Printed notice from the West Riding Committee meeting at Wakefield, 1 September 1791, Watson Scathcherd, Chair; also a printed notice, “An Address from the three denominations of Protestant Dissenters in Great Yarmouth, to their Brethren of the Establishment,” signed by Samuel Hurry, Chairman.

The Committee have prepared an “Address to the People of England,” in which they lay out their positions on several key issues, such as the French Revolution, attitude to the established church, the Priestley riots, and others--they seem now very much on the defensive, trying to combat the charges laid against them by the ministerial writers.  They are not enemies to the Church and King, which so many have said they are.  As Dissenters they are bound to allow anyone to worship wherever and however they choose, Churchmen included, so they cannot possibly be a threat to the Church of England.   He says “we have, indeed, no private interest which can stimulate us to acts of unchristian hostility.  We have no desire that our own opinions, or mode of worship should be supported by the civil magistrate, or by the aid of a legal impost.” They wish to see it more effective than it is, so how can they be its enemies?  He says they are not enemies of the State either, for they have considerable property and seek its protection as much as anyone else does.  “It is, moreover, for the most part of that kind which would be the soonest affected by civil contentions: It is chiefly, vested in commercial stock, or the machinery of manufactories; and much of it may be dissipated in an hour, by the fury of bigoted, or the rapacity of unprincipled insurgents.” He says “the experience of a century has witnessed our quiet submission to the laws, and our active regard to the welfare of our country.  We have been engaged in no rebellion.  We have favoured no insurrections.” He wishes the French people success in forming a new government, noting that it is evident “that more than twenty millions of people, who have long been political slaves, are now become freemen.  In this auspicious change we anticipate a glorious addition to the general happiness of mankind.” Because they support the French revolution does not mean they support one in England.  He finds that a ridiculous assumption.  He says they do not seek to change the form of the English government or its Constitution, but they do desire to improve it and correct some abuses that have grown up over the years.  He says they demonstrated their good faith and demeanor in the latest application to Parliament for repeal of the Test Acts.  “A few indiscrete expressions in the Resolutions of a single society in a neighbouring county, have, indeed, been pointed out, and condemned with a willing asperity; but the public may be assured that they were entirely disapproved by the general body of Dissenters. . . We have been guilty of no violence: we have threatened no mischief to the persons or property of our most violent opposers.  And we trust , we shall never deviate from our accustomed good order.” He says in closing, “We will wait, with steady temper, for a change in the public mind; and in the general course of our lives will apply, with patriotic diligence, to the duties of our respective professions.  It shall be our constant ambition to fill our several stations with credit to ourselves, and with usefulness to the community; and if we cannot obtain the cordial esteem of every class of our fellow subjects, we will do all that the Author of Nature hath put in our power, we will endeavour to deserve it.” The letter is signed by Watson Scatcherd, Chairman. 

The third resolution states that Moorhouse, Wood, and Langdon were to write a letter to Priestley expressing their concern for his sufferings at Birmingham.  That letter is included here, in which it states, “However some of us may differ from you in several doctrinal opinions, we are well convinced of the integrity of your character, and think ourselves highly obliged to you for your services in the cause of religous and civil liberty.  In this cause we respect you as a confessor; and admire the magnanimity and meekness, equally honourable to the man and the christian, with which you have borne the losses you have sustained.”

Also present is a printed notice, “An Address from the three denominations of Protestant Dissenters in Great Yarmouth, to their Brethren of the Establishment,” signed by Samuel Hurry, Chairman.  This address stresses much the same points as the above, and also links Dissenting economic interests to the commercial and manufacturing aspects of the economy.  Concerning France he writes, “That Englishmen should manifest their joy on the diffusion of Light and Liberty over many millions of their Fellow-Creatures, was surely rather to be expected, than that other Englishmen should revile and persecute them for so doing.  But we doubt not, in a short time, the sensations of the greater part of our Countrymen on these Topics will be the same with our own: and that it will be no peculiar distinction to Protestant Dissenters openly to wish the Freedom and Happiness of all Mankind.”

Text: Test Acts Papers, no. 120, Unitarian Collection, UCC 3/6/6, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. This document is also cited in Greyson Ditchfield, “The Priestley Riots,”  10; also see The Gentleman’s Magazine LXI (1791): 924-7.