selves: let each individual, as far as lies in him, or in her, afford some pledge of fidelity to our injured brethren and their cause. Do you remember the great meeting, and its adjourned continuation, in the beginning of the year 1832, to express our sympathy with the Protestants of Ireland? Those assemblages produced much good: they at once stirred up the minds of the Englishmen, and soothed those of our dear fellow-subjects. Why can we not call similar meetings in our towns, villages, parishes, neighbourhoods, for conveying to them the renewed assurance of our devoted attachment to their cause? Why should we appear phlegmatic and unsympathizing, for lack of a few such efforts to prove the contrary? The smothered embers will yet be liable to burst out, if we hold back from this holy alliance, as it most truly is: and the frequent meeting together of Ireland's friends, though a small matter at first, might ultimately produce very important results, both in a political and spiritual point of view.'

'But what if all be vain, uncle? What if the career of unjust oppression be unchecked, and the loyal Christians of Ireland be still required to lay their bodies as the streets, for all to pass over?'

'Don't anticipate evil, child,' interrupted my uncle, with a frown that was not intended for me. 'I will not believe my country to be so degraded- so lost to every vestige of honour, justice, and religion. Make the experiment: and if it fails'. Here he paused,

looked up, and concluded in these words, "The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: he is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them: he shall deliver them

from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in Him."

The next time my uncle alluded to this subject, he spoke with even more than his wonted earnestness; asking me whether I was prepared to act upon the hint of the preceding page. I replied in the affirmative; adding, however, a doubt as to the little that we could do being of any avail. He looked displeased.

Nothing will avail, if you persist in calculating on numerical strength, and individual influence. I demand of you, not whether you can act as a lever on a mighty mass of human beings; but whether you are ready to make a personal application to a few pious friends around you, stating the present situation of the Protestants of Ireland, and inviting them to meet, as a private party of Christians, for the purpose of considering what may be done towards strengthening the hands of your suffering brethren in Ireland, by an assurance of attachment, of sympathy, and above all, of united prayer on their behalf. I would likewise wish you to sign a mutual declaration, among yourselves that you will ever consider the cause of Protestantism in Ireland as one and the same with that of Protestantism in England. I would have you address some friend of tried attachment to the cause of truth, in each quarter where you have such a correspondent, pressing on him, or her, the example which you set at home. Hold your meetings every fortnight, every month, or as you please, at each other's houses. Invite some truly Protestant clergyman, or, in the absence of such, a layman acquainted with Ireland, to address you, and to lead the prayer, which ought to be the principal end of your assembling. And oh, remember the exceeding rich and precious promise of Him

who has declared, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there will I be in the midst of them." It is not for you to calculate what may be the effect of even the first step in such a proceeding : or how the snow-ball may gather as it rolls along. I dread the deep devices of the bold, bad men, who know how to overawe the timid, because unstable minds of those who direct the administration of public affairs. They are plotting to circumvent our constitutional efforts for establishing the freedom and purity of election. Their object is to goad the Irish Protestants into the line of conduct which we were deprecating the other day and shall we not beseech the Lord to guide and guard his little flock -shall we not pour into their rankling wounds the balm of brotherly love, and soothe their harassed minds by words of cordial affection? Promise me that you will do this.'

'I do promise: I do pledge myself that, the Lord permitting, I will, before the first fortnight of the present month has expired, assemble such a party as you speak of; and by every means sustain it. How we succeed, may be made known in a future number. Meantime let all who love the Lord, and hate the destroyer of their brethren's souls, "go, and do likewise."