1718.

TOLERATION TO THE DISSENTERS.

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with increased boldness. A furious debate ensued upon the motion for the address. The ministers accused the court of Spain of violating the treaty of Utrecht; the opposition described the victory of admiral Byng as an act of perfidious aggression. Instead of being called upon," exclaimed Walpole, " to express our entire satisfaction, we ought to show our entire dissatisfaction with a conduct that was contrary to the law of nations, and a breach of solemn treaties." But the address was carried, nevertheless, by large majorities in both houses. It was idle to contend against the overwhelming influence of the court; and although Shippen, undismayed by punishment, continued to protest against the German policy of the monarch, an ample supply was voted for the necessities of the war.

In the midst of these turbulent scenes, a ray of political grace broke upon the country. The agitation of the conflict to which the whigs were exposed in the commencement of their administration compelled them to adopt a course of policy inimical to their speculative opinions, and irreconcileable with their professions out of office. Their first object was to secure the power which the Hanoverian accession had thrown into their hands. In order to accomplish this end, their measures had hitherto been dictated by a spirit of revenge, and by that sense of danger which leads men to sacrifice every thing to security. But having destroyed, as they believed for ever, the hopes of the Pretender, and feeling comparatively assured of the tranquillity of the kingdom, they now addressed themselves for the first time to the great duty of giving practical effect to their principles. To the imperishable honour of the king, he had the sacred cause of religious toleration at heart; and, while he was pledged to the strict maintenance of the protestant ascendency, he always felt the necessity of abolishing those unjust and invidious distinctions which excluded the dissenters from their proper share in the advantages and protection of the constitution. They had been all along zealous supporters of the pro

testant succession, and they naturally expected to be freed from the penal acts which oppressed them when that succession was established. In addition to the Sacramental Test Act, they were also burthened by the Occasional and Schism Bills. The effect of these measures was virtually to shut them out from all participation in a government, the theory of which was general representation, and the practice particular exclusion. The king had long contemplated the repeal of these acts, but was prevented from attempting such an innovation by arguments which were more prudent than generous, and which reflected the fears and exigencies of a period of transition. Numerous meetings of the dissenters had in the meanwhile taken place, and the universal result was a demand for the unconditional abrogation of the disqualifying laws. But the time was not ripe for so sudden a revolution in the venerable tyranny of superstitious legislation. The king pressed the affair to the utmost; and lord Sunderland assured him that it was impracticable, and that " to attempt a repeal of the Test would ruin all." It was accordingly agreed that the Test should abide a more favourable season, and that a bill should be introduced by lord Stanhope for the repeal of the Occasional and Schism Acts, and of such clauses in the Test and Corporation Act as operated to the exclusion of protestant dissenters from civil offices.

Bishop Hoadley had prepared the public mind for this enlightened measure. Preaching before the king in the chapel royal, he declared that the kingdom of Christ, and the sanctions by which it was sustained, were wholly spiritual. He asserted that "the church, taking the term in its utmost latitude of signification, did not, and could not, possess the slightest degree of authority under any commission, or pretended commission, derived from Christ; that the church of England, and all other national churches, were merely civil or human institutions, established for the purposes of diffusing and perpetuating the knowledge and belief of Christianity, which contained a system of truths, not in their nature differing

1718.

THE RELIEF BILL.

81

from other truths, excepting by their superior weight and importance, and which were to be inculcated in a manner analogous to other truths, demanding only, from their more interesting import, proportionably higher degrees of care, attention, and assiduity in the promulgation of them."* These declarations threw the highchurch party into a flame. They denounced Hoadley as an enemy to all church government, and went so far as to accuse him of a desire to plunge the kingdom of Christ into anarchy and confusion. But the effect of the controversy was miraculous. Like a tempest that disperses the clouds and clears the air, it purified the atmosphere of thought and investigation; and enabled the people to discern the truth which had been so long concealed under the dark vapours of a dense and obstinate bigotry. The right of private judgment was gradually unfolded to the understanding of the multitude; and the inherent spirit of freedom which shattered the priestly despotism of Rome, and vindicated in the Reformation the inalienable liberty of the human conscience, was made manifest to the nation.

Lord Stanhope introduced his bill on the 13th of December. It was emphatically entitled "An act for strengthening the protestant interest in these kingdoms."+ It produced, as might have been anticipated, a strong sensation in the house. The bishops were the principal

* This celebrated sermon was not only approved of by his majesty, but published by his command. His majesty's sincerity in the maintenance of liberty of conscience cannot be doubted; and the virulence of the opposition against which he had to contend, may be appreciated from the fact that, notwithstanding the royal sanction which had been given to this sermon, the archbishops, bishops, and clergy were so incensed at its doctrines, that they convened a convocation to try Hoadley as the principal, and the king as particeps criminis. But his majesty dismissed the insolent assembly, which was the last of the kind that has been held in this country.

The earl of Nottingham opposed the bill by a shallow and contemptible quibble. "The church of England," said his lordship, "is certainly the happiest church in the world, since even the greatest contradictions contribute to her support; for nothing can be more contradictory than a bill which is said to be calculated to strengthen the protestant interest, and the church of England, and which, at the same time, repeals two acts that were made for her further security." The real contradiction lay at the other side in attempting to strengthen the protestant interest by bills of pains and penalties. The repeal of enactments hostile to the true spirit of christianity is, on the contrary, the most consistent and effectual way to strengthen a christian church.

speakers, and took different sides, betraying a strange diversity of opinion amongst the heads of the established church respecting its constitution, its privileges, and its safeguards. The exhibition was not calculated to improve the respect of the people for an institution made up of such elements of sophistry and intemperance. The archbishop of Canterbury maintained that the acts proposed to be repealed, were the main bulwarks of the church, although he admitted, at the same time, that the act against schism was a dead letter. Bishop Hoadley replied that these bulwarks were acts of persecution; that if mere self-preservation were admitted as a sufficient excuse for such laws, then the heathen persecutions against christians, and the popish persecutions against protestants, were justifiable; that the safety of the church was best secured by equal justice, and that toleration was not a favour or indulgence, but a natural right. The bishop of Rochester was of opinion, that the measure overturned the foundation of the church; and the bishop of Lincoln suggested, on the other side, that religion was ever used by crafty men as a blind and pretence to carry on political designs. The most formidable obstacle the bill had to encounter was in the opposition of lord Cowper, who on this occasion joined the tories so far as to object to the latter part, which touched upon the repeal of certain clauses in the test and corporation acts: but the bishop of Peterborough demonstrated the weakness of that objection, by showing that the dissenters enjoyed full toleration under king James, while they were incapacitated by the test from serving that government of which they were allowed to be the firmest friends. Lord Lansdowne distinguished himself upon this memorable occasion by a speech which exhibited all the virulence of the defeated faction to which he belonged, and all the self-contradictions which are inseparable from the advocacy of a bad cause. expressed the utmost astonishment to hear the merits and virtues of dissenters extolled within the walls of parliament. "Who is there among us," he exclaimed, "but can tell of some ancestor either sequestered or

He

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LORD LANSDOWNE'S SPEECH.

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murdered by them? Who voted the lords useless? The dissenters. Who abolished episcopacy? The dissenters. Who destroyed freedom of parliament? The dissenters. Who introduced government by standing armies? The dissenters. Who washed their hands in the blood of their martyred sovereign? The dissenters. Have they repented? No — they glory in their wickedness at this day." To condemn the dissenters because they introduced standing armies was not the only inconsistency committed by lord Lansdowne. He asserted that, while

the dissenters were the enemies of the state, the Roman catholics were its best supporters. "A noble duke," he observed, "seems, with some warmth, to have taken offence, that the Roman catholics and dissenters have been mentioned in the debate upon the same level, whereas their religion is high treason. But I never yet understood that their religion was high treason; indeed I have heard that it might be high treason to make converts to it; and by the same reason the reformed religion may be high treason in popish countries. But if we may compare them with the dissenters, upon a foot of merit with respect to the government, the catholics, as far as has been yet made to appear, have infinitely the advantage. To whom do we owe our magna charta? And were there not as many the reformation as since? revolution but to catholic powers? himself united to encourage and support the prince of Orange in his undertaking. To whom do we owe our present security in the protestant establishment, but to the most potent, the most arbitrary, the most famous for persecution of all the popish powers the most inveterate and implacable enemies of the protestant persuasion France, Savoy, and the emperor? And have not the ministers, one after another, assured us that these mortal enemies to our souls in another world, are our only guarantees for our salvation in this?"*

To our ancient barons unreformed.

struggles for liberty before To whom do we owe the Even the pope

*Parl. Hist. vol. vii.

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