DISSENTERS’ CHAPELS BILL.
During this session a bill was brought into the house of lords by the lord-chancellor for confirming the possession of religious endowments in the hands of dissenters, and arresting such litigation as had recently taken place in the case of Lady Hewley’s charities, which were endowed by her for Calvinistic Independents, but which had gradually passed to the Unitarians, whose occupancy was successfully opposed. The lord-chancellor’s bill proposed to terminate all further legal controversy respecting the right to voluntary endowments connected with dissenting chapels, by vesting the property in the religious body in whose hands it had been for twenty years. The bill was opposed in the house of lords by the Bishops of London and Exeter, the Earl of Winchilsea, and Lords Kenyon, Teynham, and Mountcashel; but it was carried by a large majority. Before it came under discussion in the house of commons a vigorous opposition was manifested against it, especially by the Trinitarian dissenters. Public meetings were held, and petitions were sent up from all quarters against the obnoxious proposition. Under these circumstances, on the 6th of June, when the second reading of the bill was moved, the attorney-general explained its objects, which, he said, had been misunderstood. The alarm which this bill had created, namely, that it would have the effect of encouraging Unitarian doctrines, he contended was wholly unfounded. An act had been passed in 1813, legalizing the foundation of schools and chapels for the benefit of the Unitarians, and placing them upon the same footing as other Protestant dissenters. The question then arose respecting foundations which might have been made before 1813, when the Unitarians were excepted out of the Toleration Act: namely, would they or ought they to take from that body, which was now legal, and could legally endow chapels, that which they possessed, because it was given them before the year 1813? The first clause of the bill put not only Unitarians, but all Protestant dissenters on the same footing; it rendered the toleration act retrospective. The second clause, he continued, related to dissenting chapels only; not to general charitable foundations. By the present law, the will of the donor must be binding; but it was not to be assumed, in the case of every religious charity, that it was founded for a particular sect, even though the donor held the doctrine of that sect. It was said, that the bill would encourage trustees to violate their trusts, and hand over the property for purposes not intended by the donor. It could do no such thing. Dissenting chapels were thus founded:—Congregations of dissenters wishing to establish places of meeting and chapels for worship, formed together voluntary associations, which associations subscribed funds, purchased the land, and built the chapels. In the first instance these chapels were vested in trustees; but he was told that so little had the trustees to do with the arrangement or control of these chapels, that in the great majority of cases when the original trustees died, no fresh ones were appointed to succeed them: the congregation relying upon possession. In this country every question of private right was decided upon usage; twenty or thirty years’ possession prevailed against both the crown and the church. Why then should it not be applied to the property in dissenters’ chapels? He was told that the consequence might be, that property now possessed by Presbyterians or other dissenters would in the lapse of time fall into the hands of the Unitarians. How could it be so? By the bill the usage must be that of the congregation. Notwithstanding this explanation, the bill was strenuously opposed in the commons by Sir Kobert Inglis, who moved that it should be read a second time that day six months, and by other members of the house, who looked upon it as outraging and insulting the Christian feeling of the country. On a division the amendment of Sir Robert Inglis was negatived by a majority of three hundred and seven against one hundred and seven. The house then went into committee on the bill, and having made some unimportant amendments to it; it passed and was sent up to the lords, where it again became the subject of discussion. It was opposed in its progress by the Bishop of London, who moved “that the amendments be taken into consideration that day three months,” but this was negatived by two hundred and two against forty-one, and the bill then passed.