The problems of church and state: dissenting politics and the London Missionary Society in 1830s Britain.

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The problems of church and state: dissenting politics and the London Missionary Society in 1830s Britain.

During the 1830s, calls for the disestablishment of the Church of England were increasingly common, and hotly debated within Protestant Dissent. This article examines the controversy within the predominantly Congregationalist London Missionary Society over the decision of the British government to give financial support to missionary societies to aid the education of emancipated slaves in British colonies. The government grants sparked discussion of both the propriety of a dissenting organization accepting government funds, and the broader issue of the proper relationship between church and state. In exploring the connection between the missionary movement and politics of disestablishment, this essay suggests how dissenting organizations, ministers, and laymen could use empire as a means to advance arguments about the reform of metropolitan society and politics.

CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP AND THE POLITICS OF DISESTABLISHMENT

The constitutional sea change of the Reform Era produced a dramatic shift in the scope and character of evangelical dissenting politics in Britain during the 1830s. The repeal of the Test Acts, Parliamentary Reform, and the reconstruction of municipal governments made participation in the political life of the nation accessible to Dissenters in unprecedented numbers. (1) Celebrating the passing of the Reform Bill the Nonconformist weekly, The Patriot, noted that Dissenters would no longer be forced to select between candidates "whose political sentiments were dramatically opposed to their own," the Tories, and the Whigs, who although allies in the fight for religious liberty held religious beliefs of which "the could not approve." In the future, Dissenters could elect "whom they please" to represent them in Parliament. (2)

All the same, the revolution in Britain's constitution between 1828 and 1835 created concerns for numerous evangelical Dissenters who were reluctant to take on the label "political." Dissenting publications, institutions, and prominent ministers all expressed concerns, lest the increase in "political spirit" should injure "the vitality of Christian ministration." (3) In the years following the agitation over Lord Sidmouth's bill to restrict evangelization, Dissenters had conducted their political activity primarily on the basis of defending religious liberty and advancing civil equality through parliamentary petitions and organizations like the Protestant Society for the Protection of Religious Liberty. Scripture provided evidence to justify these positions in both domestic and colonial politics, as the missionary leader John Philip noted in the preface to his 1827 Researches in South Africa:

If it is the duty of Englishmen to claim ...

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