[3]: 150 The campaigners were called "Liberationists" (the "Liberation Society" was founded by Edward Miall in 1844); and gathered strength to the point where, mid-century, Anglicans and Dissenters alike would have been astonished to learn that the church would remain established over a century later.
[6] There were, however, several reasons this campaign failed: parliamentary reform of the church to make it more efficient; Whig acquiescence in a system whereby they could appoint latitudinarian bishops with liberal views; and a dissenter focus instead on a process by which nearly all of the legal disabilities of nonconformists were gradually dismantled.
Nick Clegg, the former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said in April 2014 that he thought the Church of England and the British state should be separated "in the long run".
[7] Prime Minister David Cameron, responding to Clegg's comments, said that disestablishmentarianism is "a long-term Liberal idea, but it is not a Conservative one" and that he believed having an established church works well.
Trollope undoubtedly had in mind (see chapter viii of Phineas Redux) Disraeli's maneuver of adopting male household suffrage as Conservative party policy, leading to the Second Reform Act of 1867.