Test

When the identity of anything is once established, other things, as to which there is doubt, may be compared with it as the test or standard, to ascertain whether they belong to the same class or n€«t. Thus, to permit a signature to be shown to the jury as a test-paper its genuineness must first be directly proved.^

See Hamdwritikg.

Test Act

Statute of 25 Geo. II (1752), c.

2, enacting that all persons holding office, receiving pay from or holding a place of trust under the crown, should take the oath ■of allegiance and supremacy, subscribe a declaration against transubstantiation, and •receive the sacrament, according to the ■nsage of the Chmxh of England, within six months after appointment. * Repealed by 9 Geo. IT (1829), c. 17, as to receiving I the.sacrament, and a new declaration substituted.'' The English Test Acts related to matters of opinion, most of them to religious opinions. The meaning atitached to the word "test " in our constitutions was derived from these acts.' See Ballot; Belioion.

Test joath

An oath of loyalty toward tthe existing government. In England and France, test oaths have been lim- '■ited to an afftrmation of present belief or disinterestedness toward the government, with no reference to past conduct... The clauses in the constitution ■of Missouri which require clergymen, before they may exercise their profession, to take an oath that 'they Jiave not committed designated acts, some of which at the time were innocent in themselves, con- ■etitute a bill of attainder, and an ex post facto law, forbidden by the Federal Constitution.-' TEST". See Testis, Test'.