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    € *> minUteeha 4 been numerous . From Up * ping ham in Rutlandshire ^ from a Wesleiaa Methodist at Peterborough ^ from Hinckley ) iJfWfyl ( in . -. Gelty in Montgo ' meryshire ^ Glamorgan ^ Pailion * Stroud 9 and even trow J&untfQr in Scotland ^ those

    applications bad been received . Such applications should always be accompanied by the Local Turnpike Act , under which the exemption was to be claimed . Bat the principal cnse was . a case at Devizes , where an action had been brought by the Committee to recover back the sum of

    tenpence , illegally demanded , in which a verdict had been given at Salisbury for the amount and costs ; but as the Court of King's Bench had granted a case to the defendant , no decision bad been finally obtained . TV some miscellaneous matters he next referred . Indisposed to war , and unable to reconcile offensive hostilities to Christian

    principles , he could not deny that some gallant soldiers had been most pious men . Their rights of conscience ought not to be infringed * Their bodies were sufficiently subdued by discipline , without any subjugation being imposed on tbe devotion of their souls . Complaints had , however ,

    been made of such interference ; and a case presented to the Committee daring the past year having excited their anxious attention , they immediately interfered . He was moist happy to praise , as he was too often compelled to blame , and to acknowledge that from the Right Hon . Secretary at War the Committee received explanations

    the most prompt , and assurances which gratified their minds . An attempt made at the sessions for the county of Lancaster , to prevent persons from . registering more than one part of their premises . in distinct certificates , as places to be appropriated to religious worship , and to compel appiitions to file such certificates to be made by

    counsel , was an attempt thai the -Committee had conceived to be incompatible with both the Toleration Acts , and was an attempt which they should certainly continue to resist . Claims made under the Asses , sed Tax . Acts , on ministers exempt from duties in respect of their horses , had been

    presented to the Committee > and an effort to compel the tutor of an academy for Dissenting Ministers , in the West Riding of Yorkshire , to pay the window and house duties an the apartments occupied by the students , had peculiarly interested their minds , as they We re con rinced . of the great importance of those valuable institutions ,

    and could not endure that those public and useful schools of Christian prophets should he precluded from exemptions , which the wealthy and splendid universities , on the ba » k * t > f the Cam And the I « s , were per * outfed to enjoy . .. < > . i That Riott » vwrfatiog the-deqracies of life , social < frAer ,. mil religious Freedom ,

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    should continue to djsgjace thip country , was a subject of unfeigned regrejU 'Yetat Baling :,. and , at N € trlingt ^ ny and at Isleworthy all in the County of Middlesex , Baptist and Village Congregations bad justly complained of interruptions and ill *

    treatment , which even Churchmen should condemn . But all such riots yielded in aggravation and importance to a riot which a Clergyman , holding several benefices , and the Peace-officer of the Parish , had , at Anstey , in the County of Wilts , thought proper to excite . In the prosecution of

    that Clergyman and his guilty colleagues , the Society had been compelled to expend more . than two hundred pounds , ' . But without such expenditure , the village congregation must hare been overwhelmed ; and , unable to defend their rights , they must have been swept away bv a torrent

    of unhallowed power . To prevent the Rev , W . Hopkins , of Tisbury , from preaching * in that village , a combination was formed . Aware that the house of prayer must not be entered for the purpose of dis * turbance , the persecutors resolved by external riots to effect their purpose . ' A

    May-pole , long removed , was restored . It was placed before the cottage appropriated to devotion . Th ^ re 70 or 80 persons assembled on the evenings when the Dissenting Minister attended to officiate , and by the most hideous noisfes which ingenuity could collect from sheep-bells , cow-horns ,

    whistles , and other instruments of discord , they created sounds horrid and appalling ; a ad which , amidst the stillness of night , could be heard in places three miles remote . To justify such clamours , they pretended to celebrate the rural feast of May on the night of the 31 st of December , amidst clouds and rain . In these scenes the

    Clergyman had not neglected to appear , although his residence was distant ; yet he cheered the mob by his presence , and exhoited them to " Play up , ploy up , play up . * " The worship was discontinued , and the pious minister , who , from no motive

    but the desire of their salvatioa , had exposed himself to inclement weather , to fatigue and danger , was followed for half a mile by this infuriated rabble , in obvious peril to his life . No Iangunge could express his indignation at Clergywien who thus abuse their influence and pemer , nor

    could it he surpassed except by yet greater indignation at bishops , yvho could select such clergymen for patrouage , or at courts which could consider such outrages as approaching to a venial offence . Of hi * indignation the CommitLee had partook .

    The clergyman , peace-officer , fcnd other persons , were convicted of a jriot at the last assizes , for the county of Wilts , and they had vince been , suhject to ihl ^» entence of the Court of Kind ' s Ben © fc , and were now under recognisance * for fcbeir good

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    Intelligence . —Protestant Satiety for the Protection of Religions Liberty . 437

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    VOL « 1 & 3 N

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1818, page 457, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2478/page/49/