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
different class of meu—a class of men always respectable , always liberal—that the Dissenters of England should be found taking a similar course , was to him matter of equal surprise and regret .
No man entertained a higher respect for the Protestant Dissenters ofabis country than he did , and here he wished to vindicate that body , amounting to , he believed , more than 6 , 000 , 000 , from any thing like a general charge . The petitions to which he alluded came from a
small s very small part , of the Dissenters of the United Kingdom ; but however small the part , it was still by far too large . ( Hear , hear !) If any one class of his Majesty ' s subjects ought to be less forward than another in opposing the claims of the Roman Catholics , it was
the class called Protestant Dissenters . He trusted that as that body always sought calm and rational discussion—as they had always the word toleration on their lips , they would extend to him and to those who thought with trim , a small portion of that tolerance which they themselves found it necessary to claim , and which was extended to them at a
former period . ( Hear , hear !) He trusted that they would , at least , agree to enter into that cool and dispassionate inquiry which , in bisopinion , would convince them they were in the wror , g . Did they ( the Dissenters ) forget that they were members of that House ? But it . was not so ; there
were no Dissenters there . ( So reported . ) Did they forget that every public office which they held was by connivance ? Did they forget that they were continually liable to be proceeded against , and were only protected from such proceeding by an annual Indemnity Bill ? ( Hear , hear !)
All offices were open to Protestant Dissenters in this way ; but they were equally oyen to the Roman Catholic , and he was prevented only by a conscientious feeling from availing himself of them . Why then should the Dissenter turn round to the Roman Catholic , and say . True it is that I hold office by connivance
—true it is , that I am only protected from punishment by the annual Indemnity Bill ,, yet I am determined that you shall not have extended to you either equal emolument or equal protection ? He remembered that in the reign of a king of this country , in the reign of King James the Second , the Quakers of that period presented an address to his
Majesty , in which they said , and said justly , — - 4 < We hear that thou dost not agree in the church of tliis land any more than Ourselves ; we expect , therefore , that * hoti vviJt hold out that toleration to us , tff which tliou thyself standest so much Sit ue ' ed . ^ Such w . as the language of the
Untitled Article
Quakers of that day ; and were he a Roman Catholic , he should feel incliued to say to the Dissenters , " Frieuds , Dig . senters , you have presented several petU tious to Parliament against our claims through the medium of thoseY who differ
from you upon almost every other point ; you have selected as your organs the Right Honourable the Secretary for the Home Department , and the Honourable Baronet who represents the county of Somerset ; but , friends , Dissenters , if their religion be one in which neither
you any more than I can agree , then I pray you to grant us a little tolerance while we seek that which is our right , and at the same time advance your claim to that which it is your proper business
to seek . " ( Hear , hejar !) Again , there had been petitions presented from the Scotch Disseuters against the Catholic Claims ; upon this he should take leave to say a word or two . It was true that a Scotch Dissenter was entitled to sit
m that House , but there were some good things which the Scotch Dissenters , zealous atid patriotic as they were , would not wish to lose . How , for instance , would they like to have the doors to all great offices closed against them ? How would thev like that no Dissenter should
be Lord Chancellor—that no Dissenter should be Chief Justice of the Court of King ' s Bench , ( offices which , with many others of rank and emolument , had frequently been filled by Scotch Dissenters , ) yet such was the fact ; for , by an existing' law—a savage one he admitted it to be—persons holding these offices were obliged to receive the sacrament annually , according to the ritual of the Church of England—a form which Dissenters of that country
abhorred ; yet Scotch Dissenters did hold these offices , because they were protected by an annual Indemnity Bill . No man . respected Dissenters more than he did ; he had uniformly found them the advocates of civil liberty and the " promoters ' of education and enlightenment , except ,
perhaps , where a temporary delusion prevailed , and he hoped they would now be found advocates equally zealous in the cause of religious liberty . Had he not highly respected that great community , he would not have taken up so much of the time of the House in animadverting
on the conduct of a small number oi their body , and he hoped they would take what had fallen from him . on that occasion as a kindly-intended admonition . On tlie question that ( he petition be brought up , Mr . Secretary Peel observed , that the temperate manner iri which the Hon . and
Untitled Article
442 Intelligence . — Parliamentary : Dissenters and Catholic Claims .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1825, page 442, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2538/page/58/
-