nuity and your popular eloquence, to invalidate the plain simple statements of fact and document that shall there be laid before the public. What these may be it is unnecessary now to state. It is better not to prejudice the public mind beyond what the necessity of the case requires. Do not retire, Sir, into the House of Commons, where I and my friends cannot meet you-do not bluster there, and complain that the Irish Protestant clergy come over here to malign your pious bishops. Do not go over to Ireland, and tell the Roman Catholics that we malign their religion, and do not tell them what a drubbing we should have got, could you but have met us foot to foot.' Come, Sir, we shall meet you with the courtesies and the courage of war-but, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.' I have longed to meet you on a fair field, and no favour. But, in common with all the Roman Catholics of Ireland who shall hear the case, as far as their priests cannot prevent them, you will find that your system will not bear the light of any human tribunal; and if not,-if you and your bishops must shrink in conscious apprehension from that ordeal-I warn you, not as an enemy, but as a friend, to reflect, before it be too late, how you and they shall appear when you come to stand in judgment at the bar of God. "I write to you, Sir, with very little feeling of personal consideration. As far as I am concerned, I am physically unable to cope with any opponent; if I can speak a little, it is all I can hope to be enabled to do. I thank God the cause is in the hands of abler and better men, but if I could speak only a few words, and that they were the last I could speak even for my country, they should be to express a wish that my poor countrymen might be brought out of the deep darkness of Popery into the glorious light of the Gospel, and become in reality what they have been called in fable, an island of saints'- Then Ireland shall be, 'great, glorious, and free, First flower of the earth, and first gem of the sea.' "This is the true and only Emancipation,' for which I am your servant and faithful labourer, "London, June 13." "R. J. M'GHEE. FIRST DAY'S PROCEEDINGS. The first great meeting at Exeter Hall was held on Saturday, June 20, 1835. It was expected that either the Roman Catholic clergy would have themselves attended the meeting, or have delegated some persons on their behalf to do so; and consequently the greatest excitement pervaded the public mind to witness a discussion in which the tenets of the Church of Rome were to be publicly impugned. Eleven o'clock was the hour appointed for the commencement of the proceedings, but long before that period every seat in the Hall was occupied. Among the noblemen and gentlemen who occupied the platform were the following: Earl of Roden, Earl of Galloway, Earl of Bandon. Honourable Francis Bernard; Honourable Captain J. A. Maude, R.N.; Honourable Captain Francis Maude, R.N.; Honourable Randolph H. Plunkett; Honourable and Rev. Sir Francis Stapleton, Bart.; Honourable Colonel J. Wingfield Stratford; Honourable J. King. Rev. Sir Harcourt Lees, Bart.; Sir Robert Shaw, Bart.; Right Hon. Sir George Rose, Bart. Right Hon. Frederick Shaw, M.P.; William Verner, M.P.; Alexander Perceval, M.P.; Henry Maxwell, M.P.; Anthony Lefroy, M.P.; A. Chisholm, M.P.; Alexander Pringle, M.P.; C. L. Cuming Bruce, M.P.; Lawson, M.P.; J. Hardy, M.P.; James A. Stewart Mackenzie, M.P.; J. D. Jackson, M.P.; Richard Longfield, M.P.; James B. Praed, M.P.; Ralph Sheldon, M.P.; George Finch, M.P.; J. H. Calcraft, M.P.; Sir Robert Bateson, Bart. M.P.; Sir Edmund S. Hayes, Bart. M.P.; W. E. Gladstone, M.P.; J. P. Plumptre, M.P.; M. Archdall, M.P.; Balfour, M.P. Rev. Mr. Benson, Master of the Temple; Rev. Dr. Holloway, Rev. Dr. Kenney, Rev. Samuel O'Sullivan, Rev. H. Beamish, Rev. Edw. Nangle, Rev. Dr. Jelf, Rev. J. Cator, Rev. Dr. Thorpe. John Wynne, Esq., of Hazlewood; William Cunningham, Esq., of Lanesborough; John Poynder, Esq., J. E. Gordon, Esq., Somerset Richard Maxwell, Esq., Captain Saurin, R.N., Lieutenant-Colonel Le Blanc, Colonel Phipps, Thomas Verner, Esq., Thomas Stewart, Esq. Among the ladies were the following: The Marchioness of Ormonde, Lady Caroline Calcraft, Lady Barham, the Countess of Roden, Ladies Elizabeth and Maria Jocelyn Hon. Mrs. Lefroy, Hon. Mrs. Maxwell, Hon. Lady Stapleton, Hon. Mrs. James King, &c. &c. At a few minutes past eleven o'clock Lord Kenyon appeared upon the platform, and was loudly cheered. MR. HARDY, M. P., having moved that Lord Kenyon do take the chair, and the motion having been seconded, his Lordship took the chair accordingly. HIS LORDSHIP addressed the meeting in the following terms:On this most important and solemn occasion, I am not going to intrude any observations of my own upon the meeting. We are here summoned upon one of the most important and sacred occasions upon which Christians can be called together, and I am sure I only say that which will meet with a corresponding feeling from all present, when I suggest that the proceedings should be opened by a prayer to Almighty God; I therefore call upon the Rev. Dr. Holloway to open the business of the meeting by prayer. DR. HOLLOWAY then came forward, and with due solemnity repeated the following prayer : : "Almighty and everlasting God, who art the God of all the earth, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom and through whom we have at all times free access to thy divine Majesty, we bless and praise thee for the revelation of thy holy name, which thou hast given unto us in him, and we pray thee of thine infinite goodness to enable us to understand that name in spirit and in truth. We praise thee that we are permitted to ask counsel at thine hand; we bless thee that thou hast promised to preside at the head of thy church, and to be by thy wisdom an unerring guide, and to conduct us in all things that concern thine heavenly kingdom. Blessed Lord, we are here assembled to deliberate upon the truths of thy kingdom. We pray thee to preside over us, and grant that we may receive the revelation of thy word in spirit and in truth. May those who conduct thy service in the influence of thy Holy Spirit, and who have their hearts open to receive the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, enter into thy kingdom; and may the day be fast approaching when all shall know thee, from the least to the highest. Remove out of us all mistakes, delusions, and heresy; engraft thy word upon our hearts in all simplicity and truth, and glorify the name of God, we humbly beseech thee, through the instrumentality of those who are assembled before thee. Pardon our sins, we pray thee, for thy dear Son's sake, and enable us to conclude our imperfect petitions in the words and in the spirit of our blessed Redeemer, who taught us, saying, " Our Father," &c. (The meeting joined the Rev. gentleman in repeating the Lord's Prayer.) LORD KENYON then said-Before any of those who are appointed to address the meeting proceed to do so, I think it desirable, for the sake of making the business more distinct to the great assembly here present, to read the notice which was given for holding this meeting. (The noble lord here read the notice.) With respect to the rules to be observed, I am anxious that those rules should likewise be perfectly understood by all present. Having read the rules, his Lordship said-I now beg leave to notify to the meeting that the Rev. Mr. M'Ghee is about to address them. The REV. ROBERT J. M'GHEE said-My Lord, before I enter upon the subject on which I have been appointed to address this meeting to-day, I am obliged very reluctantly to state, that after the meeting had been fixed beyond the power of revocation, the appointment of the visitation for the archdiocese of Dublin necessarily prevented the attendance here of the Dean of St. Patrick's and the Rev. Robert Daly. I mention this circumstance with peculiar reluctance, because if they had been enabled to come in time, my friend, Mr. Daly, would have taken the place which I feel comparatively so very unworthy, and, I regret to add, physically, unable to occupy. Labouring as I do under much pain and weakness in that organ which I am now obliged to exert-knowing that the statements which I have to make are necessarily prefatory to the observations of those who are to follow me-unable to throw any additional weight upon them-and being thus deprived of the assistance of my reverend friend, Mr. Daly, I really should have sunk under the apprehension of the important duty which has devolved upon me, and the consciousness of my own incapacity, if my reverend brother, Mr. Tottenham, had not come to me at a moment's notice. I have put him in possession of the statements which I have to make, and I trust to your kind indulgence to permit him to assist me in reading the documents which must necessarily be submitted to you, and if I should be unable to conclude my address, to allow him to finish the statements which are to be made. Throwing myself, therefore, upon your kind indulgence, I shall proceed to the subject which has called us together. We cannot but regret the necessity which has obliged us to publish any document that might be supposed to have even a tendency to lead this meeting to prejudge the case which is to be submitted to it, or to cast any imputation upon the Roman Catholic hierarchy or priesthood of Ireland: but if we had brought forward charges against men, regarding their doctrines or principles, without giving them an opportunity of knowing the nature of those charges, and of coming forward to meet and answer them in public if they pleased, then, indeed, we should have been accused, and justly accused, of misleading your judgment, as it were by stealth, and of attempting to excite a prejudice which the objects of it had not an opportunity to counteract. This, you feel, would be an injustice, and, therefore, we were obliged to publish the statement which many of you have read: but you will permit me, if any wrong has been done, to redeem it by reminding you, that it is the principle of British justice to presume every man innocent until he is proved to be guilty. Let me, then, in their behalf—since the Roman Catholic prelates have neither come here themselves, nor delegated any of their clergy, or any Roman Catholic layman, to appear amongst us-permit me, in their behalf, to remind you, that it is your duty not to receive any charge or imputation against their doctrines or principles except such as shall be fairly, positively, and conclusively established to your sober judgment and conviction; so that when any resolution of yours is brought forward upon those grounds, it will bear your own calm and deliberate reflection, and will go forth, I trust, with weight and power to the remotest corners of your country. The statements which are to be submitted to you consist of two plain matters of fact. The first is, that a certain book—this book— Dens's Complete Body of Theology, has been adopted by the Roman Catholic prelates of Ireland as the standard guide of the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland for twenty-seven years past, namely, from the year 1808, to the present year. The second point to which your attention will be called is a consideration of the nature of that book. In the first statement which I shall have to make, I am happy to |