may be suspended, and the one great end of all this patient labour attained, that of entangling, seizing, and devouring the destined prey.

Now, if any one should attentively consider this every-day phenomenon of crafty skill, yet assert that the spider held in view no hostile purpose against the flies, because it left not its progressing work to assail them in any other than this its natural mode of warfare, he would make but few converts to his charitable opinion. Many would decline subscribing to it, who nevertheless marvel at us because we read in the wider, deeper, and more artfully-constructed web of the papal spider, a similar plan of entangling and destroying its natural prey. He who has given to the former a propensity to subsist on the vital stream of an insect race, distinguished from itself by their power of rising from the clods of earth to the purer regions of ether, has characterized the latter, in express terms, as being "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." He has made nothing in vain; but we disregard the lesson, despise the warning, and allow the work to go on in peace, until its subtle mechanism is completed, and our own destruction thereby sealed.

One cannot help feeling a sort of shuddering admiration at the envenomed activity of this general foe. The web is not only wrought in a masterly style, but a master's step traverses its lines, and a master-hand directs, with marvellous singleness of purpose, every movement among its tortuous, yet unbroken threads. View the sections apart, each is adapted to act alone in purveying to the ravenous jaws of its proprietor; trace their combined operation, and no one appears independent of, or useless to, the grand design. It might be profitable to view in detail some of the threads seemingly detached, but which answer an important purpose in binding the rest together, and perfecting that sympathetic action on which the instantaneous seizure of every advantage so mainly depends. We err when confining our attention to the more compact and palpable regions of the web-to the clerical, the monastic, the official orders of the apostate community; there are lines of operation far removed from those, which render incalculable aid to the plan by extending far beyond the point of their reach, and attaching the machine to loftier, more stable supports than it would otherwise be enabled to grasp at. One of these filaments brings to its help the mighty power of the public press, in a measure not generally understood. Let it be conceded that every conscientious member of the papacy feels himself bound to labour for the advancement, or, as he will call it, the restoration, of the Romish see to her assumed pre-eminence, as "mother and mistress of all churches;" and to work for the accomplishment of the prayer so devoutly

breathed the other day over a brimming glass, that the paternal heart of the pope may speedily be gladdened by the reconversion of this heretical nation to the faith of Babylon the Great; let us concede this, for they can in fairness demand no less at our hands. Then look at one department of the national press-the reporting corps, and calculate how large a proportion of their number must be influenced by such a motive, while preparing for circulation the debates in our senate, the speeches delivered at our meetings, and whatsoever else it falls within their province to transfer from the lips of an orator to the columns of a journal. No imputation is cast upon these able and useful auxiliaries; but it appears singularly inconsistent with the character of a protestant press to give so little encouragement to Protestant talent in a branch of public service where a man is so tempted to enlarge where the speaker's sentiments coincide with his own strongest prejudices, and to dismiss, in a brief, meagre, unsatisfactory outline, what strongly militates against all that he considers holy and true. Left to the dictates of natural conscience, and the impulses of professional honour, these gentlemen might be safely trusted, in a matter where both are at stake; but this widely diverging line is equally under the control of the autocrat of the web; and who shall dare to say that if it were deemed expedient to bring it into more important operation than we have hitherto witnessed, the all-commanding mandate of him who assumes to grasp in his unhallowed hand the keys of heaven and hell would fail of stifling every other voice, and proving that it is no chance work which affords us a constant supply of most acute, able, well-informed men, backed by the influence that upholds the present anti-protestant government, and keeping the public in a great measure dependent on them for intelligence, that it behoves every man in the kingdom to receive as it was originally imparted, without any colouring, any suppression, the natural result of a strong bias in the party conveying it? Every break in this line is a gain: surely, then, the influence of those who possess it would be well employed in providing that vacancies, as they occur, should be filled up by men, not only Protestants by profession, but in vital reality Protestants. Many such there are scattered throughout it; but we all know which way the wind of patronage at present blows; and we may be assured that every gap will be filled up by those whom it wafts into the ports. I would not remove, I would not discourage a single individual now honourably fulfilling the duties of a highly respectable post; but to balance, at least, the respective sides would be fair to both parties; and it becomes doubly important with the Propaganda in full career. Of the latter, as a main cord of the web, more may be said anon.

THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY.

THE last Number of the "Quarterly Review" contains, under this title, a most powerful and important article, which we heartily commend to our readers, as a valuable and well-timed exposure of popish machinations. They will find in it matter for deep reflection, and warnings of vital interest to our beloved country. They will there see how Prussia is torn and tormented by jesuitical intrigues, and how bold is the attitude popery has now ventured to assume. We recommend them, therefore, to read that paper with deep attention, and then to look at home.

For is Prussia the only country popery desires to regain? Is Prussia, indeed, the only scene of her crafty ambition? Far from it. England, the vanguard of Protestantism, England, the land that has so often been the great object of popery's designs, England, we say, is still the spot on which the battle of civil liberty and religious truth must be fought. It may suit some to ridicule our prognostications of peril, and to smile at our fears; but those who look closely at the signs of the times well know that a tempest threatens the nation, and even now shakes its institutions. Already have the papists organized their strength in their Catholic Institute;* already has one of their converts, the Honourable and Reverend Mr. Spencer, announced the hope of the papists to re-conquer this island; nor are these empty demonstrations. In parliament, popery has a complete ascendancy; she contrives to turn the scale in every important division, and to force many measures of the most pernicious character on the executive. At court, in Ireland, and in the colonies, she shares the favour and the patronage of the crown; on the bench, some of the highest judges are her votaries; and, worse than all, the chief rulers of the country are her slaves!

* We perceive by the papers that the Earl of Shrewsbury and Lord Stafford, two popish noblemen, being at Rome, lately thought proper, at a solemn interview, to lay before the pope a copy of the rules of this "institute," and to obtain his sanction to it. May we venture to inquire, whether His Holiness or Queen Victoria is the sovereign of these peers? And if they really remember their coronation oaths, may we not beg to remind them that the obligation of allegiance to Queen Victoria is still binding on them-unless, indeed, they have obtained a dispensation? Moreover, we may remark, that there are acts of parliament against correspondence and connexion with the court of Rome, which subject all persons offending to the penalties of a premunire. Have Lords Shrewsbury and Stafford forgotten these statutes? or are the papists so accustomed to laugh at the laws of this kingdom that they think themselves entitled to whatever licence they may desire? Contrary to an express clause in the popish act of 1829, Archbishop M, Hale, and other popish bishops, have assumed the titles of testant bishops in Ireland; and they have, we regret to say, been left unprosecuted by the present priest-ridden government. We, perhaps, may therefore infer, that this example of impunity has stirred up the noble lords we have mentioned to their recent violation of their duty. But how long is popery to be allowed thus to beard the legislature, and to insult the people?

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Year after year has seen her chapels rising, her cathedrals and colleges increasing, her political power augmented, and protestantism discouraged or overborne. Where, now, is England's fair name among the nations of the earth? Where is the peerless fame that was once reflected on every individual in the land, so that a Briton was an honoured and a welcome visitant in every corner of the habitable globe? Alas! popery has blighted our promise, and paralyzed our strength. We are now a distracted, and too often a God-denying people; and his favour is lost, perhaps, for ever.

What, then, is the prospect before us? On what support can we rely? Would that we could discern through the gathering clouds one gleam of light, one ray of hope! The dissenters, we lament to observe, have chosen this crisis of the church's fate for their most violent assaults; and while they are attacking her openly, too many, calling themselves her friends, are endeavouring, or at least are apparently endeavouring, to undermine her. Some are aiding popery by explaining away the texts of scripture which prophetically explain her abominations; others are unsettling the minds of protestants, by softening the differences between truth and error. Pretensions the most extravagant, doctrines that question the sufficiency of scripture and exalt tradition, insinuations against the Reformation and the reformers, attempts to destroy the simplicity of Christianity; these things are now too frequently heard from men to whom it may be wrong to give the name, though they do the work, of Jesuits. And then, if we look at Ireland, we behold protestantism opposed and thwarted; we see popish priests educated by the government, and a system of education liberally supported, although the bible is mutilated by its conductors, a mixed body of papists and nominal protestants. The law appears powerless to protect the innocent, or to punish the guilty; and the royal prerogative of mercy is chiefly exerted to screen the few whom justice overtakes. The protestant missionaries in Achill and elsewhere are neglected and insulted; while public money is actually advanced to build Roman-catholic chapels, and plans are sanctioned for the erection of infidel provincial colleges.

What shall we say to these things? Are they not proofs that the British empire is the scene of a gigantic papal conspiracy? And if so, may we not add, Is there not a cause? Too long have protestants been slumbering in ignorant and infatuated torpor. But the time, we trust, has come, when those who love the constitution of their country are beginning to awake, and, with God's blessing, their efforts may yet arrest the tide of despotism and superstition. But whether this result will be obtained, or whether all exertions will prove too late, cannot now be predicted. Protestants have only to discover their duty to perform

it, and then to leave the end in the hands of him who can make all things work together for good to them that love him. We therefore call on our readers to be zealous for the truth, and to resist both the open and the insidious attempts of popery to revolutionize the country, and to abolish its religion.

PROMISES & PROFESSIONS BEFORE THE EMANCIPATION ACT OF 1829.- No. II.

In our last month's Number we offered our readers a few specimens of what "liberal" protestants had professed and promised when supporting the popish bill which passed in 1829. We now invite attention to a few extracts from the petitions of the Roman catholics themselves; and in doing so, we feel that the condemnation they afford of the fraudulent and unscrupulous faction from which they proceeded is so plain as to require no comment. But if one word of comment be necessary, we will supply it in the once powerful rallying cry of the papistsThe Appropriation Clause.

"With satisfaction we acquiesce in the establishment of the national church; we neither repine at its possessions, nor envy its dignities. We are ready, upon this point, to give every assurance that is binding upon man."-Roman-catholic Petition in 1792.

"Your petitioners most solemnly declare, that they do not seek nor wish, in any way, to injure or encroach upon the rights, privileges, possessions, or revenues, appertaining to the bishops and clergy of the protestant religion, as by law established, or to the churches committed to their charge, or any of them; the extent of their humble application being, that they be governed by the same laws, and rendered capable of the same civil and military offices, franchises, rewards, and honours, as their fellowsubjects of every other religious denomination."-Petition from the Roman catholics of Ireland in 1808.

“We can affirm, with perfect sincerity, that we have no latent views to realize; no secret or sinister objects to attain. Any such imputation must be effectually repelled, as we humbly conceive, by the consideration of our numbers, our property, our known principles and character. Our object is avowed and directearnest, yet natural; it extends to an equal participation of the civil rights of the constitution of our country equally with our fellow-citizens of all other religious denominations-it extends no further."-Roman-catholic Petition of 1812.

In our next Number we will continue our quotations. In the meantime we ask our readers to reflect on these professions; to