The same year (1689) Parliament effected great and sorely needed
reforms in the administration of justice (S492).
Next, Parliament passed the Toleration Act, 1689 (S496). This measure
granted liberty of worship to all Protestant Dissenters except those
who denied the doctrine of the Trinity.[1] The Toleration Act,
however, did not abolish the Corporation Act or the Test Act[2]
(SS472, 477), and it granted no religious freedom to Catholics.[3]
Still, the Toleration Act was a step forward, and it prepared the way
for that absolute liberty of worship and of religious belief which now
exists in England.
[1] Freedom of worship was granted to Unitarians in 1812.
[2] The Act of Indemnity of 1727, and passed from year to year,
suspended the penalties of the Test and the Corporation Acts; they
were both repealed in 1828.
[3] Later, the fear that James II might be invited to return led to
the enactment of very severe laws agaisnt the Catholics; and in the
next reign (Anne's) the Act of Occasional Conformity and the Schism
Act were directed against Protestant Dissenters.
In finance, the reign of William and Mary was marked by the practical
beginning of the permanent National Debt in 1693 and by the
establishment in 1694 of the Bank of England (S503).
Now, too, 1695, the English press, for the first time in its history,
became, in large measure, free (SS498, 556), though hampered by a very
severe law of libel and by stamp duties.[4] From this period the
influence of newspapers continued to increase, until the final
abolition of the stamp duty (1855) made it possible to issue penny and
even halfpenny papers at a profit. These cheap newspapers sprang at
once into an immense circulation among all classes, and thus they
became the power for good or evil, according to their character, which
they are to-day; so that it would be no exaggeration to say that back
of the power of Parliament now stands the greater power of the press.
[4] Debates in Parliament could not be reported until 1771 (S556), and
certain Acts (1793, 1799) checked the freedom of the press for a
time. See May's "History of England."
27. The House of Commons no longer a Representative Body; the First
Two Georges and their Ministers.
But now that the Revolution of 1688 had done its work, and transferred
the power of the Crown to the House of Commons, a new difficulty
arose. This was the fact that the Commons did not represent the
people, but stood simply as the representative of a small number of
rich Whig landowners.[1] In many towns the right to vote was confined
to the town officers or to the well-to-do citizens. In other cases,
towns which had dwindled in population to a very few inhavitants
continued to have the right to send two members to Parliament, while,
on the other hand, large and flourishing cities had grown up which had
no power to send even a single member (S578). The result of this
state of things was that the wealthy Whig families bought up the votes
of electors, and so regularly controlled the elections (S538).
[1] The influence of the Whigs had secured the passage of the Act of
Settlement which brought in the Georges; for this reason the Whigs had
gained the chief political power.
Under the first two Georges, both of whom were foreigners, the
ministers--especially Sir Robert Walpole, who was the first real Prime
Minister of England, and who held his place for twenty years (1721-
1742)--naturally stood in the foreground.[2] They understood the ins
and outs of English politics, while the two German sovereigns, the
first of whom never learned to speak English, neither knew nor cared
anything about them. When men wanted favors or offices, they went to
the ministers for them (S538). This made men like Walpole so powerful
that George II said bitterly, "In England the ministers are king"
(S534).
[2] See S21 of this Summary.