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cases as that jo ^ t noticed , for it recapacitate ? tj * ose who had neglected to take the oath of abjuration , &c ^ , through ignorance or mistake , or by not duly holding the courts when the same ought to have been holden , or for some other such like reasons . We need hardly expect to find in Queen Anne ' s days any legislative provision relaxing the obligation to take jthe Test . On the contrary , the High
Church party , after several unsuccessful struggles , obtained the celebrated Act against occasional Conformity , and disgraced the closing session of this reign by the infamous . Schism Bill , which , by the death of the Queen , was fortunately prevented from acquiring Jthe character of an essential bulwark
X > f the Church . In the Act passed at the commencement of the reign of George the First * ( Stat . 2 , c . 13 , ) for confirming * the paths of allegiance , supremacy and abjuration , it was enacted , that all persons who , by virtue of any law then in being , are or would be obliged
to receive the Sacrament , &c , on any occasion whatsoever , should continue obliged , under the penalties required by any former Act ; and the 23 rd secturn declares , that all persons who should comply with the Tests , within ft time limited , should be indemnified against all penalties and incapacities incurred by any former neglect or
. The reign of this monarch was , Uporx the whole , decidedly favourable to the full enjoyment , by the Protcs * tajot Dissenters , of all the rights of good subjects , the consequence , not only of the personal feelings of the
sovereign , but of the critical circumstances of the state : yet the Act 5 George I . c . 4 , which repealed the Schism Bill and the provisions of the statute 10 Aiuie , c . 2 , against occasional Conformity , merely restored l > issenters to their former footing ,
giving" , indeed , an indirect sanction to the practice of occasional Conformity , by sulratituting , in place of the re * pealed enactments , a mere prohibition to public officers from attending Nonconformist worship with their official atate .
I he art passed in the same session for modifying the Corporation Act , cannot be viewed as a boon to the JDisseiitens , it having been evidently
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passed to avoid the extensile jlublic inconveniences which had resulted from its original operation . By tha statute , ( 5 George I ., c . 6 , ) intituled , "An Act for quieting an estab lish ing Corporations / ' the then exist . ing members of corporations were confirmed in their offices , notwiit standing their omission to take the Sacrament , and were indemnified against penalties ; and after enatidng that none of their acts , or the acts not then avoided of former members of corporations , should be questioned , the Act proceeds in the foll owing words : " nor shall any persoa or persons who shall be hereafter placed , elected or chosen in or to any the
ofhees aforesaid , be removed by the Corporation , or otherwise prosecuted for or by reason of such omission ; nor shall any incapacity , disability , forfeiture or penalty , be incurred by reason of the same , unless such person
be so removed , or such prosecution be commenced within six months after such person ' s being placed or elected into his respective office , as aforesaid ; and that , in case of a prosecution , the same be carried on without wilful delay . "
We now come to the reign of George the Second , in which the practice of annual Indemnity Acts took its rise . An Act was passed in the second year after his accession , for quieting the minds of his Majesty ' s subjects , and preventing the inconveniences that
might otherwise happen to divers persons who ought to , have qualified , according to the Test slot , hut who had , through the shortness of the time ajlowed for that purpose , or some
accident , omitted so to do . In it * enacting clause , it appears to be framed on the model of that passed in the former reign , and specifies the 1 st of August as the period of indulgence .
The statute 9 Geo . II . C . 26 , may be considered the first of the sents of Acts which , with very few excep tions , have been passed annually since that period , ana under which professed
Nonconformists herve been genwroty regarded as receiving a p rotec tion equal in effect to a repeal of Me * est Act . Upon looking at the pre amble , however , we find that the P cfaop f J ^^ tended to be benefited were those » wio , through ignorance of the law , atao » » the shortness of the time allowed tor
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v .. 134 The Nehtonjtomisi . No . XXIV .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 134, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/6/
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