May God crown all the efforts of His people in England and other lands to advance the cause of Christian union and the upbuilding of the kingdom of His Son Christ Jesus the Lord in the world.

I remain, very truly yours in the faith and service of our common Saviour,

R. BAIRD.

THE STATEMENT OF FACTS.

It is deemed proper that at the outset a brief statement of the facts which constitute the reasons for calling this meeting should be laid before it.

On the night of the 7th of January, 1853, there was held in the Metropolitan Hall, in Broadway, one of the largest and most enthusiastic assemblies ever seen in the city of New York. That meeting was held in behalf of Religious Liberty in Italy. It was convoked-1st, to express sympathy for the Madiai family and other people in Florence, who were in prison for having embraced the Protestant faith, and for having attempted to impart their new convictions to their neighbours; and 2nd, to condemn the intolerance of the Tuscan Government in that affair. On that night there came together a large number of the most influential Protestants of this metropolitan city. There were present, also, not a few highly respectable Romanists, and among them the Archbishop of New York and several of his clergy.

On that occasion the public were distinctly told that the gentlemen who called the meeting, for the purpose of denouncing intolerance towards Protestants in a Roman Catholic country, were prepared to call a similar one to denounce intolerance in Protestant countries in regard to Romanists, whenever such an instance might occur. That promise we come to-night to fulfil!

It is well known to those who are familiar with the history of the great Reformation in the sixteenth century, that the monarchs of the four Scandinavian countries took a very prominent part in that movement. The kings of Denmark, with which kingdom Norway was then united, and Gustavus Vasa of Sweden, to which Finland then belonged, had felt the yoke of Rome to weigh as heavily on their necks as on those of their subjects. And in their zeal for the Reformed faith, and for the spiritual independence of themselves and their people, they determined, if possible, to put it out of the power of the bishops of Rome ever to re-establish their sway over those kingdoms. They therefore caused laws to be made by

which all attempts to proselyte the members of the national Protestant Churches of those countries, which are identical in doctrine and ecclesiastical polity to any other creed, should be prevented. These laws have been so far modified in Denmark and Norway, within the last few years, as to grant toleration to some extent. But as to Sweden, they still disgrace her statutebook. They are, in effect, that all who quit the national Church for any other form of religion, are liable to imprisonment for twenty years, or exile for life! Nor are these laws a dead letter. On the 19th day of May last, as appears from formal documents, after a long-impending judicial prosecution, six women (five of whom are married), born in Sweden, and brought up in the Evangelical Lutheran faith, were condemned by the Royal Court of Stockholm, over which Count Eric Sparré presided, to be exiled from the kingdom, and to be deprived in future of every inhe ritance in the same, and of all civil rights, in consequence of having embraced the Roman Catholic religion.

There is not a Protestant in this land who will not condemn this and all such like instances of intolerance, as being not only contrary to the entire spirit of the Gospel, but also to one of the great principles of Protestantism, namely, the right and duty of private judgment. All true Protestants feel that it is incumbent on them to concede to others, whoever they may be, the freedom of conscience which they demand for themselves.

We are well aware that it may be said, in behalf of the Scandinavian Protestants, that they have many very painful reminiscences in relation to the struggles which their fathers had with Rome in the sixteenth century; that they have never, so far as we know, put any man to death for abandoning their national Churches; and further, that they have enforced the intolerant laws in question, within the last few years, against men who have become members of even other Protestant communions (Baptists, for instance; one of whom, Mr. Neilsen, is now an exile in one of our Western States); but none of these considerations, nor all combined, can justify such enactments.

Such, in few words, are the facts which, in our opinion, furnish sufficient reasons for calling this meeting. A series of resolutions will be submitted to the meeting, embodying what we believe to be the sentiments of the Protestants of the United States respecting the facts above related,

and the subject of religious liberty as well. We have also prepared a memorial to his Majesty the King of Sweden, which has already received the signatures of a considerable number of gentlemen of all the branches of the Protestant Church, north and south, east and west. This memorial is drawn up in an earnest but respectful style, and will, we are very sure, be received in the spirit in which it is written. We invoke not the interference of our Government in any way, for we are quite confident that even if it were proper to do so, it is not necessary. In this affair we have to deal with an enlightened and Christian monarch, and in addressing him, we hope, in a most respectful way, to obtain the attention of the Diet and the people of Sweden.

A similar movement has been made by the Protestants of England, France, Switzerland, and other countries in Europe. The memorial from England has been signed by many of the most distinguished men of that country in Church and State, including many bishops and many gentlemen holding high positions in the Government. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in sending his request that his name might be appended to the document, says: "Howevergood grounds we have for wishing to keep Roman Catholics at a distance, we must not borrow our weapons from their armoury. I cannot deprive myself of the privilege of being in the good company who have expressed their concurrence in the object.' Lord Cranworth (late Lord High Chancellor), in sending his adhesion, most justly says: "As Protestants, and therefore friends of religious liberty, we cannot be doing wrong in expressing sympathy with those who are suffering for their adherence to what they consider to be their religious duty, however erroneous we may deem their views to be."

We are free to make the avowal- and we wish that all Sweden could hear it-that it is with the deepest sorrow that we have heard that the intolerant acts referred to have occurred in that noble Protestant land, whose name stands so conspicuous in the annals of martial valour, and of historic and scientific research-in the land of Geyer, Berzelius, and Tegner, scholars of our dayand of those great Protestant princes, Gustavus Vasa and Gustavus Adolphus, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. What American Protestant can think of the lastnamed monarch without emotion? Early

in his reign he projected a Swedish colony on the banks of the Delaware, for the benefit of the persecuted in Europe, which he hoped would prove a blessing to the "common man," to the "whole Protestant world," and even to "all oppressed Christendom." And although the war in Germany called him thither to fight for the rights and even the existence of Protestantism in that land, he did not forget his projected "New Sweden in America ;" for from the city of Nurenburg, only a few days before the battle of Lützen, "where," to employ the language of one whom without impropriety we may call our most eloquent American historian, "humanity won one of her most glorious victories, and lost one of her ablest defenders," he recommended to the people of Germany an enterprise which he considered to be the "jewel of his kingdom." That noble project was carried into effect in the succeeding reign, by the great Oxenstierna.

Sweden has other claims on our sympathies and respect; for she and Norway, now united under the same crown, have within the last few years sent us many thousands of their amiable, industrious, and law-abiding children, who have found a home on the prairies and amid the forests of the Great West, and who are contributing their share of influence and strength to develop the resources and increase the Protestant population of our country.

In conclusion, may we be permitted to say to our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens without offence, that although we hardly expect them to sign our memorial to the King of Sweden

"Non tali auxilio nec defensoribus istis,

Tempus eget"

can

yet we would most respectfully call their attention to the case of Signor Mortara, at Bologna, in Italy. For although it is the case of a poor man, yet it is that of a father who has been robbed of the child of his bosom! And though he is a poor Jew, he is a son of a great progenitor who had the honour to be called the "Friend of God." Still more, he belongs to that race from which the Messiah, the Author of all our hopes, was, as to His human nature, descended.

RESOLUTIONS.

1. Resolved, That this meeting, composed of Protestants of the various denominations in the city of New York, have heard with much regret, that, owing to the

existence of laws made in times when the question of religious liberty was less understood than at present, several persons have been banished from Sweden for the sole offence of having renounced the Protestant for the Roman Catholic faith.

2. Resolved, That this meeting have also learned with much sorrow that Swedish citizens who have left the National Church (which is Lutheran in doctrine) and become Baptists, have, within the last few years, endured much vexatious oppression, and in some cases have been expelled from the country, for the maintenance of their conscientious opinions on the subject of baptism.

3. Resolved, That this meeting entertains the confident hope that the Diet of Sweden will, at the earliest moment practicable, abrogate the laws which have been the causes of a procedure so much at variance with the grand and distinguishing principle of Protestantism (the right of private judgment), and with the spirit of the age in which we live.

4. Resolved, That this meeting fully believes that all men have an inalienable right to worship God according to the dictates of their own judgment and conscience, and that the civil government acts neither wisely nor justly when it interferes either to restrict or prevent the exercise of this right; and further, that all such interference is, in many ways, hurtful to the best interests of the State and of religion.

5. Resolved, That this meeting, holding these sentiments, feels bound to condemn persecution for religion in every form, whether the subjects of it be Romanists or Protestants, Christians or Jews, believers or unbelievers.

6. Resolved, That this meeting most cordially sympathises with the great meeting of Christians of Great Britain and of the Continent, recently held in Liverpool under the auspices of the Evangelical Alliance, and bids them God-speed in their noble efforts to promote Christian union and fellowship among all the branches of the Church of Christ, and to protest against intolerance and persecution wherever they may exist, whether in Protestant Sweden and Germany, or in Roman Catholic Austria and Italy, and begs leave to assure them that nothing which concerns the best interests of the kingdom of Christ in the Old World can be a matter of indifference to us in the New.

7. Resolved, That this meeting approves of the following Memorial, and directs it to be signed by its President and

Secretaries, and forwarded to the Swedish Government.

MEMORIAL TO HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF SWEDEN.

The undersigned, belonging to various branches of the Protestant Church in the United States, respectfully beg leave to present to your Majesty the following Memorial:

The undersigned have learned with great regret that several persons have recently been sentenced by the Courts of Sweden to exile, for having abandoned the faith of the National Church of that country, and embraced the doctrines and worship of the Church of Rome. And further, that persons who have quitted the National Church and adopted the principles of the Baptists, though decided Protestants and peaceable citizens, have been exposed to much vexatious oppression, and even persecution, within the last few years.

The undersigned have been informed that the laws under which these acts, so contrary to the fundamental principle of Protestantism and to sound political policy, were made in the age of the Reformation, and at a time when Sweden was but just delivered from the yoke of Rome, and was struggling to maintain her newly-acquired freedom, and they are fully prepared to appreciate that fact. But now that the Swedish nation has been more universally Protestant for nearly three centuries than any other nation in the world, the undersigned would express the hope that all such laws will be abrogated, and that thus a pretext may be taken away which Rome and her advocates employ, to justify her intolerance towards Protestants in all those Papal lands in which her influence is supreme.

The undersigned avail themselves of the occasion to say, that after an experience running through the greater portion of a century, the people as well as the Government of these United States are ready to bear testimony, both unanimous and emphatic, in favour of entire religious liberty. In no one principle of public economy as a nation are American Christians more completely of one opinion. And although no country in the world is more exposed to the evils as well as to the benefits of immigration-and we receive every year emigrants from every country in Europe excepting Turkey, and among them many thousands of Romanists-we feel confident that Protestantism will maintain the ascendancy which it has hitherto done;