formally disclaimed
by the other.

It may be remarked that Mr. Dunning's success in carrying his first
resolution did in itself, to a certain extent, disprove the truth of
that resolution, since, if the influence of the crown had been such as
he represented it, it must have been sufficient to insure its rejection.
But that resolution, and a new statute, of which in a previous session
he had been one of the principal promoters, are reckoned by Lord
Stanhope as among the chief causes of the disgraceful riots of 1780. In
the summer of 1778 he had seconded and supported with great eloquence
the repeal of some of the penal statutes against the Roman Catholics
which had been passed in the reign of William III. It was the first blow
at that system of religious intolerance which for nearly a century had
been one of the leading principles, as it had been also the chief
disgrace, of the constitution; and it was passed with scarcely any
opposition by both Houses. As, however, the statute which it repealed
had been enacted before the Scotch Union, the repeal did not extend to
Scotland, and it was necessary, therefore, to bring in a separate
measure for that kingdom. But the intelligence that such a proceeding
was in contemplation excited great wrath among the Scotch Presbyterians,
who, in the hope of defeating it, established a Protestant Association
for the defence of what they called the Protestant interest, and elected
as its president Lord George Gordon, a young nobleman whose acts on more
than one occasion gave reason to doubt the soundness of his intellect.
Against any relaxation whatever of the restrictions on the Roman
Catholics the Association sent up petitions to the House and to the
King, couched in language the wildness of which was hardly consistent
with the respect due to Parliament or to the sovereign. Apparently in
the hope of mitigating its opposition, the Houses the next year passed
an act, similar in principle, to relax some of the restrictions still
imposed on Protestant dissenting ministers by some of the subscriptions
which were required of them. But, as in the reign of Charles II., the
Presbyterian hatred of the Roman Catholics was too uncompromising to be
appeased in such a manner. And when Lord George found the House of
Commons itself acknowledging the danger with which the constitution was
threatened by the influence of the crown, he saw in their vote a
justification for all his alarms, since he had adopte