Ever since the formation of Walpole's ministry it had been
the invariable rule and practice for all the members of the cabinet to
act in concert on all measures of importance, or, indeed it may be said,
on all measures on which a Parliamentary vote was taken. But, in
arranging his administration after Mr. Perceval's death, Lord Liverpool
found it absolutely impossible to form one satisfactory either to the
nation or to himself if it were to be confined to members in perfect
agreement with himself on the subject of the retention of the
disabilities affecting the Roman Catholics; and therefore, in order to
be able to form a ministry generally strong and respected, he adopted
the strange expedient of allowing every member of it to act
independently on this one question. He made it what was called an open
question. The arrangement, as explained to the House of Commons by Lord
Castlereagh, the ministerial leader of that assembly, was that, "in
submission to the growing change of public opinion in favor of those
claims (the Roman Catholic claims), and the real sentiments of certain
members of the government, it had been resolved upon, as a principle,
that the discussion of this question should be left free from all
interference on the part of the government, and that every member of
that government should in it be left to the free and unbiassed
suggestions of his own conscientious discretion.
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