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Mr. Maginnis asserts that our Licentiates are only "half educated,” or even an eighth part" educated, because they have not been examined by Presbytery twenty times a-year he must therefore, by the very same line of argument, conclude, that his coadjutor, Rev. J. Nixon Porter, and all the English Unitarian Ministers are not even one-half, or one-eighth educated, but on his own absurd and ridiculous principle, wholly without education, inasmuch as they were never under the care of, or examined by any Presbytery whatsoever, and many of them never entered a college. Yet, with absurd inconsistency he maintains that "we are infinitely inferior" to these very men who are, nevertheless, if his argument be valid, utterly without even this half-education, or one-eighth.

To set the matter at rest for ever, I now call upon Mr. Maginnis to name any one Licentiate of the Remonstrant Presbytery of Bangor, or of the Remonstrant Synod, that is only half-educated, and inferior to an "ordinary mechanic," or to stand convicted before the world as a "false accuser" of those whom it is his duty to protect and befriend.

September 10th, 1847.

I remain, your obedient servant,

W. H. DOHERTY.

P. S.-I perceive that I have omitted to notice the grossly erroneous and unfounded assertion of Mr. Maginnis in his last article; that "Doctor Montgomery had to resort to language so unbecoming and indecorous that the President was obliged to rebuke him." On the contrary, I say, by the express desire of all members of the Association whom I have since seen, that Doctor Montgomery did not, upon the occasion alluded to, overstep, in the slightest degree, the very strictest rules of order and propriety; and I have the best reason to know that had the President acted, or attempted to act, in the way mentioned by Mr. Maginnis, he would have been moved out of the chair by the very person who moved his election to it, and would have been, himself rebuked, by a distinct and express vote of the Association. W. H. D.

MOTHER AND CHILD.

FROM THE GERMAN OF UHLAND.

MOTHER.

Look up, my little child, on high,

For, up in yonder shining sky

There dwells thy blessed little brother.

The angels bore him up above,

Because the blessed angels love

The child that never grieves its Mother.

CHILD.

Oh, Mother! that the Angels, then,
May never, never, come again

To take me like my little brother,
Away from thee, and from my rest
Upon thy kind and loving breast:

Oh, teach me how to grieve thee, Mother!

L. R.

OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF PRESBYTERIANISM,
IN IRELAND.

BY THE REV. H. MONTGOMERY,

L. L. D.

(Continued from No. IX. Vol. II. page 291.)

From the period of the great Volunteer Convention, in Dublin, in the year 1783, Lord Charlemont and many other sincere friends of rational liberty, clearly saw that the recently awakened spirit of the Irish nation was likely to degenerate into wild and revolutionary projects. The danger of this evil was increased by the successful issue of the American War-a struggle in which the sympathies of the people of this country were almost universally enlisted on the side of the revolted Colonists. Lord Charlemont, therefore, aided by Henry Grattan and other judicious friends of Ireland, endeavoured to direct the views and energies of the nation into safe and useful channels; and, at the same time, to impress upon Government the justice and prudence of reasonable and timely concessions to the wants and wishes of the people. Acting on this principle, they made several motions in Parliament, in successive years, for the promotion of Parliamentary Reform, and the abolition of the penal statutes affecting their Roman Catholic Countrymen. In these praiseworthy efforts, they unhappily received but a scanty support from the great body of the people, whose minds had become too much excited by visionary projects, to dwell calmly upon feasible plans of practical good. On the other hand, Government as unwisely, refused all concessions; whilst by their angry denunciation of "revolutionary principles," they inflamed the very passions which they desired to suppress, and suggested the very evils which they were anxious to avoid. The genuine patriots of the day, standing in a dignified attitude between the two extreme parties, laudably endeavoured to moderate both; and Lord Charlemont, whose exalted worth commanded universal esteem, still held his annual Reviews of the Volunteer Corps, (though with rapidly decreasing numbers,) lest so large a body of armed, disciplined, and enthusiastic men, should fall into the snares of desperate and designing individuals who, under the guise of patriotism, were only desirous to involve them in rebellion. For several years, his mild and repressive influence produced salutary effects; but the out-burst of the French Revolution, in the year 1789, created a fresh excitement in these countries, which, naturally enough, alarmed all judicious and moderate men. Jacobinism and infidelity began to uprear their heads; and Lord Charlemont perceived, with his wonted

sagacity, that nothing could prevent insurrectionary organization but speedily engaging the higher and middle classes in plans of reasonable and popular Reform. He therefore wrote to his friend, the eminent Dr. Haliday, of Belfast, whose name has been already mentioned in these Outlines, and pressingly urged the establishment of an Association calculated to unite all wise and patriotic men, in combined and strenuous exertions for the advancement of the rights and liberties of the people. Such an Association was accordingly formed early in the year 1790, under the denomination of "The Northern Whig Club"; and embracing as it did a very large portion of the wealth, rank, and intelligence of Protestant Ulster, that Society, aided by a similar Association in Dublin, exercised, for some time, a powerful and salutary influence in this country.

Some ardent patriots of those days, however, like many in our own, dissatisfied with the slow and measured advances of “ Whiggery," devised the plan of a more popular and more energetic Association, in the month of June, 1791, under the name of "The Society of United Irishmen." This Association was organized in Dublin, by the Honbl. Simon Butler, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, William Drennan, M.D., James Napper Tandy, Dr. M'Nevin, Oliver Bond, Theobald Wolfe Tone, and a number of others, eminently distinguished by their great talents and devoted love of country. Their bond of union was the following-first adopted as a simple pledge, and finally imposed by a solemn oath :—

"I, A. B. in the presence of God, do pledge myself to my country, that I will use all my abilities and influence in the attainment of an impartial and adequate representation of the Irish nation in Parliament; and as a means of absolute and immediate necessity in the establishment of this chief good of Ireland, I will endeavour, as much as lies in my ability, to forward a brotherhood of affection, an identity of interests, a communion of rights, and a union of power, among Irishmen of all religious persuasions; without which every reform in parliament must be partial, not national, inadequate to the wants, delusive to the wishes, and insufficient for the freedom and happiness of this country."

The Society thus organized immediately issued several Addresses couched in language the most glowing, enunciating principles the most important, and boldly advocating the indefeasible rights of "the universal people of Ireland." Almost the whole of those splendid productions, which I have read with equal admiration and delight, and to almost every principle contained in which I could give my hearty consent, were composed by the late Dr. William Drennan, Belfast-a man of exalted understanding, pro

found eradition, refined taste, accomplished manners, sterling pa triotism, ardent benevolence, and unblemished life-a philosopher, a statesman, an orator, a poet, and, in all that gives dignity to the name, a MAN! It was my privilege to know that eminent and excellent Irishman; and it is my pride to remember, that, exactly thirty years ago, (Sept. 1817,) his favorable opinion largely contributed to place me in the situation which I afterwards held for twenty-two years, in the Belfast Royal Institution.

"The Society of United Irishmen" was not, at its institution, a secret society; and I can testify, upon the unimpeachable authority of Dr. Drennan, that it was rather designed to prevent than to encourage rebellion. In fact, there is not one principle which its founders maintained that is not now sanctioned by the laws of the land-not one right which it advocated, that is not, at the present moment, guaranteed by the three estates of the realm! How wonderful, that those noble pioneers of liberty were subjected to imprisonment, expatriation, or death, for merely asserting those ordinary human rights and self-evident principles of government, whose advocacy has since commanded the applause of senates, and secured the respect of the world!

It cannot, however, be denied, that principles sound in themselves, and whose enunciation would produce no injurious effect upon enlightened minds, may be brought so to bear upon the multitude as to result in consequences the most disastrous. So it was, unhappily, with the principles of the Society of United Irishmen. Young men, weak men, enthusiastic men, and, above all, wicked men, so misapplied and perverted them, as to delude the unwary, to involve thousands in criminal projects under false notions of patriotism, and finally to crimson the green fields of our country with the blood of her children!

The good and sagacious Lord Charlemont saw the coming storm, and did all in his power to break its fury. He remonstrated, so early as the year 1796, with the people of Belfast, where the seeds of rebellion had been first sown, in Ulster, and where they rapidly sprung up with amazing luxuriance. They not only turned a deaf ear, however, to his admonitions and warnings, but some of them expressed unworthy doubts of his potriotism, and sneered at the very man whom, a few years before, they had worshipped as an idol. No wonder, under such circumstances, that he exclaimed "Alas! what, in this country at least, is public gratitude?

A sudden emotion, which scarcely ever out-lasts the benefit, and is sunk into its contrary, by the first popular whim! There was a time when my opinion might have had some weight in Belfast; but those balcyon days are fled. My only consolation is, that I, at least, am no way changed, whatever they may be who formerly honoured me with their esteem!"

The truth ought not to be concealed: the Rebellion, at the close of the last century was, in its origin and almost to its end, an Ulster rebellion and a Presbyterian rebellion. I remember it very well; and the following extracts from the Report of the Secret Committee of the House of Commons, in the year 1798, faithfully detail its progress.

"The society under the name of United Irishmen, it appears, was established in the year 1791; its founders held forth what they termed Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform, as the ostensible objects of their union: but it clearly appeared from the letter of Theobald Wolfe Tone, accompanying their original constitution, as transmitted to Belfast for adoption, that from its commencement the real purpose of those who were at the head of the institution, was to separate Ireland from Great Britain, and to subvert the established constitution of this kingdom.

"In the summer of 1796 great numbers of persons, principally in the province of Ulster, had enrolled themselves in this society. About the same period, as will be more fully explained hereafter, a direct communication had been opened by the heads of the party with the enemy, and French assistance was solicited, and promised to be speedily sent, to aid the disaffected in this kingdom.

"With a view of being prepared as much as possible to co-operate with the enemy then expected, and in order to counteract the effect of the armed associations of yeomanry established in October 1796, directions were issued by the leaders to the Societies to form themselves into military bodies, and to be provided with arms and ammunition.

"These directions were speedily obeyed; the societies assumed a military form; and it appears by the original papers seized at Belfast in the month of April 1797, that their numbers at that period in the province of Ulster alone were stated to amount to nearly 100,000 men. That they were very largely supplied with fire-arms and pikes; that they had some cannon and ammunition, and were diligently employed in the study of military tactics; in short, that nothing was neglected by the party which could enable them to take the field on the arrival of the enemy; or whenever they might receive orders to that effect from their superior officers, whom they were bound by oath to obey.

"It appears to your committee, that the leaders of the treason, apprehensive lest the enemy might be discouraged from any further plan of invasion, by the loyal disposition manifested throughout Munster and Connaught on a former attempt, determined to direct all their exertions to the propagation of the system in those Provinces, which had hitherto been but partially infected. With this view emissaries were sent into the south and west in great numbers, of whose success in forming new societies, and administering the oaths of the Union, there were, in the course of a few months, but too evident proofs, in the introduction of the same disturbances and enormities into Munster with which the northern province had been so severely visited.

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