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    agitation of the ocean will be perpetuated after the tempest has subsided , by which the agitation was produced *—The magistrates in many counties were deceived by the statements which had been

    made in Parliament , and by a report eagerly , but incorrectly circulated , of a case , rather inconsiderately submitted to the Court of King ' s Bench * by some country gentlemen , against the justices of Denbighshire , for refusing to permit David Lv vvis , who stated

    himself as one * wLo preached 10 several congregations of Protestant Dissenters , to take the oaths , &c . specified in the Toleration Act , 1 William and Mary 9 c . 18 , and -which produced a decision , that

    the words " teacher or preacher of any congregation of Dissenting Protestants /* contained in the 8 th clause of that Act , meant the teacher or preacher of a separate congregation . — These magistrates .

    therefore , resolved not to permit the oaths to be administered to any persons who were not ordained ministers of separate congregations , land who did not prove their ap »

    pointment by certificates , or by such evidence as the justices at their sessions might require . These resolutions the Committee perceived would practically repeal the Acts of Toleration , would exclude

    all teachers of Sunday schools , students , probationers , itinerants , Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists , from the protection of the law , and would invest magistrates with judicial authority and discre *

    fionary powers , incompatible , not only with the natural and unalienable rights of man , but even with the most restricted toleration . They therefore resolved to take up the gauntlet of dejfianqe , which had

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    been thrown down by magistrates , arid by periodical assailants , to litigate these expositions in the l courts of law , and if foiled in such

    litigation , to apply to Parliament for relief . For legal discussion they selected three cases . By one , the case of Mr . Ellington , of Mildenhall , in Suffolk , the regular preacher of a separate Baptist

    congregation ^ they intended to ascertain the right of magistrates to demand certificates ; and by the other cases , of Mr . Packer of Dursley , a respectable layman , who itinerated to various

    congregations , and of Mr , Brittan , of Bristol , who had been a student in two dissenting academies—they intended to ascertain , whether under the comprehensive designation of ** persons-pretending to holy orders , " in the Toleration Act , all

    persons aspiring to preach , and , especially , all students , were not entitled , by taking the oaths and making the declaration prescribed in that Act , to exempt themselves from the penalties , imprisonment and proscription , to which , under the odious Five Mile and

    Conventicle Acts , they would otherwise be exposed . After great expence and much delay , the Committee had , in the case of Mr . Ellington , obtained a satisfactory triumph , and the . court was understood to have decided , that the claim of certificates was

    unwarranted by law . On the other cases they had also obtained , at least , a nominal victory ; for tbeir applications were granted , a » d mandamuses were to issue to

    the justices of Gloucestershire , to administer the oaths to both the gentlemen for whom the Committee had applis ^ The dou bts , however , intimated by . the chief

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    396 Annual Meeting of tie Protestant Society .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1812, page 396, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1749/page/52/