Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/314

 in the royal proclamation which announced his policy, 'of the concurrence of the two Houses of Parliament, when we shall think it convenient for them to meet.' Meanwhile the dispensing power would be exercised to relieve all persons coming within the penalties of the Acts. In Scotland a bolder policy still was adopted. There the royal prerogative was claimed as sufficient to deal finally with all such questions. In Ireland Tyrconnel was given free powers to pack the Parliament which was about to be summoned, and secure a favourable verdict as a preliminary to still larger measures.

In the expressions of the fateful Declaration of Indulgence issued by the King the echo of some of Sir William's economic ideas may perhaps be detected. The Declaration states the King's unalterable resolution to grant freedom of conscience for ever to all his subjects, rendering merit, and not a compliance with the Test Act, the condition of the tenure of office; experience had shown the impossibility of constraining conscience, and that people ought not to be forced in matters of mere religion; and liberty of conscience would add to the wealth and prosperity of the nation, and give to it what Nature designed it to possess—the commerce of the world.

In July 1687 the English Parliament was dissolved, and it was determined to spare no effort to bring together a more subservient assembly to carry out the royal wishes. The words of the royal Declaration were fair, and if the questions involved had affected England only, it is possible that the result might have been different from what it proved to be. But events in Ireland decided the issue in England. It soon became clear that there, whatever the private views and wishes of the King might be, Tyrconnel was the real ruler, and that the King was powerless to protect the lives and property of his Protestant subjects from the vengeance of their hereditary enemies. Nor could it escape attention that, even in England, Roman Catholics were everywhere being promoted