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pete with the regular dealers in provisions, and undersell them on the strength of their subscriptions, they may soon frighten the local merchants instead of encouraging them, and by having the whole market left to themselves, they may aggravate the very evil which they propose to cure. In 1831 a steam-packet loaded with grain was sent at a great expense to the coast of Donegal and Mayo; but we believe the business could have been equally well managed, and at a much cheaper rate, if an agent had been sent with a thousand pounds, ready to buy all the corn which the regular traders were willing to send. A large corn-merchant told us lately that he had supplied three thousand persons with Indian meal between the 1st and the 26th of October; that for the purpose of keeping down the markets he had sold his supply for £2000 less than he might have received had he gone on to raise his price in proportion to the demand; "but," he added, " I really think I have done more harm than good, as no other merchant has competed with me. I have now exhausted my whole supply, without present means of renewing it from abroad, and the consequence is, the people will have no more Indian corn for upwards of a month."

It is well that under all circumstances each man should consider what personal responsibility rests upon him, and what is the peculiar obligation which God lays upon him; and if we might be allowed in few words to lay down a rule for the Irish on the present emergency, we should say, that a threefold duty devolves upon the country. It is, first, the duty of the Executive to see that there is sufficient food in the country; this is of course the most necessary part of all the remedies against impending famine. It is next the duty of the landlords and clergy, and those who are above want, to see that the means put into their hands by the Government and by private benevolence, be so used that the people shall be able to buy the food this may sometimes require pecuniary sacrifices, and must always be attended with personal trouble; and, lastly, it is the duty of the people to submit patiently to the present dispensations of Providence, and as far as possible to co-operate with those of their superiors who are labouring by every means in their power to assist them.

Thus far we have considered, almost exclusively, the question of the physical wants and sufferings of the people. The subject has extended beyond our purpose, and we have little space left for the still more important matter, of the bearing of existing circumstances on the spiritual condition of the people. Yet we must not close the present article without briefly adverting to this point,

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-more especially as an abundance of concurring testimony seems to establish the interesting fact, that there has never been seen, in the present or the last generation, a moment in which the people of Ireland were so open to approach as they are at present. From all sides we hear, that the wall of partition is broken down; -that the Protestant minister, the Protestant gentleman, or the Scripture reader, is no longer looked upon with aversion ;-that, in short, want has forced the people to throw open their doors to any one, and every one, who would sympathize with their sufferings, and show a desire to render them either physical or spiritual aid or consolation. Several persons, clerical and lay, have recently traversed various parts of the island, and these all agree in the extent and striking character of the change. One well-known clergyman of London who has a local connection with the county of Cork, lately declared, that on a recent visit, he attended the Relief Committee for several weeks together,-mingled freely with the Romish gentry and farmers,-talked to them of the visitation as an evident judgment,-preached to them the Gospel without reserve, and all without a word or look of displeasure, but with many expressions of thanks and the deepest interest.

Concurrently, too, there is a deepening disgust at the conduct of the Priests. In too many cases they have shewn no effectual sympathy;-going, indeed, to the "extraordinary sessions" described above; but not conceding or even postponing the least portion of their own claims. From heart-burnings arising from such causes, no fewer than three priests, within a few miles, were known to the clergyman just alluded to, to be on the point of removal from their parishes.

Surely, then, this must be the moment, for a vigorous effort to carry the truths of the Gospel among the people. The colporteur system has been commenced,-why not carry it further, and why not add to it the living teacher, the missionary, speaking the language of the people, and versed in all their feelings? Cannot an earnest endeavour of this kind be made, to gain the attention of the people at this present moment? Would it be much, to gather quickly some £10,000 or £20,000, and to employ every sincere and competent Irish-speaking agent that could be found, for the next six months, at least to traverse all the scenes of want and suffering that the island furnishes, carrying with them the best consolation; and striving to rescue some,-perhaps many, souls out of the snares of the Devil, who are now taken captive by him at his will?

THE SAILOR'S HOPE FOR HIMSELF AND THE NATION; or, a Plea for Religion, addressed to all Persons engaged in the Maritime Service of their Country, especially that Protective Arm of the Force, the Royal Navy. By a NAVAL OFFICER. London: Nisbet. 1846.

We know not to whom we are indebted for this honest, sailor-like volume; but, be the author who he may, we beg to offer him our humble tribute of regard, and to express the hearty interest we feel in the object of his work. Let us add, that, in our judgment, its spirit and execution, though not to the taste of the fastidious reader, are such as to recommend it to all who love the truth, and have any zeal for its maintenance and advancement in the world. But it will be best that the author should speak for himself. We have especial pleasure in transcribing the Preface-the more so, as it calls attention to a question of great interest connected with the present aspect of Popish development-we mean, the recent persecutions in Madeira. The facts embodied in the notes strike us as being very important. The communication is dated Madeira, June, 1846.

It gives us sincere pleasure to quote the following statement from a letter addressed by Dr. Kalley (Oct. 17) to the editor of the English Churchman, in reference to the unscrupulous and malignant charges which had been brought against him in that Tractarian journal as "false to Portugal;" "false to England;" "false to his patients;""false to his converts;" and, in fact, one "whose whole existence (mirabile dictu) had for several years been a falsehood"-nothing but a falsehood. For the answer to all this, the reader, if he think it worth the trouble, may refer to the letter itself. A single paragraph from the PS. seems to us to settle the business, and to place the merits of the case beyond controversy.

"I have just received letters from Madeira," writes Dr. K., "dated 23d Sept. It is stated in these that commissioners had arrived from Portugal for the investigation of the events connected with my expulsion. Ten days after their arrival, they intimated to the civil governor and chief police magistrate that they felt it their duty to request them to resign. The governor at once sent in his resignation. The police magistrate said, No, but he would gladly take his dismissal.' It was upon the instant sent. The new judge (author of the sentence, dated 6th June, 1846, referred to in my letter to you) has also resigned." We must just add the passage in Dr. K.'s letter containing the reference here noticed. It is as follows:-" In June, 1845, Francisco da Gama was condemned by judge Coelho to four months' imprisonment, for having said to another, in private conversation, when quite alone together, that he might keep the Church to himself. In the sentence, the crime was declared to be want of respect to the religion of the state. Various persons were banished from the island for not having taken their children to be baptized by the priest and on the 6th June, 1846, the judge, in open court, condemned a man to five years' banishment to Angola, for the crime of heresy, in denying that the body of God exists in the consecrated host. The sentence expressly set forth that the penalties of the laws quoted could not be enforced in all their extent, because they are abolished; therefore (added the judge) I condemn him." " Well may

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Dr. K. add-" When such proceedings were taking place, a band of desperados, insulting people on their way to a place of worship, marrying persons, &c., as described by your correspondent, would certainly have met with very summary punishment. Your correspondent, in attempting to reverse the case, has only succeeded in exhibiting « reverse of the facts."

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The Preface to which we refer is as follows:

"Whilst we acknowledge with gratitude, that the naval service comprises within its bosom many sincere, pious, and enlightened Christians, it cannot be denied that their number is small compared with the many who are living wholly without God in the world, or living in such a perpetual forgetfulness of him as if he did not exist. Rich we find them in this world's knowledge, yet how poor in the knowledge of God! Anxiously striving for advancement in their earthly career, yet utterly careless whether their names be, or be not, written in the Lamb's Book of Life!-ready indeed to pour forth their last breath for their Queen and country, yet making no provision against that day, when their breath shall go forth, and the spirit return to him who gave it! It is for such as these, that I have presumed to pen the following chapters, as the subjects occurred to my mind, earnestly hoping that they may lead some to the perusal of the writings of better men; and that they may learn to know, through him, who is rich in mercy,' what is the hope of a Christian's calling. The ox knoweth its owner, and the ass its master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my people do not consider,' saith the Lord; they sell their birthright for a mess of pottage-they throw away their highest of privileges and refuse to accept those precious invitations of love, contained in that book, which leads to the knowledge of the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent, which is life eternal. To the study of this book, it is my wish, above all things, to draw them, that if they find there be any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,' they may discover by divine grace, even in this their day, the things which belong to their peace, before they are hid from their eyes.

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My spirit is the more stirred in me, when I see the island, in which I am now sojourning, wholly given to Romish idolatry, and remember our Saviour Christ's words (Mark vii. 7.) In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.' I cannot forbear to impress upon my comrades my deep conviction, that in the Christianity of the Bible is centred the Sailor's Hope for himself and the nation,' and to put forward this Plea for Religion,' as contained in Holy Scripture, the only safeguard, I firmly believe, for ourselves, and those that belong to us.

The Bible is too practical a book to be without its effect. Alas that such a book should ever be a forbidden book to people hungering and thirsting after knowledge! Yet such we have positively seen it, and that in a lovely isle of the sea, where hundreds of our countrymen annually take up their abode! Nay more,-a uniform system of shameless cruelties and undisguised persecution is there carried on against those of her citizens, who presume to read the Word of GOD, and discourse on the subject of SCRIPTURE. Yes, these things are things of the present day;-not indeed of three centuries back, but of 1844, 45, 46, when threats and blows, fines and imprisonments, pillage and condemnation to death itself, have merely superseded the faggot and the axe! Even now, as I write, Bibles are taken from their rightful owners-schools encouraged by Protestants shut up-converts to Gospel truth imprisoned for many months for refusing to kiss the dove, or give an alms to a paltry procession bearing it about as the Holy Ghost, and for denying that the figure on the carried flag is VERY CHRIST-for reading and conversing about the Scriptures in one's own house, and with one's own friends -and even on such poor miserable charges as that of calling images 'monkeys' or 'ugly things.' To be stoned or severely beaten on the public road-to have their houses broken open by night, and themselves cruelly beaten to be accused, and imprisoned twenty months before trial-to be

"Only two days since, viz. on the 4th June, 1846, a poor man, father of six or seven children, (who had on the 2nd January last his house wilfully burnt to the ground,) was quietly going home, when he was cruelly attacked and knocked down his arm was broken by the first blow-four wounds in the head laid bare the bone-his nose was

then tried and acquitted (if possible condemned) '-nay, to see even the forms of law set aside for the occasion -these are what the followers of Jesus and readers of Bible truth are called upon to endure in (will it be believed?) the beautiful, the lovely, the much-frequented island of MADEIRA! 3 Incredible as it may seem, it is yet too true. These things are done, actually and openly done, in the island of Madeira at the present hour-done too in defiance of the laws of the country, which acknowledge religious toleration, and in the very face of the civilized world! On earth such are the sufferings of God's people, and when asleep in Jesus,' their very bodies, denied sepulture in a legal cemetery, are buried in the public roads.* Christendom, how long wilt thou permit this deep, dark, blackened stain to remain on thy countenance? Is not every such act of barbarous cruelty that is done to the least of Christ's little ones, done to Christ himself? When then wilt thou step forward, and put a stop to the daily repetition, by the priests and rulers, of the work of Calvary on this lovely island-the crucifying the Lord of glory, and putting him to an open shame?

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Oh, as we read this heart-rending account of our brothers and sisters in Christ, and those within two or three days' sail of Christian Europe, can we be sufficiently thankful that our lot is cast on Protestant ground, or be too earnest in pleading with Jehovah for the persecuted church of Christ on earth?"-(pp. iii-ix.)

We cordially respond to this Protestant appeal, and beg our readers to ponder the facts here stated, in connexion with the

nearly knocked off by a severe blow at the junction of the cartilages with the bone-and as he lay on the ground women commenced biting him, one having nearly torn a piece out of his cheek with her teeth! On the same evening, when the host was passing another poor Protestant's house, his door was broken open and destroyed: and this by persons who were accompanying the host."

"Both these cases have just occurred. Twenty-two Protestants, cruelly persecuted by the government in the Lombo das Fayas for meeting together at an evening school, and outrageously arrested in Sept. 1844, on a charge of sedition known to be false, whose property on that occasion was plundered or destroyed by the soldiers billeted in their houses, (which soldiers, to complete the melancholy farce, were supported by the guns of a Portuguese frigate,) were three days since fully and honourably acquitted; but not, I must add, discharged, till they had fully paid the gaol fees! Against another man of the same party, who was known to be ready to prove an alibi on the night of the so-called sedition, a different charge was preferred, and with greater effect, for he has been this day (6th June, 1846) condemned, after, as in the former case, a confinement of upwards of twenty months, to five years' banishment to Angola, (where he may readily find a grave,) and to pay the costs of the process! The charge against him was literally the following:- Denying pertinaciously that in the consecrated host is the body of Goddenying in the same way the sacrament of the Eucharist, and despising the divine office of the mass.' Read this, and blush, Christendom, at the deep, unconcealable malignity of Rome!

2 "In the above iniquitous cases the order first issued for arrest was illegal, the bearer incompetent, and the time illegal! Yet refusal to obey such order so produced was magnified into sedition, though unaccompanied by the slightest violence."

3 "A short, but very interesting, Account of the recent Persecutions in Madeira," was published not long since by Rob. R. Kalley, M.D. (John F. Shaw, 27, Southamptonrow,) a humble, devoted Christian, full of the love of Christ, and eminently blessed by his Lord and Master. Reading there of the atrocities committed by the government at Lombo das Fayas, and other places, we see how this lovely island, fit indeed for a paradise, has been turned by man into a den of iniquity." We observe," the Correspondence between the Lord Bishop of London, the Chaplain and Congregation of the British Church Establishment in Madeira," has just been published. Hatchards.

4 "It is only six months since that the authorities, not content with ordering a Protestant's body to be buried in the public road, insisted on its being buried in front of his own door, in order that the family might daily step over it. Happily a stone prevented the accomplishment of this iniquitous design, and he now lies on one side of the door."

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