Copy of a letter [in the same hand as the fol. 47] from Samuel Shore, Clapham, to Christopher Wyvill, Burton Hall, Yorkshire, 2 January 1790.

My dear Sir,

        It was with very great satisfaction I perused the Letter lately received from you, dated 21st of last month, which was forwarded to me from Norton, where my son now resides, and where we have only been Visitors during part of the autumn.  Those Sentiments of religious toleration and general liberty, you so fully express, are worthy of your Character and the offer you kindly make of coming forth in support of such Principles, by uniting with your injured fellow subjects in their endeavours to obtain a repeal of the Test laws is not only worthy of you, but demands the grateful acknowledgment of the Protestant Dissenters as well as the thanks of all the sincere and enlightened friends of civil and religious liberty.  For we by no means as Dissenters consider the application for relief in this case as solely our own cause, much less do we think that we are opposing our own Interests to those of the church of England.  On the contrary we deem our cause to be that of Truth and Justice, contending against unjust and restrictive statutes which are a disgrace to the National Code.  And in thus attempting to procure relief for ourselves from injury and oppression we apprehend we are at the same time consulting the safety, benefit and honor of the Established Church, the credit of Christianity in general and the welfare of the whole community.  Therefore we cannot possibly have any objection to unite with the members of the Establishment in so laudable an undertaking, but shall rejoice at such a junction and receive their assistance with ardor and affection.  The Dissenters may perhaps have been hitherto backward in calling upon their brethren of the Established church, from ignorance how far the genuine Principles of Toleration, to their due extent had spread among them.  But when a Gentleman of your profession and respectability generously communicates his Ideas on the subject, it is incumbent upon them to declare their own opinions in favor of a cordial union between all the friends to the true Principles of Toleration, and the prosperity of their Country in a measure calculated to promote them both. –  It will now be necessary for me to state to you the Situation in which the Dissenters in Yorkshire are in this respect, so far as I am acquainted with it. – There was a general meeting called at Rotherham for the Town and Neighbourhood, some time ago, to which the members of the Establishment were invited; and a Gentleman of that communion was very properly in the Chair.   I do not know of any other general meeting that has been held in other towns within Yorkshire.   There has been none of the County at large.  The Meetings at Leeds were of the dissenting Ministers for the West Riding.  They have formed a Committee.  There was also, I believe, a Committee appointed at Rotherham.*  These are the only Committees that I know of in Yorkshire.  Tho’ there may be various others which I am unacquainted, as their Resolutions, published in the Papers may have been unseen by me, and I have not looked over the list, in the hands of the Chairman for the London Committee since I came to Town. – I shall think it my duty as a sincere well wisher of the removal of the mischiefs to society occasioned by the Corporation and Test Acts to communicate your Letter to our friends in Yorkshire, that they may take it into contemplation, whether it would not be right at this juncture to have a general meeting of the Dissenters for the County of York, and inviting the attendance, at the same time, of all whether of the Establishment or otherwise, who are friends to the proposed repeal of these obnoxious laws.  This meeting might either consist of the Dissenters in General, or of the Ministers and a certain number of lay deputees from each Congregation, and probably would be convened to the greatest advantage at Leeds or some other neighbouring Town, as most central to the West Riding, where Dissenters chiefly abound, and would not be greatly further than York for those Gentlemen who would honor the meeting with their Company, from the other Ridings.  I should myself think the Meeting in Yorkshire would be very respectable, and if so the resolutions of such a meeting, consisting of members of the Establishment both Clergy and Laity and of Dissenters in favor of the Repeal with a Committee instituted to promote it, would have great Influence.  In regard to the mode proceeding by petition, the London Committee have hitherto rejected it, and preferr’d the bringing forward the question of repeal by motion in the house of Commons as thinking it free from some objections to which [it] may be liable and equally efficacious.  In this determination the Country Committees have in general concurred.  From the near approach of the meeting of parliament there would scarce be time for petitions to come up from all parts of the Kingdom, and therefore I suppose the Committee will judge proper to renew the application by motion as before especially as an early discussion of the business will be desirable from the uncertain duration of the Session.

        At Northampton they have had a very respectable [meeting] of the kind here described, at which M:r Hanbury a Gentleman of the Church of England presided and M:r Rainsford with Sir Egerton Leigh two other Gentlemen of the same persuasion were zealous and liberal advocates for the Repeal.**

                                Yours

                                            SS

*see Test Acts Papers, no. 7,  10 April 1789.

**see Test Acts Papers, no. 40,  26 November 1789.

Text: Test Acts Papers, no. 48, Unitarian Collection, UCC 3/6/6, John Rylands University Library of Manchester.