r to dispense with oaths, or to relieve those who had
subscribed. Nay, it could not, he said, even receive the petition, since
to comply with it would be a breach of the articles of union between
England and Scotland, and since the king is bound by oath never to admit
any alteration either in the liturgy or the articles. Mr. Hans Stanley,
Mr. Fitzmorris, and Mr. Jenkinson were all of opinion that the house
ought to show no countenance to such a petition, and other members
were either facetious at the expense of the tender consciences of the
dissenters, or furious against every section of that body. Mr. Charles
Fox spoke for the church as by law established, and said that he
considered that all the laws and statutes by which it had been guarded
were very necessary for its preservation: at the same time he deprecated
the practice of exacting subscription to the articles from mere boys.
Soame Jenyns said that at Cambridge no subscription was required except
upon taking a degree, when the parties might be supposed to have arrived
at an age when they might think for themselves. Other members opposed
the petition, on the ground that it would give a mortal wound to the
church, and through the church to the state, since they were so closely
united that if one perished the other must share its fate. It was also
argued that the church had long been and was still in danger; that the
parliament could not grant relief to the petitioners, it having no
power to release from oaths once taken; and that even the king could not
afford relief, he being bound by oath to preserve the church as by
law established. Burke, who opposed the opposition, took a more
comprehensive and enlightened view of the subject than most of the
preceding speakers. He remarked, "If the dissenters, as an honourable
gentleman has described them, have formerly risen from a 'whining,
canting, snarling generation,' to be a body dreadful and ruinous to our
establishments, let him call to mind the follies, the violences, the
outrages, and persecutions that conjured up, very blamably, but very
naturally, that same spirit ol retaliation. Let him recollect, along
with the injuries, the services which dissenters have done to our church
and to our state. If they have once destroyed, more than once they have
saved them." Burke next observed that the church of England might alter
her laws without changing her identity. He said that she professed
no infallibility, and had always