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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.
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« Yc horrid towerf , th * abode of broken hearts , Ye dungeons , and ye cages of despair , That monarchs have supplied , from age to age , With music such as suits their sov e reign
ears , The sighs and groans of miserable men ! There ' s not an English heart that would not leap To hear that ye were fallen at last $ to know That even our enemies , so oft employ ed In forging chains for us , themtelves were free .
'Tis the cause of man . There dwell the most forlorn of human kind , Immur'd though unaccus'd- condemn'd
untryVI , Cruelly spar'd , and hopeless of escape , Oh , comfortless existence ! hemnTd a-
round With woes which who that suffers would not kneel And beg for exile , or the pangs of death ? That man should thus encroach on fellowman , Abridge him of his just and native rights
Eradicate him , tear him from his hold Upon th' endearments of domestic life And social , nip his fruitfulness , and use And doom him , for perhaps an heedless word , To barrenness , and solitiide and tears , Moves indignation . " ——
After having repeated these lines , he added , in . the language of the poet , that there was not an English heart which would not leap to hear that this monument of arbitrary power , tliis abode of wretchedness and despair , had now fallen . With respect
to raine s book , Mr . Fox observed , that he had called it a libel , but not an infamous one ; it was a libel on the constitution of Great Britain—the right honourable gentleman ' s book was a libel on every free constitution in the world . The French
Revolution he had particularly avoided touching on . He knew not why Dr . Priestley , because he approved of the French Revolution , should be liable to punishment from the circumstance
of his brills an Unitarian , and that he ( Mr . Fox ) should be exempted from punishment who was of the same opinion , but was a Trinitarian . He had never before heard the
Birmingham riot defended . He did not think that the merits of any question ought to be decided by ; the conduct of an individual . Some of Dr . Priestley ' s works he had read ; in hi ? reli-
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gious writings he had found nothing of politics , and his political works seemed free from religion . Mr .-Fox noticed the circumstance of Mr . Burke ' s having , he believed , last session , on the Catholic Bill , declared
a wish , that all the sanguinary laws inflicting death in matters of religion , were repealed . The right honourable gentleman , indeed , might have altered his opinion , as he had lately done , very suddenlv , on various
topics . The idea that repealing the statutes would give scandal to the people , as rendering them liable to the imputation of indifference to the religion of the country , Mr . Fox considered as weak and unfounded
The Pagans , he observed , might have said the same with respect to the Christians . No measure of toleration was ever know a to have originated with the bishops , and on the subject before the House they were the last persons to be consulted . Mr . Fox adduced some strong facts in support of this observation . He had within
the last three years paid particular attention to the subject , and had read considerably upon it , and he was , from the completest conviction , a firm friend to religious establishments .
With regard to the times , he did not think that popular prejudice should deter the House from giving their opinion on the subject ; the House , he observed , of late seemed inclined
to become the slave of popularity . When he considered the various books that had been published , and reflected on the manner in which the Birmingham rioters had been punished , he thought there appeared to be a violent high-church spirit in the
country . If gentlemen saw danger abroad , he thought they ought to step forward and endeavour to crush it j for his part he feared none . Mr . Fox concluded with declaring , that he hoped and trusted , that the subject of toleration would be renewed as
often as could be , convinced as he was , that the more it was discussed the more its justice would be perceived and acknowledged . The House divided on Mr . Fox ' s motion :
Tellers . Yeas 63 . } Mr Adam xt , a * S Mr - Neville , Noes 142 , ^ Mr . Mitford . So it passed in the negative .
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Charles James Won . 685
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1815, page 685, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1766/page/21/
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