And yet, if such a bill had been passed, what would it have effected beyond what was effected by the Toleration Act?
It is true that the Toleration Act recognised persecution as the rule, and granted liberty of conscience only as the exception.

But it is equally true that the rule remained in force only against a few hundreds of Protestant dissenters, and that the benefit of the exceptions extended to hundreds of thousands.
It is true that it was in theory absurd to make Howe sign thirty-four or thirty-five of the Anglican articles before he could preach, and to let Penn preach without signing one of those articles.

But it is equally true that, under this arrangement, both Howe and Penn got as entire liberty to preach as they could have had under the most philosophical code that Beccaria or Jefferson could have framed.
The progress of the bill was easy.

Only one amendment of grave importance was proposed.

Some zealous churchmen in the Commons suggested that it might be desirable to grant the toleration only for a term of seven years, and thus to bind over the nonconformists to good behaviour.
But this suggestion was so unfavourably received that those who made it did not venture to divide the House.