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right . This fund was created for the spiritual good of the universal people , through the agency of the Romish Church . The legislature decided that the Romish Church was superstitious , and did not answer the purpose . We believe they decided
rightly . They tried Protestant Episcopacy . Experimental centuries have ended in a wretched failure . According to the best case that can be made out , the people of Ireland reap a very trifling amount of good , and a fearful harvest of mischief , from the Protestant Established Church . Moreover , since the
fund was created , the clergy of all churches have ceased to be , as they then were , or were supposed to be , the great and exclusive dispensers of mental and moral good . The school , the press , and the institute , now occupy much of the province which priests alone , in those days , were deemed qualified to fill . Let the instruction fund then pass , under proper superintendence , into efficient hands . As there is such ample provision
for it , let the people have the benefit of mental and moral cultivation . The application is a more truly religious one than the support of sectarian worship , or rather of a sectarian priesthood . If they will not come to the church , open the school for them . If they are too old for school , let the Establishment
be that of an institute . If they will not read the prayer-book , furnish them with the newspaper . Turn , somehow or other , the instruction fund to the account of instruction . Tangible good would thus be realized , which would almost reconcile them even to tithes . The merit of the Bill of last Session was ,
that , as far as it went , it went upon thin principle . It recognised education , without sectarian distinction , as a religious object . Therein it was sound ; while Dr . Whateley ' s plan is unprincipled , and merel y admits the power of the nation to make money out of the Cnurch , as the Church , whenever it can , makes money out of the nation . The claims of the Dissenters will be agitated at an early
period of the Session ; and on this topic there is a very obvious and simple principle for guidance , that of universal religious liberty and equality . All social diversities on account of opinion are persecution . The law should know nothing of sectarian distinctions . Theological opinion should never be inquired into . Sir Robert Peel ' s Marriage Bill , while it exonerated Dissenters
from compulsory attendance on an act of Episcopalian worship , yet drew a broad line between them and Churchmen . It was inquisitorial . In a similar spirit , and yet more injuriously , the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts was made the occasion for a species of persecution against the Jew , the Quaker , and the honest unbeliever , which has become more obvious now by the operation of Municipal Reform . Many men besides Mr . Salomons have been excluded from posts which their fellow citizens desired them to occupy , by means of the Declaration
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Principle * qf Legulation far the ensuing Session . 67
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1836, page 67, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2654/page/3/
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