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utnph to the Dissenting cause , for a contrary result would have brought Dissenters before Parliament with an unquestionable grievance , and they might probably have been long ago released from that bed of Procrustes , unon which it was attempted to stretch
them , not by exonerating them from all legal eligibility to offices which , though burdensome , every good citizen will wish to share ; but by erasing from our Code every impious enactment which presumes to interpose between man and his Maker , or to
connect criminality and civil incapacity with a conscientious desire to preserve an unsullied loyalty , an untainted allegiance to the King of kings . Before I close this subject I would offer a remark upon the strange notion
defendant , as Sheriff of Norwich , for refusing to be sworn into office . 8 . Eyres , Justice , argued for the defendant , ( and his opinion was said to be that of Lord Keeper Somers , ) that the exclusion fi oni office was a punishment of itself , and
therefore the party should not be fined : but G . Eyres , Justice , and Holt , Chief-Justice , said , the intent of the Corporation Act was not to exempt any man from serving the King , or to t ^ ive ease or favour to Dissenters , but rather to draw
them to a reconciliation with the Churchy an a tray to render than capable of offices in the government .- this was the design of the Act ; and if the plea in that ca . se was good , a man should be excused for not Serving the King , which is one offence , for ( by ) not receiving the Sacrament within the year , which is another offence . in the same case , Holt , Chief-Just ice .
remarked , that the design of the Corporation and Test Acts was the same , the one to exclude Dissenters , and tlie other to exclude Papists ; and it never had been thought that if a man would not qualify himself , it was an excuse under the Test Act ; that there never was any distinction between Protestant and other Dissenters , till after the Toleration Act
and that it had been for thirty years the opinion of men learned in the profession , that the Corporation Act did not exempt Dissenters , and they had always submitted to fines in London and Norwich
also . Hut the reasoning of the two latter Judges , or , at least , their judgment , proceeded upon the circumstance of the Toleration Act being not specially pleaded in bar , it being at that time regarded as a l > rivate Act , though since declare *! a pub-He Act By-Slat . \ 9 George 111 . c 44 .
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which appears to be > widely prevalent amongst the Dissenters of the present day , that our cause will be best promoted by a silent acquiescence ia tilings as they are , until , by mean s of a series of amicable discussions , which
some few leading individuals may have an opportunity of carrying on with the minister of the day , they have succeeded in convincing him , by our apparent insensibility and indifference as to the removal of our disabilities that the right moment is arrived for
our complete enfranchisement without risk to the sacred but puny twin-sister of the state . I readily admit that Dissenters would be ill-advised to make their appeal to the Legislature and the public in the language of violence or of marked disrespect to the
institutions of their country , many of which , how essentially bad soever in theory , are yet by the general liberality of the public mind rendered comparatively innoxious in practice : nor
would I be disposed to take my stand upon the high but disputable ground of Abstract right as separated from expediency . But I would ask those silent negociators , who , whilst they are horrified at the indiscreet
downrightness of JJr . Priestley in the year 1 7 ^ 0 , would in some sort realize his i : ; ost appalling metaphor , by depositing explosive materials , grain by grain , under the edifice of intolerance , and reckon upon enlisting my Lord
Liverpool as one of their corps of sappers and miners : I would ask them , 1 say , What is the experience upon which they ground the delusive notion , that the clear and manly cause of religious liberty will be most subserved by a patient waiting until the
hearts of kings and senators are melted by the edifying spectacle ? The history of the Test Act appears to read them a very different lesson , for it was upon private assurances of a speedy repeal as to the Dissenters that they concurred in its enactment ; nor will the late statute for the relief o (
Antitrinitarians be regarded as an instance in favour of this quiet policy , whilst we have the Lord Chancellor ' s declaration sounding in our ears , th at the Legislature , in passing that statute , had no idea of establishing a general principle of forbearance towards Antitrinitarians , but merely to repeal , or rather to mitigate , some o
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138 The Nonconformist . No . XXIV .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 138, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/10/
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