A meeting of three hundred gentlemen, convened by private circular'
was held on Thursday in Exeter Hall, for the purpose of giving ex- tension and increased efficiency to the Protestant Association formed in June 1835, and whose existence has almost fallen out of public re- collection. A very long-winded resolution was moved by a Mr. J. E. Gordon, seconded by the Honourable H. B. Bernard. It con- sisted chiefly of denunciations of "the Infidel party," and lamenta- tiou at the growth of Popery. We have seldom read such a quint- essence of cool and conceited bigotry. The following may pass as a specimen of Exeter Hall Protestantism. In our own days a theory heretqfirre scarcely heard if has been started, which wholly repudiates these principles and this policy. It assumes Chid the State does not. and cannot, know which is the true religion. or whether there be any such thing as truth or certainty in religious matters. * • • The Infidel 'tarty, or, to speak as leniently as may be, the party consisting of those who have no religious faith or any preference of their own, is the natural parent of this theory. Not having taken the trouble to learn for themselves that the Bible is the Word of God, but having chosen to leave the whole question of the truth of Christianity uninvestigatetl and undecided, they are very naturally, though not very justly, apt to resent. and to dislike the assumption by any other persons that this most important certainty. this must valuable of all kinds of knowledge, is theirs. Disbelief tieing their chosen creed, un- certainty the rest they have taken up, wilful ignorance their refuge, and in some de- gree their pride, they demand, as we have already said. unjustly, but not unnaturally, that ignorance, uncertainty, and disbelief. shall be the declared creed of the nation. Refusing to open their con eyes to the rays of the sun, they require in the name of justice cud equality that darkness shall reign throughout the realm." Other resolutions, recommending opposition to the " Infidel" efforts to " destroy the Protestant character of the Constitution," and for the appointment of a Committee to act in behalf the Association, were agreed to. A meeting on a more extended scale is to be held on the
11th of May.
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