At the very onset of our enquiry, we cannot but be forcibly struck with the inconsistency which presents itself to our view in the present application of the Dissenters to Parliament; and this question naturally occurs-How comes it that these same Dissenters-who have always been accustomed to speak of their lowly-mindedness, and who say they despise all worldly distinctions and carnal honours-how comes it that these persons appear as eager to secure their claim to civil and political power as the veriest worldlings? All applications of this nature, whether from Papists or Dissenters, I fear, are "but the beginning of sorrows" the prelude to the developement of that system which appears to be ripening in this country for the subversion of both the civil and religious constitution, in order that the system of one or other of those sturdy claimants may eventually become dominant and established. Nor let it be urged-What danger can the repeal of these Acts produce ?-I answer"Much every way." But still it is not only to the repeal of the Acts, abstractedly considered, to which we object, (though of the risk attendant on such repeal we ought never to lose sight-) but the danger arises from the precedent thus afforded-from the encouragement given to future demands and future encroachments. If Dissenters and Papists are thus humoured, they will naturally exult and says We have gained one step by our importunity. Let us persist in our petitions, remonstrances, and demands till all be ours. Jam tenet Italiam: tamen ultrà pergere tendit: Τυν. It is the principle of concession to our rivals against which I would wage war-it is the be traying of FEAR-it is the admission of those to a parity with ourselves who ought, for the common safety, and even for their own good, to be kept at arm's length-it is the opening of the portals of the Constitution to compromise -those portals which should be bolted and barred with religious care against all encroachments, however apparently innoxious their first advances-it is against all this that our objections are raised; it is here that the danger more especially lies. In the ardour (amiable no doubt) with which the cause of the "suffering Dissenters" is pleaded, the advocates overlook one impor tant point, namely, that the Corporation and Test Acts are not acts of offence, but of de fence. They are in truth among the foremost safeguards of the State; and if these landmarks these barriers against Papal and schismatical encroachment be once removed, no man can say that the torrent may not be let loose upon us, and level with uncontrolable fury the edifice that now in peaceful dignity raises her battlements above the storm. But against the indulgence of any apprehension of this kind, we are told, forsooth, by the advocates of the repeal, that "the Church is secure in herself." Being no friend to experimental legislation on vital points: and having an old-fashioned idea that it is far more easy to disarrange than to recompose a system, I conceive that to assert that the Church is secure in her own strength-secure in the superior purity of her doctrines, and the pre-eminent excellence of her discipline and ordinances, and that therefore she may risk the concession of unfettered freedom to her rivals, and part with the staff with which she now mildly, temperately, and forbearingly keeps her enemies in order-is to talk the language of insanity. Vain, visionary, and unsafe the experiment, to bid her rest solely for support and permanence while surrounded by turbulent, discontented, and factious enemies, upon her Gospel graces, divested of every fence of human authority. The expe rimental legislators who bid us thus tempt our God, are no true friends to the Church or State, and while they reluctantly, or with insidious design, thus pay the former so high a compliment, they, in effect, are undermining her fabric. Although cut off from extrinsic aid-divested of the civil panoply with which she is now begirt her ramparts prostrate those ramparts that now keep her foes at bay-she might indeed stand: who shall say she might not? Although naked, defenceless and unarmed, she certainly might prove impregnable to all "the fiery darts" hurled at her—she might put to flight the collected hosts of the aliens-she might successfully repel the attacks of the God-denying heretics—she might counteract the attacks of the Independent, the Baptist, and the Papist, insidious then no longer, having obtained the first great step of their ambition-the obliteration of those lines of demarcation, and the repeal of those wholesome tests that now exist. I trust that through that Almighty power who first founded her on the rock of ages, that she would "come off from her spiritual warfare more than a conqueror :"-I trust she would do all this, and " having done all that she would stand," or that if she again fell through "the crafty wiliness of those who lie in wait to deceive," she would again rise, as be 66 fore, resplendent from her ruins! But now she DOES stand. Let her stand! Boundless must be his infatuation who would endanger what is now safe, and who possessing a certain, would risk it for a problematical good! Ex ea re quid fiat vide. Before we can submit to yield assent to such a proposal, we must remould the human mind and passions, and banish from the tablet of our memories every trace of historical truth-every vestige of the enormities committed by Dissenters when they before involved the altar and the throne in one promiscuous ruin. Concession but inflames cupidity, and it is of the essence of ambition to know no bounds. Wiser far to nip encroachment in the bud-to stop concession in limine. Experimental legislation on such vital points doubtless possesses charms for those who have so brilliant a guerdon sparkling before their eyes as the revenues of the Church, but the principle itself is dangerous and delusive--it shakes, or what is sufficient for my purpose, it may shake "the powers that be," and is pregnant with eventual mischief. - Πατρίους νόμους μὴ λύειν ἔχοντας εὖ· οὐ γὰρ ἄμεινον. HERODOT. The overweening efforts and intrigues now |