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

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 never 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.Tted4" and that" 110Jle them was the procision r!i this
ill colL4idered to 11 art atterati.ia or an. otri4beft!,-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.