pen again in **gall (though you tell us with the deepest regret) consider that in a short time you will give a strict account of such

The Price of the Pamphlet in question is determined by the usual course of trade; regulated by the quality of the paper, the size of the letter, and the number of sheets. † Perhaps it was erased against Veredicus's consent; as an act of authority exercised by his superiors.

Most certainly, a better appellation might have been easily devised.

It is not our duty to sustain an assertion made by Mr. Butler or any other Roman Catholic. If he used the words which Veredicus has put into his mouth, or if he used them not; we are not concerned in the affair.

If the names of all those gentlemen who, having signed them, afterwards withdrew them from the "Declaration" were to be marked with asterisks, many such would appear. Mr. Banister's name is not distinguished on that account. Why it has an asterisk before it, is a mystery past our finding out; and therefore we shall leave it to the profound consideration of Veredicus, himself professedly a Mystagogue. It is a copy of the original.

Now for the fallacy. The Editor of the " Declaration " (who is not the Editor of the Prot. Adv.) says not a word about Slaughter's Coffee-House and surely it does not follow but that, although no person withdrew his name there, he might not withdraw it in another place; or order it to be struck out by a letter addressed to those who had the custody of the Document elsewhere;-and thus Mr. Banister, though in Lanchashire had it in his power to cause his name to be withdrawn.

**Mr. Stockdale dips his peu in the best Japan Ink; and surely no unprejudiced person will say that the Editor of the "Declaration" wrote his Advertisement in "the Gall of Bitterness."

falsehoods, and that at the bar of divine Justice I shall be one, who will appear against you, and all Fomenters of discord among their Brethern.* Sussex. Novr. 16, 1812. Yours Veredicus. P.S.-If you ever go to Church you may have heard these words—" Let us not love in word, or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”—1_Ja. 3 c. 18. v. (deepest regret)

Addressed, Mr. J. J. Stockdale, 41, Pall-Mall, London.

PROTESTANT INTELLIGENCE.

We have the satisfaction to communicate to our readers, that Petitions to Parliament continue to pour in from various quarters. The Clergy of the City and Deanery of Bristol ;-of the Dioceses of Canterbury, Bath and Wells, and Peterborough ;-of the Archdeaconries of Stowe, Lincolu, Leicester, and Huntingdon ; of the Deanery and district of Middleham in the North Riding of Yorkshire, (materially assisted by the officers of the Militia, who have signed the Petition ;) together with the towns of Manchester and Grantham, have already petitioned against the Popish claims. The Clergy of the West Riding of Yorkshire are to meet on Tuesday, Dec. 29th at Wakefield, upon a call of the Archdeacon of York, for the same constitutional purpose. 22d December.

We have further to state that A SOCIETY HAS BEEN FORMED UNDER THE DENOMINATION OF FRIENDS TO THE 'ESTABLISHED CHURCH, IN ORDER TO SUPPORT THE PROTES TANT RELIGION, AND TO CO-OPERATE WITH THE CLERGY AND LAITY IN DEFENCE OF OUR HAPPY CONSTITUTION IN CHURCH AND STATE. We are proud to communicate one fact to the public, viz. that the members of this society approve of the efforts already made by the PROTESTANT ADVOCATE in our Country's cause, and will extend to it their especial patronage, and perhaps will eventually make it the vehicle of giving their sentiments to the country at large. In our next number, we hope to be able to detail some of the leading resolutions of this most seasonable institution. We hope that our dissenting brethren will adopt a like expedient in order to make an effectual stand against the inroads of Popery.

Does a Romish Priest speak sincerely when he calls Protestants Brethren? (for this is what he means by the word Brethera.) What need can there be for Veredicus to appear "at the Bar of divine Justice," against one, who, not being a member of the Church of Rome, must, in the opinion of Veredicus, ipso facto, as an Heretic, be doomed, without his interference, to everlasting punishment? The text from St. John's Epistle is wholly irrevelant to the matter.-And here we take leave of Veredicus. We are unwilling to believe, for the credit of the Romish Priesthood, that this poor creature can have received holy orders. However a man brought up at Dousy, Louvaine, St. Omers, or any other place where English Roman Catholics intended for holy orders have heretofore received education, like the Inditer of this notable letter, might be rendered unable to spell correctly the name of an English county; used nevertheless, to read a bit of Latin, he must have been equal to writing Veridicus, for Veredicus, the gibberish with which he signs his nonsense. We think more highly of the Romish Clergy; and we trust that the Priests resident at Petworth (the Post-Mark) of In the neighbourhood, will discover and reprove the offender.

THE

PROTESTANT ADVOCATE,

FOR FEBRUARY, 1813.

"With Papists I can live, not only in Charity, but Friendship, without the least "Inclination to offend them any further than by obstructing all Endeavours to introduce

66

a Religion amongst us, which would necessarily be ruinous to the Liberty of our "Country."Middleton.

OF THE VETO.

WITH respect to the VETO, we have had a hint from a Correspondent,

who thinks that we have conceded too much, in saying that if it had been acceded to, it might have justified the granting to the Roman Catholics what they desired. He says, that, for his part, he believes it to be a measure which could have afforded no security to the state: and that he is supported in that opinion by Dr. Milner, who boldly tells us (in his Appeal to the Catholics of Ireland, Dublin 1809, p. 25) that it was "only a tub thrown out to the whale of vulgar Protestant Prejudice." We are reminded also that, by whomsoever appointed or recommended, Romish Bishops, as clearly appears in history, have always sided with the Pope against their lawful Sovereigns. This was most signally the case with Thomas à Becket ; and in a less degree with the greater part, if not all, of his successors and predecessors in that See. Very lately, in Ireland, Dr. Hussey was made a Romish Bishop at the recommendation of the Government, and proved to be among the most, if not absolutely the most seditious and dangerous of them all. The truth is, our Correspondent adds, that, as long as the celibacy of the Clergy continues to be enforced, the particular interests of their order will always form the predominant, if not the only object of their hearts; and the acquisition of those honours which the Pope alone dispenses, will be the great gratification to which they will be ever looking. This was well understood by Pope Hildebrand, who esiablished the temporal power of the triple crown on a solid footing. And this was one of the most powerful instruments by which he effected his purpose: indeed there was none which he laboured so hard to secure, or which so richly repaid him and his successors. This has rendered the Clergy of that communion the attached and trusty guards of what they VOL. I. [Prot. Adv. Feb. 1813.] 2 G

call the Holy See and as long as this and auricular confession are kept up, our Correspondent thinks that it is nugatory to talk of any other safeguard against their machinations in a Protestant state, except the taking from them all power of doing mischief.

We agree very much with our Correspondent; but we have been less scrupulous in estimating the real importance of this Veto, on account of its rejection, and the improbability of its being ever brought forward again. We gave it the full benefit of the old adage "De mortuis, &c." But whatever may be its intrinsic and real value, certainly, so far as it relates to those who first proposed, and afterwards rejected it, we have have a right to assign to it the highest degree of credit. We have a right to consider it as what would have satisfied all parties, since by those with whom it originated it was so considered; and this leaves us the more at liberty to reprobate the "vulgar prejudice," (to use the Bishop of Castabala's phrase) and intolerant bigotry of the Papists, which prevented their acceding to so trifling a sacrifice for the attainment of so desirable an end.

Substance of the Speech of Sir John Coxe Hippisley, Bart. on seconding the Motion of the Right Hon. Henry Grattan, to refer the Petition of the Roman Catholics of Ireland to a Committee of the House of Commons, on Friday the 18th of May 1810. Second Edition; with an Appendix, greatly enlarged and additional Notes.-Faulder, 1810.

Substance of the Speech of Sir John Core Hippisley, Bart. on the Motion

of the Right Hon. Henry Grattan in the House of Commons on the 24th of April 1812, for a Committee of the whole House, &c with Supplementary Notes, Extracts, &c. Second Edition: with Corrections and Additions.-Ridgeway, 1812.

Could we depend upon finding in mankind, and more especially in party men of these days, any tolerable degree of consistency; could we more particularly hope to find it in those, who are manifestly setting themselves at variance with those principles which they profess to hold; could we flatter ourselves that protestant advocates for popery (the very existence of whom is the great anomaly and wonder of our days) would ever have fortitude or candour suficient to acknowledge that they have been in an error; we might have spared ourselves the trouble of wading through this rude and undigested mass, this heap of repeated, and often before repeated and refuted trash;-and have set ourselves down in full persuasion that the honourable editor of this collection (for indeed the greater part is not his own) would on the next opportunity that offered

whether in or out of parliament, do justice upon himself, and repair as well as he could, by a candid confession, the mischief which he may have caused by perplexing and confonnding the ideas of others, as well as his own. But when, upon further consideration, it was apparent that the same. reasons which exist at this moment for the desired retractation, existed even at the delivery of the first of these speeches, and still more, as we should have thought, pressed upon him with almost irresistible force when he published his last "substance of a speech."* We could not but apprehend that even the additional weight which those reasons were acquiring every day, would fail to have its effect, or (to use an appropriate term) to convert him and so we must needs take upon ourselves to do for Sir J. C. Hippisley, what Sir J. C. Hippisley will not do for himself

The truth is, that in the present state of things, with the express declarations of not only the Roman Catholic Prelates, but of all the Roman Catholic population of Ireland, as far as that population has declared itself, that they not only will not grant to his Majesty a Veto in the nomination of their Bishops, but that they will absolutely give no security at all to govern ment for their loyalty; that what they claim under the name of emancipation must be given them without any sort of restriction; we conceive that these speeches of Sir J. C. Iippisley, in which he labours with the most persevering assiduity, and almost in every page, to demonstrate that the grant of the privileges contended for should not be absolute, but that our sovereign has a right to control and to superintend the congregation of Roman Catholics in this kingdom, in the same manner and to the same extent, as the Greek Empress Catharine, the Calvinist King of Prussia, the most Catholic King of Spain, and the extraordinary non descript ci: devant first consul of the French, are or were allowed to do it, must conclude most forcibly against the claimants, and can never have been seriously intended to operate in their behalf. All the documents, we say, which the learned Baronet has with so much industry scraped together, (some of which he has given us at least twice over), must all tend to shew that nothing can be more unreasonable than the demand which is now so clamorously and so imperiously made by the Roman Catholics and their friends,

*How much of either of these speeches was actually delivered in the House, it is not our business to enquire. Several members have told us that they only know them as they have appeared in print. Probably the printing was the main object in view, We remember being told of the facetious John Wilkes, that one night, when the House was very clamorous for the question, he rose and persisted in speaking: and when some friend remonstrated, as it was impossible that he could be heard, he answered that he did not care for that; his speech was dispatched to the papers, and would certainly appear there, and he must therefore go on, heard or not heard."