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    scope of these laws , if the opponent choose- to give notice 4 >( the defect of q ualification . Is every candidate for office inIndies acting under cha ^ js , &c , from the Crown , such as several of our commercial a * id cbari&ble fouridatioas * liable to tbit annoyance 2 It certainly appears that for some time after tjie passing of the penaj ^ aw& of Charles IL a very strict practical construction was put upon them * It might have been quite as well , too , to have at least mentionea the Occasional Conformity Act of Anne ' s reign , and its subsequent iepealr In subjects of this sort , history and general

    principle are necessarily mixed up with law , mid no one can have a complete view of the one without the other . We shall next notice the extreme meagreaess of Mr . Beldam ' s acquaintance with the Indemnity Acts , " the effect" of which , he says , " has been to convert the sacramental test into a species of political portcullis , now seldom or never employed against Protestant Dissenters ; to be regretted chiefly on account of the odious distinction it insinuates , and only to be

    feared as it perpetuates the possibility of their exclusion . " Now this , however properly the reprobation is conveyed , is giving the Indemnity Acts a vast deal better character than they deserve . The Test laws do practically exclude Dissenters from a great many offices : they are in full operation where any one pleases in elective offices that they should be so ; for the

    Indemnity laws do not remove one particle of the legal incapacity where any body avails himself of it ( as has been repeatedly done and much oftener threatened ); and , again , any informer who chooses to set a sharp-witted attorney to work , may easily learn even to defeat the operation of these Acts , in those particulars which they seem intended to remedy . It has indeecj been held ( in re Stevenson , 2 Barn , and Cres . 34 ) by a strained construction of the Act , that where the appointment and consequent obligation to conform had taken place , and begun to run before tfie passing of the Act , its operation should be considered prospective ; but tne Indemnity Act affords no protection to a person wlw ) is appointed after its passing , and who does not

    qualify within six months ; and there is abundant time left before the passing of the next Act for an action to be commenced and judgment obtained . Mr * Beldam should also know that it is extremely doubtful whether , wtyen these ; six months have expired , the consequent penalties and disabilities do not attach , without any removal or benefit from any subsequent Act , if the party persist in refusing to take the Test . We have , however , a graver fault to find with Mr . Beldam . Why has he

    in the face of the decision of the highest tribunals , chosen to continue Mr , Justice Bfcckstoae ' s utterly unfounded denunciation and classification of Nonconformity as an offence , as a mere state of remission from penalty ? Has Mr . Beldam ever read Dr . Furnfaux ' s Letters on that point / We do not ask this because we expect a lawyer writing even on religious law , to b& $ not ask this because we expect a lawyer writing even on religious law , to to * $

    controversialist , but because , if he had read them , he must have seen thai ( bij crotchet has not only reason , but the hi g hest legal authorities against it ; andw ? should have vatyedMr , Beldam's book highly , if he had transferred to it the report which Dr . Fujrneaux has given of Lord Mansfield ' s noble speechj ' c « MTei ^ d bf Wrasel ^ in reversing the judgment founded on Blaclfstone ' s theory- That speech , and the decision grounded ufpon it , wehfcfe

    always cotimdered as o « e of the noblest and most efficient safeguard * of Dissenting liberty , one of the grandest events by ^ ^ which bigcrtrywid sophwfrv \^ re foil ^ l in tbeik- endeavours to cramp atid fetter the principles on wlifch ( thteLtg ^ atnni ^ hadrecofttiizodHbaitf ofwtt « cieifcei ? ^ - ^ ' ~*' x ' !" Why , we repeat , even 33 a matter of ta « te , should Mr * Bejdgm gratoitously

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    Reviett \*» lteWmton N # n * &nf < j ? mtt / % S 93

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 593, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/41/