Protestant View

Britain may not have a written constitution, such as the United States and other nations possess, but constitutional documents are in place which were created in order to define, among other things, "the Rights and Liberties of the Subject", and to settle in perpetuity "the Succession of the crown". The most important of these are the Act of Settlement and the Bill of Rights, both of which were designed to free our nation totally from the yoke of Popery. It had been discovered "by experience" that it was "inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant Kingdom to be governed by a Popish Prince, or by any King or Queen marrying a Papist", and the safeguarding of the Protestant succession "in all time coming" was therefore enshrined in law.

In both Houses of Parliament, there is a large number of Romanists, many of them occupying offices of state; so it is not surprising that there is now a movement, which seems to be gathering momentum by the day, to get rid of the oath of allegiance to the Queen which all Members of Parliament are obliged to take before occupying their seats in the House of Commons. More than that, there is now a real danger of the Act of Succession being repealed and the way opened up for a Roman Catholic to sit on the British Throne. It beggars belief that a major constitutional change of this nature may be effected by means of a Bill introduced under the Ten Minute Rule. This method of introducing new legislation is hardly ever successful as the Government of the day, anxious to promote its own legislative programme, is unwilling to allow the time necessary to pass any such Bill into law.

Rome, however, has her own strategy in place and it is highly significant that this Bill is being introduced by a staunchly Roman Catholic MP. According to the English Churchman, it is due to receive further consideration in the House of Commons on March 15. We are grateful to Dr Ian R K Paisley for the faithful manner in which he opposed the passage of the Bill. To their honour, some fair-minded Roman Catholic MPs lent him their support. Prominent among them was a fairly recent convert to Rome - the Rt Hon Ann Widdicombe. We hope and pray that the Lord will, in His own way, bring to nothing this latest attempt to undermine our Protestant throne.

JM