oth hateful to
man and offensive to God.'

[Sidenote: THE RARITY OF CHRISTIAN CHARITY]

Peel opposed the motion, and professed to regard the grievances of the
Dissenters as more sentimental than real. Huskisson and Palmerston
followed on the same side, whilst Althorp and Brougham lent their aid to
the demand for religious liberty. The result of the division showed a
majority of forty-four in favour of the motion, and the bill was
accordingly brought in and read a second time without discussion. During
the progress of the measure through the House of Lords, the two
Archbishops--less fearful for the safety of the Established Church than
some of their followers--met Lord John's motion for the repeal of the
Acts in a liberal and enlightened manner. 'Religious tests,' said
Archbishop Harcourt of York, 'imposed for political purposes, must in
themselves be always liable more or less to endanger religious
sincerity.' Such an admission, of course, materially strengthened Lord
John Russell's hands, and prepared the way for a speedy revision of the
law. Many who had hitherto supported the Test Act began to see that such
measures were, after all, a failure and a sham. If their terms were so
lax that any man could subscribe to them with undisturbed conscience,
then they ceased to be any test at all. On the contrary, if they were
hard and rigid, then they forced men to the most odious form of
dissimulation. A declaration, if required by the Crown, was therefore
substituted for the sacramental test, by which a person entering office
pledged himself not to use its influence as a means for subverting the
Established Church. On the motion of the Bishop of Llandaff, the words
'on the true faith of a Christian' were inserted in the declaration--a
clause which, by the way, had the effect, as Lord Holland perceived at
the time, of excluding Jews from Parliament until the year 1858.

Lord Winchilsea endeavoured by an amendment to shut out Unitarians from
the relief thus afforded to conscience, but, happily, such an intolerant
proceeding, even in an unreformed Parliament, met with no success. Lord
Eldon fiercely attacked the measure--'like a lion,' as he said, 'but
with his talons cut off'--but met with little support. It was felt that
the great weight of authority as well as argument was in favour of the
liberal policy which Lord John Russell advocated, and hence, after a
protracted debate, the cause of religious freedom triumphed, and