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without settling that question . The Whigs have acted wijh their usual crooked policy , and are beginning to feel the natural result of recoil and disgrace . They succeeded to a certain extent in dividing the Dissenters , and inducing some of them , especially those of the metropolis , to keep back the vital question of the Union of Church and State . The country was partially misled
into following this example . Happily , there were heads too clear and hearts too sound for the cajolery to be generally successful . William Howitt and the Nottingham people read Earl Grey a lecture in a different spirit . That contemptible abortion , Lord John Russell ' s Marriage Bill , made many of the metropolitan nonconformists perceive how they had been duped , and call out that ' this was too bad . ' And the Dissenters of Manchester
have come forward and put themselves at the head of a very different kind of movement from that which was to have been managed in accordance with the petty views of the Government . The resolutions of this noble meeting are given below . * The
* SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE . At a Public Meeting of Dissenters and others favourable to their claims , held in the Exchange Dining-room , Manchester , on Wednesday and Thursday , 5 th and 6 th March , 1834 ; Thomas Harbottle , Esq . in the Chair : It was resolved—? 1 . That in the deliberate opinion of this Meeting all civil establishments of religion are an infringement of the rights of conscience , at variance with the spirit , and opposed to the progress of Christianity .
2 . That although such establishments are indebted for their power to a union with the State , and might therefore be expected to co-operate uniformly with it , yet they too frequentl y employ the influence derived from this union in thwarting the Government , when its measures are really calculated to promote general education , to extend the liberties , and to augment the happiness of the people . 3 . That the law which authorizes Bishops to sit in the Upper House of Parliament
to represent the interests and wishes of their own denomination on all occasions , both ecclesiastical and political , compromises the character of the Christian ministry , i § a partial and unjust preference of one class of his Majesty ' s subjects over all other * , and a special grievance to the Dissenters , Presbyterians , and Catholics of England , Scotland , and Ireland , who compose a large majority of the people of the United Kingdom .
4 . That viewing all compulsory support of religion as unjust and oppressive , and the distinctions now existing between Churchmen and Dissenter as invidious , this Meeting resolves to use every lawful endeavour to bring about a separation of the Church from the State , as the best means of promoting the true interests of both , and affording the only effectual remedy for the redress of Dissenters' grievances . 5 * That the Petition now read be adopted by this Meeting . )
6 . That since Dissenters in all parts of the United Kingdom , by their voluntary effort * , erect and keep in repair their own places of worship , support their own mi ' nisters , maintain , to a great extent , their own poor , educate in Sunday schools and otherwise vast numbers of the population , extend their exertions into the British Colonies , and thus contribute largely to the welfare of their fellow-subjects , this Meet ' ing considers it a heavy grievance that Dissenters are com pel led to support any civil
establishment of religion by tithes , church-rates , or any other mode . 7 , That it is the opinion of thig Meeting that owing entirel y to the operation of the present ecclesiastical system , there is no general Register of Births , Dissenters arc prevented from legally contracting marriage , and from interring their dead ' pariih burial grounds , unless they conform to rites of which they conscientiousy disapprove ; and by the imposition of religious tests they are excluded from the Eogl ** Universities . 9 , That this Meeting regards Lord John Rusteirg < Diitonters' Marring © BUI * M
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262 On the Bishop of London *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1834, page 262, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2632/page/30/
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