¹ The Clarendon Code included legislation which restricted the political, educational, and religious activity of dissenters, and by extension their social and economic life. The presence of the Toleration Act among the statutes objected to may well surprise those unfamiliar with its terms. Defenders of the Church of England maintained that the Toleration Act conceded everything a reasonable man could desire. Actually, while permitting freedom of worship, the act circumscribed dissenters through the requirement of oaths and declarations quite of a piece with the oppressive penal acts. Even freedom of worship was not wholly conceded, and the act by no means opened the door to full citizenship. Thus because it was a concession, it was also an obstacle.

² Commentaries (Lewis ed.), IV, 41–65.Google Scholar For further evidence along this line see the present writer's “The Legal Position of English Protestant Dissenters, 1689–1767,” 23 Virginia Law Review (1937), 389–418.Google Scholar

³ A View of the Principles and Conduct of the Protestant Dissenters with respect to the civil and ecclesiastical Constitution of England (2 ed. n. d.). This was written in 1769.Google Scholar

⁴ A Free and Dispassionate Account of the late Application of the Protestant Dissenting Ministers to Parliament. In a Letter to a Friend (1772).Google ScholarStennett, (1728–1795)Google Scholar was a prominent and influential dissenting minister and a member of a family long outstanding in religious affairs.

⁵ The dissenting opponents to the applications for relief defended their stand on the ground that they were orthodox believers while the supporters of relief were rationalists. See Candid Thoughts on the late Application of some Protestant Dissenting Ministers to Parliament, for abolishing the Subscription required of them by the Toleration Act. By an Orthodox Dissenter (1772)Google Scholar, and Hitchin, Edward, Free Thoughts on the late Application of some Dissenting Ministers to Parliament; in a Letter to the Rev. XXXXXXGoogle Scholarwherein is proved, that the prayer of their petition originates with sentiment: to which are added remarks on the new test; with a few strictures on the different pieces published in defence of the said application (1772).Google Scholar

⁶ A Letter to the Protestant Dissenting Ministers who lately solicited Parliament for further relief (1773).Google Scholar I have not been able to trace the authorship of this tract, although it has been attributed to a John Butler. Whether this was John Butler, Bishop of Hereford (1717–1802), is not clear. Butler was a constant pamphleteer.

⁷ Letters to the honourable Mr. Justice Blackstone, concerning his exposition of the Act of Toleration, and some positions relative to religious liberty, in his celebrated Commentaries on the Laws of England (2 ed., 1771).Google ScholarFurneaux, (1726–1783)Google Scholar was an Independent minister and occupied several famous pulpits during his career. He enjoyed considerable reputation as a preacher. In addition, he had a good deal of weight in nonconformist educational affairs.

⁸ The arguments of Foster and Mansfield were stated in the ease of Harrison v. Evans which concerned the fining of men for their incapacity to serve a corporation office, double punishment for one offense in that the Corporation Act (1661) prevented dissenters from holding the office and a corporation by-law punished them for not holding it. This case had stretched over the period, 1752–67, and had aroused widespread interest because of the importance of the issue, the amount of money involved, and the number of courts to which the case was taken. The decision ended the practice of double punishment in this connection.

⁹ An Essay on Toleration with a particular View to the late Application of the Protestant Dissenting Ministers to Parliament for amending, and rendering effectual, the Act of the first of William ana Mary, commonly called the Act of Toleration (1773).Google Scholar

¹⁰ Before leaving Furneaux brief reference may be made to his sermon, , The Duty of Benevolence and Public Spirit: A Sermon, preached at Salters Hall, April 7th, 1775. Before the Correspondent Board in London of the Society in Scotland (incorporated by royal charter) for Propagating Christian Knowledge in the highlands and islands and for spreading the Gospel among the Indians in America (1775).Google Scholar Taking as his text, “For none of us liveth to himself,” Romans xiv, 7, he pictured men as both subjects of God's moral government and reasonable, although on occasion their animal instinets predominated and brought unhappiness. The end of society was defeated when men lived to themselves; they ought to live for the good of others. Mankind formed “one grand community” under God, no matter what language, color, and religion; therefore benevolence ought to be universal. Yet while declaring that all men were kindred, that “Be a man Jew or Gentile, Christian, Mohammedan, or Heathen, he is still a man; and, like ourselves, ‘the offspring of God’,” Furneaux deplored the influence of Catholic emissaries in the Scottish highlands as making “bad Christians and bad subjects.” And so this persuasive advocate of toleration placed his limits upon the application of the principle which he expounded with such eloquence.

¹¹ An Inquiry into the Principles of Toleration; the degree, in which they are admitted by our laws; and the reasonableness of the late application made by the Dissenters to Parliament for an enlargement of their religious liberties (2 ed., Shrewsbury, 1773).Google Scholar I have not been able to find anything in reference to Fownes's life.

¹² Williams, David, The Nature and Extent of Intellectual Liberty in a letter to Sir George Savile, Bart, occasioned by an error on a fundamental principle of Legislation, supported by his credit and eloquence in the debate on the Dissenting Bill, on Wednesday, March 17, 1779 (1779).Google Scholar The author, a prominent dissenting minister, declared that he had “dropped all distinction of religious sects” and had introduced a service based entirely on moral principles.

¹³ The bill passed, greatly to the satisfaction of most dissenters, and brought no decrease in toleration. In fact, it enlarged the educational opportunities of the dissenters.

¹⁴ The Right of Protestant Dissenters to a Compleat Toleration asserted (2 ed., 1789).Google Scholar Authorship has been attributed to Capel Lofft, a publicist and law reporter.

¹⁵ Reasons for seeking a Repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts, submitted to the Consideration of the Candid and Impartial. By a Dissenter (1790).Google Scholar The author was probably Bogue, David (1750–1825)Google Scholar, active in nonconformist missionary and educational circles.