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The Earl of Winchelsea's call to Protestants

February 1829

The following report is taken from the Edinburgh Review of February 1829; the Review reproduced reports from other newspapers.

The Earl of Winchelsea has addressed the following letter to the Protestants of Great Britain:—

FELLOW COUNTRYMEN, BROTHER PROTESTANTS,

In the name of our country and our God, I call upon you, without one moment's delay, boldly to stand forward in defence of our Protestant Constitution and religion — of that Constitution which is the foundation of our long-cherished liberties — of that religion which is the source of the many blessings which this nation has received from the hands of the Almighty Governor of the Universe.

Let the voice of Protestantism be heard from one end of the empire to the other. Let the sound of it echo from hill to hill, and vale to vale. Let the tables of the Houses of Parliament groan under the weight of your petitions: and let your prayers reach the foot of the Throne; and though the great body of your degenerate Senators are prepared to sacrifice, at the shrine of treason and rebellion, that constitution for which our ancestors so nobly fought and died, yet I feel confident that our Gracious Sovereign, true to the sacred oath which he has taken upon the altars of our country to defend our constitution and our religion from that church which is bent upon their destruction, will not turn a deaf ear to the prayers and supplications of his loyal Protestant subjects.

I have the honour to be, with every respect,
Your humble and devoted servant,
WINCHELSEA AND NOTTINGHAM

London, Feb. 9.