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simplicity was duped , I can only answer that it were to be wished that this example were singular in its kind . But in fact no practical inconvenience was intended by
the learned framer of the Bill , nor has any such inconvenience been felt till very latel y * For more than a hundred years the statute was acted upon as if it had been
imperative . Every candidate for the ministry was admitted to qualify , and every qualified minister was regarded as intiUed to all the immunities of the Bill . The
abominable abuses of this qualification under Lord Sidmouth ' s administration , when many qualified for no purpose-but to escape the militia laws , first induced the magistrates to inquire into the extent of the toleration : and the
rapid increase of Methodism created an alarm which has led to a discovery which has in fact intirely annulled and abrogated the Toleration Act , so far as it relates to nonconformist ministers ^ fora toleration which - depends upon th ^ discretion of the magistrates is no legal toleration at all *
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Nothing eaa ba mare extmotfftiiuuy than the supposition that tj ^ s new interpretati on of the To } - eration Act is authorised and in ~ tended ihy the act itself . The great I * ord > Sorinejrs , who framed the bill ,
afldjtW legislature which passed it * and the i ¥ > nconfon » ista , who were contested with it ,, miast ail lltfvie Jfcfooured under arrange h&m refcvejBtfHit of inteject far thte mo *
iiotent ^ it it had been enacted tbo ^ the candidates for legal protection should be actually settled wichi c < W ) giceg » fcions . before . they ^ re te&sAiy : authorized * to preacfe ; at
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all . But no such absurd requisi . tion disgraces this famous statute . The seventh clause of the Act extends its protection to all nonconformist ministers and
candidates for the minstry of every . description who comply with its requisitions . " No person dissenting from the Church of England in holy orders / ' i . e . clergymen who have quitted the church , or
pretended-holy orders / ' i . e . Pies , byterians , Independents , &c * " or pretending to holy orders , " i . e . candidates for the ministry , ** nor any preacher / ' whether connected with a congregation or otherwise , 46 teacher of any congregation of Dissenting Protestants , that shall make and subscribe the declaration aforesaid , &c * shall be liable to any of the pains and penalties , &c . "
The tenth clause of the Act confers immunities but limits those immunities to ministers connected with congregations . It repeats the same description of persons which are enumerated in the seventh clause ^ with the ea ^ eption of persons pretending to holy orders or candidates for the ministry , who of course could not be entitled to
the benefits : The expressions are remarkably precise and clear ; viz . " And be it further enacted , that every teacher . or preacher in holy order ^ or pretended holy girders ,
that is , a minister ^ , preacher , or teacher of a congregation ,, &c . shall be exempted from , serving upo » any jury &c . " Nothing can be more iatelUgible , distinct ^ or consistent than the intentions
of the act . Lewd Sotners having as he thought , by the introduction 6 f th&i word impowered laid in a suflfeieiit caveat to secure the constittrtton * was willing that tbe rest
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45 O Mr . Belsham ' s Notes on the Toleration Act *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1812, page 450, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1750/page/42/
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