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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Adopting The Same Order In Which Tormer ...
leave to the interest of the general body _; observing only , that if tlie learned judge had looked into the Toleration Act , and the statutes which it repealed , he would have found in it probably much more than " an exemption from punishment for non-attendance at the Established Church , and nonconformity with its rites . " But the Committee must be allowed with great deference to remove the whole theory which is set up with regard to the law particularly
directed against Unitarians , and the statute repealing it . They must take leave to answer the assertions—that the Trinity law was intended only to give security to the _Government in the nature of a Test law—that the only penalty imposed is exclusion from office—and that _^ the penalty is directed against any manifestations of the dangerous opinion , without proof of intention ta propagate it—by simply stating the real provisions of the Act , leaving it to their constituents to judge what weight they ought to attach to opinions so
hastily and crudely formed . The Act provides , that if aiiy person shall " by writing , printing , teaching , or advised speaking" deny , & c _« _, _bfr shall for the first offence be disabled in law from holding office , ecclesiastical , eivil , or military , and for the second offence be disabled from suing or prosecuting any suit in law , or being guardian , executor , or administrator _otfcSf one , or capable ofreceiving any legacy or deed of gift , and suffer imprisonment for three years , without bail
or mainpnze . Under the circumstances attending the case which they have thus detailed , your Committee do not think that the position in _whieh former Committees have determined to remain , in any way calls for more serious attention than has hitherto been _extended to it . The principles on which the arguments of the learned judge rest , appear , if they include any , to involve all persons differing from the _Established Church _equally with the Unitarians , so far as
concerns the propagation of their peculiar opinions , and the impugnment of those of the Establishment , whose creeds and _fopnularies form the only criterion of that Christianity which is " part and parcel Of the law of England . " If the religious freedom of this country is confined to the entertainment of opinion , leaving the expression of it always more or less culpable , and punishable or not , merely according to the more or less liberal construction of a judge or jury ; and if , as the learned judge seems to tell us , not even the
Legislature is potent _enough to make it otherwise ; we have one consolation , at least , in hailing it as a new proof of the dangerous laxity , the absurd uncertainty of our criminal law on such subjects , and shall , in common with all Dissenters , have one reason ino _^ e for joining in the protest which justice , policy , and religion , unite in calling on all the real friends of Christianity to make , against prosecution of any sort of expre 3 sion of opinion in matters of religion at the tribunals of the law .
At the General Meeting , the following , among other Resolutions , were passed : That this Meeting has full confidence in the Committee taking every practicable means of procuring the Repeal of the Test and Corporation . Acts , which are so great a grievance to Protestant Dissenters , and so inconsistent with the liberal spirit of the British Constitution .
Tbat it is desirable to invest at interest such part of the _balance from time to time in hand , as shall appear to this Society at its General Meeting , to be beyond its immediate wants _; the fund to be at the disposal of the Committee for the time being . And ( with relation chiefly to the decrease in the ampunt of Annual Subscriptions , the arrears , particularly of Congregational _Subscriptions , the
great excess of the _lapt year ' s expenditure above the current income , and the present calls upon the Society ) the Committee were _dijec _^ ed _tp _qrge by such means as they should deem expedient , the increase in number , and the regular payment , of Subscriptions , particularly from _Congregations , _aad the great desirableness of enabling the Society to accumulate _^ Fund , to w _^ icji it . may be able to look in an emergency without the necessity of a public appeal -
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 4, 1823, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/smrp_04061823/page/10/
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