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in inquiries , for which they are not qualified . { Loud laughs , ) He is said to have stated , that the education of the poor must be confided to the direction of the parish priests , or there will be hazard to the Church atid State ; to have censured
also the mistaken liberality which would leave religion to assert its own rights , and to have directed the clergy to look for the interference of Parliament in behalf of Church-of-England education , and in the mean time to protect the poor from the misguiding of the enemies of Church and State , who would introduce
a mode of education hostile to both . { Hear , hear . ) This charge he regarded as the annunciation of the principles , the designs , or at least of the wishes of personages whose opinions had the greatest authority from the offices they held , and who have not only the power to will , but much power to execute
whatever they may will . Those plans he connected with the expected Bill . Thereby it might be proposed , that a school should be erected in every parish ; the erection and the annual charge payable by a rate ; and that though the children of poor Dissenters might learn their own catechisms , and attend their own places of
worship , yet the appointment of the schoolmaster should be in the clergyman of the parish , { marks of disapprobation , ) or if he did not have a direct appointment , he might have such authority , that no person could be appointed without his concurrence , and when appointed , no
person to be removed but by his concurrence , and the consent of the Ordinary . Hence these persons , who were now not only clergymen but justices , who now misdirected the influence conferred by the power of directing parochial relief , would introduce men favourable to their own
Religious principles , to the important situations of parish schoolmasters ; and thus would be realized what the Archbishop had predicted , that Parliament would * interfere on behalf of the Church of England education . * Thus every parish would become either an arena for dispute , or a college for the propagation of
opinions that would consolidate the power of the church , by means inconsistent with religious freedom and their undoubted rights . With profound respect for the individual who , from philanthropic motives , would propose that Bill , he must thus raise not an hostile , but a cautionary voice , lest this project should add to those circumstances which increase the
pecuniary demands , the oppressions , and the unpfopitiousk appearances that had roused their displeasure , excited their sympathy , and might justify alarm . ( Much applause . ) A * ni < i « t ail th $ eirtumstances unfavour-
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able to religious freedom , he would cherish hope ; when the winter had been long and dreary , spring would soon approach . Poetry had often taught , that the day dawn was preceded by the deepest gloom ; the most forceful writhings of a wounded serpent indicated his
approaching death . Notwithstanding the apathy of multitudes among Dissenters ; notwithstanding the mistakes of many excellent and pious men , who could not perceive the inseparable connexion between the final triumphs of evangelical religion and its separation from worldly policy and secular suooort : notwithstanding thp secular support ; notwithstanding the
hostility of more practical or venal statesmen ; notwithstanding the efforts more combined and strenuous of the interested and dependant ; , he was cheered by the belief , that the Society would be by him survived . He trusted that not only illegal persecution , such as they could now
resist , would terminate , but that perfect religious freedom would bless the world . Thus he trusted , for he relied on the power of principle ; he believed in the eventual triumphs of truth . Even in modern times , he could refer to the acts for the relief of Dissenting schoolmasters ; to the libel law ; to the slave trade , and
to many similar abuses ; and as he noted the obstructions to their removal , and the final triumphs of those who had sustained sound principle and the cause of truth , he was encouraged and consoled . The influence of principle was not like
mere passionate emotions ; they were meteors ; they shone here and there ; they seemed to diffuse brightness ; they disappeared , * and darker was the darkness . Principles were a polar star , that shone , ever , ever , ever ! { Very loud applause . )
• But it was not from such reasonings only , that he acquired his confidence . If multitudes were indifferent or hostile , there arose around him men , each in himself a host , who were zealous and enlightened . The successive anniversaries of the Society , had been by them instructed and adorned . On Alderman
Wood , His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex , and Sir James Mackintosh , the Chairmen at the three last meetings , Mr . Wilks then pronounced appropriate eulogies , and proceeded to inquire , whether , as he thought upon their present Chairman , he could possibly despond ? His praise he would not then pronounce ;
there it could not be required . m (^ P " plause . ) But he would indulge himself by referring to that illustrious man , who in him seemed again to live , whom from his boyish days he had been taught to reverence , by a father whom he honoured , whom he Loved . To Mr . Fox n * then referred . NttfMrttM aa&ual coro-
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« 4 # 4 Snt * l 4 igkf >** . ~ -JPn > lestant &x > vi * iy : Mr . Wilhf * Speech .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1820, page 494, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2491/page/50/
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