By the small majority of fifteen in a House of 599 members--and this due to the vacillation of the Government--he was again refused the right to take his seat.
But now the whole Liberal Press took up his quarrel; the oath question became a test question for every candidate for Parliament, and the Government was warned that it was alienating its best friends.

The _Pall Mall Gazette_ voiced the general feeling.

"What is the evidence that an Oaths Bill would injure the Government in the country?
Of one thing we may be sure, that if they shirk the Bill they will do no good to themselves at the elections.

Nobody doubts that it will be made a test question, and any Liberal who declines to vote for such a Bill will certainly lose the support of the Northampton sort of Radicalism in every constituency.

The Liberal Press throughout the country is absolutely unanimous.