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be allowed to marry here as they did always till the year 1756 and as they did now in Ireland . One Right Reverend . Prelate ( as to whose conduct he should certainly wonder if he did look less at " ex quo natus" than " quibuscum v , ixit" ) had takea upon himself ta explain away , not his own scruples , but the scruples entertained by other people . He knew na way of ascertaining the scruples at' other men bafe by their own professions ; he knew no way of judging of these scruples but as he would wish to be judged , [ f lie said that any doctrine
or opinion was contrary to his conscience , no man bad a right to say that it was not . It was contended that the words employed in the Church ceremony had been made use of by our Saviour himself . The Unitarians admitted this , but contended that they were used under different circumstances , and in a different sense . Oh ! but then it was
said , " You may use them still in your sense , and we'll pat oars upon them for ourselves . " What could this be but , as the Most Reverend Metropolitan had stated , to recommend equivocation—to "bring a man to the altar of God to use words in an , equivocating way ? Then came the objection to making the Church , as it had been elegantly expressed , a handmaid to dissent . And the Noble
and Learned Lord , in a very eloquent part of his speech , had at least hiuied at a great distinction between mere dissent and this Unitarianism . — But surely one would suppose , from all these arguments , that this Bill was totally the reverse of what it was—that it was a Bill to bring
these parties , so opposite in religious opinions , together , instead of being a plan to get rid of this union and to separate people who agreed so ill . If the Church was a handmaid under the operation of this Bill , which only used her for the purpose of registration , what was she as the law now stood ?—She
participated now , not merely with one member , but " toto corpore . " She was not a handmaid , but the prostitute to civil purposes . The Noble Lord says , ** God forbid that the Church ' should register you , you set of Deists , Atheists , and what not : but though she shan ' t register you . she shall administer to and
participate with you all her most sacred riles / ' So stood the law at present . Though perhaps many of the Right Reverend Bench might think him more Popishly inclined than themselves , lie was unwilling to see the Church of England giving countenance and encouragement to such prevarication . But the Noble and Learned Lord had advised them to place the Unitarians on the same footing as the Jews and . Quakers . Would
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he support such a Bill if he look him a * his word ? And a pretty preface he Imd given to such a recommendation ; for when he came to describe what fhafc footing was , he confessed himself , after
some hesitation , unable to explain it ! Fifteen days , he says , had he been arguing and considering the point and theneven he says he does not know what it is ! What , then , must be the situation of the- Unitarians , if the Noble and Learned Lord's arguments were to be adopled
as the outline of any Bill for t&eir relief > What had all the doubts about the common law to do with the question before them ? On that point , he must beg leave to remind the Noble and Learned Lord of the way he had treated him on some former occasions . He remembered that , on one occasion , when he ( Lord H . ) took an active part against the Alien Bill , he asked the Noble and Learned Lord to
inform him , in point of courtesy—for their Lordships had no right to call upon the Noble and Learned Lord to give a legal opinion—who were aliens and who were not . He could , however , get no satisfactory answer from the Noble and Learned Lord on that point . In vain did he urge that it was a subject of great importance , and that , when they were
called upon to subject a large body of men to arbitrary power , in a manner uncongenial to the principles € * f the law , they ought at least to know who aliens were . With this view , he proposed seven
questions , to be referred to the judges . The Noble and Learned Lord , however , declined giving any answer to his inquiry , and declared , that whoever laight come under the description of aliens , it was prudent to subject them to the provisions
of the Alien Bill . On another occasion , when the Bill for detaining Napoleon was cinder discussion—a Bill which , he should ever maintain , reflected disgrace and dishonour on the character of this nationhe ( Lord H . ) wished to know from the Noble and Learned Lord what the state of the Saw was , before they proceeded 10 legislate on tlie subject . In rain did he ask whether , looking to all the circumstances- under which Napoleon liouapaite had fallen into our power , he could be
legally considered as a prisoner of war or not . In vain did he ask whether we had a right to call upon Napoleon for local allegiance ; and whether , if we had a right to call upon him for local allegiance , he had not an equal right to call upon us for protection . In vain did he apply to the well-known learning and great abilities of the Noble and Learned Lord , to know whether an action for debt , or defamation , or libel ,-might or not be brought in the name of Napoleou JJflna-¦ parte . All the Noble aud Learned Loid
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3 && Intelligence *— -Parliamentary s Unitarians * Marriage Bttl .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1824, page 310, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2524/page/54/
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