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Untitled Article
1000 signatures , are those for the Factory Regulation Bill ,, for the Reduction of Taxation , and for the Repeal of the Corn Laws . Here we see the effect of large public meetings , and a strong popular feeling , or rather a strong pecuniary interest , animating them . There is one point on which the religionists have mustered in this
way , and with a similar result . That is , the New System of Education in Ireland . The congregational and parochial tactics were not applicable to this subject . The more respectable part of the movers of that machinery were in favour of the Ministerial plan . So the fanatics had nothing left for it but public meetings . And they accordingly held their gatherings , unmolested by opposition .
at Exeter Hall and elsewhere . What was the consequence ? Only a dozen petitions ; but each of those petitions had nearly a thousand signatures . This is the only class of petitions emanating peculiarly from religionists , which comes into the first twelve in the order of the average of signatures . The exception proves the rule . It establishes our theory of the ' Results of
Machinery / There is also an exemplification of it in the petitions for and against the repeal of the Beer Act . The evangelical clergy have been very busy in this matter . The number of petitions for the repeal is 159 . They were not , we believe , zealously seconded by the Dissenters . The average of signatures is very low ; only 124 . The counter petitions were only eleven ; but they were
signed by very nearly as many thousands . Here was machinery versus interest . All the petitions averaging between 600 and 700 names , have a close affinity . They are , for Vote by Ballot , the repeal of the Septennial Act , the repeal of the House and Window Tax , and for Corporation Reform . This is the more remarkable , as there is a great disparity in the number of petitions ; which ,
following the above order of topics , are 37 , 15 , 104 , and 116 . We may hence , perhaps , assume 620 names to a petition , as the usual result of a public radical reform meeting . The reduction of taxes was a theme to carry more general sympathy with it than the assertion of a great public principle : accordingly the average mounts up to 1198 . But on the Assessed Taxes the parish
committees brought petition machinery into play , and as a natural result of organization , the number of petitions is greater than that for the last-mentioned purpose , but the average falls to 440 . The Scotch petitions against lay patronage have both a high average ( 468 ) and number ( 132 ) . Here is both organization and popularity . The ecclesiastical difference between that country
and England is distinctly marked . Now turn to Ireland . A precious specimen of organization , without popularity , appears in the fact that the petitions against the Irish Church Reform Bill were no fewer than 98 , and the average of signatures no more than 09 . Against the tithes , the people only mustered 65 petitions , but with an average of 332 signatures . Our proof grows somewhat lengthy : but the point deserved elucidating , as it often
Untitled Article
444 Petitions to Parliament .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 444, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/4/
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