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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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432 Intelligence . —Proceedings in Chancery regarding Unitarians .
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tion Act at least , and security to their foundations ; but if it will not be trespassing * too much on your limits , I hope to submit to you next month some observations on this supposed common law offence , when I trust we shall see , on looking * into the cases on the subject , that there is no foundation for the assertion of the counsel for the plaintiffs . It is much to be lamented that Sir S . Romilly should have given the sanction of such a name as his to the
assertion , without giving- any authority for it , especially where ( as will he seen by the Chancellor ' s judgment ) the point was not necessary to the decision of the case . 4 th . The comparative insignificance of the , nominal plaintiffs in this case , and of the object for which they contend at so great an expense , ( coupled with the circumstance of this attempt being conducted
by one of such weight , among the class of Dissenters to which he more peculiarly belongs , as the gentleman above alluded to , ) gives strong colour to the suspicion that . this question has been raised in order to establish a principle upon which similar proceedings will be instituted in other like cases , which we know exist in several places . It is to be regretted that Dissenters should agitate these questions in Courts of Law , which do not understand or recognise the principles upon which their
congregations are founded , particularly when it is considered that such principles as are contended for by counsel in this case , may indeed answer the purpose for which they are intended , but will , if pushed to Iheir legitimate consequences , involve all differences of doctrine from that of the Established Church . The whole case shews , that it is absolutely necessary for Unitarians ( in the most enlarged sense of the word ) to form some closer union to make common cause
in protecting their liberties and property from these attacks , not leaving * an individual congregation to fight their battles against so powerful a body , but establishing some society of deputies for obtaining and maintaining civil rights , for the only class of British subjects which appears from the principles laid down to nave at present , collectively , none . EDGAR TAYLOR . Inner Temple , 21 s £ July , 1817 .
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trustees of the premises ; praying for ait injunction to restrain the defendants from carrying on an ejectment commenced by them for recovering possession of four-fifths of the trust premises , the remaining" fifth being- vested in Mr . Maunder ; and praying that the trust miffht be administered , ike .
It appeared that land had been purchased in 1701 , and a meeting-house built and conveyed to trustees . Other land had since been purchased and conveyed in the same manner . The trust was merely for supporting the worship of God ,, without providing any particular mode or tenets . Nothing was provided as to who was to have the choice of the minister , but it was provided that in case such worship should
at any time cease to be tolerated , the trust should go to charitable uses , the trustees to be always twelve . About 1782 , the trust had been filled up , and Mr . Maunder was one then appointed . In 1792 , afresh deed had been prepared for filling up the trust , which Mr . Maunder refused to execute , and the trustees were now reduced , we understood , to five ; the other four being * the defendants . It did not appear that Mr .
Maunder had ever acted in the trust , being of different opinions to the rest of the congregation , who it seemed were Unitarians , and had been long so , though it was not clear what were the opinions of the founders , the trust deed not noticing the subject . Mr . Maunder had not for thirty years joined the congregation , but attended elsewhere . In 1812 , the congregation and trustees sent a letter to Mr . Steward , one of the plaintiffs , inviting * him to be their minister for
three years , from 23 rd April , 1813 ; and in his answer he said , he accepted their invitation . " The pleadings stated that he was so chosen , having expressed and preached doctrines conformable to those of the congregation , and that he continued doing so till soon after the three years
elapsed , when it was discovered that his sentiments were Trinitarian , and the whole congregation in consequence , in September 1816 , wrote to him , stating * that his term had expired at April last , and they did not wish to continue him as their minister . He , however , declined giving up possession , being- supported by Mr . Maunder , who now for the first time aooeared to have acted in
the trust , and the remaining trustees there ' fore brought an ejectment to recover fourfifths of the property , in order to replace themselves in their share of the management which they had thus lost . Sir Samuel Romilly shortly opened the case ; lie contended that in the case of the Attorney General and Fowler , it had been
held that institutions of this nature were considered and acted upon by the Court as any other public charity . That in this case the point to be agitated , , whether the Court would permit the trustees to divert
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LINCOLN'S INN HALL . Maunder &r another v . Pearson 8 f others . 14 M Jul y ^ 1817 . IT appeared by the statement of the facts of tliis case by the counsel , that it was a bill filed at the relation of Mr . Maunder , a trustee of a meeting-house and land at Wolverhampton , and Mr . Steward the minister of that congregation , against several gentlemen the defendants , who are also
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 432, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/56/
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