gone over to the Church of which the Czar was the head? The fear of Hungary going over to the Greek Church, or becoming entirely Protestant, had, whilst she was in possession of her ancient freedom, served as a check to the Papal See, and prevented it from encroaching, so much as she otherwise would have done, upon civil and religious freedom in that country But the Pope had well chosen his opportunity to make this advance upon poor Hungary; and, in fact, upon Protestantism and liberty throughout the world; for where was there a nation which had been exempted? He concluded by quoting an expression used by Oliver Cromwell in the House of Commons in 1658-"Look how the house of Austria is preparing to destroy the Protestantism of Hungary! You may say, 'It is a great with respect way off, and what is it to us?' I tell you it is something to you. It concerns the religion of you all, and all the best interests of England."

Ouver

Cromwell's opinion

to Austria

and Hungary,

The second and concluding lecture is to take place next Wednesday, in the same rooms, and at the same hour. Mr. Kossuth has announced that he will then go into the details of the Concordat, and explain the position of Protestantism in Hungary. Last night he was listened to throughout with the most profound attention, and warmly applauded very repeatedly The lecture was a masterpiece-full of choice and instructive historical allusions-abounding with facts which Englishmen ought to ponder, stated with that elegance, earnestness, dignity and ability, for which the illustrious lecturer is so deservedly celebrated, and of which a brief paragraph necessarily conveys no idea. As the lecture will probably be repeated in several places, we abstain for the present from giving a full report.Morning Advertiser, March, 1856.

(To be continued.)

PROTECTED DESPISERS OF A LOYAL PEOPLE

THE IRISH PRESBYTERIANS.

SIR,-There are in Ireland 700,000 Presbyterians-as industrious and loyal, as intelligent and well-informed, as any portion of her Majesty's subjects-and there is no class in the community (except the Jews) who are so badly used. They are the

ans and Israclites

despised by

descendants of the men who peopled Ulster when it was a wild Presbyteri waste, and themselves have made it a hive of art and a seat of trade. But they have been treated, in return, as "hewers of wood, and carriers of water." They are a proscribed race- Statenothing more and nothing less.

a bigoted

church.

of the Pr

by the

By nearly every Government they have been cajoled, Unseenly neglected, and disowned; and they are well trampled on by treatmer & their "brother Protestants" of the Established Church. The byterians result is, that they have scarcely any social position; and they church of are virtually excluded from all offices of dignity or profit in England, their native country. Let us look at a few figures, in illustration of this.

abuse of

patronere

The Episcopalians of Ireland are not a whit more numerous Systematic or deserving than the Presbyterians; yet there are upwards of 2,000 magistrates belonging to the former body, and only against, Presby sixteen to the latter! The Establishment can also point to its tin nineteen assistant barristers (or County Court Judges); and the Ireland. Presbyterians have been allowed but one; nor was an Irish Presbyterian ever raised to the bench of a superior court. Again, there are 60,000 children of the Presbyterian Church attending the schools of the National Board of Education, and 21,000 merely of the Church of England; but the Episcopalians have six Commissioners on the Board, and the others two! In the Queen's Colleges, Presbyterian students greatly out-number those of the Established Church, though, on the senate of their university there are ten of the latter to two of the former. On the Board of Charitable Bequests, there are seven Churchmen and one Presbyterian; and in all the other Boards of a national character the Episcopalians have a number of members, and Presbyterians none. In fact, out of a population of 700,000, only two Presbyterians have been admitted to offices of any tive injusimportance, in a country which owes to them a large share of its wealth and prosperity; for the same two gentlemen (and rians. this is not the least of the singular circumstances on which we are commenting) occupy seats on the National Board, and on the Senate of the Queen's University; whilst one of them enjoys the solitary Assistant-Barristership, and the other the Commissionership of Charitable Bequests, above alluded to? The endowment of the two churches is in similar proportionthe one receives about £800,000 a-year, and the other less than £40,000! For the army or navy, respectable Presbyterians have no chance of access; even in the militia, they have been

Shamefa adminstra

tice towards Presbyte

362

Presby terians in Ireland are

the Govern

ment to

secure the Votes of papistical senators.

refused admittance; and in the constabulary force, numbering 14,000, there are only three Presbyterian officers, to a host of the favoured class.

It is manifest from these, and other facts which might be stated, that the Presbyterians of Ireland are a slighted people; slighted by and their position is the more anomalous, when it is remembered that, although they do not now, as formerly, rank amongst them many of the highest orders of society, they include a smaller proportion of the lowest than any other religious denomination. They consist almost exclusively of that middle class which is the strength of any country, and should be peculiarly powerful in theirs; and they possess in a marked degree many of the elements of influence-intelligence, energy, and industry. They enjoy, too, by their peculiar position in Ireland, an extraordinary advantage, which, if rightly understood and efficiently used, would give them a preponderating weight, since they are placed as a balance in the scale between the Catholics and the Episcopalians, and might easily control them both.

The peace

and safety

of Ireland dependant upon the loyalty of her Presby

terians.

But they have, in fact, neither influence nor weight, and are the merest ciphers in the State-despised by every party, and spurned on all occasions. They are useless to themselves, and formidable only to one another. And the cause of all this is as simple as it is melancholy. From an idle, childish fear of Catholic ascendency, their clerical leaders have sold the great mass of them to the Orange faction of the Established Churchsold them, "neck and heels;" and both priest and parson now tread on the entire body with corresponding contempt, while the Government ignores them as a separate community altogether; and the men of character, thought, and attainments, who are still true to the principles of Presbyterianism, and will not seek without it the rank and influence that are denied them in it, retire within themselves, and eye its degradation with mournful disgust and bitter scorn.

They should remember, however, that they have a duty to discharge; for, in their hands, to a large extent, is the safety of the liberal party in Ireland-of the friends of real progress and reform. It is true, they have much to complain of in the previous neglect of that party; but the secession of the bulk of the Presbyterian people was the main cause of that neglect; and, although the present administration makes "mountains out of mole-hills," when asked (as it has been) to redress the grievances

MODERN SODOMITES OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

above detailed, and to place the educated and deserving members of the Presbyterian Church on an equal footing with other Protestants in the distribution of public honours and rewards, it does not at all follow that future Governments will imitate the bad example. I would say, then, to those injured but trusty friends-endeavour to forget the past; come out from amongst the timorous and the apathetic; cheer them by your example, and encourage them by your precept; expose the traitors, too, and denounce the slaves; while you dissolve the "banns" that were published at Hillsborough years ago, and have ever since weighed on your Church like a nightmare. An honest Presbyterian can be neither a Tory nor an Orangeman.

I am,

Morning Star, 15th April, 1856.

HONEST PRESBYTERIAN.

363

MODERN SODOMITES OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

and French

IT has only of late become positively known among us that Trafficking an infamous trade is carried on between England and the con- in English tinent for the mutual supply and interchange of young girls, for girls. the most hideous purposes. And even yet we do not know with what business-like energy, precision, and regularity, that fearful trade is carried on. Large houses, say in London or in Paris, have their established agents in all the principal towns of Europe. They send out, moreover, at fixed times of the year, their "commercial travellers," or commis voyageurs, who make bargains, settle prices, effect exchanges, and gain customers. He carries with him a list of all the women in the establishment to which he belongs, their ages, "length of service,” acquirements, &c., together with a minute description, generally a daguerreotype, of their persons. If there happens to be either a demand or a superabundance of a particular kind of physique -dark, fair, short, or tall-the necessary sale or exchange (they supply their masters both ways) is made, and the commis voyageur returns with his living cargo, precisely as if they were so many bales of silk or cotton. The poor creatures receive a certain per-centage for themselves on what they gain; but from this-which is very trifling-is deducted the whole expense of their board, lodging and clothing; so that it is impossible for

Lug sh girls kid

napped for Bhon eo pur• poses.

them, while they are young, to purchase their liberty, or in other words, to pay off their legal debt, and buy themselves back into virtue. When they are old, and after they have been sent to every branch of the establishment, they are turned out to starve; or, if willing and capable, are made of more infamous service still.

These are the bare business facts of the trade, dealing with its recognised and consenting members. But there are darker facts even than these, with which we are more especially concerned and interested. We mean the abduction of young girls, ignorant of their fate, and unwilling to accept it when made known to them.

This matter has been before the public under more than one form. Articles have been written in newspapers, and magistrates have delivered decisions thereon. But we know how apt human nature is to be satisfied with the spoken intention, how the indignant heart is relieved by the published word, and how, after these acts of vigour, it goes to sleep on the fact, and lets the future run on undisturbed in the rut of the past. We will bear the charge of reiteration, even of weariness, for the sake of again impressing this most important matter on the English public; coming as it does to-day through the living anguish of a father, appealing to the laws, and to his countrymen, for the protection and restoration of his child.

Zelpha Barge, a "steady serious girl," aged fifteen, has disappeared in that strange mysterious way in which others of her age and class have disappeared before; the mystery to be cleared up in after-years by the fearful revelations of the hapless street-walker. The father of the girl dreads, very naturally, that she may have shared the same fate as the daughter of Thomas Evans-saved from destruction by the prompt interference of the stoker of a steam-boat. But in the matter of poor Zelpha Barge, not so certain as to her place of destination, and therefore, so far as appears at present, not so easy of remedy. It may be also that the girl has been kidnapped for home purposes; and if so, her recovery would be even more difficult, excepting under such a rigorous house-search as our laws and institutions hardly warrant. At all events, even as only a fear-as a mystery susceptible of another explanation than the one the father dreads and we have assumed-it does not weaken the necessity for the most active measures of protection for young girls, which it is possible for the laws to frame.