whatever in its proceedings. Till the accidental discovery of the recent meeting in London, little or nothing appears to have been known in England of the proceedings of the parties interested in, and favourable to, the movement referred to; but, as these proceedings, although carried on in secret, are not of yesterday, and as it is of importance that some light should be shed upon them, we shall endeavour to give our readers more detailed information regarding them.

In the year 1857, an association was formed for the purpose of effecting a Corporate Re-union" of the three bodies above referred to. This association claims for the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Anglican Churches, the "Inheritance of the Priesthood, and the name of Catholic:" thus, apparently, excluding all other churches from any legitimate standing in the visible kingdom of Christ in consequence of the want of apostolical succession; and hence its members declare the object for which they are associated to be the "Re-union of Christendom"-Presbyterians and others, having clearly no places as Churches in Christendom. The association had its origin in the following circumstances :-" On the Feast of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin Mary (we quote from the preface to a volume of sermons, "printed for certain members of the Association") certain Roman Catholics, Greeks, and Anglicans, met in the parish of St Clement Danes, Strand, in the city of Westminster,—having that morning previously, at their respective altars, asked Almighty God's blessing upon their contemplated plans. A dignitary of the Scottish Episcopal Church was in the chair." In 1864, the association numbered from seven to eight thousand. Of these, says the General Secretary, "the great majority are members of the Church of England; but there are nearly a thousand belonging to the Latin Communion, and about three hundred members of the Eastern Church. Local secretaries, both at home and in foreign countries, are being increased; and many correspondents are labouring energetically, and with considerable success, in the cause. The association has been approved in the highest ecclesiastical quarters, both amongst Latins, Anglicans, and Greeks. Holy Father gave his blessing to the scheme when first started, and repeated that blessing with a direct and kindly commendation to one of the English secretaries, who was granted the honour of a special interview. The exPatriarch of Constantinople, and other Eastern prelates, have approved of the association, and so likewise have several bishops, both Anglican and Roman Catholic, in England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as on the Continent and in America."

The

The volume of Sermons "by members of the Association," being "members also of the Roman Catholic, Oriental, and Anglican Communion," is dedicated to the "Most Blessed and Most Holy Father in Christ, the Pope;" the Most Blessed and Most Holy Father in Christ, the Archbishop and Patriarch of Constantinople; and the Most Honourable and Most Reverend Father in Christ, the Archbishop of Canterbury, "in hope of the future union of the flock of Christ, and of the universal diffusion of the Catholic faith throughout the whole world."

The association has persons who receive the names of parties desirous of becoming members, not only over all England, but also in Malta, Gibraltar, Heidelberg, Paris, St Bernard's Monastery, Switzerland, Grand Duchy of Baden, Upper Canada, Connecticut, America, Baltimore, Maryland, Hobart Town, Tasmania, &c., &c. Also, "Diocesan Secretaries

for the dioceses of Canterbury, London, Winchester, Bath and Wells, Chichester, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester and Bristol, Lichfield, Lincoln, Norwich, Oxford, Peterborough, Salisbury, Worcester, York, Durham, Chester, Manchester, Ripon. Also for the following districts in Scotland:-Moray and Ross, Aberdeen, Argyle and the Isles, Brechin, St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane, Glasgow and Galloway, Edinburgh, (vacant in 1864.) The names of the secretaries are known, but the names of members are kept strictly private.

Such, then, is the scheme. The object is to unite the Anglican Church with the Apostolic Church of Rome on the one hand-a Church which, according to the Word of God, is not to be reformed, but destroyed; and with the corrupt Greek Church on the other-a Church which, in her Confessions of Faith, which every pious and orthodox Christian, who is a member of the Eastern and Apostolic Church, is, by "unanimous and synodical sentence, ordained to read and receive," teaches the following doctrines:-1. That the rule of faith is comprised of tradition as well as of Scripture, and not of Scripture alone. 2. That the books of Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Tobit, Bel and the Dragon, &c., are canonical books of Scripture. 3. The septenary number of the sacraments. 4. Prayers for the dead. 5. The hyperdulic worship of the Virgin Mary. 6. The dulic worship of angels and saints. 7. The adoration of the cross. 8. The denial of the unrestricted use of the Scriptures to the people. 9. The worship of "icons"-that is, of pictures or representations of persons or things actually existing, as, in the words of the "Orthodox Confession," "the icon of our Saviour Christ, and of the Virgin Mary, and of all the saints;" also the figure of the life-giving cross, the manger at Bethlehem, &c. ; to the transmutation" of the substance of the bread," in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, "into the substance of the holy body of Christ ;" and the substance of the wine "into the substance of his precious blood,” (ἠεταβάλλεπαί εἰς την ονυσίαν,) the forms alone by which the elements are visible to the sight remaining, and that by divine appointment. 11. "That the Eucharist is a true propitiatory sacrifice offered up for all the pious, both living and dead, and for the benefit of all.

Of the scheme which we have now brought before our readers, it has justly been said that it unquestionably forms one of the most formidable confederacies of modern times. "From such a confederacy may God deliver our country and the world-a confederacy from which the cause of Christ can have nothing to hope, but everything to fear-a union which would prove destructive, to the extent of the power which it might be capable of putting forth, of civil and religious liberty union which would UNPROTESTANTISE THE CONSTITUTION, and put us once more under the iron hoof of a dominant and relentless hierarchy."

TESTIMONIAL TO J. C. COLQUHOUN, ESQ.

а

Ar a meeting lately held in the National Club, the Earl of Harrowby in the chair, a well-merited testimonial, consisting of an address and a magnificent piece of plate, was presented to J. C. Colquhoun, Esq., for his able and consistent advocacy of Protestant principles. No man in the kingdom is better entitled to this mark of respect, and we trust the presentation of it will be an encouragement both to him and others.

OUR LONDON CLASSES.

THE close of the London classes of the Rev. Robert Maguire, will be an occasion of great interest, and it is proposed to have a special meeting for the distribution of the prizes, at which we trust many friends of Protestantism will be present. There are no fewer than one hundred and twenty competitors for these prizes already, and therefore a very interesting competition may be expected, as well as an important closing meeting on the 14th of May.

POPERY AND THE SCOTCH POOR LAW BOARD.

VARIOUS proceedings have lately taken place in Edinburgh, which have excited just indignation, and which will require to be closely watched. The Romish priests have been demanding the entire custody and care of all Popish pauper children, the ordinary guardians chosen by the rate-payers being left the humble duty of simply handing over so much public money to them. Considering that Popery is such a parent of paupers, that in Ireland no law of settlement exists, whilst in Popish countries not even toleration, this is rather a bold proposal, although quite characteristic. The first object was to hand over these children to a Popish institution at Lanark, and thus to have that institution endowed from the public rates; and even yet their object is analogous, if not identical. The guardians have naturally and firmly resisted this demand; but unfortunately the board of supervision are apparently strongly in favour of the proposal of the priests, and write and act most overbearingly, if not insolently, on the subject. It is high time that order were taken with this despotic and anomalous board-a board whose existence in Scotland has been productive of an immense amount of mischief, and no good whatever, so far as we have been able to discover, beyond giving salaries to a few officials. Perhaps the best way of getting rid of what now threatens to become a still greater nuisance, is to petition for the abolition of this board of supervision altogether. It is totally unnecessary. The parochial boards of Scotland are quite capable of managing their own affairs. The Romanists will get full justice, as they in reality swallow up a large portion of the rates; but we shall at least be saved from the sin and folly of rearing up, under pretence of charity, a small Maynooth in every part of the kingdom at the expense of public taxation.

THE LATE HENRY CRAIGIE, ESQ. OF FALCONHALL.

THE Church and country have sustained a very great loss by_the removal, so very suddenly, of the late excellent Henry Craigie, Esq., President of the Scottish Reformation Society. In him there was a rare combination of ability and will, zeal and catholicity, great gentleness and unbending firmness. Most of the Christian institutions of the kingdom, but especially those in Edinburgh, will have cause to mourn his sudden removal from a sphere of very extensive usefulness. The friends of Protestantism in particular may well mourn the loss of one of its truest and most enlightened friends. Amongst his last acts was to promise a donation towards the completion of the Protestant Institute of Scotland, and another towards the establishment of the London classes. He "rests from his labours, and his works do follow him." Amidst so many losses we may well exclaim: "Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, and the faithful fail from amongst the children of men."

POPISH TACTICS IN PARLIAMENT.
(From our London Correspondent.)

[This letter was written before the discussions on the "Offices and Oaths," and other bills.]-ED.

WITH one remarkable exception the Roman Catholic body has been rather quiet during the past month. There are two objects at which they labour-the alteration of the tenure of land, and the advancement of their own religion. The two are not so widely separated from each other as might at first sight be supposed. At any rate the priest party find a way to connect the two questions. It would, of course, be absurd in these pages to go into the question of political economy as connected with the land question. The demands of the Irish members for compensation to tenants' improvements, and the way in which this compensation is to be given, may be right or wrong in itself, but there is no doubt that its warm interest in the eyes of the priests lies in the effect such a measure is likely to have on the continued residence of their people in the country, or the decrease of that emigration, which has already had such an injurious influence upon their position. Hence the keen interest which they take in the matter; hence, too, the difficulty in settling the question, arising from the fact, that they constantly increase in their demands; and the more a Government shows itself willing to concede on the subject the more is demanded from them, till one Ministry after another gives up the question in despair. It is anticipated that this will be the fate of the Bills which the present Government has introduced. Indeed, it is already said they are to be withdrawn.

The exception to which I referred was the debate on the Irish Church -a debate remarkable for many matters, and which will probably form an epoch in this question. It is very obvious, after what occurred then, and after the division, that the Protestant Establishment in Ireland is in great peril; and it therefore behoves the friends of Protestantism in that country to make up their mind what is to be done. For it is not the Romanists alone that assail it; its enemies are to be found quite as determined in England, and even in Scotland, among men whose personal Protestantism is not to be for an instant suspected. Indeed, all through the discussion the Protestants took the most prominent part, the Romanists wisely leaving them to fight their battle. The motion was made by Sir John Gray, the member for Kilkenny, who is or was a Presbyterian, and still professes to be a Protestant, though he is the proprietor and the editor of that organ of the Irish priesthood, the Freeman's Journal. His motion for an inquiry into the condition of the Irish Church Establishment, was seconded by Colonel Greville Nugent, also a Protestant, though a member for a Roman Catholic constituency. So these gentlemen are both professing Liberals, and probably owed their seats to the hostility they professed to the Church Establishment. The part they took is not difficult to be accounted for. But the remarkable thing was the ground taken up by the friends of the establishment. A few years ago such a motion would hardly have found a score of supporters in the House, and it would have met with an indignant negative. Now matters are so changed that the warmest friends and supporters of the Church Establishment durst not venture to directly oppose the resolution. The utmost they ventured to do was to meet it by VOL. XVI. NO. CXCII.-JUNE 1867.

M

moving the previous question-that is to say, by affirming that it was not expedient at the present time to give any opinion on it whatever. This was the course taken-this was the counter-proposal made by the members for such strong Protestant communities as Londonderry and Armagh. It is true that in their speeches, Sir Frederick Heygate and Mr Vance, the members in question, were bold enough in asserting the value of the Church Establishment, its importance to the State, and the benefits it conferred even upon the Roman Catholic population, but they despaired of getting the House of Commons to agree with them in these opinions; and so the utmost they ventured to ask, was that the House would express no opinion at all. The members of Government probably suggested this inglorious solution of the difficulty, and Lord Naas, the Irish Secretary, made a long speech of a very apologetic tendency, at least it instituted a very languid defence of the Established Church. But the speech of Mr Gladstone was still more extraordinary. It has been suspected for some time that that gentleman looked with no eyes of favour on the Irish establishment, though, as long as he represented the University of Oxford, he kept his opinions very much to himself. Even now that he is relieved from the ties of an ecclesiastical constituency, the traces of his early training hang about him, and he cannot make up his mind to go the whole length of the agitators, whose principles he supports; this was curiously apparent in the course of the debate. His speech was as thorough an attack upon the Establishment, and a plea for eradicating it root and branch, as ever could have fallen from the lips of the most bigoted Papist, or the most determined Voluntary. If the Protestant Establishment deserved half of the hard charges brought against it, it did not deserve to exist for a single day longer. It was therefore with some surprise that his audience found all these bold and sweeping averments were to be followed out in practice by a vote for the previous question. It was true, he urged the plea that Parliament had already its hands full of business; and as it could not proceed to legislate on the question this year, there was no use in coming to a vote. It would have been equally good for them not to moot the question at all. However, he evidently expected that Sir John Gray and the Irish members, or, failing them, the great body of the Liberal party, would follow him in this resolution, to abstain from coming to any vote at all. He soon found out his mistake. The Irish members would not withdraw the motion. The great body of the Liberals refused to follow their leader, and Mr Gladstone, unwilling to disoblige them, and unable to act with them, left the House without giving any vote at all. He was followed out by Sir Roundell Palmer, also a strong supporter of the English Church Establishment; the rest of the Liberals, with scarcely an exception, voted for the motion.

As for the Irish Roman Catholic members, they took, as I have said, little part in the debate. Of course they were unanimous in holding that the Establishment was a badge of conquest, and as such hateful, and that there would be no peace in the country till it was removed—a prophecy which they are doing their very best to fulfil; but on the question, What is to be done with the revenues of the Establishment? they differed considerably from the Protestant speakers. Mr Chichester Fortescue, the Irish Secretary among the Liberals, sketched out a plan for the distribution of the revenues of the Establishment, by which they would be