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Instruction of Slaves , and their exercise of Divine Worship , amounting nearly to a total prohibition . Your Committee , upon that oceasiou , thought it expedient to print , for the purpose of circulation , extracts from the proceedings of this
Deputation in the years 1802 , 1804 , 1807 , 1808 , and 1826 , when similar attempts were made to infringe the rights of conscience ; and , as this subject is intimately connected with the great question of the abolition of slavery , which now occupies so large a share of public attention , your Committee have annexed those extracts
to the present Report . The Act against which the attention of your Committee was last directed , was passed by the Assembly of Jamaica , in December , 1829 , and was even more oppressive than that sent over and
disallowed in 1826 . It denounced as unlawful , all Meetings for Religious Worship , between six o'clock in the evening and six in the morning , and prohibited the slaves from teaching one another , and Dissenting Teachers from receiving any pecuniary aid from slaves .
Your Committee had frequent communications with the Wesleyan and Baptist Missionary Societies on this subject , and then appointed a Deputation to wait on Sir George Murray , ( the late Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs , ) for the purpose of remonstrating against the
allowance of the Act passed last December . Aud your Committee have the satisfaction of stating , that the result proved ( as in all former instances ) fully equal to their wishes ; the Act in question having been disallowed by His Majesty in Council , immediately on its being officially received .
The total abolition of slavery throughout the British Dominions , is another subject which haa come under the notice of your Committee . It will , no doubt , be in the recollectiou of the Deputation , that , at the general meeting of Deputies , in May last , several resolutions were passed , expressive of their anxiety for the abolition of the inhuman system of Slavery , and strongly recommending to the various congregations of Protestant Dissenters in
the United Kingdom , to petition Parliament for the speedy accomplishment of that object ; publicity was given to those resolutions through the medium of several religious periodical publications . This deputation at the same time resolved to present petitions from themselves as a body . Those petitions were , accordingly , immediately afterwards presented , in which it wad prayed , as one of the most effectual measures for abolishing
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slavery , that " all the children who should be born after an early day , to be appointed by Parliament , should be declared free , and be effectually protected from any claims that might he made to them as slaves . "
Your Committee have also had the pleasure of communicating with the Committee of the Anti-slavery Society , who , it is well known , have been for a long time past , and still are , making great exertions for the accomplishment of the great object of the " total abolition of slavery . " Your Committee re-¦
• « * ^» * joice to observe the universal feeling that now pervades the United Kingdom , and has caused an unprecedented number of petitions to be presented to the Legislature for the same object ; and when , in addition to these favourable circumstances , it is borne in mind that
several of the noble aud right-honourable individuals now at the head of public affairs have upheld this cause of righteousness and mercy , with their most valuable support , the friends of religion and humanity may reasonably entertain a hope that their wishes will , at no very distant period , be realized .
Upon the late accession of King William IV . to the throne , your Committee ( according to aucieut usage ) invited the Deputies , as a body , to present an address of congratulation to his Majesty , expressive of their attachment to his illustrious house , under the peculiar impressious of Protestant Dissenters , looking back with affectionate gratitude to the two preceding reigns , in which our
hopes and wishes for the extension of religious liberty have been gratified in a very signal and unexampled degree . The Deputies , accordingly , at a Special General Meeting , on the 30 th July last , agreed to such an address , and the same having been immediately afterwards laid before his Majesty by the Secretary of State for the Home Department , your Committee were in due course informed
that his Majesty received it in the most gracious manner . In the last year ' s Report it was mentioned , that the sub-coininittees appointed to act with respect to a general plan of registration of births , marriages , and deaths , had been in communication with
the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the laws of real property . At a general meeting , held on the 29 th of May , 1829 , it was resolved to postpone any application to Parliament relative to registration , until those Commissioners had made their report ; and your Committee are still of opinion , that it is better
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Intelligence .- ^ Report Dissenting Deputies . 209
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vol . v . Q
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1831, page 209, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2595/page/65/
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