POSTSCRIPT.
SATURDAY.
The members and friends of "the Protestant Alliance" made a de- monstration at Freemason's Hall, yesterday. A large, respectable, and enthusiastic assemblage of persons, met under the Earl of Shaftesbury's auspices ; and, after hearing Protestant orators of the Established Church and Nonconformist denominations, passed resolutions " touching the Pa- pal persecutions on the Continent, and for petitioning both Houses of Par- liament for the repeal of the Maynooth Endowment Act." Lord Shaftesbury took the chair, surrounded by a huge company of well- known gentlemen—the Honourable Mr. Kinnaird, Sir Culling Eardly, Admirals Cater, Vernon Harcourt, and Hope, Sir Thomas Ithanefield and some other Protestant Baronets, Mr. Frewen M.1'., Mr. Tollemache M.P., Mr. W. A. Hankey, Mr. W. B. Guns -y, Mr. Seeley, and Mr. Paul Foskett, Dr. Cox, Dr. Campbell, Dr. Bunting, Mr. T. Biuney, &c. The speakers, in addition to the Chairman, were Mr. Colquhoun, Dr. Tidman, Secretary of the London Missionary Society the Reverend R. Burgess, Rector of Upper Chelsea, the Reverend NV. Chalmers, Sir Cul- ling Eardly, the Reverend F. Close of Cheltenham, the Reverend C. Prest, Wesleyan minister, the Reverend Dr. liege, from Scotland, Mr. J. C. Evans, and Mr. Frewen M.1'. The proceedings comment with prayer by the Reverend E. Auriol, and ended with pr.tyer by the Reve- rend Dr. Steanc.
The resolutions were as follows.
1. "That the revival, on the part of the Church of Rome, of the loftiest preten- sions and most intolerant doctrines of the Papacy of the middle ages, renders it the duty of all Protestants to unite, both for the defence of their civil and religious liberties, and for the maintenance of that revealed truth on which depend alike the temporal and eternal happiness of mankind."
2. "That the recent movements of the 'bullish priesthood throughout Continental Europe, coupled with their late aggressive proceedings in England, prove the exist- ence of a settled purpose to os erthrow religious freedom ; while their success in France, in prosecutions for the sale of controversial tracts, and in preventing the cir- culation of the Holy Scriptures. shows to what an extent that freedom may be cur- tailed, even under a constitution framed to secure both civil and religious liberty. That this meeting, therefore, approves of the purpose of the Committee of the Pro- testant Alliance to interpose, whenever practicable, in behalf of those suffering wrong at the hands of that priesthood ; and it calls upon the Protestants of all coun- tries, and especially upon those of the United States of America, to unite with the people of Great Britain in defence of those, principles of the glorious Reformation for which our ancestors laboured and suffered."
3. "That this meeting desires to express its sense of the contrast afforded to this retrograde movement in France and elsewhere, by the protection recently given by the Government of Piedmont to the ancient church of the Waldenses, and by the firm- ness with which that Government has withstood the arrogant pretensions of the Pa- pal priesthood. It trusts that the house of Savoy may have the honour of carrying on to completion the stork of liberty of conscience, the surest guarantee of civil free- dom and national prosperity. And it desires to express its firm conviction, that in maintaining the independence of the Sardinian crown against the aggressive claims of Rome, the Piedmontese Government may rely on the warmest sympathy of the peo- ple of Great Britain."
4. " That, as the nearest and most practical duty of the British people, an earnest endeavour ought forthwith to be made to terminate that intimate connexion with Rome into which this Protestant nation was brought in 1845, by the act which settled upon Maynooth College a permanent national endowment. And that for this purpose pe- titions to both Houses of Parliament be now adopted, praying for the immediate and total repeal of that enactment."
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