22 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



Chaplin, and Mr. Massinj-berd. 

 The amendment was negatived, and 

 the original resolutions carried. 



Leeds Sessions. — The Tolera- 



tion Act Mr. Robert Wood, a 



preacher in the metliodist con- 

 nection, presented himself before 

 the magistrates, and requested that 

 the oaths might be administered 

 to him, that he might make the 

 declaration required by the Tole- 

 ration act, to qualify him to offi- 

 ciate as a dissenting teacher. 



The Bench inquired, if he was 

 appointed a teacher to any specific 

 congregation ? 



The Rev. Mr. Wood, sen. who 

 is also a travelling preacher in the 

 same connection, replied, that his 

 eon was to preach at Bramley. 



Recorder. — " Suffer the young 

 nian to answer the question him- 

 eelf." 



Mr. Robert Wood " It is in- 

 tended that I should preach at 

 Bramley, Armley, and other vil- 

 lages in the vicinity." 



The recorder, after some con- 

 versation with the Bench and the 

 counsel near him, resumed: — 

 " From a report of a case just pub- 

 " lished, it appears, that the Court 

 ♦' of King's Bench have decided, 

 •' that a protestant dissenter, who 

 •' states himself as one who preaches 

 *< to several congregations, without 

 •* showing that he has a separate 

 " congregation attached to him, is 

 *' not entitled to take the oaths 

 «' and make the declaration re- 

 •* quired by the Toleration act. 

 •' It will, therefore, be necessary 

 " for you to prove your appoint- 

 " ment to preach to a separate 

 " congregation, before you can be 

 *• entitled to take the oaths." 



Mr. Maude here observed, that 

 though the Court of King's Bench 



did not, in the case cited, think 

 proper to issue a mandamus to 

 compel the magistrates to ad- 

 minister the oaths, it did not fol- 

 low that t!ie oaths might not be 

 administered as heretofore, with- 

 out requiring those new conditions 

 which were never before heard 

 of. 



Mr. Hainsworth, in reply, said, 

 the magistrates could only admi- 

 nister the oaths agreeably to the 

 provisions of the Toleration act ; 

 and if that act required certain pre- 

 vious conditions, it was not in the 

 power of that bench, or any other, 

 to dispense with them ; for if the 

 magistrates, in the case alluded to, 

 had required any thing to be done 

 which the law had not made ne- 

 cessary, the Court of King's Bench 

 would have issued a mandamus to 

 compel them to administer the 

 oaths. 



In these observations the Court 

 coincided, and refused to adminis- 

 ter the oaths. 



Before the court adjourned, Mr. 

 Holtby, a student under the tuition 

 of the rev. Mr. Steadman, a dis- 

 senting minister at Bradford, pre- 

 sented himself for the same pur- 

 pose, and his application was 

 rejected on the same grounds ; but 

 it appeared that this gentleman had 

 made application to an improper 

 sessions, the court having no juris- 

 diction out of this borough ; and 

 he was advised to make application 

 to the sessions for the riding. On 

 this the applicant expressed some 

 surprMe at the new provisions 

 which, after the lapse of a century, 

 had been discovered in the Tolera- 

 tion act, and that magistrates had 

 been uniformly in the practice of 

 administering the oaths, without 

 any reference to those conditions 



which 



