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    which none but parents can sufficiently conceive ^ At this critical moment , when th « liberties of Protestant Dissenters seemed to bang by a single

    thread , when our ancestors were threatened , not indeed with the scourge ami * the stake , but with fines and dungeons , and when the pvtoet of-dh-ecting their children into the path of truth and duty

    was attempted to be wrested from their hands , at this memorable season ^ < 5 eorge the First ascended the British throne . * They hailed his arrival as the pledge of the

    vindication of their rights and freedom : nor vrme $ hey disappointed * Although not a native of this country , he was better acquainted , nevertheless , than his predecessor with the nature of our civil

    constitution and with the spirit of the reformed religion . His Dissenting subjects were assured of his protection : and , as soon as circumstances permitted th « legislator ^ instead of attempting to animate ,

    as it were , this monstrous abortion , the offspring of a bigotted court and a profligate and iftfi * - del ministry , repoaled the Schism law 5 and provided for the belief of Protestant Dissidents from ? the

    religion of the stale . Statutes to this ^ nfi * r 4 re passed in the fifth and eighth ' years of the sovereign whom I have mentioned . A short time after the C 0

    tnmenfeementof his reign , * he safety of the kingdom was endangered by a tebeblion . At that alarming cn $ is no class of his majesty * s subjects were more jzealons in de ~ fe iuUng his crown against the Pretender to it than the dissenters :

    _ * * l * aV < mit < . t $ the Piiritatti CDr 1 «« i * itf ** $ f )> mm w . % & * & ? - ¦¦ '

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    their influence , their time , their wealth > their lives , were devoted to his service . Regardless of the virtual prohibitions of the Test Laws , they recruited his armies ; an < J some of them even had

    commands there . Their share was large in the honour of having preserved the house of Hanover from the machinations of the exited family of the Stuarts . And the Toyal breast was tioi told to gratitude . When endeavours were made in

    parliament , by the enemies of the nonconformists , to restrict tolera - tion , ! the firmness and moderation of the government , aided by its sense of justice and obligation , prevented them from fieing successful .

    A sacred respect to religious liberty was maintained , in like manner , throughout the next reign . When , about the yea * 1730 , som « bigots were taking steps towards the nrosectftion of © r . Deddridge ,

    in the ecclesiastical court , for keeping a seminary in which he educated dissenting ministers , information of the design Was ift * sooner communicated to George the Second than he ordered the

    proceedings to be stopped ; t declaring that lie would not aflotr of any prO 8 ecu titfn if or conscience , sake ¦¦ ¦ a declaration ivhich he is said to have bequeathed as ^ legacy to * his ^ succesjf ^ by whom it has beein rnbsrt holtoturably wdcofmed and ful filled .

    f Or rather , when attempts to r < emove ' some fisting restrlctioiis df ft 3 wate violerttly op {> oded . Lord lianad ( ywne * s Work « . VoU III . I 8 » , &c . Append , to Toulmi ^ s ^ Ed . of N « rf »

    Sec , Vil . ^ Wos . 13 , 15 . t See iilemoir ( of the Life pf Gilbert 1 « ra ^ fi ^ id eA . ) t VduX ^^ o , art * tlte i < ferwece Ibtere ^ abjomed .

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    Essay on tkt Pragrtsv of RtUgious Liberty . 611

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1814, page 611, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2445/page/23/