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    Sir , 1 WAS much pleased with observing in the Session of Parliament of 1824 , that the Gentlemen of the House of Commons and the Government were alive to the evil of requiring declarations inconsistent with

    truth . The occasion was a motion of Mr . Hume ' s for abolishing the declaration demanded of an officer buying 01 * selling a commission , relating- to price ,, &c , " which declaration the circumstances of the service compel him to violate . " AH persons cried out

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    against the practice , and Mr . Hume withdrew his motion on the assurance of the agents of government , that tte abolition of the obnoxious declaration was under consideration . On reading the debate I remember asking involuntarily , ' Is the honour of a soldier a stricter obligation to truth than the duty of a Christian and a Christian minister ? Yet the students at our Universities are compelled

    to subscribe articles of faith which they do not believe , which they cannot believe , for they know nothing of them , and our clergy are required to subscribe the same articles , and to declare publicly their hearty assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the Book of Common

    Prayer , though it is notorious , and in the nature of things must be , that many of them do not approve some things iu the much-bruited Book , nor believe some of these

    ever-to-be-reinembered articles . I cannot but think , Sir , that there wants nothing but the exposure , for the correction , of the evil . Let the case be brought before Parliament , and again and again , and if necessary

    every year , and it is impossible that a system of such oppression on the one side , and hypocrisy on the other , should be much longer endured . We should not , I fear , muster so many petitioning clergy as on the former clerical petition ; but there must be many who feel the yoke gali their consciences , and not a few who would

    be bold enough to come forward and complain . The whole community is interested in this matter , for it affects the national honour and the virtue of our posterity ; and Dissenters from the Established Church , of all classes , ar © peculiarly concerned in the reraovofof tests , which shut out their children from the proper education of Englishmen , and from the honours and rewards of superior talents arid diligence . A NON-SUBSCRIBER .

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    Subscription ; fyc * , to Articles . 415

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    city and purity , and a renovating power in their spiritual influences — if there be indeed a value in their independence and integrity , shall we not endeavour to impart them to others ? And shall we consider anv

    opportunity trivial , which affords us this important privilege ? Where else are they to hear these tidings ? In the complicated articles and creeds of the Establishment , the superstitions of the Catholics , or the gloomy and distressing" creed of the Calvinists ?

    No ; by these they have probably been revolted , by these they may have been driven on the rock of scepticism , and when they turn their weary footsteps to our gates , shall we meet them with a religious test equivalent to an order for their departure ? In

    vain does E . C . exclaim , that Mr . Jones would not prevent Unbelievers from partaking of the benefits of public worship ; he would thus deprive them of the best of all benefits , the

    opportunity of hearing what we humbly conceive to be the unadorned and unperverted truth of Scripture : but I repeat the remark , that it will not be ; and more than this , I am inclined to believe , that if such a restriction

    actually tooK place , such would he the painful circumstances it would involve , that the natural candour and liberality of Mr . Jones would cause him to be one of the first persons to ask for its repeal . An Unitarian Christian .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1826, page 415, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2550/page/35/