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as this the commencement of a new year was a natural time for the expression of good wishes towards one another , he proposed to begin the public business of the evening by wishing * A happy new year to our King and Queen , may they live to js , ee , nianx years of increase and prosperity to the people , and to find , in their strength and intelligence , the best foundation for the safety and honour of the Throne . '
The Chairman next said—The new year has begun to us in peace , and health , and safety ; but how has it commenced to many of our fellowcreatures in various parts of the widely extended British Empire ? Are there not instances in which we
can fancy , that were we to attempt to utter the wish of ' a happy new year , ' the words would die away in our throats . Were you now in one of our West India Islands to meet with a slave , would-not the idea cross your minds ? what sort of a year this is likely to be to him . * -A happy new year ! ' What ! if it should
still continue to bind upon him those fetters in which both his body and mind are enslaved ? What , if it should continue to place him at the absolute disposal of his fellow mortal ? Your wish , then , for him , if it be a sincere one , must be that this year shall tend to loosen the bonds in which he is held , —that something may be done this year which shall
tend to wipe off that foul blot from the national honour , and to relieve the national conscience from a great burden . But we need not go so far , we need only go to many parts of our own or a neighbouring country , to find thousands in the most wretched state of ignorance and pauperism , —those who are placed in cir ~ eunlstances that would-seem almost
to make crime necessary to them , at least to accustom them to it , from their very birth ; and what would be our meaning , if to them we expressed the wish of * a happy new year ? If we wish happiness to be their lot ,
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we must endeavour to remove their ignorance , to improve their condition , and to place them in circumstances much more favourable for forming a virtuous and respectable character . And I think if ever there was a year when we might entertain the hope that something would be
done for our fellow-subjects , this is that year , for never has one opened on the British empire when so much might be expected from the House of Commons . I speak not from political feelings , but as a philanthropist and a Christian , when I
say , that I think we may look forward with greater confidence than Britons could at any former period , to measures that shall promote peace and comfort throughout this empire . In accordance with this opinion is the sentiment which I now propose
—* May the deliberations of the new Parliament be directed to the wisest measures for promoting peace , order , and contentment in all parts of the British empire , for the abolition of slavery abroad , and for the diminution of ignorance , pauperism , and crime at home '
Richard Potter , JEsq . M . P . for Wigan , said that he should think the new year but ill employed if at least some of the important objects referred to in the sentiment , were not accomplished . After expressing his regret at the state of Ireland , and his hope that it would engage the early attention of the legislature , Mr . Potter said , a state of things in which a man had less interest in his
own person than was possessed by another , was in itself so monstrous , that no consideration as to the effect on property ought , in his opinion , to interfere with the emancipation of the slaves without loss of time . He
for one should not consider the principles of civil and religious liberty fully established till dissenters were relieved from contributing to the wealth and splendour of an establishment from which they derive no benefit , of whose connexion with the
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116 INTELLIGENCE AND
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 1, 1833, page 116, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2611/page/20/
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