It is now nearly
eleven oclock at night, rather
an unseemely hour to start
letter writing is it not, but as
the old adage goes it is better
late than never, even though
it be eleven oclock. I have just
returned from sister Chambers
who lives in another part of the
tow[n]. God has certainly blessed me
with a few godod friends to admin-
ister to my wants and this kind
Sister is one of them; although
I have only known her for a
little over a month it seems that
I must have known her for
Page 2
2
years. No mother could ^feel^ more
solicitous for the welfare of her
son than this kind soul is for me; she insists upon my coming
down nearly every night to
supper and to spend the evening
and as it is about the only place
where I can pass a nice quiet
evening I very often avail myself
of the opportunity thus afforded.
She wished me to remember her
kindly to my parents, which I
promised to do. I feel well in my
labors of late and do not let
home matters bother me but
very little indeed and feel as if
I could stay over here just as
Page 3
3
long as they are amight to keep me. I feel to praize God every day
of my life for this experiance
which well be of lasting bennefit
to me. I am sincerely thankful
that from my earliest recolection
I have ben taught the way of
life, and when I look on my past
life and see what some of it has
ben and remember how neare I
have ben on more than one occa-
sion, to the brink of ruin it
fairly makes me shudder, and It
seems that there must have ben
some power to prevent my rushing
headlong into the dark abyss below.
I prize my mission much and
Page 4
4
endeavour day by day to sense
the importance of my calling. It
is very often the case that people
look with envy upon those men
who act as embassadors for a temporal
governments, sutch as the US Minister
to England, but I look upon it as
a much greater honor to represent to the kingdom of God and "I would
not exchange my station for the
thone of England's Queen" There is
qute a bitter feeling manifested here
betwen the Catholics and Protesta-
nts it is amusing as well as
significant to hear them impu-
gning ea[ch] other's religon, and waring
jaring Christianity is truly a spectacle
Page 5
5
to behold. The Church of England
and the Catholic Church have
their line layed so close together
that it would appear to the
casual oberserver that they were
both runing for the same depot;
and it looks as if they would soon
be annealed together. The Rev C Stirl-
ing deliverd a bold address on this
subject last evening, in this place.
Perhaps a brief synopsis of the same
would not be wholy uninteresting
to you from the fact that it paints
in vivid colors the feeling that ex-
ists between Protestant ^notabely the Methodist^ & Catholic. The
lecture was deliverd to a large
congregation a ^good^ portion of which
Page 6
6
was divines of the Methodist frate-
rnity. In these days, he said, when P
Protestantism was becoming so
unfashionable and the Church of the
nation was apostatising from that
faith which their fathers so valued
and slaid down their lives to mai-
ntain, he rejoiced that they had a
Protestant instituion in Portsmouth
whos object was the defense of those
true protestant principles which they
hoped to hand down to the coming
generation. He then proceded to trace
the Political and esclesiastical hstory
of the country ^from the Reformation^ down to the present
day. Queen Elizabeth, he maintained
certainly checked the full develo-
Page 7
7
pment of Protestantism, and would so no accede to the moderate demands
of the Puritan party; hence all the
trouble and mischief which after-
ward resulted, and those grevious
trials to which the nation was
subjected in the present day, never
did England stand higher among the
nations of the world than she did
under the rule of Oliver Cromwell.
Every successive administration
from 1829 to the present day, no matter
of what party, had ben brought on
its knees before the Popish faction
and concession after concesian had
ben made, till there was nothing
much left to concede. Owing to the
Page 8
8
repeated action the country had
reached a terrible crisis. They knew
not what was about to take place
in the political world, but they did
know that God had taken from England her power and she was no
longer mistress of the seas. Popery was
in ^the^ ascendency in both houses of
parliament and elsewhere in the state
Reffering to Dr- he declined to recognise
him as cardinal-manning he said
that that man, whom the govern-
ment of the country delighted to have
and who was brought into closest
association with the Heir to the Throne
had for his object the subjection
of the country to his master, the
Pope of Rome. Asking his hearers to
Page 9
9
make it a matter of earnest prayer
that night that God would rais
up a man who should rool back
the tide of Popery, and restore to
the country the constitution which
it enjoyed in 1829. The lecturer said
he wanted to see the Roman Catholic
turned out of Parlimentery again.
He wanted to see every Roman Catholic
chaplain dismissed from the army
and navy, and from their gaols and
workhouses and to see all Roman
Catholic's disfranchised. They should
never allow Roman Catholics to be
spoken of as fellow-subjects, they
might be fellow-countrymen but
they were subjects of the Church of
Page 10
10 Rome. He said that Papacy had
obtained sutch a hold in the country that it could not be got
rid of, except by a tremendous
struggle involving perhaps a civil
war. He advocated that they should
eliminate from the book of cannon
prayer every one of those passages
which seemed to afford a foothold
to those who were raising that
terrible superstructure of Romanism
The Protestant clergy had not done
their duty in the matter, for Romanism
in the church would have ben stifled
if all the clergy had gone to the Arch-
bishops and Bishops, and protested
that they could not remain in the
Page 11
11
Church while this continued. And
now if 50 beneficed clergy would
associate with him, and 10,000
laymen would support them, he
was ready to take this step, and
if no attention were paid to their
demand, to assist in forming a
real Protestant church, which should
rise phoenix like on the ruins of
the present Romanised establishment.
Applaus was freely bestowed during
the lecturers remarks. Your letters
bearing dates Dec 23nd26th and 30th
also Jan 15th came duly to hand
and the contents perused with
interest. The photo's were in London
waiting for me when I went up to
Page 12
12
conference, they are very nice
and I fully appreciate your kindness
in sending them to me. I have
only one of nine left and I thought
of sending that to Nellie, As they
are not taken very well I will get
some more drawn and send you
some, they take them here quite cheap
being only 1.25 pr dy. I wrote till two
oclock last night and then retired, it is now the 3rd the twenty second ani- versaryof my birthday and just nine
months since I landed in England. I
am going to walk to Southhampton to
day, 20 miles; so I must be off at
once as it is getting late. With love
to all, I am your affectionate son A H Woodruff.