It is highly probable that, in return for this great service, some of the leading Whigs consented to let the Test Act remain for the present unaltered.
There was no difficulty in framing either the Toleration Bill or the Comprehension Bill.

The situation of the dissenters had been much discussed nine or ten years before, when the kingdom was distracted by the fear of a Popish plot, and when there was among Protestants a general disposition to unite against the common enemy.

The government had then been willing to make large concessions to the Whig party, on condition that the crown should be suffered to descend according to the regular course.

A draught of a law authorising the public worship of the nonconformists, and a draught of a law making some alterations in the public worship of the Established Church, had been prepared, and would probably have been passed by both Houses without difficulty, had not Shaftesbury and his coadjutors refused to listen to any terms, and, by grasping at what was beyond their reach, missed advantages which might easily have been secured.

In the framing of these draughts, Nottingham, then an active member of the House of Commons, had borne a considerable part.