I JOSEPH PRIESTLEY. 29 



and the evils which might be apprehended from it were far 

 less than those which were actually suffered and which were 

 daily increasing; in the name of God, I ask, what principles 

 are those which ought to restrain an injured and insulted 

 people from assertmg their natural rights, and from chang- 

 ing or even punishing their governors — that is, their ser- 

 vants — who had abused their trust, or from altering the 

 whole form of their government, if it appeared to be of a 

 structure so liable to abuse ? " 



As a Dissenter, subject to the operation of the 

 Corporation and Test Acts, and as a Unitarian 

 excluded from the benefit of tlie Toleration Act, 

 it is not surprising to find that Priestley had very 

 definite opinions about Ecclesiastical Establish- 

 ments; the only wonder is that these opinions 

 were so moderate as the following passages show 

 them to have been: — 



" Ecclesiastical authority may have been necessary in 

 the infant state of society, and, for the same reason, it may 

 perhaps continue to be, in some degree, necessary as long as 

 society is imperfect; and therefore may not be entirely 

 abolished till civil governments have arrived at a much 

 greater degree of perfection. If, therefore, I were asked 

 whether I should approve of the immediate dissolution of 

 all the ecclesiastical establishments in Europe, I should an- 

 swer. No. . . . Let experiment be first made of alterations^ 

 or, which is the same thing, of hetter establishments than 

 the present. Let them be reformed in many essential arti- 

 cles, and then not thrown aside entirely till it be found by 

 experience that no good can be made of them." 



Priestley goes on to suggest four such reforms 



of a capital nature: — 



" 1. Let the Articles of Faith to be subscribed by candi- 

 dates for the ministry be greatly reduced. In the formu- 



