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486 Intelligence . —Protestant Society : Mr . fFilhs ' s Speech .
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whom they had to do , and thus to render them fit objects for freedom . The ) gave them a perception for the charities of life—they taught them the happiness of home , with all its consoling associations— they taught self-regulation — the subjection of those passions which belonged to natural man , —the Wesleian missionaries had established schools where 10 , 000 slaves now receive instruction . Instead of the nocturnal orgies , the praises of the living and the true God were sung by slaves in that solong-henighted land . He therefore hesitated not to say , " Woe to that legislature—perils await its step that attempts new establishments where such an order of things is growing . " From all that he had stated , it appeared that great perils
were still awaiting the cause of the Protestant Dissenters — civil and religious liberty . This , however , instead of teaching them despair , should arm them with renewed energy . The good they were destined to achieve would in this case *« live after them . " They could not expect to see that oak , the acorn of which was just dropped into the ground ; but it would spring up and shade and protect their posterity beneath the shadow of its branches . Thermopylae and Marathon still existed in the example they afforded to a people struggling in the sacred cause of liberty . They were pursuing , at an immeasurable distance , that divine course in which one of the most illustrious and gifted men of modern times had lived and died , and bequeathed to them his precious example , and left too , he was happy to say it , in one who honoured them by presiding at the meeting that day , a relative worthy of his noble
nature . Justice had not been done to the memory of Mr . Pitt : when that statesman was dying , it is well known that he recommended Mr . Fox as his successora recommendation honourable to both . He apprehended no danger to the cause of civil and religious liberty . The efforts that were made to retard it , he regarded with just as little apprehension as he should the vain bidding of some tawny Indian who commanded the mighty torrent of the St . Lawrence to retrace its course . The tide of civil liberty would flow—the ebbing of its course was not to be dreaded . That stream has risenit yet rises—and it sliall rise , till knowledge and freedom fructify and bJess every region of the earth . —Mr . Wilks then concluded a speech of three hours , amidst enthusiastic cheers . The following Resolutions were then moved by various speakers . 44 That this Society , composed of members of the Established Church , as well as hundreds of congregations of Protestant . Dissenters , again express their una-
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bated devotedness to the cause of religious freedom in England , and throughout the world—and again declare , that they esteem the right publicly to worship God according to the conscience to be a right which the sincere and wise never can concede , and which it is unjust , impolitic and impious to infringe . " " That every new demonstration of the importance and utility of « The Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty , ' occasions regret and gratitude ; and , that while this Meeting annually celebrates the success of the Committee , in exposing or resisting wrongs , they deplore the intolerant spirit whence those wrongs originate , by which such emanating efforts are required . That they now lament the continuance of attempts to assess places of religious worship to the poor ; to extort turnpike tolls that have been repealed ; to disturb , by offensive riots , religious worship protected by the law ; to withhold the rites of interment from the dead ; to enforce assessed taxes that are not payable , and to deprive the conscientious poor of all relief . " €
( That this Meeting regard the Test and Corporation Acts as laws which no necessity could originally justify , and for which no practical necessity now exists , and as measures producing disgust and grief to pious Churchmen , and degrading to millions of Britons , equal to any of their countrymen in cultivated talent , in public virtue , in patriotic zeal , and philanthropic usefulness , and therefore earnestly desire their speedy abrogation : and that whilst this Meeting approve the conduct of their Committee , in declining to concur in any application to Parliament during the remainder of the Session , they would invite liberal Episcopalians and Dissenters of all denominations , and the Wesleian Methodists , to prepare , by temperate , but firm and simultaneous efforts ( as soon as a new Parliament shall be elected ) , to obtain their total and longneeded repeal . "
" That this Meeting lament the rejection of the Unitarian Marriage Bill , not only as a refusal of just relief , but as an indication of the existence , amongst high authorities , of a potent spirit , hostile to liberal principles—a spirit hopeless to propitiate , and difficult to overcome . But that their regret is mitigated by their perception , that this spirit does not influence persons in such elevated situations as the Right Rev . the Archbishops of Canterbury and York , and the Bishop of London , and the Right Honourable the Earl of Liverpool ; and that to those distinguished personages , as well as to the noble Whig supporters of the Bill , this Meeting p ffer , for their more enlightened and more liberal conduct ., their public
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 486, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/38/
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