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mouth ' s Bill would have reduced the intei-petation df these acts to an uniformity , arid , as far as it conferred privileges upon Dissenters , would have been imperative , in their favour , on magistrates . This would
have been very well , but we like not this anxiety of his Lordship for the ease and security of the Dissenters : if they had frit themselves aggrieved , they would have applied to Parliament for iedress , and then would have been time
enough to bave amended the laws of toleration . In that case a liberal statesman would have been contented with a simple declaratory Act . Lord Sidmouth ' s Bill was encumbered with harsh and vexatious clauses , which could not have been introduced with
any particular good-will to Dissenters , and in fact , leaned more to the side of intolerance than to that of liberty . The unfortunate Viscount ( for
vre wish not to use stronger language ; his last speech appealed to , and gained our pity ;) may have meant well ^ but well . meaning is ambiguous praise to a statesman . A measure not ill-designed
may be most mischievous , and may most justly bring down condemnation on the head of its projector- But of the real intention of Lord Sidmouth , we have no certain means of judging ; we know his Bill , and of that we
shall never speak but in the indignant language of freemen . We should have thought better of his meaning , however , if he had regularly consulted the Dissenters before he hazarded a measure so
vital \ y affedtirigWeir liberties . He cljfri confer , it seetns , with some in . dividiials anhortgst the Dissenters , for he complained piteously of
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4 # 8 Reflections on Lord Sidtnoutks ' Bill .
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being misled and desertei by them but they were not the represents tives of the body , and their con ferences with his Lordship must be regretted , either for their sakes or hiV : if they encouraged his Lordship in his project , ( which however , could not have been be !
lieved of some of them , even if it had not been disavowed , ) they made themselves responsible fo the measure and must partake at least of its odium ; but if , which
is more probable , they enlightened the noble Peer in the true prin . ciptes and feelings of the Protfes . tant Dissenters with regard to his proposed law , how can we explain his perseverance in the rafciiure ,
in any way creditable to his views We recollect that the noble peer was very urgent - witb the House of Lords , to allow his Bill to go into a committee , that there it mfght be modified € o the taste of the Dissenters . He had brought
forth a monster , and he wanted the help of thoserwho turned from it wit h horror and vvh om it threatened to devourj to lick it into shape . To have gained his end , be * M < l have made it less monstrous . As
it was , it bore intolerance on ¦*» front , and the stitt ^ of persecution wfts in its tail ; and there was safety for the Dissenters no otherwise than by its instant destruction . —That Lord Sidmoutt irauj have materially altered the Bin in a committee , may readily ^ believed ; for what general ^ ' not escape a defeat by retrc atiftg Alvho vvoxild Vdldtitdrily stttttfl ;
the Viscount ' s present ™ ° ^ 2 condition , condemned by tw -jj ( er&l ; censured by the wr& > P * by the chafftkMe , and * f ° loV * for by his friends 6 ti the % ^\ his ignorance of the peop
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1811, page 498, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2419/page/50/
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