CHAP. IX - Origin of the Test Act

Summary

After having been twice prorogued, Parliament at last met again on the 4/14 February, 1672/3.

The Speaker Turner had been promoted: in his place one of the secretaries of state recommended Serjeant Job Charleton; the House accepted him without hesitation, but respectfully put off all further business till he should have been confirmed by the King. When this had been done, the King made his speech from the throne, in which he referred to the necessity of the important but expensive war in which he was engaged, and to the good results of the declaration of Indulgence; Lord Shaftesbury followed with a fiery exhortation to carry on the war. He justified it on the ground of the apprehension, that otherwise France would have united with Holland against England; for the Republic saw in England its one rival in trade and maritime power: since it aimed at universal dominion, it was the natural enemy of all monarchies, but especially of the English; from interest and aversion, it cherished an inextinguishable enmity towards England. The presumption in Holland was that the English nation would no longer support their King against it, but the King had no doubt of the devotion of Parliament, and he only needed its support to render the old enemies no longer dangerous: ‘delenda est Carthago,’ he exclaimed.