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    (> . That publicity be given to these and the foregoing Resolutions under the direction of the Committee-A . Rees , Chairman . That the Chairman be requested to accept the thanks of the Body , for his conduct at this Meeting . Thos . Morgan , Secretary .

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    Williams ' * Library , Red Cross Street , January \ % , 1816 , At a Meeting of the Committee appointed by the General Body of Protestant Dissenting Ministers of

    the Three Denominations , * ' for the Purpose of Inquiry , Superintendance , and Distribution of the Funds which may be contributed for Relief of the French Protestants , suffering for Conscience sake , "

    It was unanimously Resolved , 1 . That this Committee have observed , with astonishment and regret , that attempts are making , through the medium of the press , to defeat their object , by misrepresenting their motives ; and although the Committee know too well what is due to that

    respectable body by which they are deputed , to engage in useless warfare with those who are labouring to stifle that public sympathy which it is the wish of the body to excite , they yet owe it to their own character , and to

    the cause they have undertaken , to state candidly , once for all , the motives by which they have been guided and the end they have in view . 2 . That this Committee , therefore , utterly disclaim for themselves and their constituents all party feelings on

    a question which they conceive to be purely and exclusively religious ; but that if they must be ranked with a party , they are happy in ranking * this occasion , with that of the government which listened so candidly to

    their representations , entered so warmly into their feelings , —and pledged itself so readily to employ iLs good offices for the same humane purpose to which their interference has been directed .

    3 . That if any man , calling himself a Protestant , can impute to Dissenting ministers , as a crime , that they have riiewn themselves peculiarly forward , on this occasion , he should remember that they are . the descendants of those who , for conscience sake suffered the spoiling of their goods , and

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    the loss of their lives ; and to whose constancy , under persecution * it is chiefly owing that religious liberty is now firmly established in this favoured land .

    4 . That , feeling the value of this inestimable blessing , they could not but be deeply interested by any occurrence which might threaten its loss to those , especially with whom

    they are united by the tie of a common faith , and a common worship \ nor could they refuse their sympathy or their relief to men bleeding in the same cause which rendered the

    memory of their fathers immortal . 5 . That though letters have been received from ministers in France , expressing objections to the interference of their Protestant brethren in England , the Committee have ascertained , from unquestionable evidence , that some of those letters have been

    written under constraint ; and that others have been dictated by an apprehension ( it is hoped erroneous ) lest such an interference should injure them in the estimation of their own government , or rather , lest it should expose

    them to the fury of a faction , which sets the government itself at defiance $ and the Committee are of opinion , that if complaints are cautiously uttered , they deserve , the more , the consideration and sympathy of those who are aware of the cause in which

    this caution originates . 6 . That while they have been acting consistently with their own principles , in expressing their abhorrence of all religious persecution , by whomsoever practised or countenanced , they cannot but suppose that in

    contributing to alleviate the distresses of the French Protestants , they are coinciding with the intentions of the French government , which has been taking measures to suppress those outrages , which , if not suppressed , must occasion its own disgrace , and compromise its own safety .

    7 . That , in the subscriptions and collections already made , — -in the spirit which is spreading throughout the kingdom , —and in the prospect that this spirit will ultimately enable

    them to grant important relief to their suffering brethren , and to the widows and orphans of the victims of persecution , the Committee have the most flattering encouragement to persevere . They do , therefore , most earnestly

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    Intelligence . ^—Persecution of the ffreneh ProtestanU * 47

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1816, page 47, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2448/page/47/