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    justice , in the judgment , before inserted , as to the decision which he should eventually pronounce , and thfc opinion which he intimat-4 i

    ed , that the words pretending to holy orders / ' meant i 4 pretending to have received holy orders , © r to have been previously ordained , " clouded the lustre of success . That such would be the ultimate

    decision of rhe court , he could not a however , believe . Such construction was libellous on the memory of the illustrious men by whom the Act of Toleration was

    prepared , it was now decided , that this description was the only description in the act which could apply to students , to probationers - and to persons who were not

    settled pastors of specific congregation * . And as , at the Revolution and at every subsequent period , ministers were elective among Protestant Dissenters , the result of that construction must be this

    absurd proposition , —that Dissenting teachers , who are all elected teachers of separate congregations , in consequence of their ascertained capacity to teach , who cannot

    legally try or ascertain their capacity until they have taken the oaths , &c . —must continue liable to punishment , during such trial , or must h * chosen by a congregation who have never ascertained

    them . The absurdity of such proposition must prevent its adoption . Such was not the proposition which William the Third would have approved—which Lord

    Somers would have prepared—which the Dissenters would have accepted * The imputation to them of such ignorance and injustice must excite- 'the indignation of every niWnf wtoo revered' thfeir memories , and Wh 6 would ditediin , for tem-

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    porary purposes , to trample on the laurels of the illustrious dead . If , however , such construction should bo adopted , the most alarm , ing evils would result . Every teacher or preacher , every

    occasional exhorter , every student , every person who was not the ordained minister of a separate congregation , even although he had taken the oaths , would be liable to penalties and to imprisonment if he ventured to teach : and if the

    present system of religious instruction was continued , fines , amounting to twenty-five millions sterling ,

    would , in one year , be incurred by Dissenting teachers—and , by the activity of informers , the pul * pits would be depopulated and the prisons must be filled .

    Some legislative enactment would then be necessary to legalize the ancient practice , and to annul a construction equally disastrous and absurd . To the attainment

    of such parliamentary assistance , if it should becomt necessary , the Committee had long directed their attention . They determined in

    these times not to agitate the country by requiring their civil rights , but to be content with protecting their religious liberty . They also resolved not to become the tools

    of any political party , but to con . ciliate the esteem and invite the support of the existing government and of all illustrious men in both houses of parliament , who were friendly to civil and religious freedom . On these principles

    they applied , on December 6 th , to the late Mr- Perceval ; they obtained an interview with him , at which they explained the situa * tion of the Dissenters and solicited his aid ; * nd , at hf * request they transmitted a written statement of

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    Annual Meeting of the Protestant Society . 397

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1812, page 397, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1749/page/53/