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oitn to the meeting of the Metropolitan Conservative Society, we have to notice several other most gratifying and cheering demonstrations of Protestant feeling in Ireland, singularly enough embracing within their compass the entire extent of the island. Literally from Cork to Carrickfergus the voice of Protestantism has been raised. Cork, Dublin, Enniskillen, Banbridge, and Ballymena,, have all had their meetings with signal spirit and success. A few days more will add to the list the most splendid of them all-we mean, of course, the anniversary dinner of the Belfast Society-and we trust that the spirit thus excited will not soon or easily subside, but that Protestants will unite wherever there is the pressure upon Protestantism, and in their union assuredly there will be strength.

A brief sketch of the history of the Metropolitan Conservative Association may, perhaps, be neither uninstructive or inappropriate. There may be something in its progress to cheer the exertions of those who attempt, under discouragements, to carry out the great principle of Protestant union-the principle upon the practical development of which, we cannot disguise from ourselves, the very existence of Irish Protestantism depends. It was commenced, we believe, by eleven individuals, who felt the necessity of some bond of union between Protestants, and who acted on what they felt. Remembering the old and universally adopted proverb, "Dimidium facti qui cæpit habet," they determined that they would at least begin. They went straightforward to work, and formed themselves into a Protestant Association; and this is the nucleus from which originated that great and influential body, the Metropolitan Society a society including in its members upwards of a thousand persons of respectability and influence in their respective stations, and including in its members inuch of the rank and the talent of the country.

The society had been for some time maturing their plans and carrying on their operations in silence, when it was proposed by some of their members that it would be desirable to hold a general meeting of the Association, to which persons not members might, under certain restrictions, be admitted,

and of which the proceedings should be reported. This meeting was fixed for the 16th of November, and its proceedings furnish us with the text for these observations. It is the intention of the society to reprint the proceedings in the shape of a pamphlet. We have not, however, as yet been able to procure a copy, and we are obliged to take our extracts from the newspaper reports.

To the character, the objects, and the proceedings of the Association, including in these last their general meeting, we have no hesitation in saying that we give an entire and unqualified approval. Our readers may perhaps recollect that some time since we stated our views on the occasion of the dissolution of the Orange Lodges.* We then recommended the formation of Protestant Associations, and the advice which we thought it our duty to offer, met, we believe, with the concurrence of most persons whose opinions were entitled to respect. The fluenced us in offering that advice, now very same principles which then indetermine us in expressing our approval of the Metropolitan Association, and it only needs that its example should be generally followed to ensure for every part of Ireland an unobjectionable system of Protestant Union, of a character at once temperate and firm, meeting the wishes of the most ardent of our friends, and presenting no ground for the cavils of the most captious of our opponents.

The objects of the Association have been fearlessly and honestly put forward-they are such as none but the enemies of Protestantism can take exception to. From the report of the Committee we take the following, which is the original declaration of the objects of the society, and presents the great principles which constitute, if we may so speak, the charter of its incorporation. Their objects as here put forward are

"To maintain by every means in our power the Protestant interests in Ireland.

"To unite together all who are willing to make common cause in upholding the religion of the Reformation, and the principles of civil and religious liberty, of which, under God, it has been the foundation.

"And for that purpose to employ such means as may seem advisable and consti

* See Dublin University Magazine for June 1836, vol. 7.

tutional to facilitate and promote the registration of Protestant voters, and the dissemination of sound political and religious information amongst our Protestant brethren throughout the empire.

And to give, in every way, by the establishment of Loan Funds, and all such other means as may be practicable, protection and assistance to the humbler classes of Protestants."

of Mr. George Alexander Hamilton. At first we were disposed to regard the appearance of this letter with regret. We still think it would have been better that it should not have been published; but its publication may have its good. The sentiments of this letter are sentiments entertained by a section of the Conservative party; and it is well that they should find expression in a tanIn this simple, brief, and yet com gible shape in which they may be prehensive statement of the objects of brought to the test of discussion. the society, there is included every There are often prejudices vaguely thing that ought to be the object of a floating through the mind which asProtestant association; and there is sume the appearance of unanswerincluded nothing more. This state-able arguments, until their baselessment of their objects is just in character with the entire spirit of the proceedings of the society-marked by temperance, calmness, and moderation, and yet, at the same time, presenting a full, and a steady, and an uncompromising declaration of principle: and in this union of firmness and mildness, there is a lesson, which we do not hesitate to say, the Protestants of Ireland needed to be taught. Some men have been too apt to confound integrity of principle with violence of expression, and to imagine that a furious partizanship is the most unequivocal proof of attachment to the cause of truth-while others, again, still more foolishly imagined that the way to exhibit moderation was to compromise and give up some portion of principle. But it is cheering and gratifying to observe, that the Protestants of Ireland, are learning the truth, that, indeed to be consistent, it is not necessary to be in temperate, and that true moderation is something very far different indeed from a suppression or abandonment of principle. They have seen that it is the duty of the advocate of the cause of truth to declare the truth, and the whole truth; but it is equally his duty never to encumber that declaration with a single occasion of unnecessary offence. It is the double stamp of firm adherence to principle, and of ino-leration in asserting it, which is impressed upon all their proceedings, that makes us regard this society as likely to prove a powerful auxiliary to the Protestant

cause. It is time, however, that we should come to the consideration of the meeting itself.

In the very front of the proceedings we are met by a feature perhaps the most striking in the entire. We mean the singular, and, we cannot help thinking, the unfortunate letter

ness is detected in the attempt to shape them into words: and this is just the case with the vague prejudices to which Mr. Hamilton's letter gives a shape. He embodies idle and intangible speculations in a form in which they may be refuted. So far, we trust, he does service. We know that in dealing with his letter we with feelings which are predisposare dealing ing many to listen to the siren seductions of indolence and pleasure; and flatter themselves into the belief, that in yielding to the seduction they are acting a prudent part. It is always pleasant to find in our own minds an excuse for yielding to inclination-still more pleasant when the excuse is of such a nature as to enable us to find fault with the exertions of those whose stern adherence to the path of duty puts our remissness to the blush. It is the evil of Mr. Hamilton's letter that it furnishes, under the sanction of a respected name, such excuses to those who ever are ready to stand aloof from every movement of their Protestant brethren. It is the embodying of these excuses-and, as such it is worth the trouble of a calm and deliberate examination— to which perhaps otherwise it might not be entided; for while we entertain an undiminished respect for Mr. Hamilton's integrity and honesty of purpose, candour obliges us to acknowledge that his conduct on this occasion has not been marked by the strength of mind or soundness of judgment which we would have expected from the writer. We trust that Mr. Hamilton will believe us, that nothing but a sense of duty could induce us to speak thus. But the publication of his letter has thrown on us the painful duty of exposing calmly and gently, but, at the samic time, fully, the

weakness of his positions, and the mischievous character of their results. The following is Mr. Hamilton's letter:

Hampton Hall, Nov. 14, 1830. “MY DEAR PLUNKETT-The absence of one of the Conservative members of the metropolis from a meeting of the Metropolitan Protestant Association, may possibly create a remark-certainly it requires an explanation.

"Will you, therefore, be so kind as to state for me, that having been recently consulted by several gentlemen who were members of the late Orange Institution, with regard to the expediency of re-establishing that Institution under existing circumstances—having expressed myself very strongly against its re-organization at this present time, and the intention having been, I believe, abandoned, partly, perhaps, in deference to my advice and opinion, I feel that I should be acting unfairly towards them, and inconsistently with that advice, if I was now to become a member of another general political association of similar principles and having similar objects in view.

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By the voluntary dissolution of that dearly-cherished institution, in submission to the wishes of our King, and on an understanding, or engagement, as I am informed, that all adverse political associations should be discouraged by government, the real character of that muchcalumniated body, and of the Protestants of Ireland generally, has been already, I trust. set right in the eyes of the English people, and their feelings awakened on our behalf.

"But, however it may injure us in some respects, I cannot help thinking that the cessation of all general political agitation on our side, for some time longer, till Government and Parliament shall have been unsuccessfully appealed to, will render more essential service to our cause, than any other measures we could now adopt.

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Moderation, such as that on our part, while agitation has been carried on with redoubled violence on the part of our opponents, and while it has been promoted, instead of discouraged by the conduct of Government, will enable the people of England to appreciate more fully the faith that has been kept on both sides, and will excite their sympathies more strongly in our favour, while it will also prove to them that Protestant agitation and organization are defensive and not aggressive.

"When Protestant forbearance shall have been further abused, and Parliament an dGovernment shall have been appealed to in vain, and when, consequently, we

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Believe me, my dear Plunkett, always, sincerely yours,

"GEO. A. HAMILTON. "The Hon. R. E. Plunkett, M.P."

Our object in this article is to urge upon Irish Protestants the necessity of to say upon the subject may most conexertion; and perhaps all that we have veniently be thrown into the shape of a reply to Mr. Hamilton. Before we proceed to a task, in the discharge of

which we are sure that he would not wish us to soften down a single sentiment of what we feel, we beg distinctly to repeat, that our respect for Mr. Hamilton's principles and character is undiminished by a step which we must fairly tell him has had a different effect upon the minds of others. In acting as he did, we are confident that he acted from a conviction that the course he was pursuing was the best for the interests of Protestantism; aud while we think his letter altogether a mistaken one, we readily acknowledge that it has emanated from an honest and an honourable mind.

This letter does not appear written with the clearness of one who understood distinctly the grounds of his conviction. The general tenor of the sentiments is unquestionably to disMetropolitan Association; and yet at courage as impolitic the efforts of the its close Mr. Hamilton, as if conscious in discouraging Protestant exertion, atthat he was strangely out of his element tempts as it were to neutralize the effect of all that he had previously written, by saying that while he thinks it necesSary as an individual to explain his reasons for declining to join the Protestant Association at the present time, he is far from intending to discourage, still less to find fault with the exertions they are making."

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Now, begging Mr. Hamilton's pardon, we must say that if this sentence has any meaning at all, it simply is this

-that the rest of his letter has none. The entire drift of the letter was to discourage any exertion on the part of Protestants, and even beyond this, to discourage the particular exertions of the Association as not those at all events that ought to be adopted. The reasons that he puts forward do not apply to him as an individual with one bit more force than to every other Protestant in the community. If it be prudent for Protestants to remain quiet until "their forbearance is further abused," this prudence is equally obligatory upon all. If the revival of Orangeism be the best and the only mode of uniting Protestants together, this is a consideration which should influence every Protestant equally for the preferences or predilections of an individual-except as they rest upon reasons calculated to convince the public mind -are not matters of the slightest public concern. The truth is, that throughout

his letter Mr. Hamilton dealt with

the matter on public grounds, and he should never have hesitated one instant in openly appealing to the common sense and judgment of the Protestant public to discourage exertions which he believed injudicious. He seems, from an unacknowledged consciousness of the weakness of his ar

guments, afraid to make that appeal: we know well what would be its result. It would require a great deal of argument to pluck from the hearts of Irish Protestants the con

viction which a stern necessity has implanted that they can no longer with safety or consistency with the obligations of duty remain inactive.

There is indeed one sentence of his letter in which he gives something like a personal reason for declining to join the Metropolitan Society, and this sentence we cannot help lamenting as the most unfortunate of the entire letter; it is that in which he says

"Having been recently consulted by several gentlemen who were members of the late Orange Institution with regard to the expediency of reestablishing that institution, under existing circumstances; having expressed myself very strongly against its reorganization at the present time, and the intention having been, I believe, abandoned partly in deference to my advice and opinion, I FEEL THAT I WOULD BE ACTING UNFAIRLY TOWARDS THEM, and inconsistently with that advice, if I were now to become a member of another general political association of

similar principles, and having similar objects in view."

There is in this sentence a mistake, which it is important to correct regarding the respective characters of the Orange societies and the ciples are unquestionably similar, but Metropolitan Association: their printheir character is different; and their objects, if they are parallel, for that very in full existence tomorrow, we say that reason are distinct. Were Orangeism it would not in the slightest degree interfere with the operations of the Metropolitan Society, or supersede the necessity of its existence. The Orange tion of physical force; the Metropolitan lodges were adapted for the concentraSociety aims at the attainment of moral influence. It was the boast of the Orange Institution that it was essentially a defensive society, in which the right hearted and the loyal combined to resist outrage and violence, and to exhibition of strength the menaces of overcome by their calm but resolute force by which Protestantism is assailed. We do not hesitate to say that the character of the Metropolitan Society is in one sense an aggressive one: it endeavours to gain political influence for right principles-it aims at convincing our opponents by means of appeals to that reason which no party spirit can altogether silence in the human soul-it aims at gaining power

for our friends by securing the registration of the franchise of true men. These are objects never contemplated by the Orange organization, and objects which ought not to be nebeside the position which Orangeism glected; and this ground, altogether occupied, the Metropolitan Society has taken. Upon this point we cannot do better than employ the admirable language of the report of the committee

"The charge that you are but a revival of Orangeism is to be received in two lights. The enemies of the Protestant religion did not certainly attack the Orange Institution, from any belief that it was injurious to the country; nor did they place the slightest faith in the charges which themselves brought against it. The truth of this assertion is sufficiently manifest from the very ingenious but dishonourable artifice which they employed to prevent that body from entering into its justification-an artifice too well known to make it necessary for your committee to refer to it. It is probable, how

ever, that these persons had some hopes that if they could succeed in putting down Orangeism, they would be able to produce schism and disunion among the Protestants, and before they would rally again might effect a considerable portion of their wicked designs. They, therefore, are fully determined to pretend that every form in which Protestants may unite, and every system which they employ for the preservation of their properties and

lives, is but a revival of Orangeism; and they will certainly affect to imagine that inconsenting to dissolve the grand Orange lodge of Ireland there was an implied promise that all the Protestants should abstain from any further opposition to their nefarious designs.

"The two objections we have referred to, as arising from the supposition that you are either a revival of Orangeism or a substitute for Orangeism may be thus answered had the grand Orange lodge of Ireland never been dissolved, or were it to be revived with the fullest sanction of the legislature, in neither case would the necessity for your Society be in the least degree altered, or its objects either diminished or enlarged.

"The charge is merely one of dates; for from no other circumstance, except the appearance of your Society immediately after the event referred to, could it have arisen. Your objects, and your mode of attaining them, as well as your whole constitution, are essentially different from those of the Orange Institution; and the sole effect which that dissolution produced upon it was to increase the activity of your members, who are anxious to prove to the world that to make Protestants lay down their arms and desert the defence of their religion and liberties was a vain expectation."

This point, too, was put clearly, and with sound discrimination, by Mr. Plunket, in moving the adoption of the report:

"This Association is neither an offshoot. of nor a substitute for Orangeism. It is not the former, because it evidently wants the flowers, if not the fruit, of the main trunk-it has no secret signs or symbols, colours, badges, or similar organization; and, secondly, it is not a substitute for Orangeism, for a reason that all here present may not be sufficiently able to appreciate, viz.-that many of us, and I, for one, think that there never can be an adequate substitute for much maligned, much misunderstood, and purposely misrepresented Orangeism."

Thus the objects, the character, and the constitution of the Orange institu

tion and the Metropolitan Society are so distinct, that the propriety of reviving the one and establishing the other rests upon grounds perfectly separate. That their principles are similar it is true; but each has taken a separate position in the maintenance of their principles. "The Metropolitan Society was never intended either as a substitute for or revival of Orangeism." The question as to the prudence of encouraging either body is hardly if at all affected by the existence of the other, except so far as this that unquestionably in the present state of Irish society some form of Protestantism is necessary to give heart to the friends of Protestantism-this is the only point in which the two can meet, and in which they can never interfere with each other. The metaphor may not perhaps be a good one, but it will convey what we mean if we say that the wishes of their respective operations touched each other in this one point-and of course they come incontact in no other. We are bound to hope that all our male readers have at least enough of mathematical science to perceive what we have attempted to indicate by the analogy.

We regret much that Mr. Hamilton should have fallen into this misconception on a point on which it is essential that our notions should be distinct. We are inclined to believe that he incau

tiously expressed his opinions without taking sufficient pains to inform himself

of the character or constitution of the Association. His whole letter bears

the marks of haste. Unless we are far mistaken in Mr. Hamilton, a moment's reflection would have made him

suppress a half-expressed sentiment, which in the letter of a person less devoted to Protestantism we would consider deserving of severe animadversion, and which even in him we cannot pass without reproof.

He speaks of unfairness towards those to whom he had previously given an advice not to revive the Orange Institution! Surely when he thus expressed himself he did not perceive that there is but one inference to be drawn from this language, and it is this-that those persons, whoever they may be, to whom this advice was given were men who “like nothing but what is hammered upon their own anvil," and who will regard with jealousy any attempt to serve the cause of Protestantism that is not fashioned by themselves. And

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