On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
that " it was with great regret he was compelled to decline filling the honourable situation of Chairman , at the Meeting of the Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty . Having been yesterday named oue of the Portsmouth Election Committee , he found himself wholly precluded from performing that honourable duty . He begged them to be assured that it was with the greatest reluctance he saw himself denied the
satisfaction of contributing in the smallest manner to assist the cause of religious liberty ; a cause which was connected with all that was most valuable in the institutions of our country , and with all the highest and noblest feelings of human nature . All that could be done for
religious freedom was not yet accomplished ; it yet remained to win over those who had been the most constant enemies of their principles , and by persevering in love and charity , to obtain the
proudest triumphs and the purest victories which man can have over man . And that he trusted the Society would continue to flourish till its necessity should cease , and all should acquiesce in granting religious liberty to all . "
After some preliminary communications of the proceedings of the Committee during the past year , by Thomas Pellatt , Esq ., one of the honorary Secretaries to the Society , Mr . Wilks presented himself to the assembly , to make that annual exposition , which has given great Interest to the meetings of the Society .
Much time elapsed before the plaudits would allow him to proceed ; and he delivered a speech which continued about two hours and a half , and which , alternately instructing by information , interesting by pathetic narrative , and arousing by the most inspiring energy , perpetuated an attention and excited an applause not to be described .
He began by adverting to many motives which made him yearly present himself to their attention with increasing reluctance . Ill-health , excessive expectation , the personal calumnies and misrepresentations with which he was
assailed , and even the too approving eulogies of friends , enfeebled and appalled him . Loving retirement , though absorbed in professional engagements—seeking to pass onward to the grave , not indolent but unnoticed—mindful of his duties to
mankind , but . solicitous to perform them without encomium and without reproach ; •—he was pained , and even agonized to be constantly dragged forward to attention , and placed conspicuous on an eminence . Thus was he placed , but to be pointed * at and calumniated by the haters of liberty -in < * The Christian Remembrancer ' and other publications devoted ?
Untitled Article
to Tory and Sacheverellian principFk or to be misrepresented by the pretend ^ friends to freedom in another Review ^ as resisting their measures for the education of the poor from interested motives , and as perverting his influence for an aggrandizement which he sought not —but disclaimed . Yet he confessed , that
when he listened to the tales of wrongs which persecutors ventured to attemptas he observed an intolerant spirit , if not stalking in broad day-light through the country , yet widely and secretly exercising petty but cruel tyrannies — as he thought upon the laws by which Dissenters were yet degraded and oppressed , his spirit stirred within him , an holy
indignation at oppression made him forget debility ; heedlessly he shook off calumnies and reproach like dew-drops from a lion ' s mane ; and cheered by such a Meeting , and energized by such support , he felt that the persecuted for conscience' sake , must never want a champion whilst to him Providence continued faculties and life .
He then proceeded to state the successful result of the prosecution of the Parish Officers at Stretton , in Warwickshire , who disturbed Robert Newman in his cottage : and the purchase of a dwelling where , at Ewelme , in Oxfordshire , Amos Norroway , whose conference with the Bishop of Landaff had
given him just celebrity , might , fearless of ejection , receive the Christian Missionary , and allow his neighbours to unite in humble adoration and fervent praise . The new cases that had occupied the attention of the Committee during the past year were then detailed . As to pecuniary claims for Poor's-Rates , at Leatherhead and Chatham—for Church
Rates , at Paddington—and for Assessed Taxes in Wales : —as to Mortuary Fees at Pontefract and Blockley—Easter Dues at fVellingborough and Frome—and Turnpike Tolls in various places—as well as to the non-liability of Dissenting Ministers to serve in the Militia—he communicated information and supplied much admirable advice .
The Riots that had occurred in the Edgware Road—at Swanton in Norfolkat Worksopy in the county of Notting ham —at Botletfy Southzoick and Totton , in Hampshire—and a decision of the magistrates for that county , that they could not enforce the penalties imposed by the of
Toleration Acts on offenders convicted offences , and sentenced by themselves to the payment of the penalties , evinced that protection continued to be iieedfw even in opulent and enlightened district * , and that unless the small establishments of village worshipers were secured » that Society , they would be swept , away
Untitled Article
376 Intelligence . —~ Protcstant Society .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1821, page 376, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2501/page/52/
-