It was an Act purporting to grant entire liberty of conscience to all Christian sects.

On this occasion a proclamation was put forth announcing in boastful language to the English people that their rightful King had now signally refuted those slanderers who had accused him of affecting zeal for religious liberty merely in order to serve a turn.

If he were at heart inclined to persecution, would he not have persecuted the Irish Protestants?
He did not want power.

He did not want provocation.

Yet at Dublin, where the members of his Church were the majority, as at Westminister, where they were a minority, he had firmly adhered to the principles laid down in his much maligned Declaration of Indulgence, [221] Unfortunately for him, the same wind which carried his fair professions to England carried thither also evidence that his professions were insincere.