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oug ht t 6 be established , it should be one having very large claims on the public regard . We wish for Church Reform both in a pecuniary and in a doctrinal point of view . The toast he was going to propose , was ' a thorough Church Reform , to begin in Ireland . ' If any country requires
this reform , it is IrelandT ™ TnTtEis country ( England ) the principles of the established church are in some unison with the feelings of the population ; but in Ireland not one-eighth of the inhabitants profess to belong to the established church , whilst its
revenues are much greater than here , and its duties much less , and in many cases nothing at all . The Chairman then rose and said : We are honoured by the presence of one whose spirit-stirring poetry has ever since my boyhood made my heart thrill- —ever will make it thrill to my
extremest old age , even were I to live the years of Methuselah—of one who , like Milton ,, is not only poet but patriot . I shall request from him a toast , which , as it relates to Poland , must inevitably make him speak more of the * Pains of Memory / than even of the Pleasures of Hope /
Mr . Campbell : Priests have been persecutors in times past , they are in times present , and always will be . They have ever a hankering to offer up victims . Our Chairman has the
same hankering , and is now offering us up one after another . Does he think nothing of relentlessly fastening us to the stake of extempore public speaking , without any other hope in our torments but the breath of
your applause , which but serves all the while to fan the flame , and make it burn more fiercely ? To speak seriously , I rise with feelings of gratitude and pride—with feelings of gratitude for the hospitable reception I have met with in this most
honourable assembly—of pride , m mingling U'ith a body whose sentiments I have ever most deeply respected , since I heard in my youth of the persecutions of Priestley . With pride , that
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sitting beside the man whom I esteem to be the best preacher in England , I should be called on to give the toast I am about to propose . The Chairman has over-rated my talents to do justice to the subject . How is it possible to talk of any man as beingable to speak eloquently , or even
uneioqueritly , of The wrongs of Poland ? The subject is independent of eloquence . The cause of Poland lies unhappily in a nutshell ; it is a piece of monotonous injustice . God knows , he said , it had been to him long past too painful a subject . '
Mr . Gibson said , many were the years that had gone by since he first met in this room those with whom he had been associated in promoting the cause now so successful ; and he could not look back without the liveliest emotions of delight on even the very small part he had had the
happiness of being able to take in forwarding this great cause . He rose as a member of their Society , to rejoice in the anniversary of an event which gave their respected Chairman a power which , without their support , he could scarcely have possessed in the same degree . There was no one more desirous than their Chairman
to inculcate by his example and in his own character the precepts which he laid down . He wished that there were thousands of societies such as theirs , not because that would be extending any particular creed , but because they shut out any creed as the bond of their association . That we
have this feeling amongst us , gives ., I believe , ( said Mr , O . ) to our respected leader higher satisfaction than could any thing else , for I , expressing my own feelings , express those of all of you ; and all of us wish that every portion of health and happiness and comfort and enjoyment may attend him .
Mr . Fox said , weak feelings may weaken , but strong ones become stronger by repetition ; and though now , for so many years , he had met them , year after year , under the same
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V UNITARIAN CHRONICLE . 85
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 1, 1833, page 85, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2609/page/21/
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