in the Acts of Uniformity, and the repeal of the Test and Corporation
Acts, were agitated at various times in the House of Commons. It appears
from the state of his manuscript papers, that he had designed to publish
some of the Speeches which he delivered in those discussions, and with
that view had preserved the following Fragments and detached Notes,
which are now given to the public with as much order and connection as
their imperfect condition renders them capable of receiving. The
Speeches on the Middlesex Election, on shortening the Duration of
Parliaments, on the Reform of the Representation in Parliament, on the
Bill for explaining the Power of Juries in Prosecutions for libels, and
on the Repeal of the Marriage Act, were found in the same imperfect
state.

SPEECH

ON

THE ACTS OF UNIFORMITY

FEBRUARY 6, 1772.

NOTE.

The following Speech was occasioned by a petition to the House of
Commons from certain clergymen of the Church of England, and certain of
the two professions of Civil Law and Physic, and others, praying to be
relieved from subscription to the Thirty-Nine Articles, as required by
the Acts of Uniformity. The persona associated for this purpose were
distinguished at the time by the name of "The Feathers Tavern
Association," from the place where their meetings were usually held.
Their petition was presented on the 6th of February, 1772; and on a
motion that it should be brought up, the same was negatived on a
division, in which Mr. Burke voted in the majority, by 217 against 71.

SPEECH.

Mr. Speaker,--I should not trouble the House upon this question, if I
could at all acquiesce in many of the arguments, or justify the vote I
shall give upon several of the reasons which have been urged in favor of
it. I should, indeed, be very much concerned, if I were thought to be
influenced to that vote by those arguments.

In particular, I do most exceedingly condemn all such arguments as
involve any kind of reflection on the personal character of the
gentlemen who have brought in a petition so decent in the style of it,
and so constitutional in the mode. Besides the unimpeachable integrity
and piety of many of the promoters of this petition, which render those
aspersions as idle as they are unjust, such a way of treating the
subject can have no other effect than to turn the attention of the House
from the merits of the petition, the only thing properly before us, and
which we