worship conceded. 1 measures against and was at least the first recognition of the right of public worship, beyond the pale of the state Right of church. It was the great charter of dis- public, sent. Far from granting religious liberty, it yet gave indulgence and security from persecution. The age was not ripe for wider principles of toleration. Catholics and Unitarians were soon Further afterwards pursued with severer penalties;1 and in 1700, the intolerant spirit of Par- Unitarians liament was displayed by an Act,-no less Catholics. factious than bigoted,-which cannot be read without astonishment. It offered a reward of 100%. for the discovery of any Catholic priest performing the offices of his church: it incapacitated every Roman Catholic from inheriting or purchasing land, unless he abjured his religion upon oath; and on his refusal, it vested his property, during his life, in his next of kin, being a Protestant. He was even prohibited from sending his children abroad, to be educated in his own faith. And while his religion was thus proscribed, his civil rights were further restrained by the oath of abjuration.3 Scheme of hension Again the policy of comprehension was favoured by William III.: but it was too late. The church was far too strong to be willing to compre sacrifice her own convictions to the scruples William of nonconformists. Nor was she forgetful of her own wrongs under the Commonwealth, or 1 1 Will. & M. c. 9, 15, 26; 9 & 10 Will. III. c. 32. III. 2 11 & 12 Will. III. c. 4; Burnet's Own Time, iv. 409; Butler's Hist. Mem. of the Catholics, iii. 134-138, 279; Burke's Speech at Bristol, 1780, Works, iii. 385. 3 13 Will. III. c. 6. insensible to the sufferings of Episcopalians in Scotland. On the other side, the nonconformists, confirmed in their repugnance to the doctrines and ceremonies of the church, by the persecutions of a hundred and fifty years, were not to be tempted by small concessions to their consciences, or by the doubtful prospects of perferment, in an establishment from which they could expect little favour.1 To the Church of Scotland the Revolution brought freedom and favour. The king's supremacy Church of Scotland after the was finally renounced; Episcopacy, against Revolution. which she had vainly struggled for a hundred years, for ever abolished; her confession of faith recognised by statute; and the Presbyterian polity confirmed.2 But William III., in restoring the privileges of the church, endeavoured to impress upon her rulers his own moderation and tolerant spirit. Fearing the persecution of Episcopalians at their hands, he wrote thus nobly and wisely to the General Assembly: We expect that your management shall be such that we may have no reason to repent what we have done. We never could be of the mind that violence was suited to the advancing of true religion: nor do we intend that our authority shall ever be a tool to the irregular passions of any party.' 3 And not many years afterwards, when Presbyterian Scotland was united to Episcopalian England, the rights of her church, in worship, disci 1 D'Oyley's Life of Sancroft, 327, 520; Burnet's Own Time, ii. 1033, &c.; Kennet's Hist., iii. 483, 551, et seq.; Macaulay's Hist., iii. 89, 468-495; Bogue and Bennett's Hist., i. 207. 2 Scots Acts, 1689, c. 2; 1690, c. 5; 1692, c. 117. Macaulay's Hist., iii. 708. pline, and government, were confirmed and declared unalterable.1 of Ireland under William III. To the Catholics of Ireland, the reign of William was made terrible by new rigours and op- Catholics pression. They were in arms for the exiled king; and again was their faith the symbol of rebellion. Overcome by the sword, they were condemned to proscription and outlawry. under Anne, II. It was long before Catholics were to enjoy indulgence. In 1711, a proclamation was pub- Catholics lished for enforcing the penal laws against Geo. I. and them in England. And in Ireland, the severities of former reigns were aggravated by Acts of Queen Anne. After the rebellion of 1715, Parliament endeavoured to strengthen the Protestant interest, by enforcing the laws against Papists.* Again, in 1722, the estates of Roman Catholics and non-jurors were made to bear a special financial burden, not charged upon other property. And, lastly, the rebellion of 1745 called forth a proclamation, in the spirit of earlier times, offering a reward of 100l. for the discovery of Jesuits and popish priests, and calling upon magistrates to bring them to justice. Much of the toleration which had been conceded to Protestant nonconformists at the Revo- Nonconlution, was again withdrawn during the under Anne, four last years of Queen Anne. Having found their way into many offices, by taking the Geo. I. & II. 1 Act of Union, 5 Anne, c. 8; Scots Acts, 1705, c. 4; 1706, c. 7. 2 Boyce's Reign of Queen Anne, 429, &c. 3 2 Anne, c. 3, 6; 8 Anne, c. 3. 4 1 Geo. I. c. 55. 5 9 Geo. I. c. 18; Parl. Hist., viii. 51, 353. VOL. III. G sacrament, an Act was passed, in 1711, against occasional conformity, by which dissenters were dispossessed of their employments, and more rigorously disqualified in future. Again were nonconformists repelled, with contumely, from honourable fellowship with the state. Two years afterwards the Schism Bill was passed, prohibiting the exercise of the vocation of schoolmaster or private teacher, without a declaration of conformity, and a licence from a bishop.2 Both these statutes, however, were repealed in the following reign. With the reign of George II. a wider toleration was commenced, in another form. The time was not yet come for repealing the laws imposing civil disabilities upon dissenters: but annual Acts of Indemnity were passed, by which persons who had failed to qualify themselves for office, were protected." State of the religion on of George III. The reign of George III. opened under circumstances favourable to religious liberty. The church and intolerant spirit of the high church party the accession had been broken since the death of Anne. The phrensies of Sacheverell and Atterbury had yielded to the liberal philosophy of Milton and Locke, of Jeremy Taylor, Hoadley, Warburton, and Montesquieu. The angry disputations of convocation were silenced. The church was at peace; and the state had ceased to distrust either Roman 110 Anne, c. 2; Burnet's Own Time, ii. 364, 585, &c.; Bogue and Bennett's Hist., i. 228, 262. 2 '12 Anne, c. 7; Parl. Hist., vi. 1349; Bogue and Bennett's Hist., 268. 35 Geo. I. c. 4. The first of these Acts was in 1727; 1 Geo. II. c. 23. Hallam's Const. Hist., ii. 412. Catholics or nonconformists. Never since the Re formation, had any monarch succeeded to the throne, at a period so free from religious discords and embarrassments. In former reigns, high churchmen had been tainted with Jacobite sympathies: now all parties vied in attachment and loyalty. Once more the church was wholly with the king: and added all her weight to the influence of the crown. Many English Catholics, crushed by persecution, and losing hopes of the restoration of their own faith, had gradually conformed to a church, already beginning to boast a certain antiquity,-enshrined in the ancient temples of their forefathers,-respecting their traditions,—allied to the state,—and enjoying the power, wealth, fashion, and popularity of a national establishment. Some of this body had been implicated in both the Jacobite rebellions: but their numbers had ceased to be formidable; and they were now universally well-disposed and loyal.' The dissenters had been uniformly attached to the House of Hanover; and, having ceased to be oppressed, quietly prospered, without offence to the church. The old nonconformist bodies, the offspring of the Reformation, and the Act of Uniformity,so far from making progress, had declined in numbers and activity, since the time of William III.2 There had In 1767, there appear to have been no more than 67,916; and, in 1780, 69,376. They had 200 chapels.-Census, 1851: Report on Religious Worship, ci. In 1696, out of 2,599,786 freeholders in England and Wales, there had been 13,856 Catholics.-Ibid., c. Dalrymple, book i. part ii. App.; Butler's Historical Mem. of the Catholics, iii. 162. 2 Calamy's Life and Times, ii. 529; Lord Mahon's Hist., ii. 372; Bogue and Bennett's Hist., iii. 314–324. In 1696 it appeared that |