On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
4 $ & Intelligence . —Protestant Society .- Lord HoUand ' s Speech .
Untitled Article
have seen and heard , it was not , let me assure you , either the prospect of good speeches , or the gratifying expression of your good opinion towards me , that induced my attendance Here to-day . No ; it is because I feel this Society to be of the greatest importance—it is because , as the friend of civil and religious
liberty , I approve of the principle of its foundation-. It 5 s more particularly from the Signs of the times , from what is passing abroad and at home , as well as both in and oat of Parliament , that it strikes me as peculiarly incumbent on the friends of civil and religious liberty , to unite in iirm array , and form into compact and resolute combination . I will not detain
you long . 1 . will then proceed , and advert to the objections which I have elsewhere heard against meetings such as the present . It has been objected to such a meeting as the present , that although it induces pathetic statements—although it developes interesting facts , yet for what purpose are those facts and statements
made dud ' adduced ? They are treated as petty vexations , as little arrogances , as jealousies arising from the suspicion and envy of one sect against another , and not as real cases of persecution . It
is said that they are not sufficient causes for us to unite ; but to those who speak thus I say , in the first instance , " Let them come here and hear . " Secondly , I say that they who are not persecuted themselves , nor in a situation to suffer
persecution , are not the most competent judges to determine how far the persecution of opinion is or is not persecution . True it is , that we do not now , as Formerly , hear of imprisonments , and burnings , and torture , in punishment of inionsAnd whis it not ?
op . y so Because Englishmen meet and discuss . It is to our vigilauce in little things that we owe our exemption from persecution in gY&dt ; from our resistance to oppression in every form , that we are not visited with it in its worst and most formidable
shapes . This Society had its origin in an attempt to interfere with the Toleration Act : That Act is liable to many objections 5 it was not founded on the broad basis of the code laid down by Bishop Wilkins . However , it attempted some good ; it conferred at least some
practical benefit ; and a successful opposition to the Interference with that Act is among the good consequences that flowed from the institution of this Society , Though that Act gave something , it did not give sufficient ; it was said to confer practical religious liberty , but that was a term of which I do profess I do
not understand the exact import . By practical liberty , I presume , is meant not the full possession of freedom , but the
Untitled Article
enjoyment of liberty by sufferance , and that is a liberty with which , I am sure , no man will be content and satisfied ! Liberty is that which a man possesses by his own right ; he does not claim it from , or owe it to the indulgence of another and of all species of liberty , the right of private judgment is that to which a man is most entitled , and with which it is most a crime to interfere ; it is , of all points
of public and political consideration , the peculiar one in which each individual m society should enjdy that full and perfect freedom which Mr . Locke appropriately terms Just , equal and absolute liberty . " We should continue to persevere in the course in which you are now engaged , until the triumph of that principle be achieved ; until the recognition of it be attained : all is not attained with which you ought to rest satisfied . It is not that I would recommend you to be
insensible to the advantages which you have already arrived at . They are many , and the Toleration Act which secures them is not an Act with which we should be too anxious and ready in picking and taking exceptions to ; on the contrary , it is my opinion , that much gratitude is due for that Act , and to the men who succeeded in carrying it , for jt was carried
at a time when the difficulties were great and numerous , and at a time too not very favourable to acts of liberal policy . But though the Toleration Act did much , yet it did not accomplish all , and the freedom of opinion was not yet complete . It was necessary to pass an Act of Indemnity for those who differed iu
opinion from the doctrines of the Established Church ; this made free opinion , not the enjoyment of a right , bat the exemption from punishment . The cases of the Churchman ( I am a Churchman myself ) and the Dissenter were widely different . The Churchman had his opinions protected and defended bv law ; he had
a positive right to entertain them ; not so the Dissenter , he did not hold and avow his principles by the right of opinion , but by a pardon in his pocket ; he was told he was disentitled to think for himself , and that he owed the privilege of entertaining his own conscientious conviction to the clemency and the
kindness of I he Church man , and that to linn he was indebted for exemption from condign punishment . Was it nothing that a man should be thus taunted for his opinions ? Was it nothing that a man should be thus degraded for believing and
entertaining those doctrines kikI princip les from which his mind could not revolt ? Was it nothing that a man should he lowered in the scale of national estimation , for a line of conduct which deserved not the dis-esteem , but which claimed
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1824, page 488, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2527/page/40/
-