§ On the motion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the House went into a further consideration of the Chapel Exemption Bill. The right hon. gentleman said, it had been proposed that one seat in ten in all chapels to be built in future should be allotted to the poor; but he would move as an amendment, that one seat in five should be reserved for that description of persons.
General Thorntonwished, in the first place, to oppose the amendments, and then to throw out the Bill altogether.
§ The Speakerthen put the question, that the Bill, with its amendments, be engrossed.
General Thorntonlamented, that some gentlemen of great abilities, who intended to oppose the third reading of the Bill, were not then present; but as he had intimated his intention of opposing it in every stage, he would then declare, that it seemed of a dangerous and alarming nature. It 617 called on the members of the established Church to support the dissenters, and exempt certain places for the gratuitous instruction of the poor, where no religious instruction whatever was given. A right reverend prelate had recently preached a sermon before the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, wherein he maintained, among other points, that we should guard against all the modern doctrines of liberality and toleration, and that indifference to forms of faith was indifference to truth and falsehood. The hon. general, therefore, sincerely embracing these opinions, moved that the Bill should be engrossed on that day three months.
This amendment was put and negatived, and the original question carried.