William Wilberforce

to William Wood

8 September 1789

fol. 27. MS. letter from William Wilberforce, Buxton, to William Wood, Leeds, 8 September 1789.

[This letter is the original, not in Wilberforce’s hand, as the P.S. notes, but by someone on his staff with a scrivener’s hand, for it is not a copy in Wood’s hand; the letter is signed by Wilberforce.]

Sir

I should sooner have acknowledged the Honor of your Letter of the 25th of August, but that having been on the Ramble for some little time past, I did not fall in with it till a day or two ago – I sit down to reply to it readily & chearfully: the constituent has an undoubted right to demand of the Representative the Grounds of his conduct, & I hope I shall never be backward or ashamed to answer such a requisition.

I shall not enter into a Detail of all the several arguments which bear on the subject in question, & which therefore must be supposed to have been in my contemplation when it was under discussion, but (this indeed is I imagine the wish of the Meeting whose request you communicate to me) I shall confine myself to the reason I alluded to in my Letter of the 3d of May, which was in truth the grand & determining motive in my mind, & though so long since, is still fresh in my recollection.

Although on the whole I am convinced of the beneficial Tendency of national Establishments of Religion, yet there are strong objections to which I think them liable; one of the greatest of these is, that the established Teachers are apt to grow insolent and negligent from various & manifest causes: these causes cooperating with others resulting from a more luxurious & polished state of society, and a proportionate relaxation in morals, render perhaps the Generality of the Clergy of a well endowed Church utterly unlike their Predecessors in primitive times, & their instructions might be expected to be proportionably different; but if at the time of the original establishment of the National Church, certain forms of worship & articles of faith were also settled, these, so long as they should be preserved, would secure to the People, in the main, an adherence to the antient Tenets in the services & instructions of the Church; &, I conceive, in such a state of things it would be the bounden duty of every one, who should think it essential to retain these, carefully to guard those articles of faith & forms of worship, by which alone they were assured of the enjoyment of them; the application of this general Statement is sufficiently obvious, & it will I think have led you into my Train of Reasoning on the subject of the Dissenters’ application for a Repeal of the Test & Corporation Acts. I do not recollect that it was then declared that, in the words of one of your Resolutions, “their endeavors were exerted solely with a view to the removal of the Brand of ineligibility to civil Offices:” and I perfectly remember some Publications of a very able & active Member of the Dissenting body, which conveyed a very different impression: what was then asked, though certainly a considerable accession of influence was likely to result from it, did not I confess appear to me so objectionable in itself as in the Consequences with which it might probably be followed; the great body of the Dissenters was then hardly roused into action & I hoped that, discouraged by the ill success of their first attempt, they who applied to Parliament would desist from their efforts; whereas an easy Victory on their first onset, from the nature of the human Mind, would call forth the spirit of the whole Order and inspire them with the Hopes of further conquests: where might be expected to be their next attack? if against the Power & Wealth of the Hierarchy it was easy to see that the whole body of that established Clergy would unite in repelling it; but if their opinions should be directed against the Articles & the Liturgy, this was a Post which I feared would not be so obstinately defended, so many of those who were enlisted in their support being alienated from them in Sentiment and affection; when a Party within the Citadel is disposed to surrender the Outworks to the Besiegers, these Outworks must be watched with double circumspection: Such were the Considerations which determined me to vote against the Dissenters application, slowly however, I repeat it, and reluctantly, for the Grievances of which they complained appeared to me by no means ideal Evils, nor could any thing justify a continuance of the Restrictions under which they labored, but a conviction of their absolute necessity. It had been my intention to declare these sentiments in the House; and at this distance of Time I cannot certainly call to mind what prevented my so doing: one Cause might be, not I hope an unpardonable one, that I was unwilling to say what might be perhaps misconstrued into an indiscriminate censure of the Clergy of the Established Church, for many of whom I entertained the highest respect & the sincerest personal affection.

You cannot but have observed Sir that I have all along expressed myself in the past Tense, & I have done so designedly: &, for the reasons I had the Honor of stating to you in my last Letter, I had not determined to absent myself from the House when this Subject was last agitated, I should have felt it my duty to review the Ground of my former Conduct and to make up my Mind on the propriety of changing or adhering to it: whenever the business shall again be brought forward, I shall ponder it with becoming seriousness & attention, (I trust with impartiality also) and, relying on the candor of my constituents for a just interpretation of my conduct, give that vote which on the whole my Conscience shall dictate; for I should hold myself extremely culpable if in a Matter of this concernment, I were to be determined by Motives of private friendship or by feelings of false shame & personal consistency. I must add I should be no less so, if I were to give up my opinions to my Interest and to suffer myself to be biased by a Regard to my political situation; this indeed I value as I ought; and the Confidence and Commendations of the Dissenting Body, many of whose Members I much respect, & by many of whom I have been highly obliged, cannot but be very grateful to me; but to purchase all these at the expence of Integrity, were to buy them at too dear a rate, and I am persuaded you would yourselves condemn me for making such a sacrifice.

I have the Honor to remain

Sir

Your most obedient

and faithful Servant

W Wilberforce

P.S. On account of the weakness of my Eyes, I take the Liberty of writing to you by another hand.

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