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    strong and decisive measures had not been taken , the congregation must have been discontinued . A prosecution was commenced , but here the magistrates not only required , as at Anglesea , that the place should have been registered by

    the officer to whom the notice was sent , but that a duplicate of the notice should have been transmitted by him to the Clerk of the Peace . The object of this provision of the Toleration Act was to enable both the religious and civil

    authorities to exercise that wholesome jurisdiction of which no reasonable friend to religious liberty could complain , but it was at the same time manifest that over these officers the Dissenters had no

    power , and it was not possible for them even to know whether the communication was actually made . A great and obvious difficulty was thus raised ; for as the law required only an annual communication , no Dissenting congregation could safely commence worship in the

    interval , till the whole cycle of the year had rolled away . It appeared , however , that the registrar had accurately returned , as he thought , all the papers deposited with him , but the city of Canterbury being a county of itself , the notice transmitted to the Clerk of the Peace had not

    complied with the provisions of the Act ; and therefore it was held by the magistrates , that the tumults by which the congregation had been interrupted , and their lives hazarded , were not illegal , because the place was not duly registered . An appeal to a higher tribunal

    then became necessary , and the case was tried , not before the Mayor and Corporation of Canterbury , but before the Judges of Assize ; and here he ( Mr . W . ) could not refrain from paying his tribute of respect to the Judges of the land , for the impartiality they had always manifested . The case came on before Mr .

    Baron Graham , who was a gentleman as well as a judge , and when it was contended that the place must not only have been registered , but that the-duplicate must have been transmitted , he stopped the Counsel , and told him that his proposition was intolerable—that all

    the law required of Dissenters was , that they should give notice of their places of meeting , and that having so done they had fulfilled their duty , and became fully entitled to the protection of the law . ( Applause . ) Another objection was then taken , namely , that females officiated . This sect bore the denomination of Ar ~

    niunan Bible Christians , and it was their custom , as among the Quakers , to have female instructors . It appeared , also , that some observations , not : of H very courteous nature , had been . made by one

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    of the preachers , who had reiniiided tjie magistrates that there was a higher tribunal than their own , where sentence would be passed upon them . These observations , and the female exhibition , were urged as a sufficient justification for

    any outrage that might be committed upon them ; but the Learned Judge again interrupted the Counsel , and said that he would not allow such a wretched apology to be introduced in any court of justice over which be presided . If these people had violated the law they were

    amenable to the law , but they were still entitled to the protection of the law ,. Thus was a great and most satisfactory result obtained , and thus had points of great importance , and to the Dissenters of considerable danger , happily and for

    ever passed away- If he ( Mr . W . ) seemed to enter too much into detail , he begged , however , to remind the meeting , that he was not come there to play the orator or to excite their sympathy by the arts of rhetoric . His object was not to raise the smile of derision on the

    cheek , or make the tear of sensibility flow from the eye . His address was rather a lecture to the multitude to whom the Society ' s proceedings were reported , by which he wished to make intelligible what had been related to them . It was

    necessary , however , that he should compress his observations , and therefore he should proceed at once to the usual classification of the cases . First in order came those demands which affected

    Protestant Dissenters , by touching what was dear to every man—his purse . He alluded to turnpike tolls , and he hoped this subject would not again require him to address the meeting . Most of them knew what had been the state of the

    law . It had been held that a Dissenter might not pass out of the parish in which he resided , even to the congregation to which he belonged , without paying tolls , and those double tolls too , which it was the policy of the law to impose on those

    who traveled on the Sabbath-day . This was a question of some importance . By these means 40 / , or 50 / . a year were taken out of the pockets of Dissenters , who might otherwise have devoted it to the comfort of their families ., or to aid those works of wisdom and benevolence

    which blessed our own country and improved the world . ( Applause . ) The law had since been corrected , and if the words of the General Turnpike Act were attended to , all difficulties as to this

    question would be immediately overcome . By this Act ( 3 d Geo . IV . cap . 126 , sec . 32 ) it was enacted , that no tolls should be demanded " of or from any person or persons going to or returning from

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    Intelligence *—Protestant Society : Mr . Wilk $ ? $ Speech . 435

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1824, page 435, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2526/page/51/