, and
solemnly promised that it should never be drawn into precedent.

Even this concession was insufficient. The Commons, not content with
having forced their sovereign to annul the Indulgence, next extorted his
unwilling assent to a celebrated law, which continued in force down
to the reign of George the Fourth. This law, known as the Test Act,
provided that all persons holding any office, civil or military, should
take the oath of supremacy, should subscribe a declaration against
transubstantiation, and should publicly receive the sacrament according
to the rites of the Church of England. The preamble expressed hostility
only to the Papists: but the enacting clauses were scarcely more
unfavourable to the Papists than to the rigid Puritans. The Puritans,
however, terrified at the evident leaning of the court towards Popery,
and encouraged by some churchmen to hope that, as soon as the Roman
Catholics should have been effectually disarmed, relief would be
extended to Protestant Nonconformists, made little opposition; nor could
the King, who was in extreme want of money, venture to withhold his
sanction. The act was passed; and the Duke of York was consequently
under the necessity of resigning the great place of Lord High Admiral.

Hitherto the Commons had not declared against the Dutch war. But, when
the King had, in return for money cautiously doled out, relinquished
his whole plan of domestic policy, they fell impetuously on his foreign
policy. They requested him to dismiss Buckingham and Lauderdale from his
councils forever, and appointed a committee to consider the propriety of
impeaching Arlington. In a short time the Cabal was no more. Clifford,
who, alone of the five, had any claim to be regarded as an honest man,
refused to take the new test, laid down his white staff, and retired to
his country seat. Arlington quitted the post of Secretary of State for
a quiet and dignified employment in the Royal household. Shaftesbury
and Buckingham made their peace with the opposition, and appeared at
the head of the stormy democracy of the city. Lauderdale, however, still
continued to be minister for Scotch affairs, with which the English
Parliament could not interfere.

And now the Commons urged the King to make peace with Holland, and
expressly declared that no more supplies should be granted for the war,
unless it should appear that the enemy obstinately refused to consent
to reasonable terms. Charles found it necessa