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'Home Rulers' in Germany.

Dr. Gneist. the Englishman, awaking out of a dream, asks himself who dare use such language in England as formerly drove James II. from this land? The same language is to be heard with us from nearly every bishop's see, from the pulpits and from the assemblies of the Romish clergy. Our Home Rule party has antedated by some years the Irish. We congratulate England that it recalls in such danger the dark leaves of its history, in which the Jesuitical spirit won ascendancy in the councils of the Crown, and in the intrigues of priests, till Jesuitism itself precipitated the conflict by which England had become so great. It was the Protestant spirit, not in the distinctive doctrines of the Confessions and parties, as little as that is the case in this distinguished assembly, but the great Protestant Principle of spirit of love of truth, self-responsibility to God, and civil and religious freedom, to which England owes her proud history. It was this spirit which colonised North America, which wrung for the land the rulership of the seas, which has educated that people, and made them the centre of the world's business, who have gathered together the riches of the world, and have yet preserved simplicity of manners, love of truth, and the fear of God. It is the sympathetic feeling of two nations which in the struggle of two antagonistic modes of viewing the universe again unites them. When from the other side of the Channel the enthusiastic address is heard to the noblest of our nation

Protestant

action in

England.

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'God bless the Emperor William!' we answered 'God Dr. Gneist. preserve Old England!'-our mightiest and our surest

ally in the struggle for the civil and religious freedom of peoples!

III. PRESENTATION OF ADDRESS OF THANKS.

Count

At a meeting held on Monday, March 16th, Meeting at 1874, at Carlton House, the residence of the German Münster's. Ambassador, his Excellency Count Münster presented the address of thanks from the public meeting held at Berlin on February 7th.

Murray.

Sir John Murray, of Philiphaugh, in the name of Sir John the Committee, said in reply,-Your Excellency, it is with feelings of the deepest pleasure that I accept, in the name of my fellow-countrymen, the expression of friendship which this document exhibits. Attached to it, I observe, are the signatures of members of the German Parliament and of both houses of the Prussian Diet, representatives of the magistracy, and citizens of the capital, men of science and of art, and of all classes of society. Allow me to say, Sir, it will be gratifying to us, the Englishmen who have the honour to surround your table of hospitality on this occasion, and I will also say, deeply gratifying to the Protestant people of Great Britain, if you would kindly convey to the gentlemen who sign this document our expression of the deep sense in which

Sir John
Murray.

Colonel
Macdonald.

we regard and value their message; and, Sir, it is our earnest desire to assure your countrymen how greatly we rejoice to hear that the sympathy proclaimed at our meetings in London is regarded by them as a pledge that both nations will henceforward unite their endeavours to promote the blessings of civil and religious liberty.

May God bless, Sir, your

Emperor! May God bless your nation!'

The health of Queen Victoria and the Emperor was proposed, and received enthusiastically.

Colonel Macdonald then proposed the health of Count Münster, and said: Count Münster, may I be permitted to ask these gentlemen to join me in a bumper? The toast, gentlemen, is one which you will drink with all honour. It is the health of our noble

entertainer, my old and dear friend Count Münster, who with his usual grace has made us feel so truly at home at this hospitable board to-night.

We have, I think, cause to congratulate the German Empire that its interests here are in the hands of one so frank, so wise, so true, and so friendly; one who is associated with us by so many . ancient memories, and so many more modern ties; one who, on the one hand, knows England so well, and who, on the other, is such a worthy representative of the great Protestant heart of Germany.

Gentlemen, when Count Münster and I were so intimate in Madeira, now thirty years ago, our

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