the Independents, with the
Quakers, I have nothing at all to do. They are in _possession_,--a great
title in all human affairs. The tenor and spirit of our laws, whether
they were restraining or whether they were relaxing, have hitherto taken
another course. The spirit of our laws has applied their penalty or
their relief to the supposed abuse to be repressed or the grievance to
be relieved; and the provision for a Catholic and a Quaker has been
totally different, according to his exigence: you did not give a
Catholic liberty to be freed from an oath, or a Quaker power of saying
mass with impunity. You have done this, because you never have laid it
down as an universal proposition, as a maxim, that nothing relative to
religion was your concern, but the direct contrary; and therefore you
have always examined whether there was a grievance. It has been so at
all times: the legislature, whether right or wrong, went no other way to
work but by circumstances, times, and necessities. My mind marches the
same road; my school is the practice and usage of Parliament.

Old religious factions are volcanoes burnt out; on the lava and ashes
and squalid scoriae of old eruptions grow the peaceful olive, the
cheering vine, and the sustaining corn. Such was the first, such the
second condition of Vesuvius. But when a now fire bursts out, a face of
desolations comes on, not to be rectified in ages. Therefore, when men
come before us, and rise up like an exhalation from the ground, they
come in a questionable shape, and we must _exorcise_ them, and try
whether their intents be wicked or charitable, whether they bring airs
from heaven or blasts from hell. This is the first time that our records
of Parliament have heard, or our experience or history given us an
account of any religious congregation or association known by the name
which these petitioners have assumed. We are now to see by what people,
of what character, and under what temporary circumstances, this business
is brought before you. We are to see whether there be any and what
mixture of political dogmas and political practices with their religious
tenets, of what nature they are, and how far they are at present
practically separable from them. This faction (the authors of the
petition) are not confined to a _theological_ sect, but are also a
_political_ faction. 1st, As theological, we are to show that they do
not aim at the quiet enjoyment of their own liberty, but are
_associa