208).]

[Footnote 206: Speech on the first reading ("Hansard," xx., 198).]

[Footnote 207: An amendment was proposed by Lord Chandos to add the
office of Prime-minister to these three, on the ground that if a Roman
Catholic were Prime-minister "he might have the disposal of all the
patronage of the state and the Church vested in his hands." But Mr. Peel
pointed out that the law of England "never recognized any such office as
that of Prime-minister. In the eyes of the law the ministers were all on
an equality." And the position, such as it was, being a conventional
one, was not necessarily connected with the office of First Lord of the
Treasury. "In a recent instance his late right honorable friend, Mr.
Canning, had determined to hold the office of Prime-minister with that
of Secretary of State. And when Lord Chatham was Prime-minister, he did
not hold the office of First Lord of the Treasury." At the same time he
explained that the impropriety of intrusting a Roman Catholic with
Church patronage was already guarded against in the bill, a clause of
which provided that "it should not be lawful for any person professing
the Roman Catholic religion directly or indirectly to advise the crown
in any appointment to or disposal of any office or preferment, lay or
ecclesiastical, in the united Church of England and Ireland, or of the
Church of Scotland."--_Hansard_, xx., 1425.]

[Footnote 208: Many years afterward the restriction as to the Lord
Chancellorship of Ireland was abolished.]

[Footnote 209: The plan which Pitt had intended to propose was to
substitute in lieu of the Sacramental test a political test, to be
imposed indiscriminately on all persons sitting in Parliament, or
holding state or corporation offices, and also on all ministers of
religion, of whatever description, etc., etc. This test was to disclaim
in express terms the sovereignty of the people, and was to contain an
oath of allegiance and "fidelity to the King's government of the realm,
and to the established constitutions of Church and state."--Letter of
Lord Grenville, given in _Courts and Cabinets of George III._, and
quoted by Lord Stanhope, _Life of Pitt_, iii., 270. This plan seems very
preferable to that now adopted, since it removed every appearance of
making a distinction between the professors of the different creeds,
when the same oath was to be taken by all indifferently.]

[Footnote 210: The question had been discussed with the highest Papa