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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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make a few trifling verbal alterations , but his Lordship ' s communications I give literally . THOMAS HOWE .
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410 Correspondence between the Rev . T . Howe and Lord Erskine .
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The Right Honourable Lord Erskine . Bridport , Feb . 10 , 1812 . My Lord , I have done myself the honour of sending your Lordship by this day ' s Mail Coach , a Petition on the
unalienable Rights of Conscience , drawn up by that distinguished friend to civil and religious liberty , the Rev . C . Wyvill , a respectable Clergyman of the Established Church . Upwards of ninety professing Christians of different denominations in this town and
its vicinity , have sanctioned it with their signatures . Considering you , my Lord , as a zealous and eloquent advocate for the civil and religious rights of all classes of the community , the subscribers presume on your Lordship ' s excuse in requesting you to
present their petition to the House of Lords . We are by no means sanguine in our expectations of immediate success ; but it will , we apprehend , produce discussion , and discussion , your Lordship knows , is eventually fatal to groundless prejudices , and favourable to the cause of truth . We
are persuaded , that the more freely the < dvil and religious rights of men are examined , the more clearly they will appear to be founded in reason
and sanctioned by divine revelation ; and that it would be as much a point of policy as equity , to abolish those penal laws which disgrace the statute book , the present enlightened age , and this celebrated land of British
liberty . The object of this petition embraces the Roman Catholics as well as Protestant Dissenters of every class . However much we differ in religious opinion and modes of worship from the former , we hesitate not to
advocate their cause , from a conviction founded on what we deem to be satisfactory evidence , that they reject with abhorrence the pernicious tenets often attributed to them , of " their being free fifom the obligation to keep faith with
h eretics , " and of < c the power of the Pope to dispense the subjects of other states from their civil allegiance . ' * With respect to their avowed reli gious principles , such as the doctrine of
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transubstantiation , the worship of tie Virgin Mary and of the saints , and other articles of their creed , however irrational and unscriptural they appear to us , we think these ought to
be no more a ground of their exclusion from the enjoyment of any of the civil or religious rights of free citizens , than the peculiar sentiments of the various discordant sects of
Protestant Christians , some of which must necessarily be erroneous . We also apprehend , that the repeal of all penal statutes on account of religion , for which the petition pleads , instead of being attended with any danger to either the Church or the
State , would add to the security of both , by extending to millions of his Majesty ' s faithful subjects the full blessings of our free constitution , and be the best safeguard to the British empire , in the present awful and critical situation of our public affairs .
In this sentiment your Lordship knows , that we are sanctioned by the most , distinguished statesmen of the present age . Should ybu , my Lord , think proper to present the petition to the House of Lords , you will have the goodness to state it , as € ( the petition of individual Christians of
different denominations in the town and neighbourhood of Bridport . " Your compliance with our request will greatly oblige the petitioners , and more especially , my Lord , your Lordship ' s most respectful and humble servant , THOMAS HOWE .
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2 3 Upper Grosvenor Street y Sir , Feb . 19 , 1812 . I have been favoured with your letter , and have received also a petition to the House of Lords which appears to be signed by you , with a considerable number of names * It would be necessary , I think , to give any thing like effect to a petition of this kind , that there should be a more particular description of the petitioners than that they are Christians ; more especially when the peer presenting the petition cannot state to the House , that he is personally acquainted with any of the subscribers . It is not from any doubt of my own of the respectable characters of those who sign , but to preserve the necessary rules of the House , and to render
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1824, page 410, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2526/page/26/
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