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were old enough to remember there was a time , perhaps forty or fifty years ago , when it was hardly safe to profess one ' s self a Dissenter , certainly not an Unitarian ; btit that time was gone by , and in proof of it he had , about fifteen years since , happily succeeded in obtaining the repeal of the act against Unitarians , in which object candour obliged
him to state , he was assisted by the late Lord Castlereagh and the Archbishop of Canterbury . Mr . Smith reprobated in strong terms the attempts which had lately been made to stigmatize the Unitarians as Infidels , and to deny them that name in which they glory . It was this spirit which cost Dr . Priestley a large proportion of his property ; a spirit ,
however , which was fast evaporating , and , in fact , existed but in the bigoted breasts of a few high Churchmen of the old school . And here he must allude to a phrase which was often to be found in the mouths of these advocates for the old order of things , " the wisdom of our ancestors" Now what said Mr . Justice
Blackstone in reference to this subject ? He talks , not of the wisdom of our ancestors , but of the accumulated wisdom of past ages ; a very different definition of the phrase , and which means , that as we increase in knowledge and liberality , we are wiser than those who are gone before us , and for this plain reason , because we make use of their wisdom and
our facultres . Talk of the wisdom © f our ancestors ! It was an historical fact that , in the days of Henry VII . and VIII ., the man who doubted the real presence in the sacrament was doomed to a violent death . To enlarge upon the various acts of folly and superstition , miscalled the wisdom of our ancestors , would be
but nn unnecessary waste of time . He could not , however , omit to mention the penalties which formerly attached to the exercise of witchcraft $ and that so late as the year 1 / 72 an act was passed for the relief of Protestant Dissenting ministers and schoolmasters , previous to which no man could teach a * hikl
without subscribing to the creed of the Church of England . ^ H « had said that there yet " existed a remnant of intolerance against the Unitarians , and he was sorry to add , that it 4 tas to be found in the House of Lords , where an attempt had lately been made to subject them to all the pains from which they had once e ^ B » pe 3 , andto promulgate the legal jajrgon ( be amed not the term invidiously ) that Christianity is part and parcel of the law of the land . It reminded
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him of the expression of a certain Judge of the Admiralty , who , previous to the alienation of the United States from this country , used to say that America was part and parcel of the manor of Greenwich . ( A laugh . ) Mr . Smith then adverted to the late repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts , and said , that though he could have wished for the total ,
unqualified repeal , and certainly would have been better pleased if the " declaration " did not exist , still he was thankful for what we had obtained . It was , perhaps , rather too much to expect that persons , unacquainted with our particular principles , and brought up in the trammels of creeds , should all at once give way in favour of principles which , both by education and habit they have been led to consider as dangerous both to
religion and to the state . However , these prejudices were fading fast away , and he hoped the time would soon arrive when there would be a total separation between politics and religion . ( Applause . ) He concluded by trusting that they would all go away imbued with a spirit of truth and of charity for those who differ from them ; and having thanked them for the honour that day conferred on him , sat down amid repeated plaudits .
" Mr . Gibson , the Treasurer of the Association . " Mr . Gibson , in returning thanks , could not help congratulating them on the different circumstances under which they then met , compared with those under which they had ever met before , and said , that the alteration was attributable to the persevering and continued efforts they had made use of to obtain perfect freedom of conscience . Much had been
said by the Dissenters of the illiberality of the church . He wished that the Dissenters were as free from illiberality as the church ; late events had proved , at any rate , that the liberality was not all on their side , for the church had done its duty , and it had his thanks .
Mr . G . advised all , and particularly the young , to persevere in their exertion ' s in favour of religious liberty , and never to submit to authority , except it has the right of argument on its side . Every man in his calling had an
opportunity to do something , however small , in aid of this great cause . Let them recollect that union is strength , and that it was this union , and the influence of public opinion , which repealed the Corporation and Test Acts . Mr . Smith next proposed " Mr ,
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500 Intelligence . —British and Foreign Unitarian Association .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 500, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/68/
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