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our meetings , because it expresses one of the dearest wishes of our hearts . We regard religious liberty as a civil right , and the assertion of
civil liberty as a religious principle . We seek them at home and abroad , and our wish is that our country may enjoy them , and not only our countryf-bu-t—tliaMhey ^ may-bless—every corner of the earth . I look back with
interest to the varying circumstances under which I have from time to time , during the last sixteen or seventeen years , proposed this toast . It has always hitherto had , in our minds , reference to some peculiar subject which then was uppermost in our attention . Shortly after I came amongst you , it bore in my ideas upon the endeavours which I was then
making , and in which you materially strengthened my hands , to put an end to the prosecutions then prevalent against those who were not believers in Christianity . It was at that time that the celebrated prosecutions against Mr . Carlile and others were instituted . You then petitioned ,
as Christians , for those who professed their disbelief in , and hostility to Christianity , and that the name of your religion might not be stained by oppression for religion ' s sake * Herein you acted up to your principles , and your efforts have not been thrown away ; for if the Legislature has not altogether recognised the
great principle which is the subject of our toast , such prosecutions have become less frequent , and have emanated , I believe , in all cases , from private individuals against the inclination of the public authorities , and the sentences consequent upon them have been much less vindictive .
After this time , about the year 1819 , our views were directed by this toast to Parliamentary Reform , not under the aspect it has lately assumed , but as it appeared to us at the period when , by the Manchester Massacre and the atrocious Six Acts , it was attempted to silence the freei expression of public discontent . A year
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or two more recently this sentiment associated itself in our minds with sympathy for an oppressed woman . For one year at least we gave a magnificent testimony of that feeling , by omitting the King ' s name from our list of toasts , to show that
we would vindicate the rights of humanityrnotnon"ly'wh ~^ " ^ j ^ gTeat puB ^ lie interest was at stake , but in whatever quarter they were insulted and outraged . Afterwards our toast referred more especially to the Catholic question * and it is with pleasure
I remember , how that you uniformly refused to ask for your own rights individually , " but would only . claim them as linked with the rights of all who were persecuted for conscience sake . The times have now changed . This sentiment is not now , as here- ;
to fore , connected with any peculiar topic—it now associates itself with all the great questions to which the attention of the world is directedit is now linked with . every improvement , ecclesiastical and legislative r—with every right that can conduce to that full measure of enjoyment
which it is the design of our great Creator that man should possess upon earth . Our sympathies are now bestowed upon every country which , is combating for its rights , and endeavouring to maintain the position which man ought to hold . We have
sympathized with our friends in France in shaking oiF the yoke of a Monarch who ought no longer to reign over them . We are not , like the Edinburgh Reviewers , sick of hearing of America , as connected with civil and religious institutions . You well remember how often her
sons have mixed with us at these so < - cial meetings—and now often we have found delight in contemplating that noble country with her broad rivers—her rich and yet uncultivated plains—her cities , ever and anon springing up in her desert wildswith the horn of plenty in her hand , and the olive of peace on her brow , and crowns and mitres under her
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tiNITARIAN CHBONICLE , . 83
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 1, 1833, page 83, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2609/page/19/
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