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be ready to state the grounds of his opinion . The Noble Lord was much mistaken if he supposed , that when the state of tfie Uw was ascertained > it was his ( the Lord Chancellor ' s ) wish to introduce any measure to the prejudice of the sect m
question . Lord Holland said , the Noble and Learned Lord seemed to have forgotten that he not very lon £ ago addressed their Lordships on this subject , aud though he did not state what the law was , he stated there were doubts concerning it , and these doubts were sufficient to raise
doubts in the minds of others . To have them set at rest , the petitioners had taken , he thought , the only straight-forward , manly course . If the Noble and Learned Lord had these doubts as to the state of the law , it would have been more fair , more honourable , and more generous , to have come forward and stated them
openly , and more worthy of him to have applied his powerful mind to rectify and amend the law . It was impossible , as his Noble Friend had stated , to propose any proceedings on the petition during this session . There was some difficulty also in taking any direct step . The petitioners were not to be blamed for not
haying petitioned earlier ; the existence of the doubts on which the petition was founded had not been long known , and till those doubts were expressed they did not suppose they were liable to any punishment at common law . The opinion that they were , corning from so high an authority—an authority also which had described as uncharitable the preamble to that old law which stigmatized the opinions of the Dissenters as a detestable crime—had raised doubts and fears which must be set at rest . He approved of the
petit ion , uot only on account of the Dissenters , but on account of the community Jtt lan < e . All the Dissenters of England nid Ireland were deeply interested on this question , and the petitioners deserved , he thought , the thanks of their
countrymen . The doctrines laid down hs to the law did not affect tlieir interest aloue , but the interest of all the Dissentws of the kingdom . It ; was , he knew , the opinion of Mr . Justice Foster—an
opinion espoused and enforced by Lord Chief-Justice Mansfield , by Mr . Justice Willis , and half embraced by Mr . Justice maeks tone—that all the Dissenters of England existed only by sufferance , and l » at the whole of their charitable institutions tested on a sandy foundation , and m > irht all be destroyed by a process at uvv . Their Lordships had seen during lae session , particularly when the mea-^ re f releasing the Catholics from ™ pr disabilities , and for knocking off 1 P J' -ttm of this part of our population .
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was under consideration , that then every sort of kind expression had been usetT to the Protestant Dissenters . " They were our Protestant brethren "—reminding him of the words , Gentle Harry Percy , kind
cousin . " He would not , however , go on with the quotation and say , " The devil take such cousins ; " but according to that sentiment were the Dissenters treated . A few days after that measure was thrown out , one body of the Dissenters came to ask for a measure of relief , in which they were supported by some of the most enlightened members and greatest ornaments of the Church , who , with a proper regard to their owu dignity , supported it , because it would be no > t only a boon to the Dissenters , but remove a burden from the Church ; then , however , up jumps , said his Lordship , our cousin yonder in all his panoply of state , and asks , ' Who are you ? I know nothing of you ; you have no existence ;" and he finds out some Act of Parliament , in which persons holding the opinions of our Protestant brethren are described as guilty of a detestable crime . The Noble
and Learned Lord held this opinion , he believed , on the ground that Christianity was part and parcel of the common law , and that those who denied the Trinity , denied Christianity , and thus became amenable to the common law . With
respect to Christianity being part of the common law , he did not mean to say much ; it was no part of the case of the petitioners , and the state of his own health would not allow him to enter iuto it at leugth . [ His Lordship came into the House on crutches , and looked
unwell ; he was suffering , we understood , from an attack of the gout . ] He must , however , say , that he had lately had his attention much drawn to the subject , and he was surprised to And on what slender foundations this assumption of Christianity being- part and parcel of the law of
the land rested . He did not mean to oppose this principle , but he was surprised , and he believed their Lordships would be surprised , at the fearful rapidity with which laws had been made or revived out of Parliament when this subject came under discussion . If Justice Raymond and Lord Chief-Justice Molt had declared
it to be part and parcel of the law—if the former had been careful to say the general principles of Christianity—if Lord Mansfield , using more correct language , had stated that the principles of revealed religion were a part of the law , and that to revile it was punishable , then Christianity was part of the law , aiid it must have a legal meaning . Uut what , he would ask , was that legal meaning ? If by it was meant a belief in the Scriptures only , then every person who believed in them
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Intelligence . —Parliamentary Petition from Unitarians . 439
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 439, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/55/
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