he presented the same, and for his uniform and powerful advocacy of our cause. "That the Committee of the British Catholic Association be instructed to draw up a petition, praying for the repeal of the Test and Corporation acts, and all other acts affecting the Protestant Dissenters, to be presented to Parliament in the ensuing session, in conformity with the principles laid down in the resolutions just read. "That the thanks of this meeting be given to Mr. Blount, in the most prominent and distinguished manner, for his able speech and report; and that they be printed and widely circulated." The following extracts from the Minute Book were read by Mr. Rosson, in his speech in support of the third resolution: Extract from the Report of the General Committee, read at the Annual General Meeting, held at the Freemasons' Tavern, on Thursday, June 10th, 1824: his grace the Duke of Norfolk in the chair: "Your Committee recommends that all bear in mind the broad principle on which this General Association is formed-namely, on the right which every British subject ought to possess, of following the dictates of his conscience, without the abridgement of his civil rights. You ask nothing for yourselves that you do not ask for all. You have abjured every principle or tenet that has been imputed to you, as inconsistent with the duties you owe to the government under which you live. You feel that the abridgement of your civil rights is uncalled for, and therefore unjust. In your persons the rights of British subjects are violated, and in the name of the constitution of your country, you call on your fellow-subjects of every religious creed, to join with you in a common effort to obtain the repeal of every law that militates against unrestricted liberty of religious worship, considering every such law as an act of injustice to society, and of impiety to God." On the same day it was resolved"That the secretary do at the same time express to his lordship (the Marquis of Lansdown) their determination to persist in their endeavours to obtain the complete emancipation of the British Catholics, and their trust that in so doing they shall have the powerful assistance of his lordship, and the co-operation of all true friends of civil and religious liberty; it being the earnest wish of the British Catholics, that all should participate in every right and every blessing which they, the British Catholics, solicit for themselves." Resolution passed at a General Meeting of British Catholics, held at the Freemasons' Tavern, on Saturday, February 26th, 1825: his grace the Duke of Norfolk in the chair: "That it is the right of every British subject to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience, without being subject, on that account, to civil penalties and disabilities; and that in petitioning for our emancipation from all such penalties or disabilities, we ask for nothing for ourselves which we would not willingly procure for, and if in our power bestow on, all other denominations of Christians: and we trust this declaration of our principles will entitle us to the support of all friends of civil and religious liberty; and procure for us the cordial co-operation and support of all those who, like ourselves, are sufferers for conscience sake." Resolution passed at an Open Meeting, held at the Freemasons' Tavern on Monday, May 30th, 1825: Henry Howard, Esq., of Corby, in the chair: "That the members of the committee of the British Catholic Association highly applaud, and receive with deepest satisfaction, the manly declaration of the Unitarian Dissenters of England in favour of religious liberty: they beg to offer them this very inadequate expression of their gratitude; and to proclaim their solemn determination to vindicate on all occasions for others, that freedom which they assert to be their own un alienable right; and to uphold and maintain the impolicy, injustice, and oppression, of every sort of disability or exclusion, on account of difference in matters of religion." Extract from the Report of the Committee, read at their Annual General Meeting, held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, on Saturday, June 25th, 1825: Lord Clifford in the chair: "With all who, like ourselves, suffer legal restraint for religious opinions, we will make common cause, and prosecute our joint suit in the sacred name of civil and religious liberty." On the same day it was resolved"That the British Catholic Association hereby requests the Protestant Dissenters of the United Kingdom, who upon a recent occasion came forward to express sentiments favourable to the cause of Catholic emancipation, to accept its most cordial thanks. And we take this opportunity of assuring our fellow-subjects of all religious persuasions, who suffer any civil disabilities on account of their dissent from the creed of the established church, that we are anxious to co-operate with them in all such measures as may be deemed the most proper and effective for obtaining, by our united efforts, the repeal of every law which imposes any religious test, oath, or qualification whatsoever, as a necessary condition for the enjoyment of civil rights. That it be referred to the Committee of the Association to adopt the measures which they may consider necessary or expedient for communicating to the Dissenters the wishes expressed in the foregoing resolution; and for establishing with them, and with every other friend of civil and religious liberty, a regular system of co-operation for the attainment of the object therein mentioned." Extract from a Petition to Parliament, adopted at an Open Meeting held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, on Tuesday, January 31st, 1826: Lord Arundell in the chair: Trusting therefore to the wisdom and justice of your honourable house, they once more represent their case to it, and solicit the total repeal of the laws by which they are aggrieved: and they aver that the concession would be to them an imperfect blessing, if any class of his Majesty's subjects continued to labour under similar disabilities on account of their religious sincerity." Extract from a Petition adopted at a General Meeting of British Catholics, held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, on Wednesday, November 8th, 1826: "That we have declared, and we again declare, that we bear animosity to no individual of any communion, sect, or party; that we embrace all our countrymen and fellow-subjects, whatever be their religious denomination, as friends and brethren; and that we most sincerely and fervently wish to see them all united in the participation of every civil right and blessing which we solicit for ourselves." Several Gentlemen addressed the Meeting at very considerable length; and we regret that our limits will not allow us to give the speeches in detail. PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. MUNICH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. THE King of Bavaria has decreed a new regulation for the Academy of Sciences at Munich, according to which, the institution has to extend its transactions to all subjects of science, and more, particularly to those belonging to the sciences of philosophy, philology, mathematics, natural philosophy, natural history, astronomy, universal history, and the history of animals, depend upon the air in which they live. I have observed that those of St. Helena, which have been brought from another hemisphere, are very irregular in their annual progress; many of them, in the development of their foliage, have adopted the law of nature peculiar to the country into which they have been transplanted. Others, more obstinate, remain faithful to their own habits, and continue to fol of the kingdom of Bavaria in particular. The sciences of theology, ju risprudence, and medicine, are excluded. The Academy is to consist of three classes, viz. philosophy and philology; mathematics and the natural sciences; and history. The Academy of Sciences is to have a president and one secretary to each of the three classes, a proportionate number of members resident at Munich, some honorary members, and also a certain number of correspond-low the stated changes to which they ing members; to hold two public meetings annually; to publish its principal transactions, the national documents under the title Monumenta Voica, and also a literary journal. had been accustomed. They all appear to maintain a struggle either before they adopt the habits which belong to the seasons of their new country, or decide on retaining their relations with the old. In yielding to external circumstances, they appear to have different tempers. This appearance of contention is often observed in plants of the same species; they seem to hesitate and deliberate ere they adopt the mode of performing the functions of life. At length, when the decision is made, apparently not without pain and effort, we are at a loss to discover an adequate cause. An oak, for instance, which loses its leaves in a St. Helena winter of 68 degrees, scarcely experiences the difference of temperature which, reasoning by analogy, would cause that change. It would have continued to maintain inflexibly, in its original climate, its old habits, though exposed to far greater irregularity and severity of climate. But though this law is obeyed by many plants, it does not determine the periodical changes of the whole, nor do they all submit to it with equal readiness and regularity. It would add, I conceive, to the natural history of vegetation, and improve our knowledge of the geography of plants, were the facts concerning their ha bits and changes under different temperatures carefully collected. MONTHLY INTELLIGENCE. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. ROME. On the 25th of June, in the morning, his Holiness held a secret consistory, in which he proposed to vacant sees the following persons; namely, to the bishopric of Geta, Lewis Parisio, transferred from Venice; to that of Sebeinisco in Dalmatia, Philip Bordini, grand vicar of the diocese; to that of Aix, M. Domillin Marie Savy, grand vicar of Thoulouse; to that of Versailles, M. Jean Francois Borderies, priest of the diocese of Montauban, grand vicar of Paris; to that of Rochelle, M. Joseph Bernet, priest of the diocese of St. Flour, curate at Paris; to that of Urgel in Spain, Simon de Guardiola, Benedictine, Abbot of Montserrat; to that of Mondonedo, Francisco Lopez Borricon, a canon of Burgos; to that of Teruel, Diego Carlon, a priest of the diocese of Carthagena; to that of St. Paul in Brazil, Joachim Consalos de Andreada, vicar-general of the diocese, and to that of St. Louis de Maraguan also in Brazil, Mark Anthony de Sousa, professor of theology. His Holiness afterwards declared as cardinals of the Roman church, St. Ignatius Nazalli, archbishop of Cyra, born at Parma, the 7th of October 1750, and M. Joachim, John Xavier d'Iscard, dean of the Rota, and born at Aix, the 23rd of October 1766. His Holiness pronounced a discourse on the death of the the King of Portugal John VI. and announced a service which would take place for the repose of the soul of that prince. On the eve of Pentecost, bis Holiness administered baptism in the new font which he has lately erected in the church of San Maria Maggiore. Four Roman Jews, two men and two women, a few of Ancona, and a Mahomedan Moor received baptism from the hands of his Holiness. The godfathers were Prince Altieri, senator of Rome, the Prince of Viano, the Prince Anthony Piombino, and the Prince Sigismund Chigi; the god-mothers were the Princesses Barboricia and Coluna. The ceremony was performed with much pomp; the catechumens were called Jacob Terracini, Salvator Civitanova, Joab and Rebecca Terracini, Stilla Lamentani, and the Moor Morgian. After baptism his Holiness administered to the neophytes the sacrament of confirmation, and delivered a paternal address, in which he expatiated on the high favour which they had just received. They assisted afterwards at a solemn high mass when his Holiness gave the nuptial benediction to Terracini, and the female Lamentani. Four of the new proselytes received communion-the other two were yet too young. The whole ceremony was concluded with a Te Deum. PARIS. SEVERAL Conversions of Protestant have recently taken place. Tuesday, the 3rd of July, M. Bernard, Count of Leinbourg-Styrum, born in 1795 at Aruheim, abjured the Protestant religion in the chapel of the ladies of the congregation, Rue de Sevres. This noblemen long meditated this step, and prepared for it in retirement; he edified every one by his piety, and has departed for Holland where he generally resides. Some days previous, the Viscountess de Géréaux, an English lady by birth, pronounced her abjuration in the church of the foreign missions. We learn from Germany that M. de Beckendorf, a Prussian counsellor of state in the ministry of ecclesiastical affairs and public instruction, has executed the project which he had for some time formed of returning to the bosom of the Catholic church; he pronounced his recantation at Ratisbonne, and informed the King of Prussia of this step. On his return to Berlin, he found an order of the cabinet, dismissing him from his situation. i SPAIN. THE Pope, on the recommendation of Bolivar, has given the canonical institution to several bishops of South America; and a concordat has been concluded between Rome and Columbia, The court of Madrid is somewhat blustering upon this exercise of pontifical liberality; and has issued orders that the new papal nuncio, Monsieur Tiberi, Shall not be received. This fact, directly refutes two charges made against the Catholics by the ignorant declaimers in the reformation school; and is a practical answer to the unfounded imputations respecting Popish illiberality and Popish supremacy; for it proves, first, that the Pope, in the exercise of liberality, makes an attempt to establish an amicable connexion between an ancient monarchical state, the leviathan among despots, and an infant republic, the enemy of religious and political slavery; and, second, that a country, decidedly the most ultra-Catholic in the world, (as Spain certainly is,) dares, contrary to the axioms of the anti-Catholics, to dispute the authority and political supremacy of the Pontiff himself, who, the reformers would fain persuade us, is actual master of the Jives and properties of all the Catholics on the globe! DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. THE following is a copy of a petition which was lately presented to the House of Commons, by Lord John Russell. It was signified by Lords Shrewsbury, Dormer, and Stafford, by many of the Catholic clergy in the Midland counties, among others by the head master and the professors in the Catholic College of Oscott, near Birmingham, and by most of the gentry. The humble petition of the undersigned Roman Catholics of the Midland counties. Sheweth,-That a numerous class of their fellow subjects, dissenters from the Established Church, are, equally with your petitioners, deprived of liberty of conscience by the operation of the test and corporation acts. That while your petitioners are exerting themselves to procure their own emancipation from the proscrip tion, of which they are the victims, they entertain an anxious desire that all classes of their fellow subjects may enjoy the same rights of which they are in pursuit themselves. That, accordingly, your petitioners respectfully, but earnestly entreat your honourable house, that the said acts may be forthwith repealed, and thereby a numerous class of his majesty's subjects restored those rights, to which your petitioners conceive that every citizen of the united kingdom is entitled. to That, whereas it is sometimes asserted that said acts are the bulwarks of the Established Church, your petitioners consider it not very complimentary to that church that it should be the only establishment in Christendom that needs such bulwarks, and moreover they believe this argument to be totally irreconcilable with the practice of the legislature, in annually passing a bill to indemnify those, who violate the provisions of said acts, against the penalties which they legally incur by such violation. That, whereas it has been asserted that the emancipation of the said numerous class of their fellow subjects may retard or endanger the emancipation of your petitioners, your petitioners beg leave to state, in the first place, that they have no apprehension of such consequences, and in the second, that were such consequences probable, this circumstance would not deter your petitioners from their present application to your honourable house; inasmuch as they urge their own question, not so much as a question of sectarian relief, as on the broad ground on which alone they wish to succeed, namely→ the inalienable right of every British subject to liberty of conscience. Wherefore your petitioners repeat their prayer, that it may appear to your honourable house wise and just to repeal the said acts, by which, |