It may be remarked that it was not the Test Act which excluded Roman Catholics from Parliament, but a bill which, fifteen years later, had been passed (probably under the influence of Lord Shaftesbury) at the time when the whole kingdom was excited by the daily expanding revelations of the Popish Plot.[198] And this bill had a loop-hole which was never discovered till now but the discovery of which totally changed the whole aspect of the question.  Even before the bill repealing the Test Act had passed through all its stages, Sir Francis Burdett had again induced the House of Commons to pass a resolution condemning the continuance of the Roman Catholic disabilities; to which, however, the peers, by a far larger majority, refused their concurrence.[199] But, within a month of this division, the aspect of the whole question was changed by the shrewdness of an Irish barrister, who had discovered the loop-hole or flaw in the bill of 1678 already alluded to, and by the energy and promptitude with which he availed himself of his discovery.  Mr. O’Connell had a professional reputation scarcely surpassed by any member of the Irish Bar.  He was also a man of ancient family in the county of Kerry.  And, being a Roman Catholic, he had for several years been the spokesman of his brother Roman Catholics on most public occasions.  He now, on examination of the bill of 1678, perceived that, though it forbade any Roman Catholic from taking a seat in either House of Parliament, it contained no prohibition to prevent any constituency from electing him its representative.  And when, on the occasion of some changes which were made in the cabinet, the representation of the County Clare was vacated by its member, Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, accepting the office of President of the Board of Trade, O’Connell instantly offered himself as a candidate in opposition to the new minister, who, of course, sought re-election.

Mr. Fitzgerald was a man who had always supported the demands of the Roman Catholics; he was also personally popular, and had the undivided support of nearly all the gentlemen and principal land-owners of the county, in which he himself had large property.  But O’Connell’s cause was taken up by the entire Roman Catholic priesthood; addresses in his favor were read at the altars of the different churches; and, after five days’ polling, Mr. Fitzgerald withdrew from the contest.  The Sheriff, in great perplexity, made a special return, reporting that “Mr. Fitzgerald was proposed, being a Protestant, as a fit person to represent the county in Parliament; that Mr. O’Connell, a Roman Catholic, was also proposed; that he, Mr. O’Connell, had declared before the Sheriff that he was a Roman Catholic, and intended to continue a Roman Catholic; and that a protest had been made by several electors against his return.”