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Untitled Article
Your Committee Ipst no timfe in acting upon these instructions , bat l # * re * not in their powet to report any communication of an intention to proceed in , so desirable an object from the Protestant Society . From the Deputies , however , they have received from time to time , , both through public report and official communication , information of the steps taken to revive public attention to the claims of Dissenters , ami to bring them under the notice of the Legislature ,
As a matter of general notoriety , the Committee may probably notice that considerable diflfereiice of opinion prevailed among the body of Deputies , tarth as to the expediency of at present agitating the question , and as to the mode of so dding £ if it were determined to make the attempt . The general opinion seemed disinclined to attempt any thing unless under reasonable prospect of
success : arid ( though your Committee , in common with many of the Deputies , thought the immediate prospect of success a very secondary object of consideration , and that the course of proceeding most honourable to them- * selves and most likely in the end to prevail s consisted in frequent and tetnpe- rate appeals to the good sense and justice of . the public , through the medium of Parliament , whatever might be the present result , ) they did not feel it to
be their duty to press pertinaciously for any peculiar mode of proceeding , but to concur zealously in any serious efforts for the common good . It is well known that repeated discussions took place in the Deputies , all concurring so far as to admit the propriety of increased vigilance , and at length your Committee were happy to nnd that a regular correspondence was directed to be opened throughout the kingdom , containing an explanation of the historical position of the question , requesting communications as to the feelings and
wishes of the Dissenters generally , and covering forms of petitions to be used when deemed expedient . This , it is to be hoped , will prepare the way for active and efficient exertions in the ensuing Session of Parliament , which your Committee are proud to have been in any way instrumental in exciting * and they , at their last Committee , came to the . following resolution , to be submitted to your consideration , as the result of their exertions in pursuance of the instructions contained in the resolutions of last year :
" That it appears to the Committee that a point of considerable importance has been gained , in the direction of the serious attention of a body representing the general Dissenting public , to so desirable an end . That this Committee relies upon the steady continuance of such exertions , and recommends to their successors to keep a vigilant attention directed towards all proceedings tending to accomplish the wishes of this Association , as
expressed at the General Meeting s and particularly not to suffer the next Sessipn to open , without securing from some quarter a suitable application to Parliament , for the purpose of exciting" such discussion as may , at any rate , operate to direct public opinion , and awaken the attention of the Dissenting body to . questions of so rmichimportance . " Your Committee have had less business of a private nature than usual before them . [ The part of the Report which relates to private cases is as usual omitted in printing for publication , for obvious reasons . ]
In several instances your Committee have been called upon for , and in two or three have given , assistance to congregations in the formation of the trust deeds of their property . They have , however , felt ( and they believe in common with their predecessors ) some difficulty in the course to be adopted under this branch of thfeir duties . They have ia several instances been applied to , to prepare , at the expense of the Association , trust deeds for congregations ^ iti some cases , under circumstances of urgency , from the probability of
aggression in case every- opportunity was not seized to vest the trust iri new hands ; in other cases , simply on the ground of the poverty of tlie congregation ; and in others , merely from the wish of the parties to have advice and assistance from persons whose peculiar circumstances might be supposed to /^ 6 lac ** ^ conversan t wit h matters of this nat ure . On the one hand , it seemed difficult for the Committee not to feel that they were often moat efficiently preventing the necessity , for the legal interference which they might otherwise be hereafter called on to afford . By embracing a favourable opportunity at a comparatively small expense of securing
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1823, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1714/page/31/
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