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    desire their more wide-spread diffusion and universal sway . 4 . That , to such Committee , this Meeting recommend all expedient support to " The Marriage Service &UI , "

    depending in Parliament , for the relief of Unitarians , and to every measure by which the actual enjoyment of religious freedom may be more diffused ; and that they neglect no opportunity to obtain from Parliament some enactments

    whereby places of public worship shall be exempted from parochial assessment—English soldiers , who are Dissenters , may hare liberty of worship—the peculiar disadvantages of Baptists , as to the rights of interment , shall be removed—and the official registration of the births and burials of Protestant Dissenters may be regulated and secured .

    5 . That , imposed with the mexpedience , degradation and injustice of the Corporation Acty and of the needlessness , oppression and profanity of the Sacramental Test—apprised that the Annual Indemnity Acts are a wretched and insufficient protection to Protestant Dissenters —assured that in Ireland they have been

    emancipated from the operation of those Acts—and believing , an unprotesting acquiescence in those laws to be dishonourable and unwise—this Meeting recommend to their members , throughout the country , to revive their attention to

    these subjects—and request the Committee to consider and adopt such measures , at v a nt time , as may re-introduce the subject to the attention of Parliament , and obtain , by the repeal of those Acts , an essential though long-deferred relief .

    8 . That , mindful of the history of other times—devoted to constitutional freedom—attached to those noble families whose illustrious forefathers thought and spoke , and lived and died , for their

    native land—and noting the conduct of those public men who , imbued with the spirit of their ancestors , seek also to be saviours of their country , and bjessers of mankind—this Meeting have with pleasure welcomed the attendance of Lord John

    Russell , M . P ., their noble Chairman ; and assure him , that his talents , his information , his principles and his exertions , rendering him worthy of his noble race , have obtained for him their untaught and unpurchaseable gratitude and respect .

    When this Resolution had passed , the noble Chairman rose and said , ( when the iong and loud applause would permit > J It is , with great regret I feel compelled to Jeave this Meeting ; but an indisposition compels me , though reluctantly , to go . Illness from attending in the House of

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    Commons till a late hour . this morning , on a cause not unconnected with religious liberty , must be the apology which I entreat you to accept . I Jiave also some apology to offer for dclayifig the Meeting . I was ready , and my arrival was retarded by an accident that filled me with regret .

    It is with no spirit of hostility to the Church , of which I am a member , that I have attended the Society this day . I rather came to promote its welfare . For , if I am not mistaken , much of the pains which the Committee of this Society has so worthily taken , and of which the proceedings have been commented on by your eloquent Secretary with such vast

    ability , ought to have been the labours of the Church of England . It would do well to appoint persons to watch her members , and to observe that no bigoted or prejudiced persons pervert the vast power and riches granted by the State , to the purposes of luxury , or despotism , or pride . I own I was surprised at many of the circumstances which have been

    related . It is hardly possible to believe that vexations so petty and so intolerant can exist in this country , in this age . With almost every word that fell from your Secretary I cordially concur . There are , however , but one or two matters to which I will allude . One is on the punishment by three months' imprisonment

    for preaching in the street ; a punishment so completely disproportioned to the offence , that it indicates a spirit of persecution most ungenral to a British heart . If it be proper that the law should

    prevent such preaching , it was evidently the duty of magistrates and officers to give notice to the preacher of his error , instead of condemning him to such an imprisonment , a man who ^ was anxious to impress on himself and his fellow-creatures the divine lessons of the Christian

    faith . That persons should be refused assistance froni their parishes on account of difference of religious opinions , also appears to me a grievous wrong . Is this the lesson the clergy received from the

    religion , they are taught ? Is thus the lesson the parable of the good Samaritan affords ? Did he stop to ask the man whom he found wounded and lying in his way , whether t ^ eir religious sentiments were similar ? Did he wait before he

    healed his wounds , and liberally provided for his support , to ask whether he believed every iota of his creed ? No ; while God knows the heart and the conscience , it is for men to judge each other only by their acts ; and that man who is found helping us when distressed , relieving us wheuour spirits are exhausted , and binding up , our wounds , is most likely to gain our conn-

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    714 Intelligence .--Ptfit&tont Society : LordJfihn Russells 'Speech .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1822, page 714, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2518/page/58/