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themselves under restraint , have their doubts . Feb . 5 . The Dissenters opened the campaign by the presentation , last night , to the House of Commons , of . the Hackney Petition for the repeal of the Test aud Corporation Acts . Jt is a pity that its length should have prevented Mr . John Smith , the presenter , ' from demanding that it should be read . " The time of the Honourable Members has
seldom been better occupied than it would have been in listening to that very able and complete statemeutof the claims ou which they will so soon have to sit in judgment . It is gratifying to see that Unitarians are first in the field in this conflict . It becomes them to form the
vanguard in a struggle for Religious Liberty ; and also to take care that it is , really and obviously , a struggle for Religious Liberty , an assertion of right on the most generous and comprehensive principle , and not the selfish effort of a party to better its own political condition , without any regard to the privations and claims of others .
Feb . 7 . Two points in the Speech of the King of France , on opening the present Session of the Deputies , have attracted the notice of , aud afforded satisfaction to , the friends of mankind : It calls the battle of Navarino an " unforeseen , " but not an " untoward" event "
Charles X . has not been advised by his Ministers , as George IV . was by his , to blush for the most glorious aetion of his reign . No awkwardness is shewn at having been found contending , and that successfully , against legitimate oppression . The good which has been done is spoken of without apology .
It announces that ecclesiastical affairs and public instruction are no longer to be under the same direction . This is as it should be . All the world knows that public instruction is not an ecclesiastical affair . Even sectarians seldom go singlehearted into the promotion of education . They have one eye to proselytism . What then can be expected of an endowed priesthood ?
Fek 8 . The Ren . Robert Taylor ( of what other church than the Knglish would he yet have been a clergyman ?) Has been sentenced to twelve months jroprisonment in Qakham Goal , and tp find securities for gpod behaviour for five ye ars , himself in £ 500 , and two others iu jfc $ 50 each ,. The sentence waft gwniehed with the usual ' prattle on euch occasion ; no law » p liberal a . 8 our own j the utmost toleration , —only the £ sta-Wished Religion must not be assailed ; fair
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argument quite free , —^ but not " sarcasm and sophistry ; " perfectly lawful to discuss Christianity with " persons of talent , "—but not to harangue women aud young people , &c , &c , &c . Now , if sarcasm and sophistry be offences at comit is reall
mon law , y shocking to think of the state iu which enforcing that law would p ) ace the country . The Bar , the Senate , the Pulpit even , would require , like us Nonconformists , an Annual Bill of Indemnity , or the business and religion of the nation would be at a stand still . There never was a vainer
attempt than that which is persisted in , at these trials , of maintaining that argument is lawful , but sophistry a crime . The-court always , and rightly , refuses to consider itself as constituted to try the truth of Christianity ; and yet , unless the validity of an objection to the gospel be really and fairly gone into , how can it be determined whether such objection be au argument or a sophism , innocent or criminal ? But the court assumes the truth
of Christianity ; and , in so doing , it assumes also that reasonings against it are sophistical , and that attacks on its tendency are sarcasms ; aud then there is no such toleration of fair argument as is talked of , because there is no such argument to tolerate .
The modern champions of infidelity are so utterly contemptible that it is grievous to think such pains should be taken to raise them from insignificance by means which disgrace the Christian name . The sentence on Taylor is much milder , in proportion , than those on Cailile in 18 ID ; an indication , we hope ,
that public opinion has shewn itself so much less favourable to prosecutions of this class , as to have some influence on judicial discretion . Or it may be only one of * the accidents or caprices which must be expected when crime and punishment are left by the Legislature alike undefined .
Feb . 12 . The curiosity of the country is beginning to be gratified as to the history of the dissolution of the late AdmU nistratiou and the formation of the present * The Lords have had their explanations ; and if they do not tell the whole tale plainly , it may be because there are parts of it which must not be
t old plainly . Mr . { Jerries and Mr . Huskistton between them , by their real or sham quarrel , broke up the Ministry , But we shall have their account of that soon in the Commons , What Lord Goderich has not explained is , why he could not go on without either of them > aud especially wJtfjQiu Mr . Heiries , The ,
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214 Public Afairs .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 214, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/70/
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