On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
ing to bias them in ' the course of such examination of the doctrines of religion , by subjecting them , in the case of their dissenting from the doctrines of any established
church , to suffer death by burning , or otherwise , or to suffer any corporal or pecuniary punishment , or to be injured in their reputation by any disability more or less disgraceful .
That your Petitioners acknow - ledge , with high satisfaction , that , in the present reign , considerable progress has been made towards the full restoration of the rights of conscience , by the wisdom of
parliament and the benignity of the king , rescinding various laws , in whole or in part , which were violations of those rights ; yet , since other penal laws , not less injuri - ous to those rights remain
unrepealed , since some of these laws subject to corporal punishments of pecuniary penalties , others , as in the case of the Test Laws , passed in the reign of Charles II . subject to disgrace , disability ,
and privation of civil rights , persons whose only offence it is , that , in conformity with their duty , they have examined the doctrines of religion ^ and by such examina . tion have been induced to embrace
and to profess religious opinions different from the doctrines of the established church : Your Petitioners feel it to be their duty humbly , but earnestl y , to remonstrate against the longer continuance of any of these intolerant laws , and
Ihey do , in conformity with the premises , expressly petition this honourable ,, House , that every 9 Nfdbtitij&ist < law may be repealed , < 0 mA the > ftights > of Conscience may t&is be rcfltajr « 4 i t *> all the subjects f this United Kingdom , And
Untitled Article
your Petitioners humbly beg leave to add , that this request , as it appears to them , is grounded oa the most evident considerations of justice ; and they trust that the compliance of the state would yet conciliate the affection of millions
of our aggrieved fellow subjects , and unite them for ever to the interest of the empire . Under each of these aspects their lequest claims , and they hope will be
found to deserve , the assent of this Honourable House , as they are statesmen , anxious for the safety of their country , and as they are moralists determined to act
impartially on the rules of justice . But , when your Petitioners consider farther , that every attempt to influence men in their choice and profession of religion b ^ penal laws , whether corrupt or compulsive in their operation , is contrary
to the spirit of the gospel , and forbidden by its plainest precepts in numerous passages , they hope it may be allowed them more particularly , and with all possible earnestness , to intreat the members of this Honourable House to
renounce the whole system of persecution , the , long accumulation of ages of barbarism and discord , and to free an almost countless multitude of injured individuals from the temptatioa of ensnaring
tests and the more oppressive severities of our compulsive intolerance , by the success of such salutary councils , at once restoring concord and safety to the empire ,
and freeing the national church from that just reproach of retaining the support which per * securing laws may be supposed to bestow , but which Christianity condemns , amj w . quld disdain to accept .
Untitled Article
448 Mr . TVyviWs Petition .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1812, page 448, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1750/page/40/
-