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Mr Belsham ' s Notes on the ToL Oration Act , attacked to his Fast Sermon , Feb . b , 1812 / - No * statute was ever drawn up with greater caution and precision than the Toleration Act . The de-
sign of it is to protect lay-dissenters dissenting ministers and dissenting places of worship from the penalties of the law . The first clause protects lay-dissenters , upon condition of taking certain oaths and making certain declarations , which oaths and declaration the
justices of peace , at the general sessions of the peace , are hereby required to tender and adminis * ter % Sec . The last clause protects
places of worship , upon condition of their being certified to the bishop , or the archdeacon , or the justices of the peace , and registered in the court or recorded at the
sessions , the register or clerk oj the peace whereof respectively is hereby required , to register the same and to give certificate therqf ^ SfC . The seventh clause , which protects ministers and teachers of
all descriptions , whether ordained or not , and whether connected with congregations or not , ( for the most comprehensive expressions are used , so as to leave no doubt in the mind of those who are well
informed concerning the nonconformists of that £ ge , ) obliges them likewise to take the same oaths and make the same declaration as the laity , and in the same court : but with this remarkable and very important difference of expression ^
viz . ijohich court is hereby impow-KtiED to administer the same . * Thus leaving it to the discretion of the court whether the oath should be administered or not * I once though * that this expression was inadVerttwt : but uponvrecon
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i \ I 1 i sideration , am clearly convinced that it was intentional . In a statute , the object of which was so novel , and of such high importance ,
\ ] in which every expressi 6 n must have been maturely weighed , it is amoral impossibility that such an inaccuracy should have escaped the sagacity of Lord Somers , the framer of this famous Bill . And
no doubt that great statesman and profound lawyer had his reasons for this alteration in the phraseology . Enlarged and liberal as his sentiments are known to have
been , and ardent as was his zeal in the cause of civil and religious liberty , he was at the same time a warm friend to the constitution in church and state- And he could recollect the time when both
were overturned and laid pros * trate by the prevalence of secta - rian principles and parties . In the very heart of a law , therefore ^ which was intended for the protect tion of nonconformists he retained
this secret check , that if ever the time should again occur when the numbers or the power of the nonconformists should excite alarm , they might learn that their
legal protection was not so com * plete , nor their power so great as they might apprehend . How fatf this measure , dictated by policy , was consonant to justice , is not my present business to inquire .
If it should be asked , how the nonconformists of that day per- * mitted the Bill to pass , * with this important flaw in its constitution ? the answer is not difficult .-
They knew the general tenor and design of the law , and were so * overjoyed at the ^ recovery of < heir liberty * that not being lawyer they did not nicely scrutimae £ th terms . . If it i * « aid that tin *
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M * . Bel sham ' s Notes on the Toleration Act . 44 $
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VOL . VII . . 3 M
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1812, page 449, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1750/page/41/
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