short statement of the consequences which it produced on their situation, with reference to previously existing laws. The most prominent of those laws will therefore be enumerated; the Act of Toleration itself will be made the subject of a short commentary; the effect as well as the admissibility of that construction, which the author has been led to think erroneous, will be considered; and some observations will be offered on the subsequent Statutes which have been applied to the same subject.

As the present Tract professes to be a mere legal argument, every thing like theological controversy, or political disquisition, will be cautiously avoided and as the practical operation of the measure in question on the present state of the Protestant Dissenters, is alone intended to be reviewed, no notice will be taken either of those ancient laws by which Roman Catholics, considered as such, and not in the general character of Nonconformists, were treated as criminals; nor of many severe provisions in restraint of Sectaries, to which the necessity, or violence, of the reign of Charles the Second gave a short-lived existence.

The Statute, commonly called the Toleration Act, the 18th chapter in the reign of William and Mary, was among the first general laws that received the Royal Assent, after the Revolution in 1688. Its object, as it affected individuals, was twofold:

I. To relieve great numbers of His Majesty's

subjects from penalties, to which they had been previously exposed.

II. To confer on a much more limited class certain privileges and immunities.

The penalties, from which relief was afforded, were created by several laws, of which a slight sketch, but sufficient for the present purpose, is subjoined.

By the Act of Uniformity, passed in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was enacted, That all persons, having no reasonable or lawful excuse to be absent, should endeavour themselves to resort to their parish church or chapel accustomed, or, upon reasonable let thereof, to some usual place, where the Common Prayer is used, and there abide during the time of service; upon pain of ecclesiastical censure, and also upon pain of forfeiting for every such offence, twelve pence." This penalty was raised by another Statute of the twenty fourth year of the same reign, to £20. for a month's absence; and every person so offending for twelve months together, was to be bound to the good behaviour with two sufficient sureties in the sum of £200. and so continue bound until he shall conform.

Various new provisions for rendering these enactments more effectual were introduced into a law, passed in the twenty-ninth year of the same reign; and the severity of the punishment was considerably aggravated in the third year of James the First, when the King was authorised to refuse the monthly penalty of £20. though tendered, and

in lieu thereof, "to seize and take to his own use two-thirds of all the lands, tenements, and hereditaments, leases and farms," that belong to such offenders. In the same year, other penalties were imposed by another Statute, on persons absenting themselves from Divine Service, who at that time had obtained the name of Recusants.

These punishments are inflicted by the law of England for mere Nonconformity, evinced by absence from Public Worship, in the Established Church. A greater degree of severity is exercised towards those who may attend or harbour the unlawful assemblies in which doctrines condemned by the Established Church are taught. Against this species of offence, the twenty-second of Charles, chapter the first, frequently termed the Conventicle Act, was particularly directed.

By the first and second sections of that act, every subject of this realm, above the age of sixteen, being present at any assembly, conventicle, or meeting, under color or pretence of any exercise of religion, in other manner than according to the Liturgy and practice of the Church of England, which assembly should consist of five or more persons, besides those of the same household, if it be in a house where there is a family inhabiting, shall forfeit 5s. for the first offence, and 10s. for every subsequent offence. And this remarkable provision is superadded: That in

case of the poverty of such offender, the fine may be levied on the goods and chattels of any other person or persons who shall then be convicted of the like offence at the same conventicle, at the discretion of the justice, so as the whole sum to be levied on any one person in case of the poverty of other offenders, do not exceed ten pounds on occasion of any one meeting.

It was also thereby enacted (§ 4 and 5) that every person wittingly and willingly suffering any such conventicle to be held in his or her house or premises, shall forfeit £20; with the like power of fining other persons being present, in case of the poverty or inability of the principal offender, and with the like limitation of such auxiliary fine to the sum of £10.

A power is likewise given (§ 9.) to a single justice, or to a constable by warrant from a single justice, with what aid, force, and assistance they shall think fit, after refusal or denial to enter, to break open and enter any house or other place, where they shall be informed any such conventicle is held, and take into custody the persons there unlawfully assembled, to be proceeded against; and all lieutenants, deputy lieutenants, and commissioned officers of the militia are authorised and required, in case of necessity, to disperse such unlawful assemblies with troops or companies of horse or foot, &c.

"That that act

The thirteenth section enjoins and all the clauses therein shall be construed most

largely and beneficially for the suppressing of conventicles, and for the justification and encouragement of all persons to be employed in the execution thereof:" no proceedings under it are to be quashed for defect of form; and offenders against it, quitting the jurisdiction, where their offences have been committed, are equally amenable to any other jurisdiction, under which they may afterwards be discovered.

The penalties inflicted on dissenting teachers, besides those to which their nonconformity alone renders them liable, are to be found principally in the Act of Uniformity passed in the reign of King Charles the Second, in the second year after his restoration (13 and 14 Car. 2. c. 4.) in the Conventicle Act above mentioned, and in an Act passed in the 17th year of the same reign, commonly known by the designation of the Five Mile Act,* which, though it professes in its title to be directed to the restraint of nonconformists in general, does in truth, in its preamble and enactments, affect none but ministers.

By the first of these statutes, (§ 3, 4, 5.) every minister refusing or neglecting within a certain time to declare his unfeigned assent and consent to all things contained in the book of Common Prayer, in the form to which it had then recently been altered, and in which it now continues, was ipso facto deprived of all his spiritual promotions, which the patron was authorised to fill up in like manner as if such minister were actually dead.

* Called also, in one or two cases, "The Oxford Act.”