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Untitled Article
Art . II . —A Summary oftlie Laws peculmfly / Wecttn ^ senters ; with an Appendix , containing Atl 8 < tiJ ? arMimni Trust Deeds and Legal Forms . By Jos . Beldam , of the Middle Tetiipfe , Esq ., fearristerat Law . Butterworth . 1 & 27 . Wfi . have at Jast a professed text-book on the law as it affects Protestant Dissenters , Such a book has been long , much wanted , and though we looked to see the deficiency supplied ere this by an abler hand , and though the present volume is certainl y but a beginning , and that of an imperfect character , we are thankful to receive it such as it is , and have no doubt but
that it will be extensively useful . That sort of exposure which is the result of a mere formal detail and classification of the bungling and heterogeneous mass of crafcy materials which make up our code of law on this head , is better calculated to make a matter-of-fact impression than the most impassioned eloquence . Disposed ,
as Mr . Beldam appears to be , we must think very unnecessarily , ( and certainly inconsistently with the apparent bias of bis own opinions , ) to take his principles from the narrow and contracted side of the materials before him , nothing can conceal from the view of the digester , that the whole system is a miserable compound of tricks and expedients ; and , accordingly , he cautiously enough observes , in his Introduction , as follows :
" Political considerations apart , the tendency of the present work will probably be to shew the propriety of entirely new enactments ; but whether such enactments ought more clearly to define and perpetuate the ancient laws , securing to Protestant Dissenters by less equivocal provisions the immunities and privileges they at present , enjoy ; or whether , on a broader principle of legislation , it were better to abolish the ancient system , and to enforce such modern restrictions as may be thought necessary by modern sanctions alone , must be left to the Legislature to decide . "
After a frightful catalogue of statutes quoted , occupying three pages with double columns , ( what a luxury it would be to have the pruning of such legislation !) our author proceeds to the body of the work , which , so far as regards the statutes , is avowedly and obviously founded upon , though an amplification of , the summary attached to the book of proceedings published by the Deputies .
We are not , we hope , about to trespass too much on our readers' attention , or to aim at the hopeless task of inveigling them into legal discussions ; but a few points are of general interest , and we shall , we trust , be excused in adverting to them . In the first place , it cannot but be observed , that any attempt thus to
single out a portion of our law on the subject of religion , by treating only of its effects on Protestant Dissenters , is a very confined view of the subject . < To do any thing like justice to such a topic , and to combine any thing like a statesman's view of the condition of Nonconformists with the drier details of law , the whole code on the subject of religion , and the various ways in which persons and property are affected on account of
opinion , ought to be brought- together . Many points of the history and objects of these laws are unintelligible , if viewed only in . connexion with one class of persons . Iff the general impression upon the mind , after a review of the lawi as it affects the most highly-fevoured class of Nonconformists , bfc such an one asTMtr . Beldam has stated , yfet f would be the conclusion oa
Untitled Article
C 591 ) ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 591, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/39/
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