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Untitled Article
that purpose , or some unavoidable accident , omitted to qualify ; and the enacting clause is introduced by the words , " For preventing the inconveniences that might otherwise happen by reason of suck omissions . " It goes
a gtep further than the previous Acts , in extending to penalties ^ &c . not only incurred , but also to be incurred by reason of any former neglect ; but it contemplates and provides for no future omissions , or their attendant
penalties . The Indemnity Act of the 16 th year of George the Second , ( cap . 30 , sec . 3 , ) reciting , that by the Test Act persons admitted into office should receive the Sacrament within three
months , enlarges the time to six months , but expressly reiterates the penalties of the act against any longer neglect . I have not been able to trace any material variation in the form of these Acts down to the Union , as they are
not generally reprinted in the Statutes at large , but there is no reason to believe that any words have been introduced to countenance an intentional omission to qualify , which might ,
perhaps , not unfairly be presumed against a professed Nonconformist . And it is remarkable , that in the Act of Indemnity passed with reference to Ireland , in the session after the Union , its
6 bjects are described as persons well effected to his Majesty ' s government , and to the United Church of England And Ireland , who had , through ignorance of the law , neglected , or been by sickness or other unavoidable causes , prevented from qualifying . *
The most modern Act of Indemnity , printed at length in the Statutes at krge , is that of the 42 Geo . III . c . 23 , with which the subsequent acts are stated to correspond . It extends to omissions to qualify under the Corporation Act , which the acts in George 2 nd ' 8 reigq do not appear to have done . In its preamble , it refers the
. It is understood that the Test and vor poratiou Acts have no present opera"on against Protestant Dissenter * in i reiaud . The Act of Enfranchisement must w V nterestlp # document , aiid should ™ e been Introduced , if r had been abje *> Procure a sight of it .
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omissions intended to be protected against , to " ignorance of the law , absence or some unavoidable accident ; " and then proceeds to enact , for preventing inconveniences from » itch omissions , that all persons who at or
before the passing of the Act had omitted to receive the sacrament , &c ., within such time , &c . as is required by law , and who , after accepting any office , &c , but before passing the Act , had received the sacrament , &c , or who before the 25 th December , 1802 ,
should receive the same , should be indemnified and discharged from all penalties and incapacities incurred or to be incurred by reason of any neglect or omission previous to the pass ^ . ing of the Act , and should be fully reeapacitated , &c ., and should be adjudged
to have qualified themselves ; and that all elections and qualifications of , and acts by , such persons , should be of the same validity as if they had duly qualified according to law . But the 2 nd section provides , that the Indemnity should not extend to persons against whom final judgment had been
obtained for any penalty incurred by neglecting to qualify . The 5 th section provides , that the Act shall not restore or entitle any person to any office , &c , already actually avoided ., b y judgment of any of his Majesty ' s Courts of Record , or already iegally filled up and enjoyed by any other
person . It is observable , that , instead of the 1 st of August , according to tl * e earlier acts , the period of indemnity was enlarged to the 25 th of December , itv the acts passed in 179 $ and the fol ^ lowing years up to the year 1807 ? and it is a remarkable circumstance ^ that in each of the sessions of the two
Parliaments which met in that year , an Act of Indemnity was passed , the first giving time until the 25 th day of December , and the second prolonging it until the 25 th of March . Those ? alterations , combined with the present
practice of convening Parliament early in the year , have been generally regarded as not merely circumscribing the operations of the informer within very narrow limits , t ? ut as effecting a complete suspension of ail prosecutions under the Test laws . Upon this review of the Corporation and Test Acts , and the statute *
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The Nonconformist . No . XXIV , 135
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1822, page 135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2510/page/7/
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