to the reason, understanding, respect, and affection of the country at large. He thought neither the interests of religion, nor the interests of the church, called on them to force individuals to an apparent acquiescence in opinions, which, in their view, were repugnant to reason, and contrary to the scripture. The Bishop of Llandaff observed, that Jews, Catholics, and Quakers had marriage ceremonies, which were known; but as to the great body of sectarians, they had no religious.ceremony of marriage, and would not, perhaps, be willing to adopt any which the legislature might impose on them. He did not think that the mo ral and religious interests of the community could be safe, if such a latitude were allowed as was proposed by this bill. to tender consciences. What was re House of Lords, Friday, June 13. that at a very early period of the next The Marquis of Lansdown gave notice session of Parliament, he should bring in a bill to relieve the Dissenters from certain grievances of which they com plained in the solemnization of mar riage. REGISTRY OF BIRTHS. By a late decision it appears that ters are not to be admitted as evidence the Registers of births kept by Dissenin our Courts of law. If this is really the case, the children of Dissenters tion, and are subject to great loss of are placed in a very unpleasant situaregistered according to the rites, forms, property by not being baptized and and ceremonies, of, and at, the Church Lord Ellenborough said, the real object of this bill was to relieve reli- of England, from which register alone the identity of a person, to whom pro- gious scruples, and nothing else. He thought the moral and religious in-perty has been willed, can be estabe lished. As it frequently happens that terests of the community were not much advanced by forcing persons, in property is left to persons who were abroad at the time the Will was made, despite of their religious scruples, to or in such obscurity as not to know of an occasional conformity. There were few things which gave him more pain of the testator, when such persons or it for a series of years after the death than to see the right reverend bench their successors make their claim, and always thus indisposed to give relief institute proceedings in law to recover quired of the legislature by this bill their right, the Register of the birth was but very little: what the legisla- being required, they produce it from a Dissenting Church. This, according ture at present required of the Dissenters was a very grievous obligation. to the late decision is rejected, and the persons unfortunately lose their He warmly supported the second property, because they happened to reading. be registered at a Dissenting place of worship. Whether this is done to from what other motives, it matters check the increase of Dissenters, or not; the report has caused consider. able alarm, and many who are friendly to dissent, are exceedingly agitated on account of it. We ought to be alive to every innovation on our religious liberties and institutions; and in my opinion, this question is of such importance as to demand the attention of the body at large; and if our Registers are not valid in law, they ought with as little loss of time as may be. to be made so by legislative enactment The Earl of Carnarvon was anxious that the bill should go to a Committee, and thus their lordships would next session be much better prepared to go into the discussion of this important question. The Marquis of Lansdown, in reply, said, that he was under the necessity of dividing the house upon his motion. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in explanation, said that his objections to the bill applied not to the doctrinal points, but to those which regarded discipline. Their lordships then divided on the second reading Content, present, 15 6 21 Coseley, July 9, 1823. A DISSENTER. TO THE PROTESTANT DISSEN- The Address of the Deputies of the Ir is generally known to the Dis instance of the prevalence of this spirit, may, perhaps, be traced in the decision of the Sheriff's case by the House of Lords in 1767 ; it re-appeared in the bill which was passed in 1779 senters of England that "the Deputies from the various Congregations of Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, in and near London,” were originally assembled for the purpose of applying to Parliament for the Repeal" for the Relief of Protestant Dissentof the Corporation and Test Acts; and that, after the failure of their attempts, in the years 1736 and 1739, it was deemed expedient to continue the Institution as a permanent guardian of the civil interests of the dissenting body, to which recourse might be had for assistance in procuring redress of injuries 'suffered in consequence of their religious profession; the current business having, from the first, been transacted by a Committee annually elected from among the whole number of Deputies for that purpose. After the defeat of the application in 1739, no further attempt to obtain the repeal of the obnoxious laws took place till 1787, when a motion to that effect was made with great judgment and ability by Henry Beaufoy, Esq. then member for Yarmouth. This also failing, it was repeated in 1789, and again rejected, though by the small majority of twenty only, a circumstance which could not but excite sanguine hopes of early success, and induced the Dissenters to request of Mr. Fox to renew it in the following year, with which he complied; but, by the united efforts of all their adversaries, an overwhelming majority of 294 to 105 was then obtained against them, which, with the events that soon after happened, destroyed all hope of succeeding, till some important change in public opinion should be manifested. Subsequently to this period, the attention of the Committee has been chiefly called to the vindication of religious liberty in cases of insulted ministers and interrupted worship; of refusals on the part of clergymen to perform the rites of baptism and burial, and various other matters, which, though separately of minor importance, might have swelled into a considerable mass of persecution, had no such protection been at hand. And they have also had the satisfaction of recovering many dormant endowments, and of composing differences which have occasionally arisen among the members of dissenting congregations. With great satisfaction, however, they are enabled to state, that the increasing liberality of the times has, on the whole, greatly diminished the former and more public branch of their employment. The first important ing Ministers and Schoolmasters;" a desire for which, publicly expressed by Dr. Ross, the then liberal and enlightened Bishop of Exeter, was speedily matured into a law; and, with the exception of the defeat of Mr. Fox's motion in 1790, (for which the influence of temporary causes may, in a great degree, account,) the general tendency both of public sentiment and legislative enactments may be regarded as progressively favourable to religious liberty,-exemplified in the rejection of Lord Sidmouth's bill in 1811, by which (though, doubtless, unintentionally) toleration would have been narrowed;-the repeal of the statutes, (called) "against blasphemy," but by which all discussion of very important disputed points was forbidden, under dreadful penalties, and very many other instances of regulations, and interpretations of law, tending to relax the common exclusive spirit of establishments. The main object of the Dissenters is, however, even yet unattained. Though no longer restrained in the exercise of their worship, or in the discussion of their religious tenets, and though, according to the highest judicial authority, the imputed legal guilt of nonconformity is done away; yet, by a strange inconsistency, the punishment remains; and, with respect to holding offices of trust, power, and emolument, they are still under the same ban with persons convicted of perjury and other infamous crimes. The avenues to honourable distinction and advantage in the professions most honourable and advantageous, are closely barred against them; and they are forbidden either to serve their country or to benefit themselves in those stations of society which are most eagerly coveted by generous and aspiring minds-a prohibition which they hold to be unjust in theory, and know to be injurious in its general effect, even to the most unpretending, because it affects all Dissenters unfavourably in public estimation, stigmatizing them with comparative disaffection, and thereby holding them forth to the ignorant, the bigoted, and the malevolent, as marks for obloquy and even persecution. Since the discussions on the Catholic question, the Committee, though aware of the broad distinction between that case and their own, yet seeing also in how many points they were connected, and how great an influence the decision of the one might have on the other, have deliberately preferred rather to be vigilant than active; but considering the great length into which that question has been, and may yet farther be drawn, and sensible that many excellent and judicious persons are extremely anxious that the Dissenters should be fully prepared for another unanimous and energetic appeal to the justice and liberality of the legislature at the very first favourable moment, they have now resolved to re-call your attention immediately and earnestly to this subject, ever deemed of so high importance to our civil and religious interests:--And as well to lead your own thoughts to its principal points, as to show that they have not been unmindful of their duty, they subjoin a copy of the Petition which, on behalf of the whole body of Dissenters, was, in July, 1820, presented to the House of Lords by the Right Honourable Lord Holland, and to the House of Commons, by William Smith, Esq. M. P. for Norwich, Chairman of this Deputation. Your co-operation will be esteemed a favour, and your correspondence may be addressed, "WILLIAM SMITH, Esq. M.P. Chairman to the Dissenting Deputies, &c. (Signed,) London." By Order of the Committee, ROBERT WINTER, Secretary, COPY OF THE PETITION. To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled, To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled, who, though dissenting from the ecclesiastical establishment of the country, were ever found among the most strenuous defenders of its constitutional liberties; who were universally zealous in assisting to establish the glori ous Revolution under King William the Third; and who invariably evinced their devotion to its principles, and their sincere loyalty to the illustrious family which, in consequence of that event, was seated on the British throne, during every one of those unfortunate and criminal struggles which were subsequently made in favour of the rejected dynasty:-And that your Petitioners, trained in these principles from their earliest youth, have ever cherished them with the warmest attachment, as the only solid and rational ground of union between the sovereign and the subject, in the reciprocal bonds of generous confidence and affectionate duty. That your Petitioners have, in par ticular, been always accustomed to consider the exercise of private judgement in religious affairs to be among those absolute natural rights which are entitled to man's first regard, supremely important as affecting his highest interests, and strictly inalienable as involving his most sacred duties; to be also co-extensive with those duties, and, therefore, necessarily to include the liberty of publicly maintaining the opinions he entertains, and worshipping in the mode his conscience approves; without which, indeed, no religious freedom could be said to be granted; for thought being incapable, from its nature, of being brought under the cognizance of human tribunals, freedom of thought cannot possibly be the subject of concession from human governments. That your Petitioners bow down in the sincerest thankfulness to Divine Providence for having so accelerated the progress of light and knowledge in but a few generations ago, could not the world, that these truths, which, have been asserted but at the risk of personal liberty, and even of life, are The Humble Petition of the undersign- now almost universally and completely ed Persons, being Protestant Dis-recognized in all Protestant and in senters, and Members, respectively, many Catholic states. of the several Congregations of the three Denominations in the Metropolis and its Vicinity, RESPECTFULLY SHOWETH, That your Petitioners are the successors and, in many instances, the lineal descendants of those persons That your Petitioners are farther desirous of acknowledging with grateful satisfaction the great improvement of their legal situation in this country during the reign of his late Majesty, in which more was done than under any preceding monarch since William the Third, to emancipate religion from the civil thraldom in which it was held by unjust and persecuting laws. That, nevertheless, this freedom cannot be complete, as far as respects your Petitioners, while they remain subject to disabilities and consequent degradation on account of their nonconformity to the national church establishment. That while such non-conformity was held legally criminal (however unjustly), it might, consistently, at least, be visited with punishment. But, since the religious rights of your Petitioners have been acknowledged, and their profession and worship legalized, the continuance of punishment on these accounts, in whatever shape or under whatever pretext, is not only unjust in itself but inconsistent with all those relaxations in their favour, which, from a just respect to conscience, the legislature has been induced to grant. than imaginary. And your Petitioners conceive the infliction of any of these evils, in their higher or lower degrees, on account of religious persuasion or profession, to be, according to the most acknowledged definitions, persecution, and that for conscience sake. That with respect to the relief afforded them by the Annual Indemnity Act, said to amount to a virtual repeal of all the disqualifying statutes, your Petitioners decline entering into discussions of its extent or efficiency; nor will they inquire whether it be not more wise (as it certainly would be more magnanimous) at once to repeal laws whose operation is asserted to be thus kept in continual abeyance. It is enough for them to observe, that a partial and discretional indemnity against penalties left to be incurred, is neither constitutional security nor equal justice. They well know that though these Acts do, in fact, afford incidental protection to them, as well as to those in whose favour they were meant to operate, yet that for their ease or relief they were never intend. ed; and the injury which your Petitioners most deeply and universally feel is of a different nature;-they complain, not merely that a very small proportion of their body participate less than they perhaps might do under other circumstances, in the positive advantages which society has to bestow; but that they all, indiscriminately, are held up to public odium as persons unworthy to be admitted to such participation; and they ask, from what portion of this dishonour can the Indemnity Acts relieve them? Or how does it restore them to that their just station in society, from which, for no crime either proved or imputed, they have been so harshly thrust away? That your Petitioners are not ignorant of the pleas on which their requests have been resisted; but they flatter themselves that the justice and liberality of the present times will no longer urge against them that to be debarred from the common advantages enjoyed by other innocent citizens is not punishment; especially, when such degradation is indeed well known to the law, but in no other character than as the appropriate penalty upon heinous and disgraceful crimes. They trust that eligibility to office will no longer be refused to them when asked as a common right, from the mere mistake of confounding it with the actual possession of office, which latter could not be asked from the legislature without absurdity, and which the Dissenters could not hope to obtain otherwise than in the same course with their fellow-subjects, but in their claim of being at liberty so to obtain it, are corroborated by the well-known That your Petitioners humbly condeclaration of King William III. ceive, that, even allowing the right of that he wished a door should be defending an establishment by such opened for the admission into his ser- restrictive laws, it would be difficult to vice of all Protestants who were able prove that they confer any security and willing to serve him ;" and when whatever, and far more to such a deit is obvious the principle of the arbi-gree of it as to justify the means; but trary exclusion of some from all offices of power, trust, and emolument, for the imagined security of others, may be used to justify every other species and degree of severity, extending even to imprisonment and death, if a prejudiced and misjudging majority should deem such extremities necessary for their own comfort, or the safety of their religion-a case which experience has proved to be more that, on the contrary, justice and liberality are the natural sources of strength and safety, while danger is the far more common result of suspicious policy and oppressive conduct; in which sentiment your Petitioners are again supported by the same royal authority before quoted, recorded in your Journals, “ that granting ease to Dissenters would contribute very much to the establishment of the Church." approved; seven remained for further That the specific test actually imposed is in itself particularly improper, as being liable to the imputation of profaning a solemn rite of Christian Worship, to the great disgust of many religious persons, and to the scandal of religion itself. And that it That from Campden was rejected, is further objectionable, because it because by the Trust-deed it appeared can only deter the conscientious, while that as well the choice of a Minis, it is no bar to the unprincipled and amter as the choice of New Trustees bitious. But that on such arguments, as is in the Trustees for the time be affecting themselves, your Petitioners ing; that there is not any denomi are the less disposed to insist, because, nation of Dissenters named in the by any other impediment equally effi- Deed; and that besides the Meetingcient, they would still deem them-house there are four houses and fundselves subjected to similar oppression; and that for the impropriety of the test, those who ordain it, and not those who suffer under it, are respon sible. ed property vested in the Trustees. The Case from Maidstone was rejected, because the church had collected, under the sanction of the Committee, about twelve years since, up wards of £150 for their then place of worship, and had not, in the opinion sufficient of the Committee, shown any reason for removing from that place, and the sum expended in erecting the new place, had been unusually large; and On the whole, your Petitioners humbly pray this Honourable House to take the premises into their serious consideration, and to grant them relief. And they persuade themselves, that the former successive relaxations of harsh and oppressive enactments The Case from Glascoed was re, against religious liberty, so far from being considered as a reason for their be-jected, because by the Trust-deed it ing expected to continue to suffer in si- appeared that the choice of the Minislence the grievances to which they still ter, the choice of future Trustees, and remain exposed, ought rather to be re- the management and regulation of all garded as an encouragement from the matters and things relating to the legislature, respectfully, but frankly, church and congregation, was in the to submit to its wisdom the expedience Trustees for the time being, of abolishing every remnant of that system of coercion and restraint on religious profession, which had its origin in times of darkness and intolerance, and by which your Petitioners are, to this day, severely, and, as they presume to think, most injuriously affected. And your Petitioners shall ever Cases for building Meeting-houses. On Friday in the missionary week a meeting of the contributors to the cases presented by Baptist churches in the country, for assistance in building and repairing places of worship, was held at the Committee Rooms, No. 18, Aldermanbury, when a Report of the proceedings of the Committee for the preceding year was made, from which it appeared, That in the course of the last year the Committee had had seventeen new Cases presented to them; eight of which, from Lincoln, St. Alban's, Monmouth, Dane-hill, Aberavon Slack, Chatham, and Saxlingham, had been That since the last Annual Meeting there had been collected, upon eleven Cases recommended by them, the following sums; £ s. d. 0 87 9 105 2 6 Cardiff Welch Church 110 12 Crayford.. Wellow Southwold ... 82 0 6 105 10 87 19 6 93 12 Wallingford Lincoln.. St. Alban's. making a total of money received upon eleven Cases, recommended by the the year, Committee during of £1145 5s. Baptist Church at Aberavon, Glamorganshire.* THE attention of the friends of religion among all denominations of Christians is particularly requested to a * We insert this article at the particular request of the Baptist Case Committee.-Ed. |