derry was peculiarly severe, and it may be quoted as an instance of its effects throughout the country. By it ten Presbyterian aldermen and twelve burgesses were forced to resign their corporation honours and emolument; though many of these men had signalized themselves in the noble stand that city made against the despotic arms of James and had borne innumerable privations for the establishment of that government which thus so ungratefully repaid them. During the whole of this reign they were subjected to many harassing and vexatious annoyances from the ecclesiastical courts; notwithstanding which, however, they continued to prosper as a church, and their congregations to increase in number and respectability.

They early declared for the Hanoverian succession, anticipating from that event the extension and permanent establishment of their religious liberty; and the result has equalled their most sanguine expectations. By the first of that family their religious privileges were secured and fixed on the broadest foundation. By George the Second, the right of solemnizing marriage-a right which had been exercised by their ministers from their first settlement in the kingdom-was solemnly recognized and established by the legislature. Under the long and truly paternal sway of George the Third, They continued to receive additional favours and privileges, among which we may especially notice the total repeal of the Test Act, and the liberal endowment of their congregations with an annual grant of nearly 15,000l., secured on these terms, that it cannot be withheld from one while it is continued to the rest, and that government shall not in any way interfere with the discipline or constitution of the church. By his present Majesty, when in Duhlin, a deputation from their body was received with marked attention; and to an address then presented they received an answer worthy of the Sovereign of these realms, and no less auspicious to them than to their dissenting brethren in other parts of the empire. The concluding paragraph is worthy of preservation :-"I have the fullest confidence in your faithful and firm attachment to my person and throne and you, may be assured of my con

stant protection of those civil and religious liberties which are the birthright of my people."

The Presbyterian church has now existed in Ulster above two centuries, and throughout all its vicissitudes has preserved the worship, discipline, and government peculiar to this denomination of Christians. Its accredited standards of doctrine are the same with those established in the church of Scotland.* Its candidates for the sacred office are subjected to the same routine of examination and trial. Its church courts are constituted in a similar manner, with this exception, that in place of a general assembly of delegates, its supreme court is a synod which meets annually in June, and consists of all the ministers, with an elder from each congregation. Its ministers, being above two hundred in number, are chosen by the people, not presented to their charges by patrons, as in Scotland, and are associated in fifteen Presbyteries, which meet quarterly; and its congregations have their respective elderships or sessions, and are situated principally in Ulster, though a few be in some parts of Leinster and Connaught. On a moderate computation there is considerably above half a million of people in connexion with this church, consisting of the various classes of society, and including in it a large portion of the agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing wealth of the country. The Presbyterians of Ulster have long been proverbial for their probity, and industry, intelligence, enterprize, and independence; and, in point of general religious knowledge and moral conduct, may vie with any other denomination of Christians. Though they have been sometimes taunted by ignorant and prejudiced persons with loyalty and republicanism, yet their whole history evinces an unshaken attachment to the principles of the constitution, even in the worst of times. Both ministers and people are the staunch friends of civil and religious liberty, and on the great question of Catholic emancipation they have very generally given it their support.

Till within these few years candidates for the sacred

*See the letter of the Rev. D. Davinson, subjoined to this articleEDITOR.

office among them were almost exclusively educated in Scotland, and were required to take the degree of master of arts at some of the universities there, before they could be admitted as students of divinity. But they are now generally educated at Belfast, where a college has been erected by the inhabitants of that enterprizing town, and which has been adopted by the Presbyterian church for the education of its young men. Here lectures are delivered in the usual branches of a collegiate education, and the same discipline maintained as in the Scotch colleges. Its chairs are filled by learned and able professors, and the number of its students is annually increasing. It possesses strong claims to national support, and there is every reason to hope that this valuable seminary will shortly be endowed by government; and thus the Presbyterian clergy of Ireland, like those of the Roman Catholic church, be provided with a permanent place of home education.

Besides the general synod of Ulster, there are two other small bodies of Presbyterians in Ireland enjoying the same privileges with it. One is the Presbytery of Antrim, consisting of eight congregations lying in Belfast and its vicinity. It oncé formed a part of the synod, but is now a distinct body. It separated about a century ago, on the principle of non-subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith, and its ministers are now considered as holding Arian sentiments. The other body is the Synod, or rather Presbytery, of Munster, consisting of ten congregations situated in Dublin and the principle towns of the south. They coincide more nearly with the Presbytery of Antrim than the geneeral Synod of Ulster in their views of doctrine and discipline.

All these bodies, however, though thus differing in religious sentiments, cordially co-operate with one another in every thing that concerns the general interests of the Presbyterian church. They have produced several ministers who, notwithstanding the disadvantages of a provincial situation, and constant labours of parochial duty, have distinguished themselves as eminent writers in the reli

gious world. Abernethy, who wrote on the attributes of God; Boyse, the author of many valuable sermons and controversial pieces; Duchal, who wrote on the presumptive evidences of Christianity; Leland, the famed antagonist of the Deistical writers of the last century; and Neilson, the author of several valuable works connected with the Greek and Irish languages, are more celebrated of their authors. Dr. Daniel Williams, founder of the Red Cross Street Library, &c., London, was for many years a minister of this church, as was also Mr. Emlyn, till his unjust persecution for Arianism in the Court of King's Bench in Dublin, drove him to England. They number among them many other able writers; but through the remoteness of their situation, and the difficulty and expense of publication, their works have never been adequately known in the world of letters.

It may be necessary to add further, that a branch of the Seceding, or Associate church of Scotland, is established in Ulster, who also maintain the Presbyterian worship and government. They were formerly divided into Burghers and Anti-burghers, but like their brethren in Scotland, they have lately united; and since their union have assumed, notwithstanding its manifest inappropriateness, the title of the Presbyterian Synod of Ireland. Its ministers are also educated at the Belfast College, and its congregations are endowed by government.

The whole number of Presbyterians in Ireland may be taken at near a million of people.

Those who are desirous of further information with respect to the Irish Persbyterians are referred to a new edition of "Palmer's Protestants Dissenters' Catechism," lately published at Belfast, containing an outline of their history drawn up by the Rev. James Smeaton Reid, Presbyterian minister at Carrickfergus. This gentleman, we understand, is at present engaged in collecting materials for publishing a full and enlarged history of this body, the only portion of the reformed church in these islands that has not been illustrated by the labous of the historiIt is now proposed to supply this obvious chasm in her ecclesiastical history, and to trace with minuteness

an.

the several vicissitudes that have befallen this body from the accession of James the First till the present time.

The foregoing interesting article was communicated by a very respectable Presbyterian clergyman of Ulster, with full liberty to diminish or add by way of improvement; but nothing of the kind seemed necessary. The author of the "Sketch" will only subjoin a letter received by him from his intelligent and liberal friend, the Rev. David Davison, A. M., successor of the late Dr. Abraham Rees in his church, Je win-street, London. Mr. Davison was formerly of Dundalk in Ireland, and is a competent judge of the preceding statement. His obliging letter, on the return of the communication, shall be inserted.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"18, King's-square, Nov. 4, 1826.

"I have read the abstract of the history of the Irish Presbyterians with great care. It seems to me to embrace the chief facts connected with their establishment and present condition, and to be drawn up in a spirit of great candour. There is, however, one circumstance overlooked by the writer, which I consider of great importance, and which I take the liberty of supplying. The circumstance to which I allude ought to be introduced near the beginning of the first paragraph in the third page of the manuscript (page 149.) The writer, speaking of the doctrine and discipline of the Irish Presbyterian Church, states, that its accredited standards are the same with those established in the Church of Scotland.' This sentence is ambiguous, and is likely to mislead those who are unacquainted with the subject. The conformity between the two churches is rather apparent than real. The Westminster Confession of Faith is the real standard of the Church of Scotland, because every intrant into the ministry is obliged to subscribe it. Such was formerly the case in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, but the prac