Both were laid by the same peer on the table of the Upper House; and both were referred to the same select committee.

But it soon began to appear that they would have widely different fates.
The Comprehension Bill was indeed a neater specimen of legislative workmanship than the Toleration Bill, but was not, like the Toleration Bill, adapted to the wants, the feelings, and the prejudices of the existing generation.

Accordingly, while the Toleration Bill found support in all quarters, the Comprehension Bill was attacked from all quarters, and was at last coldly and languidly defended even by those who had introduced it.

About the same time at which the Toleration bill became law with the general concurrence of public men, the Comprehension Bill was, with a concurrence not less general, suffered to drop.

The Toleration Bill still ranks among those great statutes which are epochs in our constitutional history.