ces which
appear to us to have led up to it.

1811.

For several years prior to 1811, the established clergy had manifested
considerable uneasiness on account of the rapid spread of Methodism. The
readiness with which licenses for preaching could be obtained according
to the usual interpretation of the Toleration Act, had tended to the
multiplication of a class of preachers whose manners and language
peculiarly fitted them for acquiring influence over the inferior ranks
of the people; and by this means a great diminution had taken place in
the congregations of parish churches. It is affirmed--with what truth we
know not--that Lord Sidmouth in the measure (presently to be noticed)
was encouraged to proceed in his design by letters from persons of high
position in the Church.

LORD SIDMOUTH'S MOTION.

On the 9th of May, 1811, Lord Sidmouth moved in the House of Lords for
leave to bring in a bill for amending and explaining the Acts of William
and Mary and 17th George III., so far as applied to dissenting
ministers. According to the statement of his lordship, at most of the
quarter sessions, when the oaths were taken and the declarations made
requisite for enabling a person to officiate in a chapel or
meeting-house, any person, however ignorant or profligate, was able to
obtain a certificate which authorized him to preach. His lordship
proposed that, in order to entitle any person to a qualification as a
preacher, he should have the recommendation of at least six respectable
householders of the congregation to which he belonged. Lord Holland, in
opposing the bill, observed that he held it to be the inalienable right
of every man who thought himself able to instruct others to do so,
provided his doctrines were not incompatible with the peace of society.

When the nature and provisions of the proposed measure were made known
to the public, an alarm was excited among all those whom it was likely
to affect. The Nonconformists generally regarded it as intended, not so
much to add to the respectability of the dissenting ministers, as to
contract the limits of toleration, and subject the licensing of
preachers to the control of the magistracy. When therefore, on the 21st
of May, the bill was to be read a second time, such a deluge of
petitions was poured in against it, that the mover was left totally
unsupported. The Archbishop of Canterbury said with truth, that the
Dissenters were the best judges of their own conc