held in the course of the year at the following places: Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, Bath, Chard, Lambeth, Hereford, Guildford, Peckham, Warrington, Wallingford, Hackney, Gosport, Loughborough, Colchester, and Dublin.

PROVINCIAL PROTESTANT ASSOCIATIONS.

Since the last Report, Provincial Protestant Associations have been formed in Manchester, Bath, Bristol, and Sheffield; and County Associations are now in progress of formation in Hertfordshire, Derbyshire, and Norfolk. Your Committee, under this head, have also to state, that they have considerably increased the number of their corresponding members, and the extent and value of their correspondence; and they hope that by a continuance of this system they will gradually secure a complete organization of Protestants, and ready modes of useful communication with all parts of the country.

PUBLICATIONS.

The printed publications of the Association having been found very beneficial, your Committee have greatly extended this department. During the past year they have printed the following tracts :—

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New and amended editions of all the early tracts. Speech of the Bishop of Exeter on the Roman Catholic Oath."

"The Rev. R. J. M'Ghee's Letter to the Duke of Wellington."

"The Jesuits exposed."

"The Progress of Popery."

"The Achill Mission, and General State of Protestantism in Ireland.'

"Protestantism and Popery. By the Rev. Henry

Melvill."

"The College of Maynooth."

"Mr. Sadler's Speech against the Roman Catholic Relief Bill of 1829."

"The Speeches delivered against the Prisons Bill."

"The Speeches of the Rev. R. J. M'Ghee and Dr. O'Sullivan, on the 25th of April."

Together with three cheap hand-bills.

Your Committee at the commencement of the present year also undertook the management of a monthly publication, called the "Protestant Magazine," which they hope will prove a useful repository of Protestant intelligence, to a copy of which each subscriber of 10s, and upwards is entitled.

The total number of publications of the Association sold and distributed during the past year is 45,000, exclusive of nearly 20,000 copies of the "Protestant Magazine."

PETITIONS.

An important sphere of your Committee's operations has been its endeavour to obtain justice from the Legislature by public petitions, against the Popish College of Maynooth. There were presented in the session 1838, thirty-nine petitions, with 11,000 signatures, but these expressions of Protestant feeling produced no effect on the House of Commons.

Accordingly your Committee, during the vacation, commenced a more vigorous course of action on this subject. They sent strong appeals to many of the parochial clergy in England and Scotland; they issued circulars to all their friends in the three kingdoms; they spared no expense which they could afford; and they rejoice to state that they now may congratulate the Association on the prospect of the public petitions against Maynooth, having largely increased in number and importance.

The number of signatures attached to the petitions already presented during the present session is very considerable, and your Committee can express a confident expectation that the number will not fall short of 100,000; and that this number, if similar efforts are continued, will annually increase.

Your Committee have also promoted the adoption of petitions against the clause in the Prisons Bill to which they have alluded; against the Irish Corporation Bill; and for the exclusion of Papists from Parliament. In thus acting they have fulfilled what they deemed to be a high and unquestionable duty, they have shown that there are still some in the land who are attached to the principles which guided our forefathers and secured our national glory; and though at present their petitions be unconstitutionally scorned and unheeded, they still trust that eventually their labour will prove not to have failed, but that it will be acknowledged, and rendered effectual by Him in whose cause they are engaged, who can conquer alike by many or by few.

FUNDS AND TRAVELLING AGENCY.

On the subject of finances, and the general position of the Association, your Committee are enabled to report most favourably.

The net amount of benefactions, in the year ending May, 1838 (exclusive of a loan and the balance of the previous year), was 7687. 5s. 11d.

The net amount received from that time to the present has been (including 230l. for the agency fund) 1,2077. 5s. 4d.

The sum received in the former period for publications was 711. 2s. 8d.; in the latter, 1627. 13s. 11d.

But gratifying as this statement is, your Committee must beg leave to remind you, that the debt incurred in the formation of the Association, though considerably reduced, is not yet completely liquidated. They therefore once more earnestly solicit the friends of Protestantism to relieve the Association from an embarrassing position, in which its energies are crippled, its influence is diminished, and its income is partially forestalled. Your Committee believe, that in making this appeal, they will not altogether fail, for the experience of the past year well warrants their confidence in the support of their friends. One instance, in which their wants were supplied, has now to be mentioned.

For some time your Committee had deeply felt the want of a travelling agent, who could represent them in the country, assist in forming local Asso

ciations, and disseminating, at public meetings, necessary intelligence. They therefore resolved, in order to meet the expenses of a commencement of this system, to raise a specific fund, which they rejoice to say now amounts to 2757., and on the 23d of April last they appointed as their agent Mr. Eccleston, of Trinity College, Dublin, a gentleman most highly and satisfactorily recommended for the undertaking.

In conclusion, your Committee may be allowed to express a hope that they have made à Report which may well encourage and gratify all friends of the Protestant Association. They are convinced that it is a Society based on sound principles, capable of being used as an important instrument of good, and that its progress during the past year affords ground for hope that it will speedily be placed in a much more important position. Your Committee, viewing the signs of the times, thankfully rejoice in this prospect. But during the past year the Papists have organized their strength in their "Catholic Institute; fresh concessions of considerable consequence have been made to them, and their arrogant demands are increasing. Nothing, therefore, can be more needful than a firm and active union of Protestants, fitted to the crisis. In the Protestant Association, this body is already visible; in its growing strength may be discerned a gradual adaptation to the exigencies of the time.

Your Committee are sensible, and are desirous of admitting, that this progress is not their work or the work of man; doubtless it is the operation of that