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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
t # > shew defendants intention as to the future conduct of the trust ; it was quite 4 ; lear and admitted that they iatended to alter the object by preaching Unitarianisin , and that iu * fact it has been always of late
appropriated to preaching * the Unity of God ; they admit this , adding * that there ore various opinions on that question among them , brrt that all agree on the point of contending * for the liberty of choice of their minister .
JLord Chancellor . — There are so many considerations in this case of great importance , not only as regards the parties to it , but also the public , that I should not execute my duty if I stated my final opinions as to the various points of the case , till I had read the bill and answer .- There are
many and very different questions . If this was an application for no other purpose than to get trusts of an institution of Protestant . Dissenters , which trusts were well known , administered , there would be no difficulty . There would be no occasion to disturb ourselves with questions as to the practice of injunctions . &c , because the
Court would say there shall be no injunctions , no trials at law , nor any expense of that sort to the ruin of the institution , incurred , as we mig-ht save it all by making an order upon the parties for regulating " and adjusting * all matters in pursuance of the trust- and if I find it clear that the parties are all before the Court , and that
the legal estate is vested partly in plaintiff and partly in defendants , it is quite competent to the Court to put the whole matter at rest , and in just as g-ood a state , without wasting the charity in trials , and without any ejectment or legal proceeding's whatever . If the case , however , be any thingmore than such a common application to the Court to administer a common trust
estate , of which the object is well known and defined , I must precisely understand the nature of it , and all the facts of the
case . It is stated and urged upon the Court that this is an institution for the benefit of Protestant Dissenters , and to apply property to maintain a preacher ; and that it is highly expedient and necessary to have some decision as speedily as possible . Although it must be granted that this Court is bound to administer such a trust , and
that with all the expedition it can give , yet I cannot say that I have often found a case of this sort where it was easy to do so . Amongst the various questions that arise , especially when it is considered ( as I am sorry to say I have generally found the fact to be ) , that case * of this sort , on religious and controversial questions , are conducted with greater acrimony between the parties , ' than most other matters that conic before the Court : —if , as is often the rose , the trust is rendered multifarious and ambi-
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guous by , in some trust deeds of thfs soff requiring" the assent of the congregation iri the choice of ministers , in others the assent of only a select portion of the congregation , in others that of the trustees only , in others by prescribing * no form at all , as in the present instance-, —it is easy to come to this Court for a remedy , but not so easy * for this Court to find it .
It is here contended that this was originally a Protestant institution to celebrate divine worship generally ; and it is also insisted that the very instrument which creates the trust , bears on the face of it proof of the . intent that the doctrine intended to he inculcated was the doctrine
of the Trinity ; and the clauses in the deed are referred to , which provide for the application of the fund in case of the Legislature rendering it unlawful to carry on that kind of worship . It is then observed
that the act of Toleration , with a view to which the parties must be supposed to have looked , and which had passed ^ befo re this trust , did not extend to the toleration of any doctrine impug-ning- the Trinity . And it is therefore contended that those who
instituted this trust must have thought they were establishing it for a lawful purpose : whereas the Toleration Act did not tolerate the impugners of the Trinity , and therefore an establishment for that purpose would have been illegal . It is said , on the other hand , that the Acts of Parliament on this Subject have
been repealed : it is certainly true that the Legislature has repealed such laws with respect to the Trinity ; it has also repealed the Scotch laws on the subject , which , I believe even went so far as to inflict the punishment of death . It has also , I
believe , within the last week , passed an Act for the same purpose with regard to the Irish laws or the subject ; but I can confidently state that in one Ilouse , at least , it was never intended , by so doing , to alter or affect the common law .
I do not presume , however , to state here , and as sitting in a Court of equity , what is the effect of these acts on jthe common law ; but if the common law is not altered , and it should beheld that impugning the doctrine of the Trinity is an indictable offence at common Jaw , then I cannot here execute a trust for the support of what would thus be decided to be illegal
opinions . It is not for the Court here to say how much or how little of toleration it is proper and desirable to extend ; but it must look to what is the law of the land , and to the state in which the Legislature has placed the question .
But there is another view of the question : when these institutions are established for religious worship , and you cannot find from the deed declaring the trust , ivhut species
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436 Intelligence *—* Proceedings Hn Xftiancery regarding Unitarians .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1817, page 436, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2466/page/60/
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