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    had-given him . He also had received letters threatening to eKpose him in the Morning Herald and Carliie * s Lion , The truth appears to be , that some malicious wag has been hoaxing both the Noble Lords , by letters written under a feigned name , and describing the writer as " Under Secretary of the Unitarian Association . Red-Cross Street . "

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    Corporation and Test Acts . Mr . Peel having proposed his clauses , containing the Declaration to be imposed on all persons taking office , the Committee appointed to conduct the Application to Parliament for the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts , came to the following resolutions , at a meeting held 21 st March , 1828 :

    " This United Committee having , at two successive meetings , taken into consideration the clauses proposed by the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Home Department , for the Bill for the Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts , feel themselves called upon to declare their great satisfaction in per * ceiving that the Bill thus framed , abolishes the Sacramental Test—enacts no

    penalties beyond loss of office- —imposes no form of declaration on Protestant Dissenters , that is not equally imposed upon all classes of his Majesty ' s subjects—and , with regard to offices under the Crown , makes the declaration imperative only where it may be required by the competent lawful authorities .

    " Although this Committee , in common with the body of Protestant Dissenters , have always contemplated , in their application to Parliament , the unqualified and unconditional repeal of the Test Laws , and entertain a very strong objection to any new Test , whether by declaration or otherwise j they are , nevertheless , of opinion , that it would be highly inexpedient to attempt any

    resistance to the form of declaration proposed in so conciliatory a manner , inasmuch as they find it to be the sense of Parliament , that some declaration should be substituted for th ^ Sacramental Test ; and * 6 they are encouraged by the Bight Honourable thec Secretary of State to expect that the Bill , with the addition of the clauses now under consideration , will be carried , in to a law .

    "At the same time , this Committee deem it right to state explicitly , that in their judgment the Protestant Dissenters could not submit to the forin of declaration now proposed * unless it were understood in Parliament , as tjiey hope

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    and believe it will be understood , that the declaration is not iuteuded to bincl the declarant , being a Protestant Dissenter , to abstain from tljat free expression of his opinions as an individual , etnd from those measures for the mainte « nance and support of his own faith and worship , in the use of which he is now protected by the law .

    *• Resolved , That the foregoing statement of the opinion and feeling of this Committee be referred to the Deputation for waiting on Members of Parliament , to be by them communicated to any Parliamentary friends in whose bauds they judge it will be useful . " The Bill haying , with a few verbal amendments , passed the House of Commons , was , on the 1 st of April , carried up to the other House .

    House of Lords . April \ sU Lord Holland , after a short speech , moved the first reading . He could not repress entirely his feelings , even on the first reading of the Bill , and he trusted their Lordships would excuse him for deviating from the usual custom . If he could be instrumental in carrying

    into effect this great measure , he should think he had not lived in vain . His Lordship concluded by moving that the Bill be read a first time , and that their Lordships should be summoned for Thursday , April 17 , for the second reading of the Bill . —The Bill was accordingly read a first time .

    Thunday , April 17 tK Lord Holland moved the second reading of the Bill for repealing the Test and Corporation Acts , in an eloquent and elaborate speech , wherein he traced those Acts to their origin , and shewed from history that they were directed against

    the Catholics , and never meant , by their frarners , to operate against the Dissenters . The Noble Lord also powerfully urged the injustice and mischievousness of all such tests , and their utter inefficacy as a mode of shutting out the real enemies of the church .

    The Archbishop of York supported the motion ; feeling himself imperatively bound to vote for the repeal of an Act which had lfed , he feared , in too many instances , to the profanation of one of the most holy ordinances of the Christian religion . Religious tests , when imposed for political purposes , must , in their very nature , be liable to endanger religious sincerity . He was , decidedly of opinion , however , that some security for the church was necessarx iu lieu of

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    intelligence . —Corporation and Test Acts . 353

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    VOL . U 2 c

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 353, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/65/