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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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as to which _Jthat Committee , by its Report to the House , took a favourable notice . In this situation your Committee entered upon their office , and immediately determined that it was important to avail themselves at once of the _opening afforded by the Report of the House of Lords , and to introduce into that
House a Bill , which was in substance the same as that introduced into the House of Commons in the preceding year , and which applied to the case of all classes of Dissenters . For this purpose they requested and received the _valuable assistance of the Marquis of Lansdowne , of whose polite attention , and continued zealous exertions , they cannot speak too highly .
On the second reading of this Bill an opposition was raised _^ on the grounds principally of the lateness of the Session , and of the generality , of the provisions of the Bill ; many members of the House of Lords appearing disposed to concede to the doctrinal scruples ; of the Unitarians , what they were not inclined to admit was due to the general Dissenting objections to the " discipline of the Church . In the list of the advocates of the principle of granting relief at any rate to the Unitarians , the Committee were gratified to observe the Archbishop of Canterbury and Earls Liverpool and Harrowby , and though , on
a division , the Bill was lost by a majority of 6 , ( the numbers being 2 / to 21 , ) the general prospect could not but be considered as affording great encouragement for perseverance , and as sanctioning sanguine hopes of a more successful result at no very remote period . The attempt , however unsuccessful at the moment , ( and , indeed , the period of its trial could never give much expectation of present accomplishment _^ was attended with good , so far as it made their case more generally known , and ascertained the feelings of the most influential person , both as to the general merits of the question , and as to the plan of relief most likely to succeed .
Your Committee thought they should be furthering the good effect which this discussion produced , by publishing at once a full report of the debate , accompanied by some explanatory observations , on the subject , principally , of the _general Dissenting objections to the conformity imposed by the present law . They took the opportunity , also , of annexing a reprint of both the Bills ,
which had at different times been prepared under the direction of this Society , in order that no occasion might be lost of giving the fullest explanation of their views , and of testifying the sincerity of their desire to obtain relief only in a mode which should be consistent with the feelings of others , and with the civil policy of the existing regulations .
At the commencement of the present Session , ( 1824 , ) your Committee , being resolved to take the earliest opportunity to revive the discussion , had only this question of importance to consider , namely , whether they should continue to advocate the general claims of all Dissenters , or confine themselves to the particular case of Unitarians . To this latter course they were finally determined , by the consideration of the objections made even by their supporters in Parliament to the former extended plan ; by the additional difficulties
both in form and principle , which the latter brought upon them ; and , finally , by the remembrance that , during the whole period that this Society had been employing its funds and exertions in advocating the general _. claiins of Dissenters , they had ( in return for the difficulties and _discouragements which the extension of the plan necessarily brought with it , ) tofet with no compensating assistance or co-operation of any sort from thfe Bodies who mi _g ht have been expected to render those facilities which their extended means and influence would naturally have afforded .
The Bill , so narrowed in its object , was _agaiij introduced to the House of Lords , and , _notwithstanding a strenuous opposition , which was now directed more _operaly to the principle of the Bill , passed the second reading by a majority , of two ; . the numbers being 35 to 33 . In this debate the Committee were _ugixhi gratified at receiving the liberal and candid support of the Archbishop of Canterbury , and of the greater portion of the members of the Episcopal Bench , as well as that of the Earl of Liverpool . On the motion
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 10, 1824, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/smrp_10061824/page/4/
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