On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
another . He had painted in the toost gloomy colours the dangers to which a person taking a share in the University as Trustee for a Society like this > where there was £ 10 , 000 to back and indemnify him , might he exposed of being torn from his family and home , and consigned to a
prison ; yet another highly ornamented part of bis speech had called upon all those who Tiaa the means to enter singly and individually , at their own risk , into this undertaking , so fraught with ruin and dangers . Eloquent as were the two pictures , he had only to observe , that they were both equally so , and therefore were an exact answer one to the other .
Mr . wilks explained . He thought it was a very different thing for individuals to run hazards in a meritorious pursuit , and for a society to ask persons to ex * pose themselves to the risk as trustees . Mr . R . Taylor left it to the meeting to estimate the alleged distinction at what it was worth , and would proceed to notice another objection made by the learned gentleman . The object of the
University , he had contended , was foreign to those civil rights and interests of Dissenters which this Deputation was appointed to support . For his part , since both reason and scripture taught us that knowledge was the ino $ t precious of our possessions , he considered the right of obtaining knowledge , and of obtaining it in the best and most effectual manner , by a public education , to fcc the most valuable of all rights . Of the enjoyment
of this right , as regarded qpg $ ng English Universities * Dissenter ? % ere unjustly deprived . They Were deputed to protect the civil rights of Dissenters ; the right of all to public education was therefore one of the most legitimate objects
of their care . How then was this right , whose value was admitted , to be attained ? The learned gentleman himself had dwelt long and eloquently on the classic shades of academic groves ; but how were we to get there ? He had advised them to unite in some effort to take these
retreats by storm . For his part , he was content to take the more easy course of providing as good a substitute as he could . But then it is said , You are Dissenters ; do not therefore subscribe or assist this University , for it is not intended for Dissenters atone . Why this , he contended , Was the very reason that it deserved their support . He liked it because it was not sectarian . Because
it was not so , and because it did not adopt a system of exclusion for opinions , this Deputation , whose object it was to protest against proscriptions of this sort in every form , ought above all things to countenance it . It was one of
Untitled Article
. ¦ ^ ¦ ¦ 230 Intelligence . — -The Deputies .
Untitled Article
by a system of despotic controul over the rights of Conscience but he would sooner meet the great evil directly at once . The more deeply he felt on the subject , the rather would he prefer to strike ia blow at the system altogether ; to rail on this Society to unite their efforts to open their way where they were unjustly proscribed , than thus mitigate and palliate the
evil by supporting the new institution . He would say , with Mr . Hankey and Mr . Collins , with perfect good-will to the London University , that the merit of that institution was not the point before them . For himself , he was one of the first to join in and support that University . He hoped , and would earnestly recommend to all in their individual characters , to
support so laudable a work ; but as a member of this Deputation he asked , what was the advantage to those civil rights which they were there to support , to be derived from co-operating with such an institution ? It appeared to him , that there were many reasons against it arising out of matters of detail , but it was sufficient to shew that it was not necessary to press this plan forward on such a Society as this . Gentlemen should recollect that
this was , after all , only a joint-stock company , and brought with ft all the liabilities of such undertakings . He had that day seen individuals torn from their homes and " families for the engagements of such companies , and how could they then ask persons to take upon themselves such risks as their Trustees ? The patronage never could be of any value . As many pupils , they might be sure , would be taken as could be sent or come from
any quarter .. But his great objection was , that there was no obvious unity of design between this ' Society and the proposed University . It was not a Dissenting institution . As connected with it , he should strongly deprecate such a patronage as injurious to it . It would be
injured rather than advanced by the public assistance of Dissenting bodies , if they were to give money to institutions of the sort , let them give it to their own Dissenting Academies . The unity of purpose of those institutions with this Society was obvious , but he could see none in the present case .
• , Air . Richard Taylor was sensible at how great disadvantage any one must follow the eloquence of the last speaker . But eloquence , however splendid , was sometimes a dangerous talent . It might lead its owner into gilded sophistry and adorn views which were only founded in fallacy . Let them take two of the learned gentleman ' s eloquent pictures , for instance , and he wan much mistaken if they did not completely answer one
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 230, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/70/
-