MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE CORPORATION AND TEST ACTS.
Great exertions had recently been made by the Protestant dissenters, to show the public the injustice of that policy which restricted eligibility to office by a religious test. Pamphlets had been written by able pens, and when it was found that they had produced their intended effect, delegates were appointed to arrange a plan, and it was determined to bring the subject before parliament. The dissenters, moreover, thought the present a favourable opportunity for seeking relief from their disabilities, because in the late general election they had, as a body, warmly espoused the ministerial cause. On the 28th of March, therefore, Mr. Beaufoy, member for Great Yarmouth, himself a dissenter, and a friend of the minister, made a motion for taking into consideration the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, as things grievous to a large and respectable portion of Society. His general arguments, with those of Fox, who ably supported the motion, were, that the Test Act was not originally intended to operate against Protestant Dissenters, but to prevent the intrigues and influence of the popish party; that the dissenters deserved well of the nation, and especially of his majesty’s family, of whom from the Revolution, they had been the most zealous supporters; that every man having a right to judge for himself in matters of religion, he ought not, on account of the exercise of that right, to incur any punishment, or be branded with any marks of infamy; and that the exclusion from military service and civil trusts was both a punishment and an opprobrious distinction. The house, however, was not disposed to take a liberal view of this great question. Lord North and Pitt, who took the lead in opposing the motion, argued, that the acts in question were meant to include both Papist and Protestant dissenters, and that the Corporation Act in particular was professedly made against dissenters, and not against Papists, though it eventually included both. The preservation of the Corporation and Test Acts, they further argued, was essential to the preservation of the constitution. Yet, by a strange anomaly of sentiment, Pitt declared, in flattering and explicit terms, the esteem and regard which he felt for the Protestant dissenters, who had ever approved themselves genuine and zealous friends of constitutional liberty, of which their conduct during the late political conflicts had given a memorable proof. Pitt, however, was resolved to preserve the union, of church and state inviolate, and it was on this ground chiefly that he opposed the motion, which was lost on a division, by one hundred and seventy-eight against one hundred. The dissenters were much disappointed and chagrined at the conduct of Pitt on this occasion, for it was generally supposed by them, that if he did not support them, he at least would not have discountenanced their efforts. It is probable, however, that Pitt himself was in reality in their favour, but at court a conscientious, and therefore insuperable hostility existed against such a measure, and a determination on his part to force it through parliament, would doubtless have led to his dismissal. Moreover, as there were many important interests involved in his administration, he may have been led to conclude that the time was not yet arrived for so bold an enactment.