But that which followed, under the presidency of the Duke of Wellington, though after a few months its composition became entirely Tory, is memorable for the first great departure from those maxims of the constitution which had been reckoned among its most essential principles ever since the Revolution.
Of the measures which bear that character, one was carried against the resistance of the ministry, the other by the ministers themselves.

And it may at first sight appear singular that the larger measure of the two was proposed by the Duke after those members of his cabinet who had originally been supposed to give it something of a Liberal complexion had quitted it.

The Reform Bill of 1832--to which we shall come in the next chapter--has been often called a peaceful revolution.

The Toleration Acts, as we may call the bills of 1828 and 1829, are scarcely less deserving of that character.
The constitution, as it had existed for the last hundred and forty years, had been not only a Protestant but a Church of England constitution.

Not only all Roman Catholics, but all members of Protestant Non-conforming sects, all who refused to sign a declaration against the doctrine of Transubstantiation, and also to take the Sacrament according to the rites of the one Established Church, were disqualified for any appointment of trust.