« Thro' what new scenes and change mus we par The wide, the unbounded prospect is in 1. PROTESTANTS OF ENGLAND-The hour of trial has come and shall we not appeal to you at a moment when our properties, our Berties, and our religion, are at stake-united by the sacred bonds of fellow-citizenship, of Christian brotherhooddevoted subjects of a common King-believers in a common faith? Shall our appeal be vain to those at whose side we fought and gained the battle of freedom's cause on foreign shores? Shall those who were willing to " spend and be spent," to check the scourge of tyranny's rod, when it threatened Europe with devastation, now remain careless or inactive, when the sword of Popery and superstition hangs suspended over our heads? Remember, fellow-countrymen, the thread once sre F ped, the bright hope of liberty, of life, and truth is cut off from our benighted land. Providence may over-rule, it is true, the wickedness of men to his own wise purposes; and had we not this rock of hope to rest upon, despair would long since have overwhelmed us, while the tide of revolution has been sweeping off all our institutions around us; but remember, that while it is our duty to await results with patience and submission, it is equally our duty to use the means that are given to us, for averting the danger with energy and vigour. What may be the result of the crisis to which public affairs have now come, no human foresight can enable us to say; but if we may judge of the future from our experience of the past-if we observe the rapid progress which the spirit of revolution has lately made, well may we anticipate the worst-quickly indeed may each of us "set his house in order." Among all the most zealous opponents of Roman Catholic emancipation, who was so rash as to prophesy the events, which are now passing before our eyes? Of all the solemn warnings, which were uttered by those, who most dreaded the passing of the Reform Bill, which ventured to assert that the prerogative of the Crown would so soon be rendered a nullity? Some men hazarded the doubt that his Majesty would have the free choice of his ministers at certain moments of great excitement on any popu lar question (and we need not recur to the taunts and sneers which they encountered for the absurdity of the apprehension) but, gracious Heaven! who would have had the hardihood to predict the phenomenon which we now see? A majority of the House of Commons (reformed, forsooth, for the very purpose of making it a more perfect reflection of the sentiments and feelings of the people) diametrically opposed to all the rank, property, and intelligence of the country-public time wasted-public business interrupted-the nation deprived of the services of such a minister as Sir Robert Peeluniting, confessedly, more of the natural qualities and attainments, essential to the character of an eminent statesman, than any man of the present day— solely to gratify the spirit of faction, and by the opposition of those very men, whose incapacity to carry on the government, compelled him to undertake the arduous task in which he was engaged. We challenge any fair man to shew a plausible claim to office, which the present ministry can advance, except their holy alliance with the Irish radicals in the House of Commons, and their successful display of tactique in conducting a factious opposition to Sir Robert Peel's administration-and on this ground alone you are called on to sanction a cabinet without any pretension to the talent, the principle, or the character, which used formerly to give "Thro' what new scenes and changes must we pass PROTESTANTS OF ENGLAND -The hour of trial has come and shall we not appeal to you at a moment when our properties, our liberties, and our religion, are at stake-united by the sacred bonds of fellow-citizenship, of Christian brotherhooddevoted subjects of a common King—believers in a common faith? Shall our appeal be vain to those at whose side we fought and gained the battle of freedom's cause on foreign shores? Shall those who were willing to "spend and be spent," to check the scourge of tyranny's rod, when it threatened Europe with devastation, now remain careless or inactive, when the sword of Popery and superstition hangs suspended over our heads? Remember, fellow-countrymen, the thread once snap .B |