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    must entreat ilie allowance of my readers for the plainness which I feel myself compelled to use on this occasion I say , then , with all deliberation , I weigh my words , —that these ministers have , in the preceding' sentence , written in direct opjiosition to truth ) they have subscripted to a false , Jioocl . The argument was certainly used , I say the argument was used as a reason

    against Unitarianism . It was used m relation to present times , to the profession of Unitarianism at the very moment of its being- employed in court . The argument is , that the repeal of the penal statute * against Unitarians , ( which repeal did not take place till 1813 , on the motion of Mr . William Smith , ) did not legalize Unit artanism , hut left it an offence still indictable at common lam . Was the reference to the

    prosecution of Mr . Wright , at Liverpool , for maintaining" religious opinions illegal according to the common law , for impugning the doctrine of tlie Trinity , in 1817 , ' used as a proof of the intentions of the founders of the meeting * -house at Wo 1 verb amp ton , in 1701 : was it used to

    explain the foundation deeds ?* The argument voas distinctly and pointedly used as a reason against Unitarian ism : and no person designing to speak truth would ever say it was not . The ministers , therefore , stand charged with the publication of an untruth . TJbey have given their names Attd their asseverations to the denial of a

    fact which admits of no contradiction . 'Pp . 13 , 14 . Ci I wiil not permit them , or any other persons whatever , be they who they may , to give a denial to any statements which bear my signature , without endeavouring * to obtain a determination on which side

    the truth is to > be found . My statements shall not be borne down by the dogmatical but false assertions of any men . I renew my previous affirmations : 1 have produced the evidence of their trutli , and I feel no hesitation in pronouncing the conduct of the persons whom I now oppose as inconsistent with honour as it is with truth .

    " The argument directed against Unitarianism by the patrons of the Wolverhainpton case is , that the repeal , by Mr . William Smith ' s Bill , of the statutes inflicting- penalties upon the professors of Unitarianism only relieved them from the specific penalties imposed by the repealed statutes , but still left ' them under the imputation of crime , and indictable at common law !

    And had the patrons of the case in Chancery , the nine Dissenting ;* ministers , forgotten that this very argument is alleged bjrliijgfh legal authorities against themselves ? TJie Toleration Act , W . M . i . 18 , is c An Act for exempting tbeir Majesties ' Protestant - Subjects dissenting from the Church of England , yVo ? w the penalties of certain fate * . Biackfttonc , ia Ms Com-

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    mentaries , maintains that nonconformity to the Church of England is still a crime , notwithstanding" the Toleration Act , which he considers as only suspending or mitigating the punishments , not removing the crime of nonconformity . Nor is Black - stone the only one of the English jud ge * who has maintained this doctrine . Since Blackstone ' s time , it is true , the Toleration Act has been amended ; its real character and design , its title and its purposes , how > ever , are still the same , the Statute h % Geo . III . c . 155 , being * only an amendment , not a repeal of the former Act .

    a , therefore , Unitarianism be illegal at common law , notwithstanding the repeal of the statutes which inflicted specific pe ~ nalties upon the profession of it , all dissent from the Established Church is illegal according- to common law :

    nonconformity of everv species is a crime . If the repeal of penal statutes restores the professors of Trinitarianism to a legal capacity , it must also restore the professors of Unitarianism to a legal capacity $ if it removes the imputation of crime as well as the infliction of punishment from one species of nonconformity , it must remove it from another—from every species of Dissent .

    " But at this time—with all the unrighteous acts of the ages that are past , and the mischiefs which they produced , as they poured tlieir tides of vengeance upon the unoffending and the virtuous who regulated their religious opinions by a divine law which required them to obey God rather than men , demonstrating' the absurdity

    and iniquity of restraining- religious opinion by human authority ;—with these melancholy examples and lessons before their eyes—at a time when the illuminations of knowledge are throwing- their light upon all questions interesting to the moral probationers of earth , and the feelings

    of mankind are under the strongest excitement towards objects that include the consideration of their i in pro vein en t as intelligent beings , the subjects of religion who must shortly give an account of themselves to God—when the ignorant and the forlorn , for whose instruction preceding-gene rat ions had but ill provided , are taught and

    encouraged to shew themselves men , the creatures of God and the subjects of liis government , by the Bible circulated to their remotest dwellings , and fixing all their attention upon the word that ' shall judge them in the last day *—at this time , when Lhe messengers of Christ , founding

    all their measures on his authority , and employing nothing but his word us the means of effecting , the objects of theiv mission , are abroad in all lands , assailing superstitions , inveterate , and powerful in all their associations with the hopes and &ar » of men , and not deterred from any of

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    j&eview . —Case of the Old Meeting House , Wolverhampten . 7 , 11

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1818, page 711, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2482/page/47/