DEBATES ON THE TEST AND CORPORATION ACTS.
Since the decision of the last session relative to the test and corporation acts, the Protestant dissenters had not relaxed in their efforts to increase the number of their friends in the house of commons. Moreover, they had held provincial meetings in all parts of the kingdom, and by their public resolutions, in contemplation of a general election, earnestly recommended the friends of equal and universal liberty to the choice of electors. Unfortunately at these meetings, in their speeches and resolutions, they warmly applauded the principles of the French revolution; and they appear to have thought that this season of change was favourable for pressing their old claims upon parliament. Under this impression they resolved to bring the subject before the commons; and instead of Mr. Beaufoy, the friend of Pitt, Fox, the tried friend of liberty, was requested by them to become their advocate. Fox moved for the repeal of the two acts in question, and supported his motion by a long and able speech, in which he showed himself anxious to prove that the application of his clients had nothing whatever to do with the principles of the French revolution. It certainly did not emanate from that movement, for the first application had been made three years ago, when the keenest sagacity could not have formed anything like a conjecture of the events which had taken place in France. It is most certain, however, that the Protestant Dissenters, in seeking their claims, had uttered language which savoured of a spirit of innovation. It may have been only out of generous sympathy, but they had been among the warmest approvers of the French revolution; and this gave offence in high places. Hitherto, Pitt, although he opposed the repeal of the corporation and test acts, had done so with temper and moderation; but now, in opposing the motion, he spoke of their conduct with the utmost indignation. At the very moment, he said, when they were reprobating the test laws, they discovered their intention of forming associations to impose a test on members of the house of commons. Pitt also vindicated the necessity of a church establishment for the good of the state; and endeavoured to show that such an institution could not exist if toleration were extended to equality of privileges. Burke was more emphatic in his opposition to the motion than Pitt. A wild spirit of innovation was abroad, he said, which required not indulgence, but restraint; and he asserted that the avowed leaders of the dissenters had, in their speeches, resolutions, writings, and sermons, given countenance to the revolutionary spirit which everywhere prevailed. Burke read some extracts from dissenting divines in proof of his assertions; and he adjured the house to let the events which had taken place in France, and the sudden downfall of the church in that kingdom, awaken their zeal for the preservation of our own establishment. Fox rejoined, and urged the injustice of deciding a general question of right upon the conduct of a few individuals; but the motion was rejected by a majority of two hundred and ninety-four against one hundred and five. This decided hostility to the measure chiefly arose from the time at which it was brought forward, and the means which had been employed to ensure success. Many members, and among them the amiable Wilberforce, who had before voted for the repeal of these laws, now voted against it, from a conviction that it would give an impetus to the innovating spirit which so universally prevailed.