AN ACT TO SUBSTITUTE ONE OATH FOR THE OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE, SUPREMACY, AND ABJURATION; AND FOR THE RELIEF OF HER MAJESTY'S SUBJECTS PROFESSING THE JEWISH RELIGION

Whereas it is expedient that One Oath should be substituted for the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration now required by law: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:

I. Instead of the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration, where the same are now by Law required to be taken, and taken and subscribed respectively, the following Oath shall be taken and subscribed:

"I, A. B., do swear, that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and will defend. Her to the utmost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatever which shall be made against Her Person, Crown, or Dignity, and I will do my utmost Endeavour to disclose and make known to Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, all Treasons and traitorous Conspiracies which may be formed against Her or them; and I do faithfully promise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of my Power, the Succession of the Crown, which Succession, by an Act, intituled 'An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject,' is and stands limited to the Princess Sophia Electress of Hanover, and the Heirs of Her Body being Protestants, hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any Obedience or Allegiance unto any other Person claiming or pretending a Right to the Crown of this Realm; and I do declare that no foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Preeminence, or Authority ecclesiastical or spiritual within this Realm; and I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian. So Help me God."

II. Wherin the Oath hereby appointed the Name of Her present Majesty is expressed or referred to, the Name of the Sovereign of this Kingdom for the Time being, by Virtue of the Act "for the further Limitation of the Crown and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject," shall be

substituted from Time to Time, with proper Words of Reference thereto.

III. The Oath hereby appointed shall be taken and subscribed in the same Cases, and by and before the same Persons, and at the same Times and Places, as the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration are respectively now directed to be taken, and taken and subscribed; and the taking and subscribing of the Oath hereby appointed shall have the like Effect as the taking, and taking and subscribing respectively of the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration would have had if this Act had not been passed; and the Refusal, Neglect, or Omission to take and subscribe the Oath hereby appointed shall be attended with the like Disabilities, Incapacities, Penalties, Liabilities, and Consequences, as now by Law provided in the Case of Refusal, Neglect or Omission to take, or take and subscribe respectively the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration; and all Provisions now in Force shall be construed and take effect accordingly: Provided always, that no Person, having before the Commencement of this Act taken the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy and Abjuration, shall be required to take and subscribe the Oath hereby appointed, unless and until he would be by Law required to take the said Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration in Case this Act had not been passed.

IV. Provided always, that every Person of the Persuasion of the People called Quakers, and every other Person now by Law permitted to make his solemn Affirmation or Declaration instead of taking an Oath, shall, instead of taking and subscribing the Oath hereby appointed, make and subscribe a solemn Affirmation in the Form of the Oath hereby appointed, substituting the Words "solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm" for the Word "swear," and omitting the Words "And I make this Declaration upon the true faith of a Christian. So help me God;" and the making and subscribing of such Affirmation by a Person hereinbefore authorized to make and subscribe the same, with such Omission as aforesaid, shall have the same Force and Effect as the taking and subscribing by other Persons of the Oath hereby appointed.

V. And whereas by a certain Act passed in the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, intituled "An Act for repealing so much of the several Acts as imposes the Necessity of receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as a

qualification of certain Offices and Employments," a certain Declaration is prescribed to be taken in the Cases in the said Act mentioned: And whereas, by an Act passed in the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her present Majesty, intituled “An Act for the relief of Persons of the Jewish Religion elected to Municipal Offices," a certain other Declaration was permitted to be taken in certain Cases by Persons professing the Jewish Religion, instead of the Declaration required to be made and subscribed by the said Act of King George the Fourth: And whereas it is right to extend the Benefit of the last-recited Act to all other Cases in which the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth is by Law required to be taken: Be it enacted, That in all Cases which are not in the Provisions of the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her Majesty, in which any other of Her Majesty's subjects are required by Law to make and subscribe the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, Her Majesty's Subjects professing the Jewish Religion shall be required instead thereof to make and subscribe the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her present Majesty, which Declaration shall, with respect to such Person professing the Jewish Religion, be of the same Force and Effect as if he made and subscribed the said Declaration by the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, and shall be made and subscribed at the same Times and Places respectively, and preserved of Record in the same Manner as the last-mentioned Declaration is now by Law required to be made, subscribed, and preserved.

VI. Provided also, that nothing in this Act contained shall be held to alter or affect the Provisions of the Act passed in the Tenth Year of King George the Fourth, Chapter Seven, "for the Relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic Subjects." (Annual Register for 1858, vol. 100, p. 238.)

216. The Jewish Relief Act

(21 & 22 VICT., c. 49, July 23, 1858)

Annual Register

On the same day as that on which was passed the Oaths Act, there was passed a measure for defining the privileges of the Jews more clearly than this had yet been done. While the first portion of the Act is almost similar to the provisions contained in the Oaths Act, the latter portion expressly continues certain disabilities made necessary by the connection between Church and State. As a citizen, the Jew was to be henceforth regarded

as the peer of the Christian; but certain functions which trenched on the ecclesiastical ground were still withheld.

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE RELIEF OF HER MAJESTY'S SUBJECTS PROFESSING THE JEWISH RELIGION

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in the present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:

I. Where it shall appear to either House of Parliament that a Person professing the Jewish Religion, otherwise entitled to sit and vote in such House, is prevented from sitting and voting by his conscientious Objections to take the Oath which by an Act passed in the present Sessions of Parliament has been or may be substituted for the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration in the Form therein required, such House, if it think fit, may resolve that henceforth any Person professing the Jewish Religion, in taking the same Oath to entitle him to sit and vote as aforesaid, may omit the Words "and I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian," and so long as such Resolution shall continue in force the said Oath, when taken and subscribed by any Person professing the Jewish Religion to entitle him to sit and vote in that House of Parliament, may be modified accordingly; and the taking and subscribing by any Person professing the Jewish Religion of the Oath so modified shall, so far as respects the Title to sit and vote in such House, have the same Force and Effect as the taking and subscribing by other Persons of the said Oath in the Form required by the said Act.

II. In all other Cases, except for sitting in Parliament as aforesaid, or in qualifying to exercise the Right of Presentation to any Ecclesiastical Benefice in Scotland, whenever any of Her Majesty's Subjects professing the Jewish Religion shall be required to take the said Oath, the Words "and I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian" shall be omitted.

III. Nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to enable any Person or Persons professing the Jewish Religion to hold or exercise the Office of Guardians and Justices of the United Kingdom, or of Regent of the United Kingdom, under whatever Name, Style, or Title such Office may be constituted, or of Lord High Chancellor, Lord Keeper or Lord Commissioner of the Great Seal

of Great Britain or Ireland, or the Office of Lord Lieutenant or Deputy or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, or Her Majesty's High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

IV. Where any Right of Presentation to any Ecclesiastical Benefice shall belong to any Office in the Gift or Appointment of her Majesty, Her Heirs or Successors, and such Office shall be held by a Person professing the Jewish Religion, the Right of Presentation shall devolve upon and be exercised by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Time being; and it shall not be lawful for any Person professing the Jewish Religion, directly or indirectly, to advise Her Majesty, Her Heirs or Successors, or any Person or Persons holding or exercising the Office of Guardians of the United Kingdom, or of Regent of the United Kingdom, under whatever Name, Style, or Title such Office may be constituted, or the Lord Lieutenant or Lord Deputy, or any other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, touching or concerning the Appointment to or disposal of any Office or Preferment in the United Church of England and Ireland, or in the Church of Scotland; and if such Person shall offend in the Premises he shall, being thereof convicted by due Course of Law, be deemed guilty of a high Misdemeanor, and disabled for ever from holding any Office, Civil or Military, under the Crown.

(Annual Register for 1858, ed. cit., p. 241.)

217. The End of the Slave Trade

Cobbett

The great struggle against slavery was fought out in the nineteenth century. Then it was that the question of emancipation of the negroes was agitated by the whole world. The movement resulted in the freedom of the negroes held in bondage by civilized nations, and in ending exportations of slaves from Africa. The success of the English movement was only brought about by a long and arduous combat on the part of its adherents, but it was largely instrumental in the general abolition of the system. The following extract portrays the closing scenes attending the passage of the Emancipation Act.

Lord Grenville moved the order of the day for taking into consideration the amendments made by the house of commons in the Slave Trade Abolition bill. His lordship observed that the object of the greater part of these amendments was to inforce penalties and forfeitures upon those carrying on the trade, after the period fixed by parliament