Exclusion Bill, a measure brought forward by Shaftesbury in 1679 to exclude the Duke of York, afterwards James II., from the succession to the throne, on account of his avowed Catholicism. It thrice passed the Commons, and as often Charles II. resorted to a dissolution, till, after March 1681, he ruled without parliamentary control.
Exclusion Bill,
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 4: Dionysius to Friction, p. 491
Source scan(s): p. 0506