And as such it makes the year 1812 in some respects a
landmark in our constitutional history.
Mr. Smith had referred to an omission which prevented him from speaking
of the bill as complete. He was alluding to the Test and Corporation
Acts, which had been passed ten years later than the Conventicle Act, in
the same reign of Charles II., and which many of the Non-conformists,
and especially the Unitarians, had urged Lord Liverpool to include in
this measure of repeal, but which he decided on retaining. As has been
said above, he drew a distinction between acts inflicting penalties and
those which went no farther than imposing political disabilities,
feeling that any relief of Protestant Dissenters from such disabilities
must inevitably lead to the concession of a similar indulgence to Roman
Catholics, and not being as yet prepared to admit to Parliament the
members of a Church which recognized the duty of obedience in any matter
to a foreign sovereign; for, as the disabilities had been originally
imposed on the Roman Catholics, so they were now maintained on
political, not religious, grounds; and even those most opposed to a
relaxation of them were careful to explain their resistance to be one
which time and a change of circumstances might mitigate.[173]
As a fitter opportunity for discussing the question will be afforded by
the Duke of Wellington's bill, in 1829, we should not have mentioned it
at all in this place, had not Lord Liverpool, in arranging his
administration, adopted a mode of dealing with it which, though rather a
parliamentary or departmental than a constitutional innovation, was,
nevertheless, one of so strange a character as to seem to call for
examination.
Pages:
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378