is done in England is still looked to, as argument, and as example.  It is certainly true, that no law of this country ever met with such universal applause abroad, or was so likely to produce the perfection of that tolerating spirit which, as I observed, has been long gaining ground in Europe:  for abroad it was universally thought that we had done what I am sorry to say we had not; they thought we had granted a full toleration.  That opinion was, however, so far from hurting the Protestant cause, that I declare, with the most serious solemnity, my firm belief that no one thing done for these fifty years past was so likely to prove deeply beneficial to our religion at large as Sir George Savile’s act.  In its effects it was “an act for tolerating and protecting Protestantism throughout Europe”; and I hope that those who were taking steps for the quiet and settlement of our Protestant brethren in other countries will, even yet, rather consider the steady equity of the greater and better part of the people of Great Britain than the vanity and violence of a few.

I perceive, Gentlemen, by the manner of all about me, that you look with horror on the wicked clamor which has been raised on this subject, and that, instead of an apology for what was done, you rather demand from me an account, why the execution of the scheme of toleration was not made more answerable to the large and liberal grounds on which it was taken up.  The question is natural and proper; and I remember that a great and learned magistrate,[50] distinguished for his strong and systematic understanding, and who at that time was a member of the House of Commons, made the same objection to the proceeding.  The statutes, as they now stand, are, without doubt, perfectly absurd.  But I beg leave to explain the cause of this gross imperfection in the tolerating plan, as well and as shortly as I am able.  It was universally thought that the session ought not to pass over without doing something in this business.  To revise the whole body of the penal statutes was conceived to be an object too big for the time.  The penal statute, therefore, which was chosen for repeal (chosen to show our disposition to conciliate, not to perfect a toleration) was this act of ludicrous cruelty of which I have just given you the history.  It is an act which, though not by a great deal so fierce and bloody as some of the rest, was infinitely more ready in the execution.  It was the act which gave the greatest encouragement to those pests of society, mercenary informers and interested disturbers of household peace; and it was observed with truth, that the prosecutions, either carried to conviction or compounded, for many years, had been all commenced upon that act.  It was said, that, whilst we were deliberating on a more perfect scheme, the spirit of the age would never come up to the execution of the statutes which remained, especially as more steps, and a cooeperation of more minds and powers, were required towards a mischievous