The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-18 00:00:00

only for that species of toleration srhich would embrace
their own communion, but also for its extension to every
other religious persuasion. He had been informed that a
petition to a contrary effect,—namely, in favour of the Bill
now in their Lordships' House, but expressly desiring that
no other persons but those of the same communion as the
petitioners might enjoy the benefit of that measure,—had
been privately circulated in Glasgow, and forwarded for
presentation to their Lordships. That petition was, how-
ever, signed by no considerable number of persons, whereas
the petition which he should present to the House was
adapted at a public meeting, and signed by 4,000 persons.
The Earl of ELDON begged leave, before the question
was put upon the petition, to say a few words. He had t
objection to the petition being received, but he apprehended
that all the petitions which had come from Presbyterians
in Scotland, excepting, of course, those who were in Eng-
land, bad been induced in consequence of a clause which he
found in the Bill, but which he was surprised ever found
its way into it. By the act of union their Lordships bad
no power to enact any Test that might affect any person in
Scotland.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE said, that the Noble
Lord would find that the petitioners were precluded by the
law as it now stood from holding offices in England, which
was felt to be a great grievance in Scotland.
The Earl of ELDON repeated that he had no objection
to the petition being received, but lie asserteda—and he
spoke in the presence of a person whom he hoped lie aniglit
always be allowed to call a friend of his—that if the pa-
tition related to a Test affecting the Church of Scotland,
their Lordships had no power to euact such Test. If the
petitioners prayed that they might not be subject to a Test
in England, that was another matter; and he had no
douTbitietlEiaatrml
oafnßy
opo.
present
ss.themle:n eyt,iNf)seortresi
thiezt
stated,
was
ty.ht-aisoi aautotgi x inhpetorltasbgbeatyri.tneilsii
Presbyterians
dlatt
aseo
rightffiri
lams
is ei resi-
dent Scotland.—(A laugh.)
dent in Scotland felt great interest on the subject of the
el;icnntte.°‘rveTsstt(l':Ve.at being permitted to serve the State as
sto'tiom'elfdsteehtiers or in. the • navy. Considering how many Scotch
regiments bad been raised, and how many Scotchmen had
served in the army, he thought that the Noble and Learned
Lord would not maintain the resident inhabitants of Scot-
land did not feel such an interest as to induce there to pray
for the repeal of the Test Act.
The Earl of ELDON, we understood, expressed a wish
to know how by the Act of Union, for the inviolable pre-
servation of the Church of Scotland;anything affecting the
church could possibly lie introduced in the present Bill.
The Marquiel of LANSDOWNE begged to be allowed
to read one passage of the petition. The petitioners stated
that, on the admission of the members of their communion
to offices in England, and to the army, they were subjected
by the law to the necessity of partaking of a most sacred
rite, according to the forms of the Church of England.
which they asserted to he at variance with their principles,
and incompatible with their privileges, as members of
national church. His Lordship then presented petitions for
the repeal of the Test Act, from Annan, from Glasgow
from Warrington in Lancashire, from the Scotch Baptist
meeting in Lothbury, from Paisley, from Leightan-Buz-
zard, in Bedfordshire ; from Bricltstock, and another place,
in Northamptonshire ; from Bromsgrove, Worcester-
shire ; from Carnow, Montgomeryshire ; from Carditi,
and other places in Glamorganshire ; from High-street.
Chapel, High 'Wycombe, Buckinghamshire ; front Bice, .
ter, Oxford ; from St. Leonard's, Shoreditch ; from Barl; •
ing, Essex ; from Uxbridge, Middlesex ; from a chapel io
Mile-end, Stepney; from Torrington, Devonshire; from
Elloxham, Oxfordshire ; from Sevenoaks ; from places in
Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Carnarvonshire ; from Hen-
rietta-street Chapel, Brunswick-square, St. Pancras ; from
Titchfield, Sussex ; and several ether places.
CORPORATION AND TEST ACTS.
At the request of Lord Hot.r,ANn, the Clerk read tl',
preambles to the 13th and 25th c,f Charles 11., and the
clause in the Act of Indemnity respecting the taking tt.
the sacramental test.
Lord HOLLAND then rose and-spoke to the follcwine
effect. I now rise to move your Lordships that the Teat
and Corporation Acts Repeal Bill be read a second time—
a measure respecting which the most extreme anxiety is
felt by a large body of the loyal inhabitants of this
country—an anxiety of which your Lordships have had
evidence in the almost innumerable petitions that lie
upon your Lordships' table—a larger number than per-
haps has ever before been presented upon any single sub-
ject, amounting to no fewer than S6O, all praying most
earnestly that the Bill now before your Lordships may pass
into a law. That measure, in addition to the interest thus
attached to it, has this reconnendation—it has been
brought up to your Lordships' House from the Commons
of
,the United Kingdom, after having been passed in the
shape in which it now stands--by nearly a unanimous vole
of that House of Parliament. Your Lordships know that
in allowing the second reading, you in some degree sanction
the principle of the Bill—and I confidently expect your
free and full concurrence in its great principle, that it is
equally just and expedient to abrogate the law which
renders the taking of the Sacramental Test a necessary
qualification for holding civil employments, substituting
ter the test a declaration that the individual who shall
take it, will not use the power vested in him for the
subversion or injury of the Church by law established.
Such I conceive to be .the principle of the Bill which I
now recommend to your Lordships for a second reading.
Although measures of this nature have frequently been pro-
posed in another place—and more frequently discussed outof Parliturient, not only in publications but at public meetings,
nay even in the pulpit itself—yet it neverhas been brought
fairly before this House since the time when our great de-
liverer King William, shortly after ascending the throne of
these Realms, recommended its satisfactory settlement, in
those memorable words, which, before I sit down, I may feel
it my duty to read to your Lordships. This then is the first
time that, since the period to which I have referred, this,
wise and necessary measure has conic properly and fully
I;efore your Lordships, although I know that illustrious
Monarch, George the First, and his Ministers, were anx-
ious that a law of this kind should be passed, and that
although it was proposed to this House to introduce a
clause into the Bill fur strengthening, the possessions of the
House of Hanover, yet it was attempted to be effect-
e I in a manner so awkward and so ludicrous, that
it is most extraordinary it should not have been
adopted by your Lordships. It is a very fortunate
and auspicious circumstance that this House of Parlia-
tnent has never expressed an opinion adverse is the mea-
sure which I now recommend to your Lordships for adop-
tion. We have now before us a Bill, which has safely
passed through all those perilous passages which were se,
fatal to its predecessors—which has calmly glided in this
"Region mild of calm and serene air ;
and until this day not a breath of adverse wind has hfolve
against it.

Crown,r
11ttsmm thoseoq vu edt
e laws
awa aware etrieiatthien offspringor(tehre t.sio
looofbe.t7B..
semperque innubilis tether
Integit et large diffuso lumine ridet."
1 hail the omen. I consider it auspicious to the measure;
the season, too, is most auspicious ; no political storms agi-
tate the country ; no party feeling divides our population ;
no schism or controversy exists in the Church to impede
iN progress. I consider, also, that if successful in its
object, it will itself he an auspicious omen of benefit ta
the whole community. It will be an event glorious to tlle
reign in which we have the happiness to live if this act of
uty, in order to impart
justice and mercy be consummated—if those fetters of tip-,
'no); importance,d and of abnyd a
nt hat::
which
hrsw ofill tahpepe,,l.
t people,
o be as
ohavebjohi.el4-4
the result of deliberate wisdom, and dispassionate justice,
atshPe°rsespibealci.of winch it is ray object to re-
ecehsa ns il
tyranny,
e lt:-. oliab IBe
.ta
i t' me;;.,
ttae
with the intricacies of history—when I
cc-
lemnity to which it is entitled, toi exelain,l at full length,
greatsttot
riet ftodhrua ttaydcoidipaetvriaon
character
las.
noudfp
lodnifgehne
ili
tm,i
,t, who
oanfdthaosseelleaanrl.sy,
B—when I recollect how
commend to your Lordships. I confess that when I re-
flect upon
consider the state of. the. law as it stands at present, in-
in technicalities
volved and perplexities--I am fully irn-
pressed with the difficulty of the task I have undertaken—
„ task placed so much more beyond my powers because so
the nature of tios.e laws-_
entangled they are
different from my usual habits.* I hope and trust, how-
ever, that your Lordships will forgive use, if, in my
anxiety to remove all obscurity and to avoid producing -
the
very evil of Which I I • comp am, I proceed to call the .atten-
lion of your Lordships to the subject itself. With that
view it was that I caused the three acts to be read pre-
vious to my aridressine•b your Lordships ; and it was with
that view also that I wished there should be placed upon
your. Lordships' table those other Acts to which it may
Po!sibly become necessary for some of your Lordships to
refer in the progress of this discussion. Should I myself
have occasion to allude to them, I felt that it might be
convenient to Noble Lords to be able immediately to refer
to that sacramental test, founded on the two Acts passed in
the reign of Charles 11., and formerly known by the names
of the Corporation and Test Acts. Those two Acts re-
semble each other, namely, that they require persons ap-
pointed to office to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Sup-
per: and in one further particular, that they were both passed
iii the reign of Charles 11. In no other respect, however,
are they like each other, for the Test Act is without a
parallel, conceived as it was, in a spirit so opposite to the
principles of liberty. The Corporation Act was introduced
into the other House of Parliament without any test, &nil