The Virginia Gazette

March 18. The order of the day, as it stood for yesterday's proceedings in the House of Commons, was, "a committee of the whole House on the bill for relief of Protestant Dissenters in matters of subscription;" when Sir Roger Newdigate presented to the House a petition signed by several Dissenters, who called themselves Ministers, praying the House that the bill in question might be passed into a law. This petition was dated from Chatham. It was ordered to lie upon the table, and the debate was opened by Sir William Baggott; he was answered by Mr. Edmund Burke, who said that too much toleration could not be shown to Christians of every denomination, in opposition to skeptics of every species; that a bond of union ought to be cemented between the former, in order that they might be the better enabled to oppose with success the latter; that if persecution was justifiable, it was justifiable only against those whose labours tended to rob man of his most glorious privilege, that of being a religious animal, and to degrade him beneath the rank of the most contemptible reptile; whereas by your penal laws, said Mr. Burke, you let the animal most dangerous to society escape, and entangle the harmless butterfly in your net. The skeptic, added Mr. Burke, is the python against whom Christians should direct their weapons; nor can they, by mutual toleration of each other, be too closely united, in order the more effectually to combat the destructive monster. Mr. Burke concluded by saying that the church of England should open wide her gates to the believers of every denomination, and shut them only against skeptical atheists, who would plunder humanity of the privileges conferred upon it by the various beneficent dispensations of Providence. Thus, said this ingenious senator, will pious persons, like children, happy whilst encircled in a fond parent's arms, thus will they recline on the church's maternal bosom, nor be tempted, through want of toleration, to while away their precious hours in the harlot lap of infidelity! The principal speakers for the bill were Mr. Edmund Burke, Mr. Dyson, Mr. Dunning, Mr. Gray, Mr. Onslow, Sir William Meredith, and Sir Harry Houghton: against the bill, Sir William Baggott, Sir Roger Newdigate, and two other members. The debates continued until near eight o'clock, when the question being called for, the House divided, and the bill was carried by a very considerable majority.

Yesterday as soon as the debate relative to the Dissenters came on in the House of Commons Lord North went away.