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could not , constitutionally and legally , be held to deny Christianity . If they were to adopt the old common law , and say , that was Christianity which was then recognised , in that case to deny Transuhstantiation would be as great an offence as denying the Trinity . The Noble and Learned Lord , in his zeal to prop up
meant to enforce , though he did not shew it in all its hideous features . Against the consequences of this doctrine he wished to warn the country . He knew that this was the doctriue held by Mr . Justice Willis in the case of Evans . No decision had ever done Lord Mansfield more honour than the one in that case . It ought to he read at least once a year by every man . The case was referred to iu the
petition , aud it was this—Mr . Evans had refused to pay a fine for not taking on himself an office in the city . He pleaded as an exemption that he was a Dissenter ; but it was replied that he could not plead that as an exemption , which was held by the law to be a crime ; but it was finally ^ decided that the Toleration Act not only protected but established Protestant Dissenters . The petition was to obtain for the Protestant Dissenters of England , the full benefit of the Toleration Act . While
those doubts existed which had been attempted to be thrown on the state of the Unitarians , they could not be secure in leaving their property for the benefit of their own charitable institutions , or for
the instruction of children whose parents believed as they believed . The petition called on the House to put this question at refit for ever , and place the petitioners on the same footing as the rest of their fellow-subjects .
The Lord Chancellor reminded the Noble Lord , that the doubts he had stated were riot his own opinion , but what had actually occurred in the Courts at Westminster Hall . —The petition was then laid on the Table .
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the Church , was thus calling oh their Lordships , before they took their seats iu that House , to do that which was an offence at common law . The Christianity , however , he believed , which was < to be made a part and parcel of the law , . was the Established Church—that was the doctriue the Noble and Learned Lord
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( See p . 380 . ) Mr . W . Smith lose to present a petition signed by a small number of
individual ? , who were , however , well known and of great respectability , complaining V'f-thc wit nation in which thev were placed
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by the present state of the existing jawi affecting ihe profession of certain religious- opinions . He had heard that it had been stated from a very high quarter in another house , in respect to the laws affecting the Unitarians , that before any
act coftld be passed for relieving them from the operation of particular statutes , it would be well that some bill should be passed previously , to protect them from the penalties to which they were still subject at connaoojti law . ( Hear . ) At the same moment , and from the same bi « h
and learned quarter , there proceeded an appeal which it was impossible not to perceive to be directed and addressed to him ( Mr . Smith ) personally , and which went to remind him , that at the time a bill which he had been instrumental in carrying through Parliament was passed , such bilL having for its object to protect
Unitarians m certain cases from the legal consequences that might attach to the impuguing of the doctrine of the Trinity , —hq ( Mr . Smith ) had made a declaration to the noble and eminent person in question , whereby he agreed , as to all cases not provided for by such statutes , to leave the Unitarians liable to all the
visitations , that they might be still exposed to from the common law . Now , most unquestionably , he had never made such a declaration . On a former occasion , when he was preparing a measure for the further relief of the Unitarians from the obligation of taking certain oaths , lie had bud au interview with that
most Rev . aod distinguished Prelate , the Archbishop of Canterbury , for the purpose of explaining to his grace the principle of the bill he was then about to bring into the House . The Archbishop of Canterbury , at that time , told him , that if his object was only to remove
such penal liabilities as operated to prevent , perhaps , the fair aud friendly and candid discussion of the doctrinal points to which the Unitarians excepted , he , the Archbishop of Canterbury , was willing to consent to the repeal of those statutes that might be thought to stand in the
way of such a discussion ; but , of course , not extending this understanding to any denial of Christianity in general , or to blasphemy ; both of which he ( Mr . Smith ) himself proposed to except out of tlie operation of his bill . The object of his bill , the Act of 3 d Geo . IV ., was simply this—to put Unitarian Dissenters on the
same footing , as to the consequences o ( professing certain peculiar tenets , as all other Protestant Dissenters had been placed by the Act of Toleration . Now it had betn clearly stated by Lord Mansfield , that unconformity , simply and iiH such , was no offence at common law . Why then it was very desirable that th ^ e
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44 & Int ( gUigenee .+ ~ Parliametitary ? Petition from Unitarians .
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HOUSE OF COMMONS . Tuesday , June 21 . Petition from Unitarians .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 440, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/56/
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