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    admittance within six months after th « ir retutn to England . Besides these mollifying ordinances , there is . an annual Indemnity Bill , which allows to persons not having complied with the Test Act up to the beginning of every Session of Parliament , six ^ mouths further in which to

    qualify , after which , should any proceedings commence on non-compliance , the j" may be deferred by some legal process until the next Indemnity Bill passes , so that the Test Act would seem to be a dead letter .

    The annual relaxation of the Test Laws does not , however , wholly set aside their operation . But for the liberal spirit of the times , they might be put in force in some cases of forgetfulness or remissness , to the great tac ' o-iiveiiieiice and vexation of the

    offender against them . Upon succeeding to an office of inheritance , ( as no entry is necessary , ) a person may softer in consequence of the lapse of the six months before he has even

    liotfeee of his right having accrued . And , contrary to the spirit of all law , the innocent may be made to suffer for the legally guilty , as no' man ( if the dbjection betaken in proper time ) eai * recover a debt in an inferior

    court , over which an unqualified Corporator presides , nor can the election of a corporate officer , before magistrates who have oeglected to qualify , be supported . * In reality , the Test Laws exclude almost ail such Dissenters as cannot

    conscientiously conform occasionally to the Church of England ; few choosing to risk the dangers of setting them at defiance . And , by their indirect operation f they keep up a line of distinction

    between the Dissenters and others throughout the community generally . Were they abolished , it is scarcely to be expected that one o £ the [ nns of Court' would continue to exact the Sacramental Test , t or that the two

    * Case of theProt . Diss - p . 3 . t Till some time in the reign of George the Second , / all students of the Jaw were obliged to receive the Sacrament according- to the rites of the Church of England , before they were admitted to the bar . The Society of LinCoJn ' s hjfli first discontinued the practice . Th « Inner

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    Universities would maintain their hard tests of Subscription . But were the Test Laws entirely harmless , that circumstance would be only a reason for their express repeal * Unjust and bigoted laws , though counteracted by wise and humane

    legislative provisions , are di ?> honourable to the community which suffer * them to remain as laws . Kor can they be considered as innoxious , if they operate as a tax upon honour and conscience , if they divide a nation into parties and

    engender discontent in the wealter and insolence in the stronger , and above all , if they pervert religion into an instrument of worldly policy , npA especially of mischievous faction , * The Sacramental Test is an

    anomaly in political regulations . 7 No Temple and Middle Temple have since followed the example ; but , to the disgrace of Gray ^ 9 Inn , it is still required there . " See " the Right of Protestant Dissenters to a Complete Toleration /* 2 nd ed .

    1789 , p . 1 . This valuable pamphlet , attributed to a gentleman yet irving ; , high in the profession of the law , well deserves to be republished : tt would convey much important knowledge and truth to that generation of Protestant Dissenters vrhieb has grown up since its first appearance .

    * " A vast variety of occupations and offices fell within the provisions of the Test Act . The gradations are almost infinite between the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and ttie humble bug-destroy er to his Majesty . The Postmaster General is in a civil office , and has

    authority derived from the King ; so that the proprietors of mail-coaches throughout the kingdom , having- places of trust under him , might , if the Act was strictly exe * en ted , be oblig-ed to receive the Sacrament , according- to the rites of the Church of England . May we not congratulate our country on its wonderful uniformity of

    religion , when not even a bug" can be destroyed within the purlieus of the royal household , but by the hallowed fingers of a communicant ; nor a post letter conveyed to any part of the kingdom by horses be- » longing to a Protestant Dissenter !"**— . Right of Protest . Diss . p . 41 .

    In former tiipies the taking of the Sacriu rnent , according to tljfc ust » ge of the Church of England , was insisted upon as a previous qualification to obtain licences to sell ale ! f The Aujthor just quoted states ,, p , < I 3 , &c . a singular practical absurdity in tba Test Laws , * By the Act of thnon Am

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    Th * Nonconformist . No . XII , 427

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1819, page 427, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1774/page/27/