Test Act
The passing of the Test Act in the same year, barring Catholics from public office, has been described as a shattering blow to his hopes of an important political career, and condemned him to a life of "backstairs intrigue", unless he could get the Act repealed. This explains his repeated efforts to obtain a dissolution of the Cavalier Parliament, although his belief that a new Parliament would be disposed to repeal the Test Act was shared by no one else. His intrigues were so ill-judged that they led to the Cavalier Parliament in its final session passing a second and more stringent Test Act, while the next Parliament, elected after Colman's death was, quite contrary to his predictions, even more hostile to Catholicism than its predecessor.