of Papistical superstitions and abuses." For Protestants to endow such a church or such a priesthood is a sin of the blackest dye!

"Speaking lies in hypocrisy" is a distinguishing characteristic of the priests of Rome. Bishop Newton observes :-" It is plain that the great apostasy of the latter times was to prevail through the hypocrisy of liars having their conscience seared with a hot iron. . . . A further character of these men is given in the following words, Forbidding to marry.' The same hypocritical liars, who should promote the worship of demons, should also prohibit lawful marriage." (Dissertation on the Prophecies, p. 434, Dobson's Edition.)

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The opinion of the bishops of the Church of England carries but little weight with our self-complacent statesmen.

The truth is, Popery is the real cause of Ireland's woes. Wherever this unhallowed system prevails, and has influence, there man is reduced to the lowest state of vice and degrada tion. "Of all bad governments, that of the Pope is generally acknowledged to be the worst. Far from desiring to effect improvements, the endeavour of the Pontiff is to retard all progress, and shut out every ray of light which could relieve the mediæval darkness in which the Papacy had its being." (The Quarterly Review, June, 1856, p. 215.)

...

The Rev. H. J. Roper of Bristol said in a speech,-" For the last eighteen years I have visited Papal lands, and so have seen Popery at home. But never have I visited those lands without a deeper sense of the enormous wrong done by Popery to the truth of God and to the best interests of nations; and never have I returned to my own country without a fresh and fuller conviction that no direr mischief, no weightier curse, could come upon England, than a restoration, or anything like a restoration, of the power of Popery."

The Rev. C. Bradley says:-"That our land is in danger, there can hardly be a doubt. Let us, one and all, beseech God, that if He must visit this guilty land with His judgments, He will visit it with any judgment rather than Popery. I have seen it in its mastery, where it was unfettered with human laws; and I can only say, that it never entered my mind to conceive the deformity of the thing, the degradation to which it could sink man, and the misery it could inflict on him, until I so beheld it..... May God, in His great mercy, save our dear England from such a curse!" This curse our statesmen are doing their best to bring on our country.

The Rev. G. Townsend, in his "Accusations of History against the Church of Rome," says:-"I have called Popery 'the enslaver and curse of mankind;' and the most deliberate survey of the state of Europe justifies the severity of my expression." (p. 490.)

Although the Pope in 1850 virtually invaded our country, insulted our sovereign, ignored our religion, and trampled upon our laws, our leading statesmen cherish for this most gigantic of all usurpers the most "profound respect." By so doing, they diminish our respect for themselves. In consequence of this insolent aggression on the part of a foreign and hostile potentate, the Ecclesiastical Tithes Act was passed, which from the commencement was all a sham, a mockery, and a delusion. It was never intended to carry it into practice, and it never has been, though violated again and again. Dr. Manning, the pseudo-archbishop of Westminster, tramples this Act under his feet, and treats it with utter contempt; and he is permitted to do so with impunity by those in authority, much to their discredit. This is part of that unpatriotic system of truckling to Popery for the sake of place, which marks the career of our present statesmen.

The time has arrived when Protestants ought to speak out in unmistakeable language. The enemy is coming in like a flood, and our country is being betrayed by men who have not a single particle of patriotism about them. They will do anything for place, just as the miser will do anything for gold. In fact, it is a game that they are playing, and a thoroughly selfish and unscrupulous game it is. The political conduct of these statesmen more resembles that of gamesters than patriots. This was evidently Mr. Warren's opinion, when, on the third reading of the Jews' Bill, he observed:-" He was not one of those who regarded the assertion of the Christian principle as a mere counter, with which politicians might play a game. He believed that the Christianity of the country was the mainspring of the welfare of this mighty empire."

Every step taken by our reckless and unprincipled statesmen in reference to Popery is in the wrong direction. They are for breaking down all the barriers which our Protestant forefathers raised up against the incursions of this wily and encroaching enemy.

These statesmen cannot see any idolatry whatever in the Church of Rome, although idolatry more gross, absurd, and palpable can nowhere be found. Romanists are taught by their priests to believe that if a mouse runs away with a bit of the consecrated wafer, it has run away with the body, soul, and divinity of Christ! This is the ne plus ultra of absurdity; farther in folly it seems impossible to go. Romanists

"Swallow nonsense and a lie with greediness and gluttony."

"England expects that every man will do his duty." She especially expects that those who aspire to fill important offices in the State will perform theirs. But, alas! how lamentably

short do they fall of doing so. There is much truth in the following remarks in the Churchman's Monthly Review:"It is deplorable to observe how this creeping timorous course (that of preferring the expedient to the right) prevails in high places, as if it were the perfection of wisdom in a statesman to have no fixed principles, no standard of appeal..... To secure a majority is their noblest triumph, not to glorify God, or promote the moral and spiritual welfare of mankind; and verily they have their reward." (1844, p. 354.)

Again; "England, yes, England has planted, matured, and still upholds Popery in Ireland. The recent acts of the Legislature have been pre-eminently calculated to hand over the Irish population, bound in spiritual fetters, to the uncontrolled tyranny of the Church of Rome. Protestantism has been frowned upon and discouraged; the ancient Protestant Church of Ireland has been robbed and persecuted; her bishoprics have been annihilated; her clergy have been spoliated; her Scriptural education of the population has been sacrificed; while the Church of Rome-a noxious, modern, and foreign exotic-has been petted, nurtured, and maintained by a British Government, falsely styling itself Protestant." (1846, p. 200.)

It appears from the Record of the 9th instant, that the Rev. J. R. Cotter has written to Earl Grey, pointing out the fallacy of his Lordship's late speech in the House of Lords, in regard to his allegation that the Church of Rome originally possessed the property of the Irish Church. Mr. Cotter speaks of the present Romish establishment as a comparatively upstart and novel thing, introduced during and after Queen Elizabeth's reign.

In the Protestant Magazine for April, 1853, we read as follows:-"Truckle as they (statesmen) will to Popery, they will find in it a tyrant that requires from them payment to the utmost of the price stipulated for its services, and holds them in servile subjection to its will and purpose.' Can anything be more degrading than the position of these statesmen?

Would that they could be prevailed upon to reverse their present antiProtestant and anti-British policy, and adopt a higher standard of morals more becoming British statesmen. They would not then lay themselves open to the withering reproof and severe moral castigation of the "leading journal of Europe." They are setting the country a bad example, for they trifle with their oath, and make light of idolatry, which they treat as no sin at all, when it is the very worst that man can commit against his Maker. They do not recognize God as the Moral Governor of this world, nor do they bow to the authority of His word. Expediency is their God, and, as statesmen, they know no other and they bow to no other. They may be nominal Christians,

but to all intents and purposes they are practical Infidels. All this confirms the truth of that Scripture which informs us that "the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." Such is poor human nature, and we all have reason to exclaim, "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not."

Bishop Wilson of Calcutta observes:-" Man is an apostate creature, and the course in which he walks is carnal, earthly, ignoble. Each class of society has its peculiar pretensions. The philosophers have their world. The statesmen have theirs, where political intrigue, the interests of party and of personal ambition, are too apt to prevail. ... At one season the plainest tenets of our national Church-such as the total corruption of human nature, and justification by faith alone-are questioned... Listen to the voice of Scripture. . . . . Study what it testifies against the world, as lying in wickedness, as being in a state of enmity against God." (Sermons, p. 182.)

The language used in this paper may seem to some persons too strong and vehement. But is there not a cause? Our country is in imminent peril from Infidelity and Popery, and what are our political leaders doing to arrest the progress of these fearful evils? Nothing! Protestants would do well to take for their motto, "Speak the Truth and shame the Devil!" It was by carrying out this maxim into practice that Luther, by the Divine blessing, achieved the great and glorious work which he did. There was nothing timid, vacillating, or pusillanimous about him. Anything is better than lukewarmness, which seems to be the besetting sin of our times.

I will close these remarks in the words of the Christian Observer for 1837, p. 184:-"In reading Luther, we get angry with his warmth; but when we close the page, and reflect upon the arts and frauds of Rome, from her doctrinal heresies to her practical corruptions; from her debasing superstitions and sacriligious inventions, to the racks and inquisitions by which she upheld them,—no language, that is not unbecoming a Christian to use, appears too severe to express the abhorrence of a virtuous and godly mind at the contemplation of such enormities; no language certainly can be stronger than that of Holy Writ in predicting them." G. POYNDER.

POETRY.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

SIR, Although I have not hitherto been a poetical contributor to your pages, I will venture to offer one or two suggestions for your consideration, and, if you should approve of them, for the consideration of your readers.

1. Few things are more difficult than to make good poetical versions of the Psalms. This must be evident from the failure in many instances of such men as Watts, Keble, and Lyte. We must despair of seeing any one person, however highly gifted, produce a good version of the Psalms. But a variety of persons may produce good versions of individual Psalms. Out of twenty attempts by the same person, one may succeed, and be generally adopted. How, then, shall the good one be selected and brought to the light?

2. Let your poetical contributors do their best upon such Psalms as take hold of their mind, and submit them to your adoption or rejection; content to abide cheerfully by your decision. If you should think fit to take the opinion of others in whose poetical taste you have confidence, they might be better satisfied in cases of rejection.

3. Again, I am strongly opposed to any alteration in a Psalm or Hymn when it is once launched for public use; but I see no objection-on the contrary, much advantage-in submitting a new Psalm or Hymn for the suggested alterations of others; and probably many authors would be willing to invite such suggestions.

It occurs to me, therefore, that if you would occasionally publish a proposed version of one of the Psalms, and invite the suggested alterations of friends, not for publication, but for the author's consideration, and would forward to the author any communications of this kind which you might receive, we might make some progress in this matter. The author would at length give you his latest version for consideration, with or without his name; and from your pages it might be added to our stock of generally accepted Psalms.

That I may give a practical turn to my communication, I beg to append a version of the 148th Psalm, made some years