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    friend to'ttfe'ooi&tkutfon in ' Ohorch afld State , who should now propose t& " let slip those dogs 6 f war , " the cotmnon informers , by omitting to apply to them their annual muzzle . It is true that many Dissenters enter into thef feelings of the late Lord North , who regarded the acceptance of office by a Nonconformist , in reliance upon the annual Indemnity Act , as a species oF mental fraud * But is this peculiar delicacy of the moral sense reasonably to be expected from Dissenters at large , who view the Test Laws as unjustifiable been

    restrictions upon their rights as citizens , and who have more than once told that the annual Indemnity Acts left them without any practical grievance ? * Can any < case in the courts of law be pointed out in which it has been attempted to distinguish conscientious objections to the Test from inadvertent amission&sof it ? What then , practically speakirtg , becomes of the pretence , that these perpetualfy-suspended laws a # e the main props and sturdy bulwarks of the fabric of the Church" ? If Dissenters are the determined and insidious foes of the Church , which some of her friends would represent them to be , how unaccountable the policy of relaxing those fetters by which their consciences are supposed to be bound !

    4 . The repeal of the Test Laws in Ireland , so far back as the year 1780 , and the non-existence of any similar law in Scotland for the protection of its church establishment , are circumstances of importance , to shew that the United Kingdom would gain something in the uniformity and equalization of civil rights by the total abolition of the Test in England . But

    * In a paper inserted in the Monthly Repository > Vol . XVII . O . S . pp . 129—140 ; under the title of "The Nonconformist , No . XXIV ., " it was attempted to shew that , according to the fair grammatical construction of the Indemnity Acts , they did not operate so completely to foreclose the attacks of the informer as was commonly supposed . The question has since been agitated before the Court of King ' s Bench , and the subjoined report tends to shew how strongly disposed are the Judges of the present day to extend , by a liberal construction , the remedial operation of those Acts . Can tHere be more cogent evidence of the practical obsoleteness of the Test ?

    " In the matter of Steavenson , and others , Scarlett moved for a quo warranto information against the Mayor and four Bailiffs of Berwick . These officers were elected on the 29 th of September , in the last year ; and were on the same day sworn and admitted into their respective offices . They all neglected to receive the Sacrament , and take the oath of allegiance , &c , within six months , as required by the

    25 th Car . II . c . 2 ; 16 Geo . II . c . 30 ; 1 Geo . I . St . 2 , c . 13 ; and 9 Geo . II . c . 26 . It will be urged , that they are protected by the last annual Indemnity Act . But that Act passed on the 27 th of February last , and only applies to those who * at or before the passing of the Act , ' had incurred penalties or disabilities . These persons being elected on the 29 th of September / had not incurred any penalty or disability when the Indemnity Act passed , and cannot therefore be protected by it .

    " Campbell shewed cause in the first instance . The object of the Indemnity Act was to enlarge the time before allowed for receiving the Sacrament , taking the oath , &c , required of persons accepting certain offices and employments . The preamble of the statute certainly appears to be limited to such persons as had made default before the Act passed , but is capable of receiving a larger construction . The title

    is material , to shew a different intention in the Legislature : that is , * An Act to indemnify such persons in . the United Kingdom as have omitted to qualify themselves for offices and employments , and for extending the time limited for those purposes respectively / The enacting part , too , extends to all those who , at or before the passing of the Act , have , or shall have , omitted , &c . That certainly is future , as well as past , and must extend to all that are in default before the 25 th of March , 1824 .

    ' * Per Curiam . There may perhaps be some obscurity in the words of this statute ; but there is none in its title . It was manifestly the intention of the Legislature to extend the time for talcing the oaths and performing the other acts required of persons filling certain offices ; and this being a remedial statute , we should so construe it as to give full effect to that intention . —Rule refused . "—See Barnewall and CressweiVs Reports In King * * Bench , Vol . II . p . 34 .

    Untitled Article

    3 D Gwp& » ation and Tes 4 Acts ,

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1827, page 30, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1792/page/30/