The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-05-30 00:00:00

THE OATHS BILL.

THE unrighteous attempt of Lord JOHN Rrs-
SELL to break down the barriers by which the
legislature has at least the nominal character of
Christian, received a special defeat on Thursday,
in the very house where he made most sure of suc-
cess. It will be remembered that when, in 1547,
Lord JOHN RUSSELL was returned for the City of
London in company with Mr. ROTHSCHILD, he
made one of those rash promises which have ever
been his great failing, that he would use every
exertion to, remove the obstruction to his colleague
taking his seat in Parliament. This promise he
has since apparently fulfilled, though it is not
believed that he ever had either sincerity or ear-
nestness in the matter.; but, while the measure
has usually passed the Commons with a large
majority, it has been invariably defeated in the
House of Lords. This session, however, he resolved
on a different course, and instead of openly, declaring
his intention to admit the Jews to Parliament, he
endeavoured to compass the same end by what can
only be styled a shuffle. Any allusion to the Jews
was carefully omitted from the bill, which professed
to be simply a modification of the form of oath ;
and while the exclusion of the words " on the true
faith of a Christian" would admit those who
believed Christianity to be an imposture, the abo-
lition of the restrictions imposed on Romanist
members by the Emancipation Act of 1829 would,
it was believed, enlist a new class of voters in favour
of the measure. Alas ! for the tortuous policy of
Whiggery. The engineer was hoist with his own
petard ; for the very alteration which was relied
upon as a means of success was the chief, if not the
sole cause of the failure. The Protestant spirit of
the house was aroused at this insidious attempt to
remove any part of the restrictions on Romanist
sincerity, and the majority who might have admitted
the Jews on their own account refused to make
them a stepping-stone for the far worse foes of
Christianity, whose religion and whose loyalty is
slavish obedience to the decrees of apostate Rome.
Even Mr. DisneEnr, who had voted for every
former bill upon the not very intelligible ground of
the obligations which the whole human family
were under to the Jewish people, as the medium of
Divine revelation, would not consent to the Roman-
ists being favoured by a side wind, and therefore
opposed the bill—a course in which he was followed
by the Radical member for Birmingham. It will
be observed that Ministers were defeated by a very
small majority—a convincing proof that the rejec-
tion of the bill was owing solely to the fear of
abolishing the Oath of Supremacy, which formally
protests against the jurisdiction of the Bishop of
Rome, the pretension to which has not been
abandoned.
The prominent ministerial supporter of the bill
was the CHANCELLOR of the EXCIIEQIIER ; and it
is instructive to witness the degradation to which the
first step in political apostacy may eventually lead.
Mr. GLADSTONE was one among the foremost advo-
cates of Conservatism in politics and Churchman-
ship in religion, and for which he obtained the
distinguished position of representative in Parlia-
ment for the University of Oxford. What is he
now P The colleague of Radicals, and Infidels, and
Romanists, and the unblushing advocate of a mea-
sure avowedly designed to open the doors of the
House OfCOIIIIII6IIS to
h unconverted Jews, and covertly
intended p
eidtaotrioenmAoNe-te tof 18 9
ab first
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on the National Church. For the share which he
took in passing that very measure, the University of
Oxford ignominiously rejected the late Sir R. PEEL ;
and Mr. GLADSTONE, having more deserved it, will
as certainly experience the same fate, or that nursery
of the Church must have sadly degenerated from
its former consistent patriotism. It is, however, a
melancholy subject, for we cannot forget the high
position which Mr. GLADSTONE once held, and the
bright promise which he gave of becoming one of
England's ablest statesmen. But ambition, by
which sin fell the angels, has lured him to his
destruction ; and he is now an object for pity rather
than anger—a warning to promising young men
not to desert principle for the sake of place.
Both our own representatives voted against the
bill ; but we may direct attention to the able
speech of Mr. LID-DELL, in which, avowing his
own support to the act of 1829, he declared that
he would not consent to any alteration of it. The
legislature had then entered into a solemn com-
pact, in which a particular form of oath was
adopted, in order to reconcile the people of Eng-
land to the measure ; and he accused Lord JOHN
RUSSELL of' great political rashness and impru-
dence in attempting to disturb it. He assured
the House that the people of England, and espe-
cially the great community which he represented,
were most sensitive upon this subject, and averse
to any alteration being made in the form of oath,
an assurance in which he is fully borne out by the
great majority of his constituents. Mr. NAPIER
also ably opposed the bill, and said the Jews
themselves would not consent to obtain the advan-
tage sought at the price of breaking through
those great barriers which defended the country
against the pretensions of a foreign power. He
then "asked them whether that very day, which
commemorated the ascension of our Lord, was not
an occasion to remind them of the solemn sanction
received by the Christian faith. If Christ were
risen indeed, and was really and truly the King
of Kings and Lord of Lords ; if the Christian
religion was essentially a religion of faith ; if He
had sent what was His true and only vicar, the
Holy Ghost, to breathe the life of faith and light
of heaven into His church, he said he would stand
fast with England in that liberty with which He
had made His people free, and by that simple and
solemn confession of true Christian faith, which
neither in that house, nor out of it, he would ever
willingly allow any man to corrupt or deny, and
which he held to be the promise of the life that is,
and is to come."