The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-27 00:00:00

should be called upon to contribute one-third of the ex-
pense for the erection of a new gaol and a new lunatic
asylum for tho county of Warwick, from which it coati
derive no benefit? He trusted their Lordehips would
permit the Bill to be read a second time.
Lord REDESDALE opposed the Bill, becaL se it was
a private Bill brought in to get rid of public taxation.
The Earl of CHICHESTER would have preferred
that this grievance should have been remedied by a
general Act, but it was so great that he felt bound t
do all in his power to remedy it, and therefore he should
support the Bill.
The Marquis of SALISBURY moved that the debate
be adjourned until Thursday, as he hoped a short delay
would enable the various parties to come to some uader-
standing.
Lord WHARNCLIFFE opposed the motion for delay.
There could be no hope of accommodation, inasmuch as
the Warwickshire magistrates would listen to no terms.
Lord LYTTELTON thought that if the Bill were
thrown out a public Bill would be immediately intro-
duced.
Lord HATIIERTON supported the Bill, and said the
Gov, rnment had opposed it while the question was pond-
in; in a court of law, but when the qeestion had been
decided he had supported the Bill as a measure intended
to remedy a monstrous injustice.
Lord BEAUMONT believed that Birmingham had a
good case, but the principle in dispute was whether
they would permit persons by a private Bill to defeat a
public Act, a principle which he believed to be pregnaet
with danger. If the case of Birmingham were as
strong as stated, there could be no hardship in rejecting,
this Bill, because there would be ample time to intro-
duce a public measure to remedy the grievance.
The Marquis of SALISBURY withdrew his amend-
ment for the adjournment of the debate.
Sn-angers were then ordered to withhraw, and their
Lordships divided, when there appeared—
Contents for the second reading)
Not-contents (against it) •••
Majority against the Bill ...
The Bill was consequently lost.
PRISON DISCIPLINE.
Lord BROUGHAM gave notice that on that day
week he would present a petition from Dr. Rice and
others, on the subject of prison discipline, es connected
with the administration of the criminal law, and he would
then take the opportunity of calling their Lordships' at-
tention to the important subject.
PARLIAMENTARY OATHS BILL.
On the order of the day for the second reading of the
Parliamentary Oaths Bill,
The Earl of CARLISLE said that, in asking their
Lordships to give a second reading to this Bill, he could
not but be sensible that he laboured under a source of
much discouragement, as, with reference to one of the
most important clauses of the Bill, the opinion of their
Lordships was taken last session of Parliament, and given
against it. That might spare him the necessity of going
into all the antecedent circumstances of the Bill, which
he must have done if it had been brought now, for the
first time, before their Lordships' notice. Although
there were some things to damp the efforts in favour of
this Bill, yet the general spirit of their legislation
tended to favour the object contemplated. It would also
be peceived that the Bill now before their Lordships was
not identical with the Bill of last year, but sought to ex-
tend its remedies and its scope further. The Bill of last
year dealt exclusively with Jevva, whereas the present
Bill proposed to extend its provisions to certain
classes of Christians. At present the oaths of allegiance,
supremacy, and abjuration, were taken by all Members
of Parliament. It was proposed to substitute in its stead
a compendious and simple form of oath, which should
contain all that was pertinent and necessary in these
oaths. It might be said that this involved an inquiry
into the propriety of dispensing with oaths entirely. It
was quite clear that the Noble Lords he was addressing
having taken these oaths, must have been persuaded of
the lawfulness of taking them. But at the same time
some of their Lordships had manifested a wish to be
exempt from thtm, and were not equally convinced of
their lawfulness. But whatever difference of opinion
might exist on this head, he was convinced that they
would all agree with him, that when an oath was admi-
nistered it ought to be made as binding, as specific, and
as reverential as possible.—(Hear). There ought to be
nothing superfluous or unnecessary in them, and he felt
compelled to state that the oaths taken at their Lord•
shilfa table, and at that of the other House of Parlia-
ment, were not exempt from this disparagement. He
felt at a'l times disposed to regard with reverence the ad-
ministration of an oath, but he confessed he never was
less disposed to spontaneous reverence than when listen-
leg to the phrases in the oath of allegiance relating to
the Pretender, the Princess Sophia, and to a family
which had disappeared from the face of the
earth.—(Cries of
" Hear, hear.") In the oath of
supremacy the power of any foreign potentate what-
ever in these realms was abjured. Now, whatever might
be the licence of interpretation put upon language, it
was well known that there were peers who had a here- '
ditary right to sit in that House, and who were capable
of taking a part in their deliberations with great advan-
tage to their Lordships and the country, who were con-
vinced that those words were opposed to the truth.—
(Hear, hear.) Lord Clancarty, a nobleman whose ad-
ministration of the poor law in Ireland had been of the
most distinguished character, had refused to take the
oath, because he believed that these words should be
taken in their plain sense. 'These reasons formed a suf
fieient ground for altering the oaths administered to the
Chris:iun Members of either Home of Parliament. But
he could not conceal from their Lordships that the
main and essential object of the Bill wets to admit the
Jews into Perliamena—(Bear, hear.) He was aware
...i ea. race .41 5p.....ar.a on w hiala that proposition had
been resisted, a'sd if he believed in the validity of the
arguments adduced in opposition, he would wish the
811 to be defeated. But he laid down, as the cardinal
principle by which they ought to be guided, that unless
in case of proved and irresistible necessity, religious
opinions should not form a cause for civil disqualifica
ti n. That had been acted upon to a large extent by
the Legislature of late years. Within his own par-
liamentary experience, they had admitted Roman Catho-
lics to Parliament; they had removed many disabilities
from various classes of Dissenters; and, in the case of
the Jews themselves, there had been a successive series
of relaxations by the Sth, 9th, and 10th of Victoria;
their schools and synagogues were placed on a footing of
equality with all other Dissenters.—(Hear, hear.) When
they saw the Jews exercising the elective franchise, dis-
peneing justice, and practising at the bar—(heal., hear)
—when they saw them acting as high sheriffs, justices of
the peace, aldermen, and mayors, he thought that the
principle of exclusion was almost given up.—(Hear,
hear.) Indeed, the Jews were the only class of her Ma-
jesty's subjects to which these exclusions and disabilities
now applied. In their case, exclusion from se its in
Parliament was the only one now remaining. He could
not see any possible evil to arise from their introduction
into the Legislature. He believed that it had been ably
proved there had never ben any direct legislation to
exclude them, but it was by an indirect and inferential
application of words in Acts passed for other purposes
they were so.—(Hear, hear.) He did not believe that
their Lordships would refuse their assent to this Bill,
because the Jews were a peaceable people, who would
not descend into the streets, raise barricad.,s, and
cry "To your tents, 0 Israel."—(A laugh.) He
`scald not have the bad taste to menace their Lordships
with any evil constqu, flees from their rejection of this
measure; but he would say, that looking at the pro-
rreadee liberality of our past 1, gilation, at the deter•
a - •
minetion of the parties who had taken up the question,
end the feeling of the people at large, he could not but
think that it would be wise for their Lordships not to
embitte r this contest by, protracting a struggle which
must be ultimately unavailing.—(Hear, hear.) He would
not detain the Howie either by expatiating upon the high
reseectability and unsullied morality of the Jews, or the
praiseworthy manner in which they discharged all their
duties of citizens. With respect to the particular views
it was not necessary to advert to them at any length,
were it not that with all the generosity and kind hearted-
ness which he knew animated their Lordships, he felt
that it was specially on that ground they felt a difficulty
e' in agreeing to the measure.—(Hear, hear.) It was not as
Church of England men they refused assent, but because
he thought that by giving a fresh mark of honour to the
Jews they were in fact swerving from the allegiance
they owed to the Redeemer they worshipped. He was
well aware of the difficulty of arguing a religious ques-
tion in the presence of the spiritual Peers. But when
he was aware of the resistance of the religious scruple,
he trusted ho might without irreverence to advert
slightly to it, though it was by no means that point of
view on which he most strongly rested his advocacy of
this measure. The past calamities and captivities of the
Jews, and their present dispersion were attributed by
their own prophets and sacred writers to their disobedi-
ence to the Almighty; yet even in these writings a re-
cognition of the sacredness of the nation itself was re-

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corded. It was the like tree stricken with lightning, the
ruins of which were yet hallowed. The question was
what was the line of conduct marked out for us at the

present time ? Whatever might be the censure cf
events, that would bring about the fulfilment of
prophecy, it was no part of our duty to anticipate it.
—(Hear, hear.) It was our duty humbly to fulfil the
letter of the law of Christian love, and leave to the Crea-
tor the accomplishment of his own purposes in his own
time.—(Loud cheers.) He was thankful that the fierce
and undisguised persecution which, acting upon the
contrary principle, had been applied to the Jews in for-

. . ..
mer ages, was now extinct, bat he feared that, congra-
tulating ourselves upon this circumstance, we might in a
u
more refined mode, still gratify that persecuting
bodytingspiriotf,
f r persecution it essentially was, when
men were excluded from the rights of citizens
Looking at any possible on account of rebliigeiomuissomoepfintbioan(ts.ro—ig
their introduction into the Legislature, be would ask if
Flh
might earar i s e h feraorm. )
they were more likely to be infected
.wi.th the doctrines
of Radicalism, Republicanism, or SocsalismsesnLttoethgbtaihestialattoutthhreir
classes? He believed not, but the very contrary; and as far
as any interference with the spiritual or temporal powers
of the Church was concerned, he was convinced that
appre-
hended.wf raom an no( classoul vg f otb ft theo
continue
referencecnot imii
um eu
tnoti
at
bey
twasabe Christians tthatstatement
mc
he conceived that the introduction of a few members of
the Hebrew persuasion into Parliament would no more
unehristLnise the Legislature than the fact of the exist-
ence of a small body of Jewish fellow-citizens destroyed
the existence of the nation as a Christian nation.—
(Hear, hear.) The Right Rev. Prelates, and their
clergy in their pulpits, urged with eloquence, learning,
and in an evangelical spirit, the great truth of our reli-
gion. This was one mode of making a Christian nation;
but there was, perhaps, even a more effective one
of impregnating, as it were, the whole atmosphere
around us pith Christian habits and feelings, and
thht was to bring others from the outer fold into associa-
tion, or at least approximation with us, by the active
exercise of piety and brotherly love. The open exhibi-
tion of that spirit of Christian charity, which was so
powerful, and which, properly followed out by them,
would be so pnwerful as again to cause them to say—
" See 1101 th 0 quistian3 love one auother,"—(Cheers )