In most of the enlightened nations of Europe, the principles for which I contend are no longer a subject of dispute. In Scotland, and in Holland, no religious test, as a qualification for a civil office, has at any time existed. In the Prussian dominions, and in those of the empress of Russia, no traces of such a test are to be found. In Ireland, and in the dominions of the emperor, all civil disqualifications, on account of religious opinions, are completely done away. In France, a similar relief was extended by the edict of Nantes, which, if public report may be credited, is likely to become, in the present reign, a permanent part of the policy of that kingdom; for an opinion prevails there, of its not being ne cessary that a Frenchman should be a catholic, in order to have the privilege of shedding his blood in the service of his country.-Shall then England alone adhere to an exploded system, which all the other enlightened nations of Europe, upon a full conviction of its weakness, have already abandoned, or are now preparing to abandon? Shall foreigners still be employed to fight her battles? Shall the Hessian sword again be called upon to protect her from invasions, while so many thousands of her own › people, willing to bleed in her cause, and impatient to hazard their lives in her defence, are excluded from her. service?

One proof of the absurdity, of the incredible folly of these inhuman statutes, presses so strongly, on my thoughts, that I cannot refrain from submitting it to the consideration of the house. The benevolent Mr. How ard; he upon whom every kingdom in Europe, England excepted, would gladly confer, at least, the common pri- . vileges of a citizen, and whom the proudest nation might be happy to call her own; he of whom a right honour. able member of this house has said, "He has visited all Europe, not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate mea. surements of the remains of ancient grandeur; not to form a scale of the curiosity of tħodern art; not to col- · léct medals, or to collate manuscripts ;-but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions el sorrow and pain ; : to take the guage and dimensions of misery, depression,, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to

the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries." He, even he, is denied in England the common rights of a subject; he is incapable of legal admission into any office: and the consequence is, that his zeal for his country having led him, a few years since, to brave the penalties of the law, and to serve her in a troublesome and expensive civil employment, without the sacramental qualification, which his religious persuasions would not permit him to take, the penalties of the test act are still hanging over him: and I fear that, even now, on his return to his native country, amidst the plaudits of an admiring world, it is in the power of any desperate informer, who is willing to take that road to wealth and damnation which the legislature has pointed out and recommended to his choice,-I fear it is in the power of every such informer, to prosecute him to conviction, and to bring upon him those dreadful penalties which con stitute the punishment of an outlaw. God forbid, that in the view of all Europe, such indelible dishonour should be brought upon the British name!

Thus I have stated. (too much at large, perhaps, but the importance of the subject will plead my excuse) the merits of the dissenters' case. I have shown the nature of those provisions, in the test and corporation acts, from which they supplicate relief; and have described the dreadful penalties which these acts impose. I have shewn at what periods, and under what circumstances, these afflictive laws were passed: I have proved, that of the test act the dissenters were not the objects; and that of the corporation act, which, for the space of three years, established despotism by law, the alledged necessity has no longer the pretence of truth. 1 have also proved, that, after the proposed repeal, all those who cannot take the abjuration oath, which operates as a bar to all but christians, and make the declarations, which excludes the catholics, will continue as completely rejected as before; and that even their willingness to give these pledges of attachment to the laws will avail them nothing, unless in the estimation of their sovereign their merit shall be such as to render them worthy of an employment in his service. I have likewise shewn, that the repeal will increase the strength of the kingdom, by

enabling his majesty to bring into action the talents and affections of all his protestant subjects; and that it will also give additional security to the church. Whoever, then, shall be of opinion, that the general voice of all the enlightened nations of Europe is deserving of regard,- -whoever shall admit, that the exertions of the whole kingdom will have greater avail than its mutilated strength, whoever is convinced, that union is better than separation, that power is preferable to weakness, and that national justice is the surest ground of national prosperity-will agree with me in thinking, that the law which excludes the dissenters from civil and military employments, ought to be repealed. The grievances of two other descriptions of persons, whose importance in the community cannot be disputed, and the reasonableness of whose plea is too obvious to require any length of discussion, still remain to be mentioned.

By the test and corporation acts, no native of Scotland, who is of the established church of that country, can be admitted to any office in England, or to the army or navy, in any part of Great Britain, unless he will publicly profess a different religion from his own. Yet the offices of the state are the offices of Great Britain; for the salaries of the persons who fill them are paid by taxes levied on Great Britain. The army, too, and the navy, are the army and navy of Great Britain; for in the burthen of their payment, Scotland undoubtedly bears her part. Hence it is evident, that by the test act, an English restriction is imposed on a British office; an English restriction is imposed on the British navy; an English restriction is imposed on the army of Great Bri-` tain. Englishmen, residing in Scotland, are entitled to all the privileges of Scotchmen; for neither the late chief baron Ord, who presided in the court of exchequer there, nor Mr. Wharton, who is one of the present commissioners of excise in North Britain, nor any other Englishman in that country, was obliged to renounce the church of England, in order to qualify himself for the trust it is justly considered as a British trust, and upon it therefore no Scotch restriction is imposed. Why, then, should the naval or the military service of the united kingdom be fettered with English restraints? or, why

should English conditions be annexed to the possession of a British office? There is neither common justice, nor common sense, in the measure.

XLIX. Mr. Beaufoy, for the repeal of the test and corporation acts.

PART II.

I HAVE heard it said, from a confusion of ideas which is scarcely credible, that to grant a remission, in favour of Scotland, of the test and corporation acts, would be a breach of the union; an opinion which supposes, that because, by the articles of the union, nothing can be taken from Scotland but what was then stipulated, therefore nothing can be given. It supposes, that if, in a private bargain, I have engaged to concede certain points to my neighbour, I am therefore bound, by that bargain,. to concede to him nothing more: it supposes, that if my agreement with him gives me a right of common on his manor, that I violate my compact, if I afterwards volun.tarily offer him a right of common upon mine.

Are we told, that the test and corporation acts are among the statutes which secure the doctrines, discipline, worship, and government of the established church of England, and are therefore, by the act of union, declaredto be unalterable? Sir, the government and discipline, the doctrines and the worship of the English church, were the same before the statutes were enacted, and would continue the same if those statutes were repealed; and consequently do not derive their security from them: whereas the act which relates to the patronage of the church of Scotland, and which did seem to affect its discipline, was held to be no breach of the articles of union; neither was that union understood to be weakened by the subsequent act, which gave a complete toleration in Scotland to episcopal dissenters.

When the articles of union were under the consideration of parliament, a proposal was made in the house of lords, that the perpetual continuance of the test act, and in the house of commons, that the perpetual continuance

of the act of corporation, should be declared a fundamental condition of the intended union; but the motions were both rejected: a proof that the legislature did not mean to give to them the same perpetual existence as to the act of uniformity, and to the statute that was passed in the 13th of Elizabeth; both of which were specifically named as conditions of the compact, and expressly declared irrevocable.

If the test and corporation laws are deemed unalterable parts of the articles of union, it follows, of course, that every alteration in those laws must be deemed a breach of the union, and that every suspension of those laws must be considered as a suspension of the union. Now both these acts are altered, and in part repealed, by subsequent statutes, and, for six months in almost every year, are wholly suspended: but who will assert that the articles of union are dissolved, or that their obligation on the two countries is suspended for six months in every year? or, who will deny that the same power which alters a part, may alter the whole of these laws? Who will deny, that the same authority which suspends a law for six months may abolish it for ever?

That many of the natives of North Britain, who are members of its established church, have taken the sacrament, as a qualification for naval or military employ ments, I readily admit; for those men who consider the service of their country as the first of all duties, and their obligation to their sovereign as the first of all bonds, will, make great sacrifices indeed, rather than forego the right of bearing their part in the general defence of the kingdom. But does it therefore follow, that the necessity of making these sacrifices is no hardship? Does it there-fore follow, that he who renounces the religion rather than renounce the service of his country, has no reason to complain of the alternative? Others of the natives of that kingdom, too much attached to their religious profession to abandon it on any consideration, yet much too ardent for their country to relinquish the satisfaction of engaging in her service, are, at this very hour, exposed to the penalties of the law; exclusion from the right of receiving a legacy; exclusion from the right of acting as the guardian of a child; exclusion from