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On Monday, 117 persons of both sexes, among whom were friends from Manchester, Liverpool, Stand, Knutsford, Preston, Warrington, Chowbent, Newchurch and Padiham, sat down to an economical dinner in Mr. Watson's Cloth Hall. After dinner, sentiments were proposed, and the meeting was addressed by the Revds. H. H. Piper, H. Green, J. R. Beard, A. Bennett, Edward Hawkes, J. Cropper, and by Messrs. J. B. Wright, J. Barrow, J. Duffield and J. Brandreth. On Tuesday, the scholars of the Sunday-school assembled to the number of 120, to dine in the same room. After dinner, some of the children recited pieces, and, with suitable addresses from the Revds. A. Bennett, H, Green and J. Cropper, received books, as rewards for their attention and improvement during the last year. There is every reason for saying, that all who heard the very able and appropriate discourses of the preachers, or attended the meetings of Monday and Tuesday, returned highly gratified, and more firmly convinced that meetings of the above nature are calculated to promote the Christian cause, and to establish a feeling and zeal becoming those who advocate the principles of Unitarian Christianity.

J. C.

CORPORATION AND TEST ACTS.

THE Sacramental Test is no more-the Bill for its repeal passed the House of Lords without a division, and it has since received the Royal Assent. This event has created great joy amongst the Dissenters. Various resolutions have been passed at public meetings and by public bodies expressive of satisfaction and thankfulness. The United Committee in London, by whom the application to the Legislature was conducted, have resolved to celebrate the triumph of religious liberty by a public dinner on a superior scale. It is determined that this shall be given on the 18th of June at the Freemason's Hall; the tickets are to be two guineas each. About a hundred Dissenting gentlemen from all parts of the kingdom are expected to be Stewards. The Duke of Sussex has consented to take the Chair, and thirty Peers and seventy members of the House of Commons have been invited as guests. We perceive from the newspapers that public dinners on the same occasion are projected in some country towns.

CATHOLIC QUESTION.

THIS great question has triumphed in the House of Commons, after three nights' debate, by a majority of six. The resolution proposed by Sir Francis Burdett, and ultimately carried, was for going into a Committee on the subject. In the Committee a resolution was carried without a division, for taking the matter into consideration, and this resolution has been communi

cated to the Lords in a conference of the two Houses. Thus the matter rests till after the Whitsun holidays. No one can foretel the issue. The Cabinet has been hitherto divided upon the subject, but the liberal part of the administration has just resigned, and nothing is known of their successors. Some of the Dissenters, chiefly Unitarians, have petitioned Parliament on behalf of the Roman Catholic claims; but we understand that the parliamentary leaders of the Catholic question do not recommend the general interference of Dissenters, at least during the present session.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.

THE Anniversary is to be held to-morrow (May 28); but on account of the late period of the month we shall not be able to report proceedings in the present number. On account of recent events, the meeting is expected to be more than usually interesting. Dr. Hutton is to preach the sermon, and Wm. Smith, Esq., M. P., is to take the Chair at the Dinner.

PROTESTANT SOCIETY.

THIS Society, for the protection of the Religious Liberty of Protestant Dissenters, held their Annual Meeting at the City of London Tavern, May 17, 1828, the Right Hon. Lord HOLLAND in the Chair. The meeting was remarkable for the high tone of religious liberty which pervaded the speeches. The Catholic question was no longer blinked, and the Noble Chairman called upon the meeting to pledge itself to Catholic Emancipation, which call was answered by the greater part of the audience rising and expressing assent to the call in tumultuous exclamations.

CHRISTIAN TRACT SOCIETY.

THE Nineteenth Anniversary of this Society was held on Wednesday, May 14th, at the Chapel in Worship Street, London, James Esdaile, Esq., in the Chair. As on this occasion, it is intended to hold the anniversary meetings in future at a place of worship, to afford those friends who could not attend at a tavern, an opportunity of hearing the Reports, and of uniting in those efforts by which the useful objects of the Society are sought to be promoted. An abstract of this year's Report will appear in the next number.-The Rev. B. Mardon has accepted the office of Secretary for the year ensuing.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Communications have been received from Messrs. Mardon; Cundall; Plomley; Anti-Test; Guillaume; R. W. W.; and T. C. A.

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The Sacramental Test exists no longer; unless indeed as the subject of remembrance and of history. Let us look back on the laws by which it was prescribed:† let us weigh the grievance of which a large body of men had frequently and unsuccessfully complained. With this grievance let us contrast the advantages offered by the Repeal Act: let us trace, if we can, the motives and causes of the

repeal ; and carry forward our views to the probable consequences of that measure.

By means of such a test all well-informed and sincere Dissenters were excluded from even eligibility to several most important and honourable offices. The question is not now very material, whether this was the object of the Acts so lately modified. It is sufficient to know that such was almost uniformly the effect of them, and that they admitted of no other interpretation. The Corporation Act was passed in subserviency to the vindictive feelings and purposes of the court, which aimed at nothing short of the suppression of Nonconformity. A more tyrannical law never disgraced the records of the kingdom.‡ The circumstances of the Test Act were different: this, if we

* Miscellaneous Thoughts, &c., (1734,) p. 87; and Occasional Paper, Vol. III., No. 6.

The Act for repealing several Acts, so far as they enjoined a Sacramental Test, received the royal assent, by commission, May 9, 1828, and came into immediate operation.

Mr. Beaufoy's Speech, &c., March 28, 1787.

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may judge of its intent from its title, was designed for preventing dangers which may happen from Popish recusants: it was framed, however, in terms which comprehended Protestant Dissenters within its penalties and restrictions, and was thus understood and thus admis nistered.

Until recently, these two Acts imposed, each of them, the necessity of receiving " the Lord's Supper as a qualification for certain offices and employments.'

If an individual executed any of those offices and employments, without having qualified agreeably to the requisitions of the Test Act, he (on his being legally convicted of the default) was thenceforth disabled to sue or use any action, bill, plaint, or information in course of law, or to prosecute any suit in any court of equity, or to be guardian of any child, or executor or administrator of any person, or capable of any legacy or deed of gift, or to bear any office within England, Wales, or Berwick upon Tweed; and he was to forfeit five hundred pounds to be recovered by him or them that shall sue for the same.* By the Corporation Act those elections to municipal offices were rendered void, which had not been made in strict conformity with the clause enjoining the previous reception of the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the Church of England.

Severe as were these personal results of a violation of the laws imposing a Sacramental Test, the proscription which those Acts created and denounced was an evil yet more aggravated: the language of them was, "None but real members of the Established Church shall be deemed capable of bearing office-and, for the purpose of pointing them out, a participation in the Lord's Supper, agreeably to the ceremonies of that church, shall be essential. Nonconformists, as a body, shall be disqualified."

Of the advocates of the Test Laws, none, perhaps, has equalled Bishop Sherlock in skill and talent. I cannot subscribe to his reasoning in favour of statutes of that description; yet I consider his views of the nature and design of the Sacramental Test as theoretically and historically correct. This prelate says,

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Receiving the Sacrament according to the usage of the Church of England,' is not the qualification for an

*The Right of Protestant Dissenters to a complete Toleration, [2nd ed.,] pp. 14, 15.

office within the intent of the Act, but only the proof of such qualification: the qualification required is, that the person be well affected to the ecclesiastical state and con❤ stitution of these realms; and the receiving the Sacrament according to the rites of the Established Church, is the proof or Test required that he is so.

"This is so clearly the case, that a man may receive the Sacrament, so as to give proof of the qualification made necessary by the Corporation Act, without knowing, or even suspecting, that he was then giving a Test required by law; for that act appoints the receiving to be within one year before election to an office: so that one who receives the Sacrament, not dreaming that he may or ever shall be elected to an office, yet if he is elected to an office within a year, such receiving shall stand and be accepted as the Test required."

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The grievance then which pressed upon Protestant Dissenters, was not so much that individually they were excluded by the Test Laws from municipal and other offices in the state, as that collectively they were declared incapable of holding office on account of their being Protestant Dissenters. Such an injury was of no light and ordinary description: if any man can think and speak of it as being so, I envy not either his judgment or his feelings, from both which I appeal to those of every human being, whose understanding is not darkened by bigotry, and whose heart is not benumbed with selfishness.

This grievance has been abolished by the Repeal Act. Henceforth no inequitable, no odious barrier is placed between the Churchman and the Protestant Nonconformist, in respect of civil and political eligibility. Were this the only, as, beyond doubt, we must pronounce it the main, benefit flowing from the Act, the measure would richly compensate, and more than compensate, all the labour employed for procuring it; and the date of it would form an era in the annals of religious freedom. If we are desirous of accurately estimating the importance of the change, we must recollect what the Acts were, the most obnoxious provisions of which this statute has repealed.

Arguments against a Repeal, &c., [republished in 1787,] pp. 6, 7. I am not unacquainted with Hoadly's merits in this controversy (Works, Vol. II. pp. 971, &c.]: he has reasoned successfully against a Sacramental Test; yet I think that he has not discerned the true nature and relation of what is so denominated.

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