perly belonged to kings-that of administrator of the laws established by the free consent of the community." The house appeared during a long and moft interefting difcuffion, greatly agitated by this fhock and conflict of opinions. But Mr. Pitt preserved a cautious and politic filence as to the merits of the revolution which had taken place; lavishly applauding, nevertheless, Mr. Burke for the zealous and seasonable attachment he had displayed to the principles of the British conftitution.

The spirit by which the court was now actuated still more evidently appeared in their conduct relative to the diffenters, who had fignalized themselves by the exuberance of their joy at the late events in France. Since the favorable decifion of the late feffion relative to the repeal of the teft laws, they had not ceafed their efforts by every means in their power to increase the number of their friends in the house of commons. Provincial meetings were convened by them in every part of the kingdom; and refolutions, framed in terms for the most part harsh and revolting, paffed, expreffive of their fentiments of the injustice and oppreffion under which they fuffered. And in contemplation of the approaching general election, they had even the grofs indifcretion, in many of their public votes, to recommend a marked preference in favor of those who had fhewn themselves the friends and advocates of equal and univerfal liberty. In the ftead of Mr. Beaufoy, a friend and partifan of the minifter, Mr. Fox was now folicited to move the house a third time for the repeal of the Acts in queftion; to which he gave a ready and generous affent. By appearing to confider the repeal of the teft laws as a matter of great magnitude and importance, the nation at large, which had originally regarded the question with indifference, were led to believe it to be a matter of high and serious import. Counter-meetings of the friends of the thurch were called, in which the repeal of the teft

was

was deprecated as fatal to its fecurity. The clergy revived with incredible fuccefs the obfolete and fenfeiefs clamor, that the CHURCH was in DANGER. All poffible encouragement was given to these artifices of faction and efforts. of bigotry by the court; fo that when the period arrived at which the destined motion was to be made, the diffenters were astonished to find the government, the church, and the nation combined in paffionate opposition to a claim which to them appeared founded on the clearest principles of reason, policy, and justice.

On the 2d of March Mr. Fox brought forward his mo tion of repeal, which, unmindful of its present extreme unpopularity, and fixing his attention only on the effential and immutable rectitude of the measure, he fupported with a wonderful difplay of ability. He faid, that it was to him a matter of triumph, that the very people who had imputed to him defigns hoftile to liberty and fubverfive of the conftitution, had requested him to plead their cause on that day. This was at once a refutation and reparation of the WRONG they had done him. He faid, he was himfelf a member of the eftablished church, and thought an eftablishment, if not neceffary, at least useful and advifable. And should any attempts be made to invade the just rights of the church, she should find him as ready to stand forward the champion of those rights, as he was this day to plead those of the diffenters; and he hoped the time would come, when the church would fee his conduct in its true light, and acquit him of any defign upon her splendor, influence, or greatness. Perfecution, faid Mr. Fox, is a bond of union. Remove the barriers which feparate the diffenters from the community of citizens, and in their collective capacity they would be no longer known. Men unite to refift oppreffion: but cease to opprefs, and the union is diffolved. Continue it, and you render the union ftill more compact and firm, till refiftance, at firft perhaps weak, gradually becomes formidable, and finally fuccessful,

And

And experience fhews, that when oppreffion has been carried to certain lengths, men think that the only way to destroy the oppreffion is to deftroy the oppreffor. Such is the tendency and fuch the termination of this wretched fyftem of policy. For any government to extend its jurisdiction over the opinions of individuals, faid this magnanimous statesman, is at once abfurd and tyrannical. It is abfurd, for opinions muft and ought to be free. They are not the proper objects of human authority, and they may in fact be perfectly innocent and harmless, when in a mere fpeculative view they perhaps appear fraught with mifchief and danger. It is tyrannical, for it would furnish a pretext for every fpecies of oppreffion and perfecution. It is not to control opinions, but actions, that government is inftituted. And then only has the state a right to interfere, when by any overt act a man has offended against any known law. Then, and then only, is punishment juftly inflicted, when a man by his conduct has proved himself criminal; and not when it is inferred, and perhaps moft unjustly inferred, from his opinions, that he may poffibly become fo. Such, faid Mr. Fox, is the abfurdity of the laws in queftion, that the legislature has for many fucceffive years regularly paffed an act for indemnifying those who prefume to ferve their country at their own peril. To this miferable expedient are men driven, rather than repeal a law which they themfelves blush to execute."

Mr. Pitt, who had done himself honor by the temper and moderation with which he had oppofed the former applications, now indulged fome expreffions of afperity.

Neither the merits nor demerits of individuals ought, The said, to have any influence in the difcuffion of the prefent queftion: yet was the conduct of the diffenters liable to juft reprehenfion, who, at the very moment they were reprobating the teft laws, difcovered an intention of forming affociations through the country for the purpofe of impofing a teft upon the members of that houfe, and judging

of

of their fitness for difcharging their parliamentary duty from their votes upon this fingle queftion. He was far from withing to throw any ftigma upon the diffenters; but he affirmed it to be EXTREMELY PROBABLE, that they might exercife the power they demanded for the subverfion of the prefent establishment. The important queftion at iffue, he afferted, plainly was, whether the house ought to relinquish at once thofe acts which had been adopted by the wifdom of our ancestors to ferve as a bulwark to the church, whofe conftitution was fo intimately connected with that of the ftate, that the fafety of the one muft be always affected by any danger that threatened the other. To toleration the diffenters were undoubtedly entitled. They had a right to enjoy their liberty and their property, to entertain their own fpeculative opinions, and to educate their offspring in fuch religious fentiments ast themselves approved. But the indifpenfable neceffity of a permanent church establishment for the good of the ftate, required that toleration fhould not be extended to equality; if it were, there would be an end for ever to the wife policy of prevention, and a door would be opened to the abfolute ruin of the conftitution."

- Mr. Burke feconded the minister in a fpeech of far more virulence, and in prefent circumftances therefore of far more efficacy. He expreffed his "utter contempt of all abstract principles of natural right; thefe, he faid, were annihilated by fociety, which fecured the poffeffion of every comfort which thofe proud and boastful rights impotently held out, but could not bestow. He aftonished and alarmed the house with reading feveral paffages from the writings of diffenting divines on the fubject of ecclefiaftical eftablishments, expreffed with the ufual acrimony and violence of theological polemics. From thefe teftimonies Mr. Burke inferred the inveterate enmity of the diffenters to the church; and he adjured the house to fuffer the fatal incidents which had taken place in France, and the

fudden

fudden ruin of the Gallican church, to awaken their zeal for the prefervation of our prefent happy and excellent establishment." On the divifion, the numbers were, ayes 105, noes 294; fo that the majority against the repeal had increased fince the last feffion from 20 to 189 voices.

In confequence of the unhappy manner in which this question was treated, the spirit of religious bigotry, prejudice, and animofity was revived throughout the kingdom in an extraordinary degree. The grand fabric of policy which it had been the labor of a century to rear, and the glory of the house of Hanover for two fucceffive reigns to cherish, was now in a moment of rafhnefs and refentment demolished and overthrown. The diffenters on their part can by no means be acquitted of blame. Confidering the great plaufibility which may be given by eloquent and artful men to principles the most abfurd and erroneous, it is no wonder that many highly respectable perfons, far removed from contempt as to knowledge and understanding, fhould regard the repeal of the test laws as attended with a degree of rifque and dangert. Till the PASSIONS of the public were awakened, it is however extremely evident that the arguments of the diffenters, and of their advocates, both in and out of parliament, made a fenfible impreffion in their favor; but when they proceeded to a rude and arrogant mode of urging their claim, the voice of reafon was loft in the fubfequent conflict. Had the diffenters conducted themselves with the refpect and deference due to the government of a country even when in error, it is by no means improbable that at a future period the court might

"The fufferings of men in their civil rights upon religious accounts," fays bishop HOADLEY in his memorable anfwer to bishop SHERLOCK, "was the INFLAMING CONSIDERATION-and what gave life to those paffions which in the last century produced fuch fatal effects. The contrary conduct, therefore, would have the contrary effect. Let all hardships and all oppreffions ceafe. Let there be no civil punishment, or civil fuffering, or civil inconvenience, call it as you pleafe, on account of what is the dictate of men's private confcience, unlefs it immediately affect the civil government. If the former method has been tried, and has been feen to blow up difaffection into violence, then the true cure for thefe evils is to

prevent