On this page

• Text (1)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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

    the test ; and he hoped and bettered the declaration Inserted in the present Bill would be found a sufficient one .

    The Earl of Winchelsea did not consider the proposed declaration a sufficient security against the inroads of Deism and Infidelity . The Bill rejected Christianity , aud their Lordships , in passiug it , would prepare for the country the greatest calamities . There was no

    clause in it which would prevent Inndels from legislating for the nation * People would soon follow the disastrous course which had flung France into so much bloodshed and misery . He would tolerate every sect into which Christianity was divided , but he would afford no toleration to the Atheist and the

    Infidel . A Socinian , an Unitarian , and an Infidel , held no opinions in common with those of the real Christian . The 6 ishop of Lincoln spoke at great length in favour of the Bill , believing that the danger which existed at the neriod when the Test Acts were first passed , had given place to another and a better state of things ; that the Dissenters did not now seek to overthrow

    the Established Church ; and that the security of the church was in the minds and affections of the people—not in exclusive Acts of Parliament . At the same t } me he hoped , that in the progress of the Bill through the House , some better security than the proposed declaration would be adopted .

    The Bishop of Durham was convinced , that the Bill might be carried with credit as well as . safety to the Established Church . The Earl of Eldon , after giving his best consideration to the subject , was obliged to oppose the Bill , because it went to destroy the principle upon which the Test and Corporation Acts were founded—viz . that the Church and State

    were inseparable , and together formed the Constitution . The march of his intellect was not so rapid as that of some of his Noble Friends ; and he should vote , as he had voted forty years ago , against a similar measure . Freethinkers , and the deadliest enemies of the church , might get into office by taking the proposed declaration . Upon the maturest reflection , he had determined not to give up the Constitution .

    • The J ) uke of Wellington declared , that the object of Government in supporting this BUI , after it had been carlied in the other House by a great majority , was religious peace . Dissenters ^ rere now practically admitted into eor * porationa and civil offices ; how then

    Untitled Article

    could it be said that the Test Laws at * forded security to the Church or State ? Lord Ooderich and the Bishop of Chester advocated the repeal . In the course of his speech the Bishop observed ; that he felt no alarm from the Dissenters for the interests of the church , but he did apprehend mischief from the

    countenance of another principle ,- !—that of excluding all systems of religious instruction from modern education . When he beheld an institution rising under high auspices , and commencing on a principle of excluding Christianity from its walls , and disconnecting religion for the first time from the cultivation of the

    youthful mind , he could not but tremble for the consequences . After a few words f rom the Earl o f Mansfield against the Bill , the second reading was carried without a division . The Earl of Winchelsea then read and moved an Amendment of great length , in which was introduced another declaration proposed to be made by Dissenters , part of which was a profession of faith in the Old and New Testament .

    Lord Holland said , that in point of form , this Amendment could not be moved then . His Lordship might introduce it as a separate Bill , or move it as a clause in the Committee . We are sorry that our limits oblige us to give a mere abstract of this important debate . A Protest was subsequently entered , signed by the following Lords . It is gratifying to see that no Bishop appears on the Journals dissenting from the measure :

    Eldon , Falmouth , Winchelsea , Stanhope , Brown tow , Newcastle , Redesdale , Malmesbury , Howe , Mansfield . April 1 \ st . The debate opened with a discussion on the mode in which , the Scotch were affected by these acts . The Earl of Roseberry , Lord Holland , Lord Melville , the Duke of Wellington , Lord

    Harewood , and Lord Eldon took part . The last became proportionably vehement and ill-humoured , as his chance of any sort of success in either defeating the Dissenters or embarrassing his old associates became less and less . He asserted , with renewed vehemence , that the Constitution of the country as established , was formed by an alliance with the State aud the Church ; and that the laws and the statute * were made for the preservation of the Constitution , so al «*

    Untitled Article

    354 Intelligence . — Corporation and Test Acts

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 354, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/66/