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himself from the Imputation of having launched a doubt where none could be fairiy entertained . What had been said as to Ireland , induced him still more strongly to believe that the principle on which this Bill was put * was to be extended to all Dissenters . He denied
the possibility of refusing it to any if it were granted to the Unitarians . But it had been said , that the same was already done in the ease of Jews and Quakers - What had they done for Jews and Quakers ? Merely exempted them from the operation of Lord Hardwicke ' s Act . Let them , if they wished , bring in
a Bill to place them on the same footing with those people , and the Bill would be considered on its own grounds ; but then it . would be a very different Bill from the present , and would place the parties on a different footing ; for he could not undertake to say distinctly how the law stood as to the Jews and Quakers . — -
Their marriages stood upon the law as it existed before Lord Hardwicke ' s Act ; but what that was , or with how many difficulties it was entangled , he would leave them to judge when he told them he had been engaged fifteen days hearing counsel on the point , on a question of
legitimacy . Their Lordships would as soon wish to pass through the Inquisition as to hear all the arguments connected with that investigation ; and it seemed clear to him that they must soon be called to make some legislative provision on the subject . To look a little in
detail at some parts of this Bill , ( for he could tear in pieces almost every sentence of it , ) the persons called Unitarians are described as having conscientious scruples to the doctrine of the Trinity . How many persons , he would ask , had the same scruples ? Deists , Atheists , and
he knew not what , might rank under so vague a description as this . If he understood any thing of the Church of England , ( though , after all he heard , he almost fancied he did not , ) it was impossible that there could be a greater repugnance between any sets of doctrines than between those of that Church and
the Unitarians , so far so , that they must , to be consistent , hold that Church to be idolatrous . Whom then did they propose to bring together by this Bill ? Are persons to go to an Archbishop and say , " You hold and reverence the doctrine of the Trinity as an essential of
Christianity , but I consider you an idolater , therefore give me facilities which no legislature ever gave ! " So , he contended , the whole machinery of the Bill went to make the Church subservient to the cause of dissent . If the Jews aiid Quakers were to be taken as a precedent , let them take the proposition as broadly
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and let the Unitarians strugglewkh the game legal difficulties . To the State ' s policy as to clandestine marriages , he never would sacrifice the greater policy of . maintaining the dignity of the Church He , for one , would never be accessary to
its degradation . In stating what he had , he was influenced only by a wish to discharge his own personal duty ; it was far from his wish , even if he had the power to controui the opinion of others ; he had discharged his conscience and
relieved himself of his responsibility ; if the House chose to pass that Bill , he would leave it in their hands ; but for himself , he must declare , that a worse Bill than the present had never been submitted to Parliament .
Lord Holland said , that after the discussion which had taken place before , aad the decision to which their Lordships had come in favour of the principle of the Bill , he could hardly have expected to find so much warmth , anxiety and opposition , as was now manifested against
the question for going into the Committee ,, So strongly was he impressed with the opinion that no such difficulty could have arisen , that instead of considering this subject , he amused himself , on his way down to the House , with reading a publication of one of the purest and most elegant writers which this country had produced—he meant Mr . Cowper , the
poet . In that publication he met with a story , which he little thought , at the time , could admit of any application to the proceedings of their Lordships' House It appeared that the writer , walking one : day in Ramsgate , had met an eminent lawyer whom , in familiar language , he called " Sam Cox , " buried in profound meditation on the beach . Being curious
to ascertain the subject on which his mind was occupied , he asked what he was thinking of . The lawyer replied , that he was wondering why such an expansive element as the ocean should produce such an insignificant animal as a
sprat . In the same way though reversing the application , he ( Lord Holland ) was disposed to pause and wonder how such a miserable sprat of a Bill could produce such a commotion in the element of this grave and sedate House . He would sav to the Noble and Learned
Lord , with all his anxiety for the Church , that it was not the best way either to consult its dignity or to maintain i&s power , to cry out " Wolf" at every little mouse that made its appearance ; he ought not to be so ready " to rin and chase wi' murdiin' battle" such " wee
sleekit , cowring , thn ' rous beastie . " How would a stranger be surprised to hear that , after all this rout , the whole question was whether the Unitarians should
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iMdligertce ^ Ptiriiam en tary Unitarians * 'Marrittgti BBl * 309
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1824, page 309, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2524/page/53/
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