The National Register. — London, England, 1811-05-26 00:00:00

ebe JV ut ptt. No. XLIV. 'Re was "tire that so !mg as the Cuurch of England should endure, as a Clank, the Dissenters would nnt IT disturbed by the Church of England ; and, as he was no Prophet, he did not v. ish to forttel what tni,;l:t happen to *ern after it was im more."—llgorttnig Chronicle. To use coercion in compelling uniformity, wa' not only impolitic, but, while man was constituted as man, it would he impracticaMe. The very hasi,rof Toleration depended upon abstaining from the attempt. That hasig would never be infringed by ae Church of England, if that (*hurt h i.n dumd in its existing form. But were it overturned, history afforded them sway melancholy cxamples of the direction which Religious Toleration might take. This way all he should suggest to their Lordships on so delicate a point et' his subject."—TheGloite, Aacustsitor OF CANTERBURY. THE NATIONAL PEGISTER. THE REJECTION OF LORD SIDMOUTITS BILL. To what fitter subject can we now &rote the columns of • The Pulpit,' than to some timely remarks on the legislative seiectiun of a measure which would have precluded so many future Dissenting Ministers from ascending it ? Every one was apptieed of Viscount Sidmouth's design of submitting to Par- fitment Ms " Act to explain and roider more effectual certain Acts of the first year of the reign of King William and Queen Mary, and of the nineteenth year of the reign of His Present Majesty, so far as relate to Protestant Dissenting Mini.ters ;" and we all now know, happily for society, that this projected diminution of religious liberty has been decidedly dismissed by the second estate of the realm,—by that branch of our legisla ture where the dignitaries of the establishment have voice and vote, and which is most jealous of the interests and ascen d.lncy of the Church of England. Toleration has triumphed in the sanctuary of episcopacy. Happily for society, I repeat it, has Lord Sidmouth'i Bill 41 got," as Earl Stanhope told us, " its death-blow ; and, the BEI being thus " dead and gone," I think, with this Earl, that it is " not worth any man's is bile to quarrel with its carcac.i." What could have induced the Noble • Viscount to volunteer in .this catisP ? Could not he see the signs of the times ? Had he no knowledge of the objects of his Bill? Surely had he hut seen the first, and known the bit, he would not have brought it .forward. The times were strikingly unpropitious to his Bill. Was it true ;mile) , to suggest and mature plans of le:=,islative enactnu nts against rel:glou:,berty, particularly the liberty hitherto enj,lyed by pretestants, at the precise ',trio(' whtn catholic petitions, against political and reli , ,,ious rt s taint, were preparing from the sister kingdom ; when, a:so, as it i.l.peartd that the nuirber of licensed prt.achtrs had not serion , :!y augintated, and when but ton much of political disalltetion scemt 1 on the alert to avail itself of any climour that might be caused by rellziotts into kraort in the first case? Another obstacle opposed interance. Was it :ict impcssible to consult the pleasure of or encrahie and beltArttl :;ovetLign s,:letnnty deciaricE,- though he in his trst speech from the tin one, " I will preserve the TGleva!ion concerning this apprOlencted infringement of thlt act ? Decency here have tiLmtn - re,+. g•'hile the pecrogn ttrc is s:opend,d,"saiLl I.orti Erskine, I would say, Were 1 Regent, " I will neve r at;ree to .this Pcrions whom the B:11 was most to ct, proved to b.! the /east in its favour. The noble trover of Liiis complained much of tbc " mist:on:AT:ion, inisdppr: inlsiGferpre . t atid..tisrepr‘sentaLion," .ne abroad reFpert i .;.; it ; and, really, since his Lordship is repeat,' LI , have de - eared, as a Peer, that" he bat: untlerston-.1 from tle Con;rtuati eations that he had had with sever:ll respect:4lle Lpissen!ers, that they wcte de• irons that b 0 tilt e $414. ITV:ararr! as this shout !7•:! ac.t.Tted 4 " and that" 110Jle them was the procision r!i this ill colL 4 idered to 11 art atterati.ia or an. otri4b e ft! , -311 ;f Ole 4,1 of Toleration," since his Lordship thus speaks, tin re must have subsisted some strange misconception of this Bill between him self and those " most respectable authorities amongst the Dis senters, marry of whom had personally; waited on him for the purpose; of communicating with him respecting the measure."— The Dissenters did not comprehend the Noble Viscount, or the Noble Viscount did not comprehend them. Sueleappears to have been the state of things between them. It is not to be supposed, that his Lordship found himself incapable of explaining his Bill to them ; nor is it . to be lightly credited that the " most re• spectsible authorities among the Dissenters" would either w il fully misconceive the provisions of his Bill, or maliciously mis represent them to the world. Neither of these two alternatives are to be chosen. " Who these persons were," the respectable authorities who communicated with Viscount Sidmouth on the provisions of his Bill," is of no consequence. Now that the Bill is printed," observes one of our journals, " it is sufseiently in telligible. Lord Stanhope defied any lawyer, (who deserved to wear a gown on his back !) to prove that. the law was properly stated, is the preamble of the Bill ; and, that the provisions of it did not trench on the Liberties secured by the Toleration Act." No wonder then, whatever misunderstanding had previously subsisted, that no sooner was the Noble Viscount's Bill printed so as to be generally known, than the Deputies of the Dissenting Congregations, the Committee for guarding the Privileges of the Methodists, and Assemblies of Evangelical Clergymen and Ministers, met for the express purpose of Petitioning Parliament against it. Distinctions were at once forgotten. The cause of one became the cause of all. What is the result we thus see ? Success. Toleration has been recognised; intolerance has been discarded. Let our Protestant Dissenters becomingly remember these things. Let them rejoice, but rejoice in love. It is not a vic tory that they have obtained over the Establishment, for, though nine-teen of its Bishops were in the House Peers, at the first readii):l of Lord Sidmouth's Bill, net one of these, not even the arch of the church, has really supported the Bill. Dissen. tors finding, therefore, no cause of complaint against the na tional churchovould, perhaps, do well in preserving and extend ing a spirit of friendship towards her; assured as they now are, that " so long as the Church of England endures, as a church, the Dissenters will not be disturbed by the Church of England ;" while, at the smile time, they cannot with safety be indifferent as to " %shut might happen to them after it was no more!" %While the Establishment lasts, in this temper of mind, the Dissenter are !;afe. Should that Establishment fall, assaulted by sectnriits aria overwhelmed by infidelity, then Dissenters may quake. Let not the most " respectable authorities among the Dis senters," above al:, be seduced into political copartnery with any Noble Lords, because they "cannot but admire the ani mated zeal with which this important cause was taken up by several Noble Lords," which, they say, " will do them honour to the latest posterity ;" nor, on the other hand, because certain popular new ,papers have adroitly applauded their " nee and spirit," lamenting that. some sink intelligence and spirit did not actuate the innhifarioni reformists of this day. According to one of their late Resolutions, let it rather be hoped of them, akhough they have long anticipated a period when all Penal Laws for worshiping God according to their consciences would be abuli,hed, they have bees unwilling to aeitate the public mind for the attainment of their hopes ; and }:resuming that no perons would, in this age, venture to assail the Tole ration Act, after the ever-memorable DecLration of the King, they have been content," as they Will be, " to regard it with grateful (motions, and to esteem it as an eliectual protectie from the. recurrence of former persecutions." Admirable sen timents ! worthy of truly Patriote, and of gond He Chris- ti4.l 111 . .senters. - Al‘e.y 21,1811. ONISINIUS.