The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-18 00:00:00

MBER.

Kelso l5
Hendon ll
Monmouth
Newmarket let October 22
Walsall 23
West Drayton 29
Royal Caledonian Hunt
and Western 31
IBER.

I Cheltenham l3
Ealing
I Newmarket Houghton 19
Worcester Autumn. 27
:MEER

9
Pvickshire Hunt l7

STEEPLECHASES.
FEBRUARY.
Lincoln l9 Windsor Grand Military
Harrow 2O and Open . 27.
Boston
Derby Spring

MARCH.
Liverpool Spring 3 I Margate
Shrewsbury Spring.-- 10 West Somerset 24
Grand Military l6, 17 Cheltenham .. . 26
Warwick l7 Southdown Hunt
I
Chertsey 2O Cambridge
- ---

APRIL.
Grand National Hunt I Knighton
(Bedford) 2 ' Abergavenny
Roy.Artillery(Woolwich) 3 I Hambledon
Bromley .. 6 ' Kildare Hunt
Aldershot
I Hendon
- -- -

OOTOBER.
Bromley 1 I Ealing lb

IHPERIAL PARLIAMENT

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HOUSE OF. LORDS.—(Tfus EvENiNp.)
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Woolsopk
at five o'clock.

THE PROMISSORY OATHS BILL.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said that he should briefly
move the second reading of this bill*. Their lordships would
be aware that many oaths had been abolished which were
very cumbrous. But there still existed oaths which were
obligatory upon persons who were appointed to the highest
and lowest official positions in the realm and which oaths,
whether serious and frivolous, it was never intended
should be carried out. There Was one oath taken by a
gentleman-at-arms—(and he might state at this point that
the caths to be taken occupied 300 pages of the Appendix
of the Report of Commission on Promisiory Oaths—which
declared that he would keep three double horses and two
men, and would with himself and servants be always rzady
in harness to serve the King. This was never, of course,
intended to be acted upon, but he had in feivolous oaths a
much more striking example. It appeared that the beadle
of a parish was, besides going to public-houses and beer-
shops, to take all the pigs iu the district to the pound if
they were found straying. The Commission on Oaths had
advised the oaths of allegiance should be retained, and oaths
of office should be abolished. With this lie agreed. He
thought that the military, judicial, and official oaths ought
to be abolished, although some of the greater oaths might
be retained. Judicial oaths only to be taken by the highest
functionaries, and thc.se taken by members of the house,
which oaths should be turned into declarations. Of
course secret oaths had to be taken ; for instance, by
the assessors of the income tax. All oaths by this
bill, except those he had mentioned, were proposed
to be abolished, and those retained were mostly to be
turned into declarations. That was the purport of the
bill.

Lord LY VEDEN, who was very indistinct, was un-
derstood to say that he thought it was perfectly absurd to
ask a man to take an oath to do acts which it was per-
fectly impossible that he could perform. He considered
himself that the oath of allegiance and supremacy was
perfectly absurd. Of °purse, there could be no doubt of
the loyalty of men in office to the sovereign. He
considered that the official oath was entirely
unneceriisary. With regard to the military oath, the officer
had as much right to take it as the private. On the ground
of religion and morality he should support it.
Earl RUSSELL said that he approved of the bill as in-
troduced by the Lord Chancellor. He must, however,
remark that for those oaths which were to remain it would
be much better that they should be in a substantive form.
With these observations he would say that he heartily con-
curred in the bill.

The Bishop of OXFORD said that what he, as one of
the Commissioners on Oaths, thought was, that the noble
lord had been wrong when he said that oaths were use-
less. lie considered that they elevated the moral mind of
the nation, and that the Coronation Oath, whereby a Chrif
tian Sovereign swore to observe the duties of his position
in presence of his spiritual lord, ought to be reverenced
by all.