rticular hardship; and they sought evidence of
this in the Indemnity Acts, and in the long silence of the dissenters
themselves, from whom it was to have been expected that the constant
infliction of a permanent grievance would have drawn forth incessant
complaints. Mr. Huskisson said, that he doubted whether the present
motion was calculated to remove any grievance. The grievances, indeed,
complained of were of an imaginary character: he had yet to learn what
obstacles existed against the honourable ambition of the dissenters.
They had, he said, their full share of the civil power of the country,
and were qualified to fill the first offices in the army and navy. Forty
years had elapsed since this subject was discussed, and that period
had been marked by many eager discussions on another great question
involving the principles of religious liberty: could it be credited
that the petitioners before the house, many of whom possessed acute
intellects and intelligent minds, enjoyed the highest consideration in
the country, if they knew there was anything in the state of the law to
impede the fair, useful, and honourable exercise of their talents, would
not have long since, firmly and unanimously, called upon the house to
remove the grievance. The fact could not be so, for they had preserved
total silence for the long period of forty years. Mr. Peel said that the
question was attended with great difficulty. He was not prepared to say
that it was essentially interwoven with the interest of the church of
England; he did not think, indeed, that the two were so connected, that
the church of England must fall, if the Test and Corporation Acts were
repealed. He thought, however, with Mr. Huskisson, that the Protestant
dissenters did not labour under such grievances as had been represented,
and that they did not look at the Test and Corporation Acts, together
with the Indemnity Act as honourable gentlemen had described. It
had been said, he remarked, that we had shed the blood of the Scotch
regiments in the Peninsula and at Waterloo. "What office of naval or
military command had been closed against their officers? It was also
said that the Test Acts shut them out from the higher offices of
government. For an answer, look at the ministry: of the fourteen members
of the cabinet, three, namely, Lords Aberdeen and Melville, and the
president of the board of trade, were Scotsmen and good Presbyterians,
whom these acts nevertheless had not