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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.
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tiieir plans , entirely at their own discretion . It was not , therefore , without the greatest surprise , that when the governors were on * the point of bringing their proposed bill before Parliament , the Dissenters accidentally discovered that it contained a clause , directing that no person should be elected a governor , who is not a Member of the Established Church of Rngland .
The Dissenters were , at first , perfectly unable to persuade themselves that such a clause could form a part of the bill ; so utterly at variance was it with the spirit of the times , and , as they had fondly hoped , with the spirit of the town . There seemed , likewise , no motive for its introduction . The governors already possessed the power of exclusion : they had
long exercised it , to the entire exclusion of Dissenters : aud they might continue tt > exercise it , or forbear to exercise it , as , in I heir judgment , the interests of the school might , at any time , require . Why deprive themselves and their successors of a discretion , allowed by the Charter ? But , above all , why , under present circumstances , stigmatize a large
proportion of their fellow-townsmen , with whom they were associating on terins of the greatest apparent cordiality , by declaring them for ever bdworthy of a most important trust ,- —one which their ancestors had often held , and never abused , and in the due discharge of which they were equally interested with all the rest of the inhabitants ?
It was soon , however , ascertained , that a clause , to the effect above stated , did actually form one of the enactments of the proposed bill . And the indignation which the intelligence excited among the Dissenters , was heightened by the discovery , that its insertion was no hasty resolution of the governors ; that the proceedings , of which it formed a part ,
had been before the Court of Chancery for several years ; aud , so far as the jurisdiction of that Court extended , had been filially settled some mouths before ; while , during the whole period of the proceedings , a circumstance , in which they were so marerially concerned , had beiu studiously concealed from the parties , whose privileges , interests , and even character , it was intended to affect .
A Committee of the Dissenters immediately presented a strong remonstrance to the governors , against the introductiou of such a clause . The governors replied , that the clause had received the sanction of the Court of Chancery , mid that they were no longer competent to teith-
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draw it . They did not , however , express any regret at this inability . The Dissenters were , at the same time , informed , that a printed copy of the proposed bill , which none of them had yet
seen , would be sent to Birmingham the * next day ; but they were not informed , of what they afterwards found to be the fact , that the bill had already been read a first time in the House of Lords , and was to be read a second time , the very day that copy would arrive in Birmingham .
The next step for the Disseuters to take , was to petition the House of Lords to be heard by counsel against the bill . Measures were taken to convene , as soon as possible , a general meeting of Dissenters for that purpose . A petition was then agreed upon ; and such was the excitement which the conduct of the governors of the Free School had produced , that it received between six and seven
thousand signatures in the conrse of forty-eight hours . The Dissenters had already sent a deputation to London , to take such measures in their behalf as the urgency of the business might require . A short statement of their case was drawn up , and submitted to several of the more
influential members of both Houses of Parliament . The Deputies had the great satisfaction of finding that all the parties , with whom they had interviews , appeared to entertain the same opinion of the conduct of the governors of the Free Schoo l with themselves . Several at ouce expressed their full conviction that
the clause , to which the Dissenters objected , would never receive the sanction of the Legislature . Every step , indeed , which the deputation took , furnished them with additional evidence , that bigotry and intolerance would receive no encouragement from the higher authorities of the State ; and that this attempt of a few individuals to re-establish , in their little jurisdiction , those disabilities , from which all classes of Disseuters had been so lately relieved by the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts , would meet with almost universal reprobation .
From the very first , therefore , they felt quite at ease with regard to the final issue of the businos : and they were not at all surprised when a distinguished nobleman , from whom , immediately on their arrival in town , they had received the most gratifying assurances of assistance , informed them that he understood the governors , without any further opposition , would themselves withdraw the clause . The deputies , however , still thought it expedient that the petition of
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Intelligence . — + Birmingham Free Grammar School Bill . 69
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1831, page 69, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2593/page/69/
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