the Rev. W. Turner , Jun. , MA., Lives of the eminent Unitarians

[349] whom our country can boast are the produce of dissenting academies. A comprehensive and impartial history of these institutions, independently of its value in other points of view, would possess a great general interest, from the light which it would throw on the state and progress in England, not only of theology, but of literature and intellectual cultivation in every department, during the period which has elapsed since the rise of the leading denominations of Protestant Dissenters.

This class of institutions originated at a very early period in the history of Nonconformity; even anterior to the Act of Toleration, when they were, of course, carried on under the pressure of difficulties and disadvantages much greater than they have now to encounter, and, in many cases, under circumstances of no slight personal danger. But the first race of Nonconformist Divines, who had been ejected from their benefices in the Church by the Act of Uniformity, sustained a high character for talent and learning; and they were earnestly desirous that their successors, though unjustly precluded from the opportunities which they had enjoyed, should, as far as possible, maintain the reputation of the dissenting body in these respects. In this connexion, the names of Frankland, Woodhouse, Warren, and many others, are deserving of honourable remembrance. But even after the period when they, at length, received the partial protection of the civil power, they were still exposed to annoyance and vexation, and harassing processes were occasionally commenced in the ecclesiastical courts against those who presided over theological seminaries. The last attempt of this kind occurred in 1732, in the