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State of Public Affairs . 311
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) f religious liberty , which was not to " narrowed , because certain exemptions from military service were to be narrowed : and and he moved , that the Bill be read-a second time that day six months . The Loas Chancellor thought the Bill to be \ vell intended , kjut , under the present circumstances , not advisable . Lord Holland declared himself to be an enemy , a most
decided , principled , and resolved enemy , to restraints on religious freedom . Every man has a natural right to choose his mode
of religious teaching , and to interpretthe scFiptures after his own manner . They are a largesse to the whole world , not restrained to the disciples or . the discipline of a peculiar church . The part of the Bill which went to force
the dissenting ministers to be moral , after th ^ fashion of the noble Lord , was new , offensive , and tyrannical . He would manufacture them into precisely such men . as he would wish to have
preaching to himself : but this was not the species of preaching the dissenters chose , nor would they cohscnt to have them so recognized by particular signatures
and the approbation of a bench of justices . The nohle Lord stated , that he had conversed with many , aud had riot found one respectable dissenter , who did not express the
most unqualified abhorrence of every point of the bill . It was at variance with the original ideas thrown out , and with all that he had ever learnt to revere as the genuine principles of religious liberty .
Earl Stanhope expressed kls joy at the appearance of that < % > at the immense quantity of i > ethions against this wretched bill .
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He saw ia them a proof , that there was a public , a public opjnion , and a public spirit . He defied all the lawyers in the world to prove that this wretched bill was consistent with our laws and constitution . He hated che name of toleration : it was a beggarly , narrow ? worthless word . He hated it because lie loved liberty . Few men had read so much of our
statute ? , on religion as he had done , and most of them were disgusting , foolish and wretched . The best of them wa 9 thet of Edward the Sixth , which abolished the whole
set of religious statutes before it . He had made some attempts at removing obnoxious persecuting acts in the last session , and he now gave notice that he would do
the same thing this session , and every other session , and would . extend his motions to the repeal of all and every Act of religious oppres - sion . Lord Buckinghamshire
thought that the bill might be made palatable in the committee , but would not press it upon the House . Ea . kl . Gret strenuousl y resisted it . Lord Sidmouth
professed himself not to be dismayed by the opposition to his bill , from bringing forward , at a future opportunity , such measures as his duty suggested , Lorb
Erskines motion was then pujt and passed without a division ; so the poor bill may be said to have received a mortal blowy and to have been buried in the best possible manner .
* Thus ended one of the most insidious attempts against religious liberty , that has appeared for some time . We give the mover full credit for not seeing it in the light we do : but this does not alter the
nature of the scheme , and we would by no means recommend to
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1811, page 311, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2416/page/55/
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