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repealed , and this repeal of the persecuting laws against the Catholics , rendering those which were in existence against Protestant Dissenters , still more obnoxious to the thinking part of the nation , the bill for their relief now passed with very little opposition , and
their ministers were now allowed , instead of subscribing the thirty-four articles , to make a declaration , that they believed the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments , commonly received in Protestant churches , to contain the revealed will of Cod . All
the bishops v . h > had formerly opposed the bill absented themselves from the House , when it was passed , and Dr . Shipley , Bishop of St . Asaph ' s , the only bishop who was present , spoke very warmly in favour of it . In the next year , 1780 , great riots were excited among the bigoted part
of the nation , in consequence of the Toleration whicji had been granted to the Catholics . In Glasgow and Edinburgh the chapels were destroyed , and the houses of the principal Catholics attacked and plundered . Similar disgraceful scenes were acted in London , ancfrfcome of the rioters being secured
in Newgate , the rest attacked and burnt that prison , and afterwards they burnt the houses of Sir George Saville and Lord Mansfield , who had nobly distinguished themselves by their speeches in favour of Toleration .
At length , but not without great difficulty , the riots were quelled by the employment of a large military force . In the year 1787 , a motion was made by Mr . Beaufoy , for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts , by which laws Dissenters are excluded
from all offices of trust and profit in the kingdom . In discussing the policy of this , Mr . Beaufoy very well observed , " that to the higher trust of legislative authority , the Dissenters are admitted without reserve ; from the members of Parliament no such Test
is required , and in fact the repeal of the Test , so far from being pernicious to the JEstablished Church would be salutary to it , since the different classes of Dissenters have no general interest ,
no bond of union , but that reproachful exclusion from public employments , -which is common to theixi all . " The Dissenters had great hopes from this motion , as they had previously received assurance-of support from many of the
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principal members , and as even Mr * Pitt had -answered their application in such a-manner , as to lead them to believe that he would support them , though he had cautiously avoided using any expressions , which could enable them to fix a direct chartre of
falsehood upon him , if he opposed them , which he did , and the motion was rejected , though but by a small majority . In the early part of the yenr 1789 , the motion was again brought forward , and again negatived bv a very small majority of onlv twenty . Just
after this , unfortunately for the claims of the Dissenters , the French Revolution broke out , and in consequence a great clamour was raised against every alteration , however just and necessary , though scarcely any thing can be more evident , than that to make just and proper improvements in time , is the
very way to avoid all danger of violent revolutions ; and if the French court had followed this maxim , and redressed the principal grievances of the nation , before the passions of the people had been heated by resistance , the worst parts of that Revolution could never have happened . But governments and
establishments have always been unwilling to learn this lesson , that the best way to prevent danger from persons suspected of disaffection , is to grant them every just claim , and not to irritate them by oppression . The Dissenters , however , in drawing up
their petitions for the repeal of the Test Act , certainly used very imprudent language , such as could have no other effect than to inflame the passions of their opponents ; and this , together with the dread of all alterations , occasioned by the breaking out of the French Revolution , caused their claims to be
negatived by a very large majority on their third attempt in 1700 . Several passages from the works of Dissenters relating to establishments were on this occasion quoted in the House , and produced a great effect in rendering the Dissenters obnoxious , particularly one
from a sermon of Dr . Priestley ' s , expressed certainly in strong language , but the meaning of which , when divested of its metaphorical expressions , evidently was , that , believing liis opinions to be true , he thought , as every man does concerning his own opinions , that they would ultimately triumph
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438 Brief History of the Dissenters from the Revolution .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1817, page 458, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2467/page/10/
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