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lack himself to the tail of the Blackstone * Perrott , and Eldon school , when he had before him the judgments oiVWilJes and Fdisteiy arid , Mansfield , and half a dozen other Judges ? . ' ' . ' . > " ' ' We * have similar observations . to make on the broad assertion by which Mr . Beldam has given a portentous importance indeed to the oW d < % ma , that " Christianity is a part of the law ; " Christianity , as he says , " identified
with the tenets and service of the Church of England . " .. We otice heard Mr . Shadwell , in the excess of ultra-6 rthodoxy , maintain or suggest this exposition of Christianity , but his leader ^ Sir S . Romilly , was too wise to back him in it , and Lord Eldon , willing as he was , would not venture it . Let each and every Dissenter look to himself if this be law . But we hesitate not to say , that Mr , Beldam was dreaming when he made the assertion , and that in almost every one of the cases which are usually cited for the tottering
principle of the partnership between Christianity and the Law , the judges have been most explicit in disavowing any such conclusion as he draws , and in expressly declaring that in so treating Christianity they meant only its essentials ; and that the foundation of the whole jurisdiction is the supposed necessity of maintaining a belief in a revealed religion and a future state of retribution , with a view to the support of oaths and the moral sanctions which it secures to the community . We have more than once observed , that even
this principle has been in effect widened , so as to embrace almost any form of religion , by the subsequent decisions that oaths from'persons professing even Heathenism are of sufficient validity ; and , in fact , the whole jurisdiction more properly rests on the mode of the attack , not the matter , being founded on the supposed tendency of such attacks to a breach of the peace ; and now that men are coming ( as we believe they gradually are ) to the conclusion that attempts at restraint are greater breaches of the peace of society than the occasional irruptions which they endeavour to controul , we hope to see even this last hold of persecution abandoned . We might observe too , that the statute , 19 Geo . III . c . 44 , which recognizes a declaration of belief that the Scriptures contain the revealed will of God , as sufficient for legal purposes ,
is directly opposed to the principle that the law views Christianity only through the Churchman ' s glass . The very statement that Church-of-Englandism , created by statute only , comparatively , a few years ago , is part and parcel of the * common law of England , and that persons whom the statute law for propping up that Church leaves at liberty , are still within the gripe of the ancient law and custom of these realms , involves an absurdity . Mr . Beldam is equally in a wood with regard to his theories about a common-law jurisdiction over heresy ,
especially if we are to understand heresy to be an impugnment of the doctrine ^ of the Church of England . We venture to denominate all this talk about heresy at common law , espesially in modern days , mere prattle ; It would do Mr . Beldam good on this subject , too , to read Lord Mansfield ' s judgment Ibefore referred to . > Mr . Beldam has made ample , and often very proper , use of the hints ,
suggestions , doubts , &c . of Lord Eldon in the Attorney-General and Pearson ( the Wpiverliampton ) case . We are glad to see that he , after stating the grand doubt which was' meant to amount ' to an assertion that Unitarians , though relieved from" statutory visitation , were , oh account of some supposed offence at common law , not entitled to the protection of the court , adds , " this , hdweverj , is extr&tiiely doubtful . " It is of the ttlore importance that it should be so , if Mr . Beldam's vision ^ a& to heres ^ and ^ 6 Wmon-law Christianity have any reality , for the game britfqplps , jvWfyld n ^ ajqiffestly involve all
Untitled Article
594 Review . r-Beldam on Nomonformity
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 594, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/42/
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