The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-02-04 00:00:00

TIIE OATH OF SUPREMACY

The Dublen Mail has started a fresh difficulty for the
consideration of Sir Robert P,el. It would appear from
1- published in that journal, that while by-batiks

an artic

have brenti

Be-
quests Act, great constitutional question was altogether
overlooked. As the subject has excited considerable at-
tention, we subjoin an abridgment of the article; and,
if the Mail's view of the law be correct, the consequence
of the Legislature's oversight in framing the Act may
hereafter prove a source of no ordinary embarrassment :
" By the statute of the Ist of 'William and Mary, c. 2,
s. 2, a statute preceding, by some years, that known as the
Act of Settlement, and by which the succession to the
crown of England was declared and decided, it was enacted

`that every person who should be reconciled to, or hold
communion with the See of Rome, should profess the
Popish religion, or should marry a Papist, should be ex-
cluded and for ever incapable to inherit, possess, or enjoy
the crown ; and that in such case the people should be
absolved from their allegiance, and the crown should de-
scend to such persons, being Protestants, as would have
inherited the same in case the person so reconciled, &c.,
were naturally dead.'

Many other enactments were made, rendering it not
only cbligatory upon the Sovereign to join the coma:u-
nion of the Church of England as by law established.' but
the following declaration was introduced into, and to the
present hour forms a prominent feature of tl'e Poronation
oath—that solemn compact entered into between the
Sovereign and the people, at one of the most august and
sacred politico-religious ceremonials known to our church
or to our constitution—a compact sworn to on the gospel
of the living God :

" ' Archbishop or Bishop.—Will you, to the utmost of
your power, maintain the laws of God, the true profession
of the gospel, and the Protestant ref(); med religion esta-
blished by law ? And will you preserve unto the bishops
and clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed
to their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do,
or shall, apps rtain unto them, or any of them ?

" Kim, or Queen.—All this I promise to do.'
" It will be seen that all these enactments and declara-
tions had reference and were intended to increase the
stringency of the oath of supremacy-Ist Elizabeth, c. 1—
and revised and embodied in other acts during the reigns
of William and Mary, Anne, and George I. ; and it is
necessary for our purpose that we should give it here at
length :

OATH OF SUPREMACY

" I, A. 8., do swear that I do, from my heart, abhor,
detest, and abjure, as impious and heretical, that damna-
ble doctrine and position, that princes excommunicated,
or deprived by the Pope, or any authority of the see of
Rome, may he deposed or murdered by their subjects, or
any other whatsoever. And Ido declare that no foreign
prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, bath, or ought
to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-emi-
nence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this
realm.—So help me God.'
" Our purpose in going thus far back is to show that in
the re-construction of the British constitution every act
passed, and every declaration promulgated, from the period
of the Rtformation down to the passing of the Emancipa-
tion Act, had a twofold object always in view—the spirit
of which pervaded every Protestant law, and every Pro-
testant document—namely, no communion with the Pope
—no connexion with his see—eschew both, politically,
internationally, and religiously—no conference, no inter-
course, no concordat—in fine, no fellowship with Rome.'
" By the 7th and Bth Victoria, c. 97 (commonly called
the Charitable Bequests Act), s. 15, it is enacted,—
" That Roman Catholics shall be enabled by deed or
will to make grants, and vest in the commissioners his or
their estate, &c., in lands or goods, or chattels. in trust
for any archbishop or bishop, in holy orders of the church
of Rome, officiating in any district, or having pastoral su-
perintendence of any congregation of persons professing
the Roman Catholic religion.'

" And again, in the 17th and 18th sections, the titles
and the status of the Roman Catholic prelates are fully
recognized and established by law, after the passing of
said act. But it is not only that this recognition takes
place, but the act provides for priority in the Board of
commissioners, and gives to Her Majesty, in Council, the
appointment of the Commissioners; and therein, as we
have seen, not only the Rornih archbishops and bishops
are recognised as such, but appointed to priority and pre-
cedence, according to the rank of the same titles in the
established church, and placed before peers of the realm
and of Parliament.

"Now, let us bear in mind that the oath of supremacy,
which we have set out in extenso, is not only in full force
of law, but that no Protestant can be sworn as a member
of any of the sacred, learned, or military professions—
cannot be ordained as a clergyman, called to the bar as a
lawyer, or admitted as an attorney—that he cannot hold
any office of trust, responsibility, or emolument under the
Crown, or be a director of the national banks in either
country—that no peer or commoner can take his seat in
either house of Parliament—in fine, that no Protestant
can, on any occasion, take the oath of allegiance to his
Sovereign without swearing :
" That no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or
potentate bath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power,
superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or
spiritual, within this realm.'

" One word in conclusion :—lf the oath of supremacy
cannot longer be conscientiously taken by Protestants—
the law pronouncing that in certain cases it is absolutely
necessary that it should—let us see the position in which
Protestants are placed. There can be no succession of
clergymen of the Church of England in Ireland. There
can be no members of the professions ; no magistrates ;
no Protestants can accept of office under the Crown, or
take their seats as representatives of the people; the pri-
vilege of electing temporal peers is abolished ; Protestant-
ism is virtually put down ; and the established church
actually annihilated ; for, supposing the scruple to be well
founded, none but Ronan Catholics can exercise the
several functions pertaining to each, for they alone are
exempted from taking the oath.
" Suppose for a moment that the present apparent
movement in Ireland is the result of diplomacy on the one
hand, and deceit on the other—we don't say it is—but
supposing such a thing possible, what will the people of
England say to their Prime Minister for duplicity or
ignorance ?''

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These innovations are successfully opposed in their pro-
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the use of that inestimable production " ROWLAND.B
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unfailing conservator.—See advt.