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stow upon it Avotfld enable then ! to execute their workj as ; ra 'his jua'&meht ; ft onght to be exfecutdl . If this Bill was iw > w * t # go through a committee , he for one must StftJMraw from the attempt to make it , as hW ^ houlo ^ ishtO do , better even for the parties foauMt | hen was , if the House determined that they were to be relieved . If their Lof ( fehrps introduced amendments ; the amendments of this most
important Bill would go down to the House of Commons on Friday , and on that very evening the other House of Parliament must deddfe upon the propriety of all of them , for their Lordiships were perfectly aware that no other opportunity would be afforded for considering them . The time , ' therefore , at which this measure was brought under the consideration of
their Lordships , was a sufficient ground for hot passing it , even if the objections to it were less string than he believed he should be able to satisfy the House they were ; It had been argued , that it was but just to do for Dissenters of this description ' What the Legislature had done for Jews and Quakers . But , admitting that the marriages of Jews and Quakers
were legalized under the exception in the Marriage Actj he begged again to ask their' I ^ rdshfps whether the Church of England had ever been called in to assist iA those marriages by publishing their banns and registering them ? In the time of the ? Commonwealth , when men were married , as it was now proposed , before Justices of the Peaee ~ -a measure then
adoptcd for the express purpose of degrading the Clergy- ~ the'Clergy were not called upon to aid and assist in their own degradation . If their Lordships should think it right to do that for Dissenters generally which had been done for Quakers , let them do so , but let them * notrsay that they were justified by that precedent in doing more than they had done for those parties , as they
would do if they passed this Bill . ' He begged to call their Lordships' attention a little to what this Bill did , and to what it did not . In the first place , he should be glad to know who the persons were whom this Bill proposed to relieve ? It was said , indeed , in the preamble , that these persons had scruples * and that they were coiled Unitarians ^ but neither then *
scruples were explained , nor their name . What an > Unitarian was . had never yet been-eKplaiued , ; He had taken occasion lastyear toiaska RigfcvReverend Prelate , who wO 3 > now unfortunately ataent , ) what want &u Unitarian , i and ( jhe » c © uld get . no answer i Smc * that * time he fca ^ oveceived the present of a SenjftQnyMp ? ea <» hed ^| Mi « is < w before . an Umtatian ^ qOttgflegfcr
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tloif , ant } # he 'Mt too&s tli ' ae fell from the ? lltjs . of the ; ^ etfeher ^ att ^ r gfemg put his text , wef £ — " '{ Tie Lord IS ^ dMpilov asks , What is an Unitarian ?** Tt $ B Was * , certainly , rather a singular conrm £ ncer iitent of a Sermon ; it wais ,, however , h $ must do the preacher the justice to say , a
very good and well-written sermon , , as fav as he could understand subjects of that kind . But the reason which led him ( Lord Eldon ) to ask the question—rand if their Lordships should go into the Committee , he should ask it again—was , that it might be recorded upon the face of this Bill what an Unitarian was . He
again called on the Reverend Bench to define the term . He should like very much to see that Rev . Bench vote that a person who denied the divinity of their Saviour ( if that was , as he understood , the definition of these persons' opinions ) , was , on that account , deserving of this especial favour . His object was to get a plain and distinct definition of who it was they were thus called on to favour . He did not know what distinction there was
between Unitarians and another set « f persons who were before their Lordships , calling themselves Free-thinking Christians , who also entertained these scruples about marriages ; but he begged their Lordships to look at the language of these petitioners , that they might judge of their claims to the special interposition of the Legislature . —The Noble Earl proceeded
to read some passages from a petition lately presented * by the Free-thinking Christians , in which they " declare and avow that the Church of England , whose religious worship they are thus called upon to sanction , they know only as a Church , ' teaching for doctrines the commandments of men : '—as a Church professing a religion which has no other claims than that of being by law established ;—as a Church whose laws have
no earlier date than Popery , no higher authority than Acts of Parliament , " &c . The petitioners proceed thus : " Viewing the Church Of England as part of such a system of political religion and corrupt spiritual power—regarding the form of marriage , as contained in the Book of Common Prayer ^ as one of the rites of such a Church , how can your petitioners conform thereto ? How , in the language of Scripture , can they do this thing-, and
« His Lordship seems to have-prac-i tised » a little Btratagem here . < No such petition was ever presented , we 'feafrhytd i the Lords at all ; and it dowtlofc appear ' thtft his Lordship tntfvedrtor a ! copy bf ft from thei < C 0 tmttbiw * v , •«¦*? < l i > - "i < "J " ' ¦
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1827, page 617, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1799/page/65/
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