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such fiddle faddle . The < Bristol Journal' states , that Mr . Wilks , Mem * ber for Boston , has published a letter to the Dissenters of that city , in which he aa&ures them , ' That the opinion of the Government is , that any immediate and urgent attempt at the severance of the Church and State would utterly fail—would injure the Administration—would delight and strengthen the Tories—would delay the ecclesiastical reforms in * tended and desired—would retard an abolition or commutation of tithes
—and would prevent the Dissenters from progressively procuring that redress of practical evils by which they are afflicted . * Here is the usual Whig game . And according to the same system of tactics , which is now becoming as stale and threadbare as it is contemptible , the King is thrust forward , by head and shoulders , to screen his faithful servants .
The papers announce that his Majesty will not consent to any extensive plan of Church reform . His Majesty , forsooth ! as if his Majesty did not know his duty better than to interfere with the free and full discussion in the Legislature of whatever measures may be required by the common good , but must thrust his veto out of its place , and use it at
first instead of ai last . If it were so , Ministers should teach him better , instead of succumbing . But Whig policy is to be in difficulties ; to get strength by the reputation of weakness ; to obtain credit , at the same moment , from one party for doing so much , and from the other for not doing more * They would say to the people , * See how we are hampered by the Tories and the Court ; we cannot go an inch further on your behalf ; another step , and we shall be turned out , and you will get nothing ; ' and then they would turn round and say to the Tories , * See how we are driven on by the people ; something must be done for them ,
even by yourselves , were you in our places ; and have we not managed cleverly to quiet them by doing the least good possible . ' And this farce many of the leading Dissenters seem disposed to help them to enact . Their United Committee has published an official document in the ' Patriot * newspaper of January 8 th , which , we were alike surprised
and grieved to find , concludes with an admonition that the prayer of petitions should be confined to the redress of practical grievances . ' The expression itself is ambiguous , for it has been justly argued that the ecclesiastical monopoly is the one great practical grievance ; but the context shows too plainly what is meant . It is not clear , however , that the Committee will do more than create a diversion , we trust a feeble
one , in favour of Whiggish policy . Many petitions and memorials have already been voted in different parts of the country , which not only affirm , but urge the consistent application of the broad principle of religious liberty . Nor has the course taken by the Committee yet received the sanction of its constituents . There must be thousands amongst the Dissenters who will not only profess their belief in the right of all religionists to occupy the ground of entire equality in the State , but who
will firmly demand of Government the legislative and practical recognition of this right . We have a noble specimen of the spirit which is abroad , and which the friends and partizans of the Whig Administration am on gat the Dissenters will find it difficult for all their influence to suppress or misdirect , in the memorial resolved upon at Nottingham by a crowded meeting of all classes of nonconformists . We regret that we have not room to reprint this eloquent document , which is the coinposition of the Quaker poet and patriot , William Hovvitt . It appeared
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156 Notes on the Newspapers .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1834, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2630/page/72/
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