[782] Journal 96, fos. 101-102.
[783] Journal 97, fos. 168b, 170-171b, 172b-173b.
[784] Id., fos. 313-314.
[785] Journal 98, fos. 40-43.
[786] Journal 99, fos. 83b-87b; Journal 100, fos. 116-118b.
[787] Journal 100, fo. 76.
[788] Id., fo. 298.
[CHAPTER XLIV.]
Repeal of Corporation and Test Acts, May, 1828.
In November (1826) a new Parliament met. Of the old city members only one—viz., Matthew Wood, the popular alderman—retained his seat. He was joined by two other aldermen, one of them being the no less popular Waithman, and a commoner. The questions most pressing were Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform. The latter had been long urged by the City. As regards the emancipation of Catholics, the City had at one time shown considerable opposition. In 1790, the Common Council expressed itself as anxious to strengthen the hands of those friends of the established church who had twice successfully opposed in Parliament the repeal of the Corporation and Test Acts—a necessary preliminary to Catholic emancipation—and had called upon the city members and those of the Common Council who had seats in Parliament, to resist any future attempt that might be made in the same direction.[789] Since that time the citizens had changed their minds, and we find them now (May, 1827), passing resolutions against the iniquity of making the solemn ordinance of the Lord's Supper "a qualification and passport for power," and congratulating the king upon his having placed Canning, a notorious friend of Catholic emancipation, in power.[790]