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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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454 Infett ! gtn < f 9 . ~ - ' Corp (> rattdn and Test Acts .
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we sought the repeal were so tyrannical that no public body had ever had the courage to put them in force ? He was quite sure that if an attempt were made to carry them into execution , they would be deemed so oppressive that the feelings of the whole country would re *
volt ; and he was certain that he should have with him the honourable gentleman himself , who was now for leaving them as they are . It was his opinion , however , that it would be inexpedient to petition at this time , but he would vote for the resolutions .
Mr . Jupp was against petitioning Parliament at present , but would also support the resolutions . The question ap » peared to him to be twofold — first , whether any test were necessary—and , secondly , whether such a test as that
imposed by these Acts was necessary ? His opinion was against both . Histotorically , the Acts were not meant to affect Dissenters , and would not have been carried had they not joined ia passing them with the view of opposing the Roman Catholics . And the House
of Commons , in the very same session , passed an act to relieve the Dissenters from their operation . He considered them as holding out a bribe to hypo * - crisy ; they also tied up the hands of the government , and prevented its availing itself of the services of the Dissenters .
Mr . Stevens could not as a Dissenter approve the manner in which the question had been brought forward . He was a friend of the Church of England as an Act-of-Parliament Church , because he considered it as acting more tolerantly than any other church of the same kind . God forbid that any party he knew should supersede it as a church established by law . But the Church of England could not be looked upon by the Dissenters as the church of God . The
head of the former was a man , but the head of the latter was God . ( Great murmurs . ) He was against postponing the petition . The promoters of the measure could not hope by the delay to win a ttingle vote . He thought this the fit time to bring it forward . Nothing would be gained by temporising , especially after the declaration of the Minister that he
would oppose two measures comprehending the civil and religious liberties of the country . He waa decidedly averse to the imposition of an ordinance deemed religious as a test for civil offices . In his opinion ; they ought not to suspend their proceedings on account of the Ca * tholic questionj he thought the subjects / quite distinct .
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Mr . Richard Taylor agreed with the Honourable Alderman , ( Waithman , ) that it would not be proper to press the petition at the present time . His reason was , that the liberal questions were now taken tip by their enemies for factious purposes . During the existing turmoil in Parliament , he was sure the subject could not be discussed with that
coolness which its importance demanded . He approved of all the resolutions . He considered the question as important not alone to the Dissenters , but in an especial manner to the Corporation itself . The Corporation and Test Acts interfered with its most important rights , the right of governing itself as a civil community , and of making its own selection
of the persons best calculated for managing its affairs and preserving its privileges . He conceived that no person who , by his talents and character , was fitted for any office , should be by law excluded from it . It had been said by an honourable member , that there was a disposition to innovation . He would tell that gentleman that the Corporation and Test Acts were themselves among
the greatest of innovations on the rights of that Corporation , and of all other chartered companies , which had existed long before those statutes were known . They went to confine all offices to those who were by religious profession of the same Church as the persons by whom they were passed . They , therefore , restrained the power of the Corporation to rule itself , and to choose its own members . The Acts were made
for temporary purposes , and therefore ought long ago to have been repealed . The Corporation Act was aimed , not against Papists , but against certain turbulent persons , on the restoration of Charles the Second . It was in its character and object like the notorious Sir Acts , and , like them , when the pretended necessity had ceased , ought to have been expunged from the Statute Books . When it was passed , a party in
the House of Lords wished to give the Crown the power of appointing to all corporate offices . James the Second actually assumed this power , and abused it by removing some members from the Corporation of London . Both the Acts affected also the serious clergyman , obliging him to violate his conscience by assisting in the abuse of a religious ordinance , when required to administer the sacrament as a qualification for a secular office . Mr . Pellatt observed , that it waa not true that no practical inconvenience
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 454, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/62/
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