" At the same time,
while urging the repeal of acts which he truly branded as a disgrace to
the statute-book, he was not blind to the duty imposed on him, as
responsible for the public tranquillity, of taking care that meetings
held ostensibly for purposes of devotion should not be perverted to the
designs of political agitators; and therefore he provided in the bill
for the registration of all places appropriated to religious worship,
and for the exaction from "the preachers and teachers in those meetings
of some test or security in the oaths to be taken by them." He had
already secured the acquiescence of the bishops, and he was equally
successful now in winning the assent of the House. The conditions, such
as they were, did not prevent the bill from being entirely acceptable to
the Non-conformists; and though their spokesman in the House of Commons,
Mr. W. Smith, member for Norwich, confessed a wish "that it had gone a
little farther, and had granted complete religious liberty," he at the
same time expressed sincere gratitude on the part of the Non-conformists
for what was thus done for them; and declared that, "as an act of
toleration, it certainly was the most complete which had hitherto been
passed in this country." It was, in fact, the beginning of the
abandonment of that system of discouragement of and hostility to all
sects except the Established Church, which had hitherto been regarded by
a large party as one of the most essential principles of the
constitution.
Pages:
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377