ABSTRACT
In 1788 members of the Society had marked the centenary of the Glorious Revolution as patriotic, liberty-loving Englishmen. The centenary observances were occasions for Englishmen to congratulate themselves upon the wisdom and courage of their ancestors, and occasions also for rededication to the task of completing what their ancestors had left undone. Composed of "friends of civil and religious liberty," both Anglican and Dissenter, who were proud of their Revolution principles, the Society boasted of its descent from one which, they asserted, was founded soon after the Revolution and ever since had commemorated the fourth of November. If the repeal seemed immediately to promise religious liberty, its implications were mainly civil and constitutional, for Dissenters had long enjoyed virtual freedom of worship. Price’s Discourse was published at once and became a bestseller. It was reprinted in Boston, Dublin and Paris.
