The Age of George III

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A Call for Agitation against the Test and Corporation Acts

New Baptist Miscellay, ii-34-5 (January 1828)

Taken from Norman Gash, The Age of Peel (London, Edward Arnold, 1973), with the kind permission of Professor Gash. Copyright of this document, of course, remains with him.

The Protestant Society had been established in the general renewal of Dissenting activity towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It was important both because of its national basis and because for the first time it united Methodists with the older dissenting bodies. It sent delegates to the United Committee and though at first doubtful of the expediency of an immediate parliamentary appeal it soon became one of the most active groups in the movement. John Wilks, an attorney and later radical M.P. for Boston, Lincs. (1830-7), was a leading dissenting layman; he had been mainly responsible for the formation of the Protestant Society in 1811.

Near the close of the last session of parliament, the committee of 'The Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty' adopted the following resolutions, to which our metropolitan and country friends may now wisely attend.

1. Resolved, - That THIS COMMITTEE remain firmly convinced that the honor and interest of all persons suffering under the Corporation and Test Acts required, and would have been promoted by a perseverance in the application to parliament during the present session for their repeal; but that a different opinion being entertained by some respectable public bodies in London, and by some parliamentary friends, THE COMMITTEE will rather allow a postponement to the next session than produce any schism among applicants, whose united zeal and energies may all be required.…
2. That this Committee cherish the hope that the numerous advocates for the repeal of these objectionable acts, of all religious denominations in the British Isles - will not allow their solicitude for success, nor their efforts for its attainment, to be relaxed by delay; - but will rather improve the interval by confirming their own purpose, never to acquiesce in a continuance of those acts, and by convincing those who are uninformed or unfriendly that their cause is just and laudable, and that they request what none but the interested, - the prejudiced - or the intolerant, would wish to deny.
3. That the Committee have been delighted by the wide spreading and noble enthusiasm with which their letters were greeted, and by the numerous and respectable petitions transmitted to other public bodies, as well as to them, and by which the House of Commons were greatly impressed: yet they would anxiously urge all congregations and other friends to the repeal of these acts, by whom those petitions were sent, to apply to their own County and Borough members to grant the measure the succor of their influence as well as their vote. And
4. That they also intreat that all congregations who have deferred their petitions will cause petitions to be prepared and forwarded without delay; and they assure them if they need any information, or desire to transmit their petitions through this Society, that at the office of JOHN WILKS, esq., Finsbury Place, petitions will be received and information supplied.