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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
-an invasion of inalienable rights pertuinirtg to the dearest interests of man , nor can they contemplate its provisions without anticipating a state of embarrassment and vexation which they are convinced your Lordships , no less than themselves * would be anxious to
pre-Tent . It would neither gratify nor become your petitioners to expatiate'in their own praise or in praise of that numerous class in the United Kingdom , with which they are more or less connected , and in common with which they now participate the liveliest apprehension . They will , however , humbly appeal to your Lordships , whether the moral hSmts of Protestant dissenters , their obedience to the laws of the realm , their submission to public burdens , and their zeal to support the interests
of then' country on every emergency lhat has required their cooperation , have been so remiss and defective , as to call for the introduction of measures calculated to produce among them nothing but disappointment and perplexity . They appeal to your Lordships , whether they tfnay not claim to be considered a peaceable and loyal part of the community ? and they submit whether justice and
policy do not urge the propriety of leaving thorn in the undisturbed possession of the protection and privileges secured to them by an Act of the First of William and
Mary , and confirmed and enlarged by an Act of the Nineteenth of his present Majesty , and whether their conduct has not been such as to entitle them to the undiminished enjoyment of that protection and those privileges , for which tkey are anxious to express their
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grateful acknowledgments to tli © Supreme Being , and under him to a wise , equitable and indul gent government . Maintaining , as it is presumed every friend to well-defined liberty must maintain , that men are amenable to God alone for their reli gious opinions , and should be left to worship him conformably to the dictates of their consciences , your petitioners infer theright of every individual to communicate reli gi . ous instruction , agreeably to his own views , and according to the
measure of his abilities ; to all who are willing to hear him , provided the public peace and security be not thereby violated or endangered . Your petitioners have observed with regret constructions put an the Acts of the First of William and Mary , and the Nineteenth of his present JVJajesfy , which hav *
exposed many ol their brethren , appying to be qualified under the provisions of those statutes to various delays and * difficulties , as well as to the absolute refusal of
the benefits intended to be granted by them , so that such persons have been red uced to the alternative oi abandoning what they deemed an important duty , or incurring the penalties from which , those Acts
were designed to protect them * But while they have refrained from soliciting the interposition of the legislature , considering it inexpedient to agitate the public
mind , they had indulged the hop « that if the subject were brought under the notice of Parliament , it would be with a view to the extension and not the abrid gment of the privileges they have so long enjoyed . It is , therefore , with mucfc paia and surprise that your petiti-
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33 S Toleration Act .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1811, page 338, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2417/page/18/
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