§ The following Protests were entered on the Journals against the third reading of this bill.
§ "Dissentient: 1.—Because, if it is expedient that so much of the acts recited in the bill as imposes the necessity of receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, as a test that the party receiving it is a member of the Established Church, should be repealed, some effectual provision ought to have been made by this bill, for the purpose of establishing that the persons who are to be placed in office, or employments, are Protestants, and mem 230 bers of the Established Church, to the intent to preserve the constitution, as it has been formed by the union of the Established Church with the State. And because the bill not only makes no such provision, but creates only the necessity of making a Declaration, which may be made by persons not even Protestants, and by persons denying some of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, as maintained in the Established Church, as to which Church it has been declared by law, at the time of the Union with Scotland, not only that the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, thereof, but that the true Protestant religion, professed and established in the Church of England, should be effectually and unalterably secured.
§ 2. "Because, it having been alleged in the debates upon this bill, referring to the petitions which have been presented to the House, that persons cannot, with due regard to liberty of conscience, be precluded from holding offices in the State on account of their religious persuasions, we think it necessary to declare, that although every person ought to be at liberty to worship God according as his conscience may dictate, doing no injury to the State, we cannot admit that to the enjoyment of that liberty, rightly understood, it is necessary that those persons, who only profess that they will not, in the exercise of any power, authority, or influence, which they may possess by virtue of office, injure, weaken, or disturb the Church, should be considered as equally eligible to offices in the state as those who are members of the Church, connected and united with the state. It being, moreover, very possible that acts done by persons making such professions, which acts may disturb, weaken, or injure the Established Church, may be acts which such persons might deem it their bounden duty to have done if they had not been placed in office, and which, therefore, it might be unreasonable to consider as acts done by virtue of their office.
§ 3."Because we think that, whilst the state ought to secure to all, who do not disturb the public peace, complete liberty of conscience, it is perfectly consistent with such duty of the state to determine by what persons, subjects of it, the offices of state should be executed.
§ 4."Because it seems to us much more probable that peace, which, by the laws in being respecting the Church Establish- 231 ment, and the toleration of those who dissent from it, has so long been enjoyed in this realm, notwithstanding all differences as to religious persuasions, should continue undisturbed, if this bill had been rejected, than it is that it should continue to be enjoyed after this bill is passed into a law.
§ 5. "Because we think that the Bills of Indemnity, which have been for some time annually passed, whilst they from time to time confirmed the policy of having some test as to the religious opinions of those who are to hold civil offices, did, at the same time, sufficiently relieve those who dissented from the Established Church; and though it seems to have been thought and assumed, in debate, that, if this bill passed into a law, annual Bills of Indemnity would no longer be necessary, we conceive that experience will prove that such opinion is founded in error. (Signed)
§ "ERNEST.
§ ELDON.
§ NEWCASTLE.
§ WINCHILSEA and NOTTINGHAM.
§ WALSINGHAM.
§ KENYON.
§ FAVERSHAM.
§ BROWNLOW.
§ MANSFIELD.
§ FALMOUTH."
§ "Dissentient: 1. Because, by the law of the land, and especially by the solemn contracts made on the Union of England and Scotland, and on the Union of Great Britain and Ireland, the United Church of England and Ireland, and the Church of Scotland as established by law, are parts of the constitution of the government of the United Kingdom; and it is declared that the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, of the United Church of England and Ireland, as so established, shall be and shall remain in full force for ever; and the continuance and preservation of the said United Church, as the Established Church of England and Ireland, shall be deemed and taken to be a fundamental part of the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
§ 2."Because the Sovereign on the throne of the United Kingdom is, by law, required to be a member of such Established Church, and to do all in his power to maintain that Church, as well as the Church of Scotland, and the ministers of both of those Churches, in all their rights and privileges.
§ 3,"Because it has a direct tendency 232 to the subversion of the Established Church of England and Ireland, and to compel the sovereign on the throne to adopt measures inconsistent with the safety of that Church, inasmuch as the object of this bill is to give increased political powers in the State to persons hostile to the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the said Church, as now by law established; and the experience of all times has shown that no institution of government can long subsist in any state, unless supported by the predominance of political power vested in those who are friendly to that institution; and this has been fully proved in this country by long experience, and particularly in the reign of king Charles 1st, when the predominance of political power in the two Houses of Parliament of England having been obtained by persons hostile to the Church of England, as then established by law, the king was compelled, by the influence of that power, in breach of his Coronation Oath, to give his royal assent to a bill intituled 'An Act for disenabling all persons in Holy Orders, to exercise any temporal authority;' and whereby it was enacted, that no Archbishop or Bishop, or other person, who then was, or thereafter should be, in Holy Orders, should have any seat or place, suffrage or voice, or use or execute any power or authority in the Parliaments of the realm, nor should be of the Privy Council of his Majesty, his heirs or successors, or Justice of the Peace, of Oyer or Terminer, or Gaol Delivery; or execute any temporal authority by virtue of any commission, but should be wholly disabled and be incapable to have, receive, use, or execute, any of the said offices, places, powers, authorities, and things aforesaid. And the persons hostile to the said Established Church of England, who framed the said act, and compelled the king to give his assent thereto, afterwards assuming to themselves the whole powers of the State, legislative and executive, by the appellation of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, did by their ordinance, to which they attributed the force and effect of law, declare and resolve—'That the then Church Government, by Archbishops, Bishops, their Chancellors, Commissaries, Deans, Deans and Chapters, Archdeacons, and other Ecclesiastical officers depending upon the Hierarchy, was an evil, and justly offensive and burthensome to the kingdom, a great impediment 233 to reformation and growth of religion, and very prejudicial to the State and Government of the kingdom; and that therefore they were resolved that the same should be taken away, and that such a Government should be settled in the Church as might be most agreeable to God's Holy Word, and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church at home, and nearer agreement with the Church of Scotland; the Lords and Commons then sitting as in Parliament, and who then assumed sovereign authority, being then in alliance with the members of the Church of Scotland, who had invaded England with a hostile army. And the persons so assuming the sovereign authority did afterwards, in pursuance of such ordinance, make a further ordinance in the year 1646, abolishing the name and title of Archbishops and Bishops, and vesting the rights and properties of the Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England in trustees, subject to such trusts and confidence as the persons then pretending to be the two Houses of Parliament should appoint. And the same persons, by various ordinances, assumed and exercised the power of directing the public worship in all churches and chapels according to forms established by them; and of forbidding all persons to preach, except ministers ordained according to their ordinances, and except persons allowed by themselves under the denomination of the two Houses of Parliament. And afterwards certain persons, styling themselves the Commons of England, and assuming to themselves, exclusive of the Peers of the realm, powers which, by the ancient law of the realm, were vested only in the King, Lords, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, did proceed to ordain that the office of a King in this nation should not thenceforth reside in one person, and that the nation should be governed by its representatives, or national meetings in council, in the way of a Commonwealth; and did further declare that the House of Lords was useless and dangerous to the people of England, and ordained that such House should be abolished. And afterwards other persons, differing in religious opinions from those who had thus assumed the whole powers of the State, but adverse also to the Church of England, as before by law established, having obtained political power, superior to the political power before enjoyed by 234 those who had before assumed all the powers of the state, did create a new form of government, placing at the head thereof a Lord Protector; and thus, from time to time, according to the prevalence of political power in the hands of different persons, of different religious opinion, the country was involved in confusion for many years. Such transactions proving most clearly that the peace of this country importantly depends on the existence of superior political power in those who are friendly to the Church established by law, and that giving political power to those whose religious opinions are hostile to the Established Church must tend to endanger that establishment and the peace of the realm, and finally may overthrow the ancient form of government now happily established by law.
§ 4."That the laws sought to be repealed were expressly made to avoid similar distractions in the State, by excluding from, certain offices, giving political power, persons holding religious opinions hostile to the Established Church; and such laws were so made for the protection of such Church, and consequent preservation of the public peace, and were the result of the experience of those who framed those laws of the danger of intrusting political power to persons hostile to the Established, Church.
§ 5."Because political power is the creature of political institutions; and. when in any country political institutions, forming the government of the country, have been established, every alteration in those institutions departing in principle from the institutions before adopted, and tending to change the balance of political power in the State, is so far a revolution in the government of the State, and may, in pro portion to the extent of the change made, tend to produce further revolution in the State; and therefore changes which may appear not to be in themselves of considerable importance may, by their effects, produce such further changes as may finally overthrow the whole constitution of the State.
§ 6. "Because the perpetual endurance of the United Church of Great Britain and Ireland being, by solemn contracts, a fundamental law of the State, those who, on the ground of religious opinions, refuse to submit to the laws made for the preservation of that Church, might, with equal; propriety, allege religious opinions as war- 235 ranting them in refusing to acknowledge the authority by which the perpetual endurance of that Church has been made a fundamental law of the State, or in refusing to acknowledge the title of the King on the throne, and of a parliament convened by him, on the ground of hereditary right to the throne, which they may suppose to be vested in the heir of the body of king James the First.
§ 7."Because, as long as religious or political opinions influence the minds of men, so as to render them hostile to any of the existing establishments of the State, such men cannot be truly loyal subjects of that State to the establishments of which they are so hostile; and cannot, therefore, be safely trusted with political power, by means of which they may disturb the tranquillity of the State, and endeavour to overturn any of its political institutions placed by the law of the State under the protection and control of its government.
§ 8."Because congregations of persons dissenting from the Established Church, but professing to be of some particular denomination of Christians, form, by their union under such denomination, a body which is, in effect, a corporation, but a corporation not regulated by law, nor, as a body, under the control of the law, and yet possessing, in a great degree, the influence and power of a corporation authorised and regulated by law, and capable of acting with a power which does not belong to individuals, or even to the same number of persons, not so assembled; and the union of many such bodies, how ever differing from each other in matters of faith or discipline, may form a power in the State, highly dangerous not only to the Established Church, but also to the general peace and good order of the State; especially if urged by religious zeal to de sire any change in the Established religion, or in the doctrines or discipline thereof, which may tend to the overthrow of the Established government, and breach of the solemn contracts entered into on the Union of England and Scotland, and the Union of Great Britain and Ireland; con tracts which every loyal subject of the Crown is bound to maintain, and which the Prince on the throne cannot consent to violate without a breach of his Coronation oath.
§ (Signed) "REDESDALE,
§ "KENYON."
236§ List of the Majority, and also of the Minority, on the third reading of the Corporation and Test Acts Repeal Bill, April 23.
| MAJORITY. | |
| Alvanley | Lauderdale |
| Arbuthnot | Leinster |
| Auckland | Limerick |
| Bathurst | Mendip (Clifden) |
| Boyle (Cork) | Manners |
| Braybrooke | Maryborough |
| Bristol | Melros (Binning) |
| Calthorpe | Melville |
| Camden | Monteagle (Sligo) |
| Chichester | Montford |
| Carlisle | Morley |
| Carnarvon | Napier |
| Carrington | Northumberland |
| Cleveland | Penshurst (Strangford) |
| Charlemont | Ranfurly (Northland) |
| Clarendon | Ross (Glasgow) |
| Clifton (Darnley) | Rosebery |
| Cowper | Rosslyn |
| Dacre | Salisbury |
| Dawnay (Downe) | St. Vincent |
| Ducie | Saye and Sele |
| De Lawarr | Selsey |
| Dufferin | Somerset |
| Dudley | Spencer |
| Dundas | Stuart of Rothesay |
| Durham | Stradbroke |
| Ellenborough | Suffolk |
| Essex | Suffield |
| Farnborough | Sussex |
| Fitzgibbon. (Clare) | Sundridge (Argyll) |
| Fitzwilliam | Tankerville |
| Gloucester | Thomond |
| Goderich | Teynham |
| Gordon (Aberdeen) | Thanet |
| Gosford | Wellington |
| Grosvenor | Wallace |
| Gower | Wharncliffe |
| Grantham | Winchester |
| Grey | Wilton |
| Grafton | Yarborough |
| Hereford | Bishops—York |
| Harrowby | Chichester |
| Heytesbury | Chester |
| Hill | Gloucester |
| Holland | Lincoln |
| Howard de Walden | Litchfield |
| Jersey | Llandaff |
| Kerr (Lothian) | London |
| King | Ossory |
| Lansdowne | St. David's. |
| PROXIES.—CONTENT. | |
| Abercromby | Bedford |
| Albemarle | Berwick |
| Anson | Breadalbane |
| Ashburnham | Buckinghamshire |
| Bayning | Buckingham |
| Barham | Bute |
| Bagot | Clarence |
| Belmore | Crewe |
| Caledon | Oxford |
| Derby | Plunket |
| Devonshire | Ponsonby (Besborough) |
| De Dunstanville | |
| Duncan | Portland |
| Erskine | Scarborough |
| Foley | Scarsdale |
| Fortescue | Seaford |
| Granville | Somerhill (Clanricarde) |
| Grenville | |
| Hillsborough | Sondes |
| Howard of Effingham | Stafford |
| Hopetoun and Niddry | St. Helen's |
| Hutchinson (Donoughmore) | Verulam |
| Waldegrave | |
| Kingston | Archb.—Canterbury |
| Lynedoch | Bishops—Bangor Hereford |
| Minto | |
| Mount Edgecombe |
| MINORITY. | |
| Abingdon | Mansfield |
| Arden | Mountcashel |
| Beauchamp | Newcastle |
| Bexley | Plymouth |
| Bolton | Pomfret |
| Bradford | Redesdale |
| Churchill | Romney |
| Clanbrassil (Roden) | Rolle |
| Colchester | Shaftesbury |
| Colville | Sheffield |
| Cumberland | Sinclair |
| Dorset | Skelmersdale |
| Eldon | Silchester (Longford) |
| Feversham | Willoughby de Broke |
| Grantley | Winchilsea |
| Guilford | Bishops, Bath & Wells |
| Hay (Kinnoul) | Bristol |
| Harewood | Durham |
| Howe | Ely |
| Kenyon | St. Asaph |
| Malmesbury | Salisbury |
| PROXEIS.—NOT CONTENT. | |
| Farnham | Tenterden |
| Graham (Montrose) | Wigan (Balcarras) |
| Northampton | Wodehouse |
| Rivers | Bishops, Exeter Peterborough |
| Stowell |