fy an
existing law in this spirit and with this object, however important
might be the purpose for which that law had originally been framed. Nay,
it might fairly be argued that the more important that object was, the
more were they who strengthened the means of attaining that object
entitled to be regarded as faithful servants and supporters of the
principle of the constitution.

The measure, however, relieved the Protestant Dissenters alone. Not only
did Lord Eldon's amendment preserve the Christian character of the
Legislature, but the requirement to sign the declaration against
Transubstantiation, which was unrepealed, left the Roman Catholics still
under the same disqualifications as before. But the days of those
disqualifications were manifestly numbered. Indeed, many of those who
had followed the ministers in their original resistance to the repeal of
the Test Act had been avowedly influenced by the conviction that it
could not fail to draw after it the removal of the disabilities
affecting the Roman Catholics. As has been said before, the disabilities
in question had originally been imposed on the Roman Catholics on
political rather than on religious grounds. And the political reasons
for them had been greatly weakened, if not wholly swept away, by the
extinction of the Stuart line of princes. Their retention or removal
had, therefore, now become almost wholly a religious question; and the
late bill had clearly established as a principle that, though the state
had a right to require of members of other religious sects that they
should not abuse the power which might arise from any positions or
employments to which they might be admitted, to the subversion or injury
of the Established Church of England, yet, when security for their
innocuousness in this respect was provided, it was not justified in
inquiring into the details of their faith. And if this were to be the
rule of government for the future, the conclusion was irresistible that
a similar security was all that the state was justified in demanding
from Roman Catholics, and that it could have no warrant for
investigating their opinion on Transubstantiation, or any other purely
theological tenet. There could be no doubt that the feelings of the
public had been gradually and steadily coming round to this view of the
question. The last House of Commons had not only passed a bill to remove
Roman Catholic disabilities (which was afterward thrown out in the Hous