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CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Protestant Advocate.

Mr. Editor,—I was very much pleased to see your work announced, I like the Prospectus; of which I have circulated many hundreds. Pro perly encouraged, and conducted as it ought to be, your publication may render INCALCULABLE SERVICES, not only to the Church Establishment, but to EVERY DESCRIPTION OP PROTESTANT DISSENTERS; for there can be no question that, if the Catholics effect their aims, Dissenters will fare no better than the Church. If Protestants cannot successfully contend with them, they must fall before the Catholics. I have just heard that it is intended to concede every thing to the Catholics, except a seat in Parliament. God forbid that Protestants should silently submit to such a dreadful encroachment, or witness the eventual sacrifice of the Constitution of their country, political and religious! Not that such a concession would tranquillize the Catholics; they would only become more vehement and clamorous to obtain the one thing withheld; but it would deprive the Church and State of great part of their strength, at a time when they are on the eve of being necessitated to strain every nerve in their own defence; and negligence in such a case would be little short of suicide. But I have little doubt that the empire will teem with addresses against the concession, from one extremity to the other, and I beg to recommend that, with the Barons of old, every address, conclude with the emphatic words-nolumus leges Angliæ mutari.

Sept. 16, 1812.

A PROTESTANT DISSENTER.

P.S. Pray send me one hundred of your first number, which I hope may be the means of selling thousands besides.

To the Editor of the Protestant Advocate.

Sir, I have read the Prospectus of your intended publication with great satisfaction. I heartily wish that your endeavour to prevent the demolition of the outworks of the Protestant religion in these realms, may be crowned with success. Protestantism is so connected with the genius of the British constitution, that they must needs stand or fall together. I hope that Parliament on its meeting, will soon quiet the minds of the people by a definitive vote; continuing toleration to the Papists, but barring them out from power, which they cannot but exert, (if they be guided by their own principles,) to compass the extinction of the reformed religion.

Whilst Mr. Conning and his friends intend conciliating the Roman Catholics, I hope they will provide security for the Protestants, Even

Lord Grenville demanded security; and hoped that he had found it in giving the KING a negative voice in the appointment of the Irish Roman Catholic bishops. This hope however soon vanished. The plenitude of the Pope's authority was reclaimed. It was deemed of too sacred a nature to be touched.

How inordinate are the expectations of the Romanists! They would not only be put on a level with the establishment; but they seek to obtain, nay they insist upon, privileges, with which the Established Church is not invested, neither does she claim them. The KING enjoys the nomination of Protestant bishops. No dean and chapter can proceed to the choice of a bishop, until they shall have received the KING's congé d'élire, and his majesty's recommendation of the person to be elected. If they should choose a bishop of themselves, they would ipso facto incur all the grievous disabilities, and heavy penalties, of a pramunire. But the Roman Catholics will not so much as give the SOVEREIGN a negative voice,-will not condescend to entrust him with the prudential exercise of a veto.

Are we not only to take off all the restrictions upon the most intolerant Church that ever desolated Christendom ; but are we to give it a BONUS? Is it not sufficient to impart to the Papists the existing privileges of the Established Church, but must they be endowed with superior powers,powers to be wielded at the command of a foreign prelate, by bishops who take an oath to "impugn and persecute heretics and rebels to the Pope "-and such are the Protestants held to be in their estimation? hope you will take an early opportunity to notice the affair of the veto. I am, Sir,

St. James's,

20th Aug. 1812.

Your most obedient humble servant,

D. N.*

We return this Correspondent thanks for his good wishes. On the subject of the veto, we beg to refer him to our observations on Lord Kenyon's Pamphlet, and to the extract from his lordship's publication (P. 35.).

For the Protestant Advocate.

AMONG the principles that excite our amazement in the present times, enlightened as they assume to be, none is more contradictory to the common sense of mankind than that pernicious one, first broached and fatally acted upon by the atheistical anarchists of France, and since adopted by the liberalists of this country,-that past experience and the records of history, heretofore regarded as the best political guides, should be renounced for a new order of things, begun, and continued, as they must end, in disorder. A dangerous passion has sprung up, for trying new

experiments in government, which oppose the very constitution of human nature, and militate with every principle upon which civil society is founded. It is to no purpose that we plead the convulsions of the world, and that insulting tyranny which now oppresses the Continent, as resulting from this scheme of producing a chaos that order may ensue. With as little effect do we urge from past experience and the records of history, that idolatry and intolerance, in all ages, from the era of Nimrod to the present moment, have been united in their views, and combined in their operations, against the interests of humanity, and the influence of pure, unadulterated religion. It is to no purpose that we prove to the partizans of Popery, from authentic historical records, that in the com munion of the Church of Rome, idolatry, tyranny, persecution for conscience' sake, the most bitter and unrelenting, produced, for the space of eight hundred years, the most grievous oppression of mankind, the basest servitude, the grossest intellectual darkness and moral depravity :

Tene diruptis iterum catenis
Implicas, tanto madidis cruore
Civium?

It seems to little effect that we point out, in addition to this experience of so many centuries of evils, those miseries which at present exist, in the yery head-quarters of Popery, Rome itself, where more wretchedness and moral depravity may be seen among the people, than in any other region of Europe (Le Maitre's Travels, 1802); a wretchedness necessarily re sulting from the very genius and spirit of Kome Papal, far exceeding any under Rome in its Pagan state. This genius and this spirit are exemplified in acts of of oppression and persecution even in the remotest corners of the earth, as in the modern Inquisition at Goa, in the EastIndies. This genius and this spirit are wrought into the very essence, and are generated by the constitution of Popery, maintained by its adherents in express words to be, semper eadem, unchangeable in its nature, fixed unalterably by its highest authorities, as in the Bull entitled "Unigenitus," infallible in its decrees and decisions, and therefore infallibly productive of the same effects in future as in past times. It is altogether in vain that we represent, from historical records and present experience, these evils naturally owing from a tyranny more bitter than death, a darkness more than Egyptian, and a depravity worse than Pagan; from which the reformation of religion emancipated the nations that embraced it, giving them the invaluable boon of liberty, temporal and spiritual; to which ultimately may be attributed, all the piety, charity, learning, commerce, and laws of this country; yet pre-eminent, with all its faults, above every

other nation on earth: all which advantages would vanish as a dream when one awaketh, under the ascendancy of Papal domination; a power which

"Bears, like the Turk, no brother near the throne."

It is in vain, hitherto, that such considerations have been pressed home upon those who are inclined to increase the political power of Popery in this free and Protestant nation. Liberality is their plea! Yes; such was the liberality of the Babylonian ladies, who yielded their persons to every solicitation. Our firm adherence to the invaluable rights purchased by our ancestors in fields of blood, and in the flames of martyrdom, is called bigotry but it seems there is no bigotry in the church of Rome, maintaining, as it does, every superstition that can degrade or darken the human intellect, every corruption that can debase the human charac、er, every principle (in her canons and decrees) that can violate human liberty, burst the bands of society, and set the subject loose from allegiance to his sovereign, by annihilating oaths to a legitimate prince, at the pleasure of a foreign potentate, under the influence of the public enemy. Let the liberalists give what they please of their own, but not another's. The constitution of this country is THE RIGHT of its subjects: parliament is the GUARANTEE, NOT THE DISPOSER, OR LORD OF THAT RIGHT: and let this oracular monition of the celebrated Thuanus, himself a Papist, but whose wisdom, eloquence, and liberality of sentiment, were so justly extolled by the late Lord Mansfield, sink into the hearts of all whom it may concern; a monition addressed to Henry IV. of France, after the wars of the league, that

"CEPTA ARMA ADVERSUS PROTESTANTES MALI SEMPER CESSISSE."

R. B. N..

We request the favour of all those who are disposed to sustain the Protestant cause, by the publication of tracts, pamphlets, or books, to give us early notice of their intention, and to transmit a copy, for the use of the Editor of the PROTESTANT ADVOCATE, to the care of J. J. Stockdale, Bookseller, 41, Pall-Mall; by whom letters and communications of all sorts, which may be deemed serviceable to Protestantisın, will be thankfully received.

THE

PROTESTANT ADVOCATE,

FOR NOVEMBER, 1812.

་་

"My Aversion to Popery is founded not only on its Paganism and Idolatry, but

on its being calculated for the Support of despotic Power, and inconsistent with the "Genius of a free Government."--CONYERS MIDDLETON.

FRIENDLY HINTS ATTENDED TO, AND OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.

WE have received two or three letters from a gentleman of high respectability, and a sincere friend to the Protestant Religion. Whatever falls from him claims our particular attention.-Willing to deserve his good opinion, we take this method of making a few observations upon what he has advanced respecting the views and the spirit of the PROTESTANT ADVOCATE; and the rather, because we are induced to think that what we here state may prevent all misunderstanding on the part of many who wish well to Protestantism, but may be inclined to think that half measures will meet every exigency of the present contest.

Our excellent friend indulges a "hope that all the good de signed by the Protestant Advocate, may be effected, without any alloy of evil;"--but he very properly qualifies this expression,-adding,—“ if so happy a result is to be expected in any sublunary work, however good its motive."-We are free to admit that all necessity for Polemics is to be deplored. It fills the pious heart with regret, that Religion, under any predicament, should excite contention. But what can we do? The contest in which we are embarked, was not provoked, was not sought, by us. Concessions have by no means pacified the Romanists. Their claims rise upon every boon that is granted them. Nothing less than an entire surrender of the Protestant Constitution of Britain, will content them. The moment has arrived, therefore, when a STAND must be made.If it be a decided christian duty to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the VOL. I. Prot. Adv. Nov. 1812.]

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