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    whelming national dfebt , and a consequent factitious state of the standard of value , have been acted upon to a considerable extend and will , it may be Jioped , continue gradually to break down all narrow monopolies , and to disencumber the fair and honest trader of every vexatious restriction . Nay even in that department of our laws which regulate the transfer and devolution of property in land , that ark of the lawyer ' s covenant , a spirit of reform is , springing up , which promises to lead to such an enlarged and

    comprehensive review of the whole of out statute book , as must inevitably at one sweep dkspme of a host of obsolete or anomalous enactments which , confessedly antiquated ox canJtradktoiy ia their policy , are still productive sources of litigation , embarrassment and expense *; Yet , to have attempted the > tfeftioval of . one of the most indefensible of these obstructions in the system of the body politic , would , not many years ago , haye exposed the projector to the

    imputation of being a wanton disturber of a " system which works well . " The wisdom of a periodical revision of the whole body of our laws will be abundantly evident , when it is considered how many idle distinctions and harassing restrictions and disqualifications keep their footing by the mere naked right of possession , and would be expelled with ignominy or contempt by the enlightened renovators of the statute book .

    The Conductors of the New Series of the Monthly Repository will honestly endeavour to redeem the pledge which they have , tendered to the public , of assisting , to the utmost extent of their influence , every effort for the advance * - ment of the civil as well as the religious interests of mankind ; but whilst they will view with complacency , and seek to stimulate and encourage by their approbation , such well-matured reforms in our code as have no obvious

    connexion with religious freedom , their best energies will be unremittingly devoted to procure the abrogation of such Jegal enactments as continue to uphold invidious distinctions , upon religious grounds , amongst subjects equally attached to the general principles of the Constitution , and to set at variance the political and religious duties of no inconsiderable or unmeritorious portion of the community .

    A generation has passed away since Protestant Dissenters approached the Legislature of their country upon the subject of the degrading stigma attached to their religious profession by those remnants of an intolerant system commonly called the Test and Corporation Acts : and , with few exceptions , silence has passed equally upon the tongues which illustrated their righteous plea with the combined eloquence of the understanding and the heart , and those which repelled it upon cold calculations and sophistical pretences of civil expediency . It may justly be feared , that not only amongst Dissenters

    themselves , who have not unfrequently taken the places of their fathers with * - out inheriting , on this subject at least , their information and their zeal , but also amongst the ranks of our senators , this interesting question is far from being familiar ; and that when again we " fight upon this theme , we shall seem to have lost the vantage ground which the perspicuous details of a Beaufoy and the manly energy of a Fox , in combination with other powerful advocates , had acquired for us . This anticipation , however , far from

    discouraging our zeal , should operate as an additional incentive to prompt and extensive efforts for raising the public mind to its former pitch of knowledge and information ; and it may even be hoped that the long interval during which the question has , wisel y or otherwise , been permitted to slumber , may enable its advocates to place the weakness and inconsistency of the opposing arguments in a more striking light . And , assuredly , to the unbiassed in- * quirer , the history of religious exlusion and toleration in the United Kingdom

    Untitled Article

    26 Horpdmtlon and Test Acts

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1827, page 26, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1792/page/26/