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    children baptized m infancy , they could not claim the performance of the rites of sepulture where they resided , although tfeey subscribed lifee others to theXJhurch . This was a painful subject ; it was melaiicholy to think what custom , nature and religion prompted , should bv any

    law tie prohibited ; and that under circumstances of the most distressing nature—a parent refused to bury the child in the grave where his fathers lay , over which he had often wept and scattered flowers , and to which his affections were linked by ties which only the heart could feel . The blood curdled within him

    when he thought of the existence , much less the use , of such a power in any clergyman , that he could turn to gall the tear of weeping widowhood , or agonise the pang of parental distress - The sooner the Legislature applied some re . medy to this , the better it would be , ( Shouts of applause . )—The registry of

    baptisms was also another subject which called for immediate legislation , improvemerit and regulation . As the law now stood , the copy of a baptismal register from the Established Clergyman was held to be the best species of evidence , while that of the Dissenter was only regarded in the nature of a memorandum . The

    Dissenters , therefore , wish to have the baptism of the children registered at the office of the Clerk of the Peace , as a security for the preservation of their property and liberty . The Dissenters had originated societies from which the greatest benefit * Were derived , and their

    feeltags should be consulted . The most unworthy means were taken to injure their school ** , and that by clergymen of the Church of England . He had no hostility to the Established Church , but if its clergy misconducted themselves , they must be censurable for it at the bar of

    public opinion . He ( Mr . Wilks ) then cited several instances of their conduct , both as to Dissenting schools and the burial of Dissenting children , and called upon the Dissenters , who were a powerful body , to take the necessary and proper means for the protection of their interests . - Whenever the time of a general

    election arrived , and it was a period that could not now be -very distant , he hoped that no candidate would obtain a vote from a Protestant Dissenter , who did not pledge himself to support the repeal oi those -obnoxious measures , < as well as the Test and Corporation Acts * which produced continued inconvenience and

    degradation to Protestant Dfesenter * : and if their number waft much more limited than it really was , and their intellect more imbecile , and their influence lees powerful , he could venture to predict to

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    soch candidates that in many parts of England the Dissenting interest was not to be disregarded . In explanation of this assertion , he would mention a fact of recent occurrence , in a borough not more than fifty or sixty miles from the metropolis . That borough had long been

    contended for ( its representation ) by the Treasury and the popular party . The elections had cost much money . They had been protracted frequently , and that tvhich he would take the liberty of

    calling the good cause at length triumphed . At length an election for the High Bailiff of that borough arose , and the people of the popular interest conceiving that they were quite strong enough without the Dissenting interest , declared their disre

    spect for that assistance . The Dissenters did then what , he trusted , they would always do . They retired at once from the contest , and the popular party was defeated . ( Hear . ) Since that time , however , the best possible understanding has grown up between them , and the Dissenters were regarded with abundance of

    courtesy , it was by such efforts as these he had described that he would prepare to repeal the Test Act . He would suggest , however , that no forms should be adopted in their petitions to Parliament *~ -but that each congregation should prepare their own petition , in order that the Legislature might clearly understand

    that they had intelligence enough to express their wants , and language to represent them . ( Cheers . ) He then detailed some extraordinary proceedings in the Court of the Bishop of St . David ' s against the Rev . Mr . Thomas , for praying at a grave in a churchyard when the Vicar had appointed the time of burialreceived the fees— -and detained the

    mourners for an hour ; and a prosecution in the Court of the Bishop of Oxford by the Curate of Tharne , against « ix females , for complaining of his refusal to admit the corpse of a child into the Church . In the first , the proceedings were stayed : and in the last , the

    clergyman experienced a deserved and complete defeat , accompanied with the payment of all costs .- *—^ He proceeded to the consideration of the recent or projected Parliamentary proceedings affecting the rights or honour of Protestant

    Dissenters , and to which several resolutions refer . He successively discussed the repeal of the Test and Corfioration Acts ~~ the rejection of the Unitarian Marriage BUI—the grant of £ 60 ^ 000 for the erection of New Chwrches ~ -and the

    protection of Dissenting Missionaries in the British Colonies throughout the world . A Bill , too , had within . the present Session been introduced , relative to

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    44 © lnteU ^ ence . S ' ^^ Prottesiant : ^ ci ^ y t Mr . Wilkss Speecfu

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1824, page 440, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2526/page/56/