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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 scruplesi 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 27 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 genefal . 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 thfebodies who might 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 agaii > introduced to the House of Lords , and , notwithstanding a strenuous opposition , which was now directed more openly 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 again 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
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1824, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1715/page/30/