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just state hi society , from which , for no crime - either proved or justly imputed , they are excluded , and which dishonour , m the judgment of your petitioners , can be removed only by the repeal of the statutes in question , at least as far as by their present operation Protestant Dissenters are affected .
Your petitioners humbly pray your Honourable House to take the premises into your serious consideration , and to grant them relief , and your petitioners shall ever pray , &c . &c .
June 17 . On rising to present a Petition on th | s subject , Mr . W « Smith spoke nearly as follows : —•
" Mr . Speaker , ' * The petition which I am about to present being of very considerable importance s whether we regard the number of petitioners , ( which is near ten thousand , ) their respectability , or the magnitude of the objects to which it relates , I cannot but request for it the particular attention of the House . It does not include the Methodists of either
class , nor , of course , the Catholics ; but , with these exceptions , may be said to include all the Dissenters of England , and to speak the sentiments of sectaries of every description , differing from each other iu almost every shade of religious opinion within the pale of Christianity ,
and agreeing only in their objection to the discipline of the Established Church , and in general attachment to the principles of religious liberty . The grievance complained of is , their being subjected to civil disabilities merely oil account of their nonconformity to . the ecclesiastical
establishment . For this reason alone , they are by law disqualified from holding auy office of trust , power or emolument , and without the proof , or even the imputatiou of guilt , are exposed to pains and penalties whicli by law are affixed only to heinous and infamous crimes *
Treatment like this they presume to think is at variance with all just and sound principles of government , and iu these enlightened timeg can be maintained no longer than it is permitted to remain unexamfoed and unimpeached . 1 believe , Sir , that the Catholic requests have of late made considerable progress
in public opinion , and that the principal objection which remains against granting their emancipation , arises from their acknowledgment of the spiritual supremacy of a foreign potentate . It is not now my intention to argue any branch of this ! question — were i so to do , 1 should prefer taking the ground whicli I think the moat linn and tenable as
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well as the most liberal , —* that no civil disadvantages should be imposed on account of religious opinion or profession / by which the door would certainly be opened to the Catholics ; but to ad * mit the claim of the Dissenters , it is not
necessary to lay so broad a foundation ; as , so far from holding , in common with the Catholics , the supremacy of the head of a Foreign Church , they acknowledge no such power on earth , and voluntarily submitted ( whether discreetly or not may be questioned ) to the yoke which they
have ever since borne , for the very purpose of facilitating the exclusion of a Catholic prince from the throne . It is not , Sir , my intention at present to ground any motion on this petition . I have only been requested to present it in order to engage to this very important concern the serious consideration of the
Legislature , and to intimate the probability of its being ere long brought in the shape of a motion before the House . —Mr . Robertson said he considered this petition fraught with danger to the Established Church . Such was the growing influence of that class of men to whom
the petitioners belonged , that they were courted by all parties , both by the Government and by the gentlemen opposite , and into whatever scale they threw their weight it was sure to preponderate . No man could accuse him of being either narrow - minded or bigoted ; but he
thought it was necessary to withstand the rising importance of this class of men , which was going on with extraordinary celerity . If some check was not given , possibly we might see them ,
in the-course of the next Session , so powerful and influential , that it would be impossible to carry on the business of tjie State or of the Established Church ; and , therefore , he should oppose any further concessions to them . —Mr .
Willjam Smith said , he should not add any thiug further by way of leply to wh ^ at had fallen from the Honourable Member , than merely to observe that he had mistaken all the facts /* ( Hear , hear , hear ?) The petition was as follows : —
The humble petition of the undersigned persons , being Protestant Dissenters of the Three Denominations , Presbyterian , Independent > and Baptist , in the Metropolis and its Vicinity , Respectfully sheweth ,
That your petitioners are the successors , and , in many instances , the lineal descendants of those persons who , though dissenting from the Ecclesiastical Establishment of the country , were ever found among the most strenuous defenders of its constitutional liberties ; who were universally zealous in assisting to c » tab-
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Intelligence , —Parliamentary : Corporation and Test Acts . 3 / 9
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1824, page 379, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2525/page/59/
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