willing to bleed in her cause, and impatient to hazard their lives in her defence, are excluded from her service?

Dissenters (restored, not gave) many of their rights, but did not restore them all. The privilege of admission to civil offices, and the yet more honourable privilege of hazarding their lives in their country's cause, are still unjustly withheld. The re-establishment of these privileges would give that complete toleration which constitutes the whole of the Dissenters' claim. Should they endeavour to overstep this line, and to encroach on the rights of the Established Church, the Legislature will undoubtedly be called upon to declare, and no man will hold that language with more decision and firmness than myself, "your prayer is unreasonable; your pretensions shall be opposed." It appears then, that the suggested repeal is not the commencement of a new plan, but merely the completion of that wise system of toleration which, in part, has long since been adopted. The Corporation and Test Acts are all that remain of the persecuting laws against Protestant Dissenters; for the wisdom of later times has relinquished such unnatural defences. They are the only remaining bastions of an old fortress, which experience has discredited, and all other parts of which are either destroyed or abandoned.

In most of the enlightened nations of Europe, the principles for which I contend are no longer a subject of dispute. In Scotland and in Holland no religious test, as a qualification for a civil office, has, at any time, existed. In the Prussian dominions, and in those of the empress of Russia, no traces of such a test are to be found; in Ireland, and in the dominions of the Emperor, all civil disqualifications, on account of religious opinions, are completely done away. In France a similar relief was extended by the edict of Nantz, which, if public report may be credited, is likely to become, in the present reign, a permanent part of the policy of that kingdom; for an opinion prevails there of its not being necessary that a Frenchman should be a Catholic, in order to have the privilege of shedding his blood in the service of his country. Shall, then, England alone adhere to an exploded system which all other enlightened nations of Europe, upon a full conviction of its weakness, have already abandoned, or are now preparing to abandon? Shall foreigners still be employed to fight her battles? Shall the Hessian sword again be called upon to protect her from invasion, while so many thousands of her own people,

One proof of the absurdity, of the incredible folly of these inhuman statutes, presses so strongly on my thoughts, that I cannot refrain from submitting it to the consideration of the House. The benevolent Mr. Howard; he upon whom every kingdom in Europe, England excepted, would gladly confer, at least, the common privileges of a citizen; and whom the proudest nation might be happy to call her own: he of whom a right hon. member of this House has said, he has visited all Europe-not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art; not to collect medals or to collate manuscripts ;-but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take the gage and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries:" he, even he is denied in England the common rights of a subject; he is incapable of legal admission into any office: and the consequence is, that his zeal for his country having led him a few years since to brave the penalties of the law, and to serve her in a troublesome and expensive civil employment, without the sacramental qualification which his religious persuasion would not permit him to take, the penalties of the Test Act are still hanging over him: and I fear that even now, on his return to his native country, amidst the plaudits of an admiring world, it is in the power of any desperate informer, who is willing to take that road to wealth and damnation which the Legislature has pointed out and recommended to his choice;-I fear it is in the power of every such informer to prosecute him to conviction; and to bring upon him those dreadful penalties which constitute the punishment of an outlaw. God forbid, that in the view of all Europe, such indelible dishonour should be brought upon the British name.

Thus I have stated (too much at large perhaps, but the importance of the subject will plead my excuse) the merits of the Dissenters' case. I have shown the nature of those provisions, in the Test

and Corporation Acts, from which they supplicate relief; and have described the dreadful penalties which these Acts impose. I have shown at what periods, and under what circumstances these afflictive laws were passed. I have proved that of the Test Act the Dissenters were not the objects; and that of the Corporation Act, which for the space of three years established despotism by law, the alleged necessity has no longer the pretence of truth. I have also proved, that after the proposed repeal, all those who cannot take the abjuration oath, which operates as a bar to all but Christians, and make the declaration, which excludes the Catholics, will continue as completely rejected as before: and that even their willingness to give these pledges of attachment to the laws will avail them nothing, unless, in the estimation of their sovereign, their merit shall be such as to render them worthy of an employment in his service. have likewise shown, that the repeal will increase the strength of the kingdom, by enabling his Majesty to bring into action the talents and affections of all his Protestant subjects; and that it will also give additional security to the Church.

I

Whoever, then, shall be of opinion, that the general voice of all the enlightened nations of Europe is deserving of regard; whoever shall admit that the exertions of the whole kingdom will have greater avail than its mutilated strength;-whoever is convinced that union is better than separation; that power is preferable to weakness, and that national justice is the surest ground of national prosperity, will agree with me in thinking that the law which excludes the Dissenters from civil and military employments, ought to be repealed. The grievances of two other descriptions of persons, whose importance in the community cannot be disputed, and the reasonableness of whose plea is too obvious to require any length of discussion, still remain to be mentioned.

By the Test and Corporation Acts, no native of Scotland who is of the established church of that country, can be admitted to any office in England, or to the army or navy in any part of Great Britain, unless he will publicly profess a different religion from his own. Yet the offices of the state are the offices of Great Britain, for the salaries of the persons who fill them are paid by taxes levied on Great Britain. The army, too, and the navy, are the army and navy of Great Britain; for

in the burthen of their payment, Scotland, undoubtedly, bears her part. Hence it is evident, that by the Test Act an English restriction is imposed on a British office; an English restriction is imposed on the British navy; an English restriction is imposed on the army of Great Britain. Englishmen residing in Scotland, are entitled to all the privileges of Scotchmen, for neither the late chief baron Ord, who presided in the Court of Exchequer there, nor Mr. Wharton, who is one of the present commissioners of excise in North Britain, nor any other Englishman who fills a public office in that country, was obliged to renounce the Church of England, in order to qualify himself for the trust. It is justly considered as a British trust, and upon it therefore no Scotch restriction is imposed. Why then should the naval or military service of the united kingdoms be fettered with English restraints, or why should English conditions be annexed to the possession of a British office? There is neither common justice nor common sense in the measure.

I have heard it said, from a confusion of ideas which is scarcely credible, that to grant a remission in favour of Scotland, of the Test and Corporation Acts, would be a breach of the Union; an opinion which supposes, that because, by the Articles of Union, nothing can be taken from Scotland, but what was then stipulated, therefore nothing can be given. It supposes that if, in a private bargain, I have engaged to concede certain points to my neighbour, I am therefore bound by that bargain, to concede to him nothing more. It supposes, that if my agreement with him gives me a right of common on his manor, that I violate my compact if I afterwards voluntarily offer him a right of common upon mine.

Are we told that the Test and Corporation Acts are among the statutes which secure the doctrines, discipline, worship, and government of the Established Church of England, and are therefore by the Act of Union declared to be unalterable? Sir, the government and discipline, the doctrines and the worship, of the English Church, were the same before the statutes were enacted, and would continue the same if those statutes were repealed; and consequently do not derive their security from them: whereas the Act which relates to the patronage of the church of Scotland, and which did seem to affect its discipline, was held to be no breach of

the Articles of Union; neither was that Union understood to be weakened by the subsequent Act, which gave a complete toleration in Scotland to Episcopal Dis

senters.

gious profession to abandon it on any consideration, yet much too ardent for their country to relinquish the satisfaction of engaging in her service, are at this very hour exposed to the penalties of the lawexclusion from the right of receiving a legacy; exclusion from the right of acting as the guardian of a child; exclusion from the right of suing in any court, or on any occasion, for justice.

Am I asked how often, of late years, has the law been enforced? My answer is, the lethargy of the law gives no secu

If the Test and Corporation Laws are deemed unalterable parts of the Articles of the Union, it follows, of course, that every alteration in those laws must be considered a breach of the Union, and that every suspension of those laws must be considered as a suspension of the Union. Now both the Acts are altered, and in part repealed, by subsequent statutes, and, for six months in almost every year, are wholly suspended: but who will assert that the Articles of the Union are dissolved, or that their obligation on the two countries is suspended for six months in every year? or who will deny that the same power which alters a part, may alter the whole of those laws? who will deny, that the same authority which suspends a law for six months, may abolish it for ever?

That many of the natives of North Britain, who are members of its established church, have taken the Sacrament as a qualification for naval or military employments, I readily admit; for those men who consider the service of their country as the first of all duties, and their obligation to their sovereign as the first of all bonds, will make great sacrifices indeed, rather than forego the right of bearing their part in the general defence of the kingdom. But does it therefore follow, that the necessity of making those sacrifices is no hardship? Does it therefore follow, that he who renounces the religion, rather than renounce the service of his country, has no reason to complain of the alternative? Others of the natives of that kingdom, too much attached to their reli

may, at any time, rouze it to exertion, and direct it to its prey. But though the fierceness of the statute should not be called into action, yet in the insult which is offered to the Scots, in the dishonour of being placed on the same level with men whose claim to confidence is blasted by the crime of perjury established in proof against them-in that dishonour, in that insult, there is no intermission, there is no pause. It is time that these odious distinctions, these hateful signs of difference between the two countries which compose Great Britain, should entirely be done away; and that every scar and seam which mark the lips of her ancient wound, should disappear for ever, and that her offspring should have leave to consider themselves as one nation and one people.

Nothing now remains, but that I should briefly mention the hardships imposed by the Test Act on the ministers of the Established Church; a class of our fellowsubjects, to whose concerns the members of this House cannot be indifferent. The law which declares that every man who accepts a commission in the army, or is appointed to a civil office, shall take the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, compels the clergyman to administer this Sacrament to every person who shall demand

it upon that ground; for, if he refuses, a ruinous prosecution for damages is the obvious and inevitable consequence. The very expense of the trial would probably exhaust his scanty means, and leave him nothing but his body to answer, by imprisonment, the adverse judgment of the court. Since, then, the law, by menaces too terrible to be resisted, compels him to administer the holy Sacrament to every man who shall demand it as a qualification for an office, in what manner must he proceed; shall he give the invitation in the usual words of the service, "All you that do truly and earnestly repent of your

but let the requisition come from what quarter it may, sure I am, that, as legislators, a compliance with it belongs to us as a duty; for whatever tends to the debasement of religion, diminishes political authority, and weakens the sanctions of civil discipline. Thus I have shown the various bearings of these pernicious statutes. To the judgment of the House, to your wisdom as senators, to your patriotism as citizens, to your feelings as men, I now submit the consideration of the proposed repeal; perfectly convinced that you will not permit the continuance of laws unjust in their principle, unwise in their political effect, inconsistent with all religious regards, and therefore every way hostile to the interests of the State.

Mr. Beaufoy then moved, that an Act made in the 13th of Charles the 2nd, intituled "An Act for the well-governing and regulating of Corporations," might be read and the same was read accordingly. He also moved, that an Act made in the 25th of Charles the 2nd, intituled, "An Act for preventing dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants," might be read: and the same was read accordingly. He then moved, "That this House will, immediately, resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, to consider of so much of the said Acts as requires persons, before they are admitted into any office or place in corporations, or having accepted any office, civil or military, or any place of trust under the Crown, to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the rites of the Church of England."

Sir Harry Hoghton observed, that whilst be seconded the motion, he felt himself justified in contending that all restrictions were improper; that the Church had not any cause whatever for harbouring the slightest jealousy, especially as the wish of the Dissenters did not extend beyond the accomplishment of the restoration of their rights and privileges; and that they were entitled to every favour, as having been the constant supporters of the Protestant Succession, and zealously united, upon every occasion which had presented itself, for the inviolable maintenance of the interests of their country. At once vulgar and illiberal were those prejudices which induced a part of the community to affirm that the Dissenters, actuated by ambition, endeavoured to get themselves erected into an independent establishment. Far from it. [VOL. XXVI.]

They only desired (and surely it was not possible to form a wish more rational and free from objection) to become participators of the civil rights of their fellow-subjects, in addition to that religious tolerance which at the present period they enjoyed. Liberality of sentiment and freedom, were, doubtless, essential even to the support of the constitution of the country; nor could any man the least versed in the history of the revolutions of various kingdoms avoid recollecting how many dreadful consequences had arisen from the animosities which were the offspring of a difference in religious tenets, The present age had been described as one most eminently enlightened. To give the picture a resemblance, it seemed indispensably requisite to wipe away these animosities for ever.

Lord North remarked, that although he was a sincere friend to the present religi ous establishment, and even allowed that a complete toleration, in the true meaning of the words, was proper; and that if any actual point remained behind to render the toleration granted to the Dissenters still more complete, it ought to be brought forward; he felt himself under the necessity of opposing the motion. Having premised thus much, he trusted that no one who heard him would prove so uncandid as to conceive him actuated by a blind and bigoted spirit of intolerance, and illiberally inimical to a freedom of opinion upon religious subjects. If the present motion went no farther than for the fair and free exercise of the rights of conscience, he should be the last man upon earth to deliver an opinion against it; but his motive for rising was to act the part of a good citizen, and not to lay any heavy burthens on the consciences of any individual. He had heard reports that the Dissenters wished to gain more than civil privileges; but as this suggestion was contradicted by the two hon. members who had spoken upon the subject, his doubts on that point were done away, and he gave every belief to the assertion of those hon. gentlemen. He should have been glad if the Dissenters had proceeded in a more regular manner, and had stated the grievances under which they laboured, by petition to the House: yet, he was not insensible that great and liberal minds should show a virtuous eagerness to relieve unasked, to anticipate the wishes of their fellow-subjects, and when a natural way to act thus laudably was known, it ought [3 G]