Page:The Wentworth Papers 1715-1739.djvu/405

Rh you last post expecting the Grand Debate wou'd have been this day, but unluckily tis putt of till Wednesday; then the Bill is to be committed and that will be the Day of Battle.

I don't doubt but this matter will very soon (if itt is not allready) be talkt off in Holland, and I take itt for granted itt will be represented there as the beginning of a Persecution. I will therefore state to your Lordship as well as I can what the design and tenour of this Bill is. There was an Act of Uniformity past in Queen Elizabeth's time, another in Charles the 2d, which are printed in all our common prayer Books that they might be the more publickly observ'd. However in direct defiance of these laws the Dissenters have been very industrious in setting up Schools and Seminaries and have gone upon a Notion that the Toleration has sett aside those laws. Now this Bill is only to give a new life to those old Laws, and to take care that these troublesome People (who generally differ from the Establish'd constitution in State matters as much as in Church) may not encrease, and by brooding up their children in the same way perpetuate those unhappy divisions we have amongst us. I know that in Holland they take no such method, but they observe one rule which effectually secures them, and makes all other precaution needless, which is that nobody has a right to Vote upon any occasion who is not of the Establish'd religion. Thus I am inform'd itt is with them. I wish itt were so here and after that I shou'd think there cou'd be no manner of Danger from these Dissenters, and for my own part I shou'd be for ever after entirely dispos'd to favour them in any thing they desir'd.

Thus much of my letter my Lord I writt this day senight and happen'd to miss the post that night and therefore kept itt with a design to finish itt the next. We had that day again a very long day about the same bill, and I din'd afterwards in company and did not come home in time to finish itt or send itt. Since we have had nothing to doe or talk off but this bill ever since, I thought I cou'd not do better than to send your Lordship the same which I had begun upon the subject, that I might att the same time give your Lordship