The passage in the report of my speech of which Mr. O'Connell quoted a mutilated extract is as follows: "I have said that the Church of Rome, when she wanted to corrupt the minds of the English people sent into England God's holy Gospel to teach that lesson which God's enemy is ever endeavouring to teach-to teach the principle—and remember that this is Mr. O'Connell's account-that it is essential to the Catholic faith to believe it right to murder or break faith with heretics.' "Such is the passage from which Mr. O'Connell's extret has been quoted. It contains a reference to very grave charges against the Church of Rome, and name Mr. O'Connell as a witness by whom they are corroborated: I proceed to show on what authority. The charges which I preferred against the Church of Rome on account of the publication of the Rhemish Testament were two 1st. That the notes appended to it were intended to excite disaffection in England. 2d. That they were calculated to teach perfidy and intolerance. "Mr. O'Connell has testified to the truth of both. I cite the acknowledgments contained in the Dublin Review, of which he is avowedly an editor. "The first charge is thus confirmed "The notes of the New Testament were undoubtedly intended to prepare the public mind for the invasion meditated by Philip II., when he projected the schemes of his armada. They were in unison with the celebrated sentence and declaration of Pope Sextus Quintus, which designated Elizabeth as an illegitimate daughter of Henry VIII.— —as an usurper and unjust ruler, who ought to be deposed-and as a heretic and schismatic, whom it was not only lawful, but commendable to destroy.'Dublin Review, edited by the Very Rev. N. Wiseman, D. O'Connell, and M. J. Quin, Esq. No. II., p. 505. "So much for the design of the Rhemish notes. What is their character? "To this question we have, also, Mr. O'Connell's answer, confirming the second accusation against his church. The topic of the Rhemish notes was incidentally brought under their' (Catholic Board's) consideration by Mr. O'Connell, on the 3d of December,' (1817,) when he is reported by the Dublin Evening Post to have spoken of these compositions in the following terms : "He owed it to his religion, as a Catholic and a Christian-to his country, as an Irishman-to his feelings, as a human being-to utterly denounce the damnable doctrines contained in the notes to the Rhemish Testament. He was a Catholic upon principle-a steadfast and sincere Catholic, from a conviction that it was the best form of religion; but he would not remain so one hour longer, if he thought it essential to the profession of the Catholic faith to believe that it was lawful to murder Protestants, or that faith might be innocently broken with heretics. Yet such were the doctrines laid down in the notes to the Rhemish Testament.'-Dublin Review, No. II. p. 516. "Such is Mr. O'Connell's character of the Rhemish annotations. The result of his unsuccessful effort to produce a disclaimer of them might not uncharitably be adduced as indicating the character of his church. The Catholic Board' refused to disavow them, adopting, as an amendment to Mr. O'Connell's motion for a disclaimer, That a committee be appointed to prepare an address on the occasion of the re-publication of the Rhemish notes, with a view to have the same submitted to an aggregate meeting’—Dublin Evening Post, Dec. 6, 1817. The Roman Catholic bishops declined to disavow them. Dr. Troy, in order to avert Protestant indignation, (as Mr. Coyne testifies,) prohibited them in the diocess of Dublin, while his ecclesiastical brethren recommended them to their subjects' in every other part of Ireland-so unavailing were Mr. O'Connell's endeavours-so unconsequential his quarrel with the instruments for teaching damnable' doctrine. The Church of Rome has neither renounced the Rhemish notes, nor forfeited Mr. O'Connell's allegiance. I do not inquire why. It is sufficient for the present to have answered the questions proposed to me, and to leave with my accuser to decide upon the manner, whether in silence or in storm, in which he will make confession of having done me wrong. I have but one further charge to answer. Mr. O'Connell complains that I do not take the doctrine of his church from his catechisms and books of instruc tion.' It is not from such books only that I have sought information; but I have sought it from books of authority. As to those catechisms to which reference is most frequently made, I set little value upon them :-first, because Dr. Doyle disparaged them, affirming that printers in country towns print them off without consulting us at all,' (House of Lords, 1825); and secondly, because I cannot ascertain the sense in which they are understood by individuals who have sworn the qualification oath taken by Roman Catholics, and who can conscientiously act as if it imposed no restraint upon them. When Protestants are enabled to understand how the Church of Rome interprets that oath, they may seek information in the catechisms.' "I am, sir, your obedient servant, "MORTIMER O'SULLIVAN." Contrary to the promise implied in his letter, Mr. O'Connell made no reply; the reader can, probably, interpret his silence. The passage which the learned gentleman professed to quote from the Morning Chronicle, appeared in that journal (as Dr. O'Sullivan discovered after the date of his letter) as only a portion of a sentence. Mr. O'Connell is responsible for the mutilation. On Thursday, October 13th, was held the first anniversary of the Hereford Protestant Association, the report of which is as follows :— 385 FIRST ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE HEREFORD PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION, On Thursday, October 13th, 1836. CORRECTED FROM THE REPORT OF THE ASSOCIATION. THE first Anniversary Meeting of this Institution was held in the Shire Hall, at Hereford, on Thursday, October 13th, when an overflowing attendance of all classes of the community evinced the depth and extent of the impression left upon the public mind by the exertions of the association. The public will remember the first meeting of last year, the effects of which, indeed, from the powerful speeches of the Revd. Messrs. M'Ghee and O'Sullivan, and the various correspondences to which they afterwards gave rise, attained to an interest not less than national. The numbers which on that occasion entirely filled the noble room of the Hall, (no less than 1300 tickets having been applied for,) prove beyond question that a most intense and wide-spread interest has been created upon this all-important question, and is rather increasing than diminishing. We were pleased to observe that the only difference in the character of this meeting from that of last year, consisted in there being now present a decidedly larger proportion of the middling classes. Amongst those who attended were Sir J. G. Cotterell, Bart. and the Misses Cotterell; Sir E. and Lady Stanhope, Lady Coffin Greenlye, the Hon. Mrs. Allen, the Very Rev. the Dean of Hereford and Mrs. Mereweather, Archdeacon Wetherell and Mrs. Wetherell, the Revds. Dr. Clutton, Canon Matthews, R. M'Ghee, the Worshipful the Mayor, J. E. Gordon, Esq., and very many of the county clergy and gentry with their families. The arrangements adopted at the last year's meeting were again in operation, and produced the same results of order and the best accommodation for the numbers who crowded the Hall. On the motion of Sir Edwyn Scudamore Stanhope, Bart. seconded by Sir John Geers Cotterell, Bart. and passed amid loud applause, the treasurer, W. Henry Bellamy, Esq. took the chair. The Chairman said he was sure the meeting would agree with him in the propriety of seeking God's blessing on their proceedings that all 2 c VOL. II. they did might be overruled to His glory, and that they might be enabled to proceed to the business before them in a spirit of Christian charity. He would, therefore, take leave to call upon the Very Reverend the Dean to offer up a prayer, and requested the meeting would unite in his supplication. An appropriate prayer having been read by the Very Reverend the Dean, The Chairman briefly but most ably vindicated the association from the attacks which had been made upon it; and having read the following rules of the meeting 1. No person to be admitted without a ticket; 2. As the meeting is not convened for discussion, no persons but those deputed by the committee will be allowed to address the meeting; 3. Every person using the privilege of a ticket, is considered as pledged to adhere to the rules of the meeting, and to submit to the chair; called upon the Secretary, Mr. William Yapp, to read the Report, which is as follows: "THE FIRST REPORT " Of the Committee of the Protestant Association of the City and County of Hereford. "In presenting their first report, your committee feel it right briefly to advert to the circumstances under which this association took its rise. The providential discovery in the month of June, 1835, that the Theology of Peter Dens, a work containing the most revolting doctrines of intolerance and persecution, had been adopted by the Roman Catholic bishops of Ireland, as affording the most secure guidance to their clergy, and having also been set up as a text-book for the confe rence, of the Roman Catholic clergy in the province of Leinster, established the fact that those doctrines were held and inculcated at this day by the Church of Rome in Ireland. The circumstances connected with that discovery were laid before the public by the Rev. R. J. M'Ghee at two most numerously attended meetings at Exeter-hall, London, when the deep and awful importance of the facts, affecting as they did not merely the existence of the Protestant religion in Ireland, but the very lives and liberties of Protestants, awakened the British nation to a sense of its danger from the fearful encroachments and the intolerant and persecuting spirit of the Church of Rome in that country. A brief recapitulation by Mr. McGhee to a few gentlemen at a private meeting held in Hereford shortly after the Exeterhall meeting of the facts already alluded to, led to the formation of this association, for the purpose of disseminating a knowledge of the principles and practices of popery, and promoting the great principles of Protestantism, as maintained by the Established Church of England and Ireland.' And it is with feelings of devout thankfulness to God, that your committee advert to the fact, that this association was the first of the many similar institutions which have since sprung up in this country, and which, extending northward, even to Inverness, have banded together a large number of the clergy and laity of the Church of Scotland in determined opposition to the encroachments of papal tyranny. The great meeting of this association held in September of last year, is too fresh in the recollection of all to need of itself more than a passing notice. The deep importance of the addresses ered, and the resolutions passed on that occasion, induced your committee to an authentic report of it, and they feel it right to draw your particular to that report, inasmuch as it contains in the letter of the Rev. Patrick e secretary to Dr. Murray, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, there commented upon, strong confirmation of the facts alleged against the Irish Roman Catholic hierarchy at the previous meetings at Exeter-hall, and it thus forms an important sequel to the reports of those meetings. It will be recollected that shortly previous to the former meeting of this association, a letter appeared in the public papers from the Rev. R. J. M.Ghee to the Rev. Patrick Woods, inviting him to attend such meeting, and defend himself and the Roman Catholic hierarchy of Ireland against the charges alleged against them respecting the Theology of Dens. After the meeting, a letter from Mr. Woods appeared in one of the Hereford papers, addressed to the editor, in which Mr. Woods complained that the invitation to attend the meeting at Hereford had not been addressed to him by the committee of this association. Your committee feeling it incumbent upon them to afford Mr. Woods an opportunity of defending himself and the Roman Catholic bishops and priests of Ireland against the awful charges alleged, and in the unanimous opinion of the meeting in question proved against them, passed the following resolutions, which were immediately forwarded by your secretary to Mr. Woods, and inserted in the London, Dublin, and Hereford newspapers. "Resolved-That having seen a letter to the editor of the Hereford Times, signed P. Woods,' and being informed that this gentleman is the Roman Catholic priest who compiles, under Dr. Murray, the Directory, and the conferences of the Roman Catholic priesthood of the province of Leinster, and perceiving that he is the same person to whom a letter was addressed by the Rev. Robert J. McGhee, inviting him to come to the late meeting held in this city, we feel it due to that gentleman, to the cause of truth, and to all our Protestant and Roman Catholic friends and neighbours, to give publicity to our opinions and wishes on this subject. "Resolved-That it appears to us conclusively established by the gentlemen who have spoken both at Exeter-hall and in this city, that Dens's Theology had been adopted by the Roman Catholic bishops of Ireland as the guide for their priests, and by Dr. Murray, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, and the bishops of the province of Leinster, as the conference-book of their clergy, and that the questions actually proved to have been discussed in the private conferences of the Roman Catholic priests of that province, are those of intolerance and persecution, assuming the right over the persons, properties, liberties, and lives of heretics, which are not only at variance with all the professions made, even on oath, by those bishops, and generally by Roman Catholics, but are utterly intolerable in any free country, and irreconcilable to the nature of the Christian religion. "Resolved-That it appears to us from the statements made in our Shire Hall, that every fair opportunity has been afforded to the Roman Catholic hierarchy of meeting and disproving the charges made against their principles, but that they have not ventured to do so, and that it is, in our judgment, the duty of Protestants of all denominations, and of all those who really value the blessings of civil and religious liberty, to use all their endeavours to bring forward the truth clearly on this subject before the nation. "Resolved-That it appears to us that Mr. Woods having declined, as he states, to come over to this city on the occasion of the late meeting, because he was not invited by the chairman or secretary of our association, and also because he did not choose to appear before a partial chairman and a partial meeting, we feel it right to obviate the objections of this gentleman, and to use our best efforts to throw every light upon this important subject. "Resolved-That if Dr. Murray chooses to appoint Mr. Woods either alone or with any other Roman Catholic priests, to come to Hereford, on any day he may please to name, giving us a fortnight's notice, so as to enable us to make proper arrangements, or if Mr. Woods chooses to do so on his own responsibility, we will apply to the Rev. Gentlemen who have spoken on this subject, to come here again, to re-state the arguments they have already advanced, and to afford Mr. Woods and his friends an opportunity of meeting them. That we will request Charles Thomas Bodenham, Esq. our respected Roman Catholic neighbour, or any other respectable Roman Catholic gentleman resident in this county, to take the chair, in conjunction with our Protestant chairman, and that we will place at his disposal half the tickets for the meeting, to insure an impartial auditory for all parties, and that we shall gladly defray all the expenses incurred by the gentlemen on both sides, |