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    ed itself with their motives ; that all was pure zeal for the propagation of the truth of the gospel . There was the perpetual excuse for persecution ; it was the excuse of the Scribes and Pharisees of old when they compassed sea and land to make one proselyte , though wheu they had made him they found him ten of

    times more a child hell than before . St . Paul was extremely zealous when he was so busy in the persecution of the first disciples of Christianity . Queen Mary was extremely zealous when she ordered heretics to be burnt ; and now that burnings and torturiugs were at an end , men were zealous that went about exciting religious rancour instead of endeavouriug to repress the strife of angry

    passions , which was already too fierce . ( Cheers . ) He was glad to hear that , in this country , they knew nothing of this spirit ; that religious inquiry was pursued with a temperate and philosophical spirit ; but there the ignorant were the peculiarly illuminated ; they had Popes in petticoats , and girls of sixteen were found determining that doctors of diriuity were ignorant of the first principles

    of the Christian religion ; so that Ireland was again entitled to her ancient name , and might be truly denominated the " Land of Saints . " ( Cheers and laughter ) This spirit was spread to an amazing extent . He hoped , however , that a time would come when they would have more unanimity and less saintship

    —more religion and less professionmore reality and less sound . ( Cheers . ) Wheu he returned , he hoped to be able to teach his countrymeu , from the example of what he had seen in Manchester , what could be accomplished by zeal , United with energy and a cordial co-operation . His visit to this country would then not have been unprofitable . ( Cheers . ) For those of his brethren who had

    suffered from the spirit of persecution to which he had alluded , he knew he should cany with him their cordial sympathy . In whatever they might have to encounter , it would be cheering to them to know that they had the sympathies of all the enlightened and liberal of this country . ( Cheers . ) He felt , however , that the very measure of intolerance from

    which they were suffering , would spread the seed of truth . In his visit to England , there was no reflection which gave him so much happiness as that it was because they were persecuted that he was received as he had been ; and that he was strongly recommended to their kindness by the very circumstance which it was conceived would be prejudicial to

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    him and his brethren . The intelligence of this couutry had outgrown the spirit of intolerance ; it would still grow larger , till all the puny bauds and fetters that enthralled it were burst asunder ; till it should be universally acknowledged that it was not in the power of mau to compress the miud into the measure or

    figure of another's creed ; and all should learn that the only acceptable worship was the worship of sincerity and truth . ( Loud cheers . ) If he could make every man a convert to his own faith , he should be well pleased to do so ; but if it were in his pdwer to compel every man to bow before his Maker at the

    same altar with himself , while his heart , and mind , and soul , revolted from his creed , he would feel that to use that pow er would be to dishonour God , to disgrace the Christian cause . He abhorred coercion in matters of opinion as an injustice . to his fellow-man ; but he abhorred it more because it was an

    Susult to the Deity to tender to him , as an acceptable sacrifice , constrained lip-service in place of the devotion of the heart . ( Loud and renewed cheers , ) Mr . Potter having proposed as a toast , — " Catholic Emancipation , and may it soon be universally acknowledged that Civil and Religious Liberty are the only solid foundation of a nation ' s

    happiness , ' * there was a general call for Mr . Montgomery , who after endeavouring in vain to excuse himself , rose and said , he certainly could be no Irishman , if , after the gracious manner in which the toast had just been received , and after the unequivocal expressions of kindness

    for his country which it had called forth , he could refrain from the expression of his feelings on the occasion . But such was the present unhappy situation of that country , that it was impossible to approach the subject without feelings of paiu and the utmost embarrassment ; and wheu he assured them that he rose

    without having had time for reflection , or any opportunity that admitted of his collecting or arranging his ideas on the subject , they could uot be surprised that he rose with considerable reluctance . ( Cheers . ) The people of Ireland , he would venture to affirm , were a people by nature as well disposed , as lmidly

    affectioned , as any people on the face of the earth . How completely perverted , then , uaust be that state of things which could efface and obliterate in the bosoms of such a people ihe finest lineaments of the human character ; and present the melancholy picture of dark and jarring passions which that country now exhi-

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    136 Intelligence . — Salford Chapel Anniversury .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1829, page 136, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2569/page/64/