New-York daily tribune., 1856-06-07

The fashion of all things passeth away-even OF
swearing. Not only may "damss have had their
day." as Bob Acres said they had, but more SER
Gus oaths change their meaning with the change OF
tines. A hundred years ago or so in England the
Devil, the Pope and the PreteDder formed an un-
holy trinity OF which it was hard to say which was
tie greatest bugbear If there were any other
name which stirred the bile of the British nation
by its mere mention, it was that of the Jews.
"No Jews, no wooden shoes :" was the cry Of the
ene mics of Israel when they mobbed the Jew bill
out of Parliament in l753-thereby expressing by
an cdd conjunction of epithets the quintessence OF
their two pet antipathifs
Giant Pope hath been loosed near thirty years
from the many chains that bound him, and he is
allowed to range at freewill in merry England with
out fear of the gbbet Of the penalties Of pre-
munire. The Pretender is no more. The last pre-
tense at oDe vanished in the person of his Msjesty
Henry TX, usually styled the Cardinal of
York. who died at Rome in 1909 Cor thereabout),
a peDsioper of the Eector Of Hanover, commonly
called King George III. But il is odd that 1t
should be the Pretender that keeps Baron Lionel
de Rotbschild and all Jewry out of Parliament at
this day, fifty years nearly since his tomb was
bnilded in st. Peters. But so it is. This dead
and sceptred Cor rather never sceptred) sovereign
still rules England from his urn. 1t is the
"wooden shoes" which still bode ominous copjec-
ture to "the Jews"
Our reader. have heard ofrepeated attempts for
removing the Disabilities of the Jews. The City
Of London elected Baron Lionel de Rothschd IN
1889 one of it's four members, and he still is one,
thouph be has never been able to take bis seat IN
the House of Commons. And yet there are really
no Disabilities under which the Jews labor. There
ia no law to be repealed that stands in the way oi
their perfect equality with the best Christian the
Church or COnventicle can turn out. IL is moth
ing but an oath that bars the House OF Commons
in their faces. 1t is all matter Of swearing, and
not of legislation. And the only oath that thus
shuts the door against them is the Oath OF Al
iuratop, whereby the juror renounces and abjures
all the descenG arts of James H. on the true iatn
" of a Christian" OF course, no Jew can make
this declaration however willing he may be to
abjure and renounce the Pretender and all his
works. The object of this sanction probably was
TO guard against those mental reservations by which
it was ared concealed Pspsts and Jacobites might
seek TO reconcile their Parliamentary convenience
with their conscientious scruples.
This Oath, having accomplished its work of
keeping the Pietender out Of the throne, is now
doing duty to keep the Jews out OF Parliament.
This aucillary service it has done, since 1t had
chance, quite as eifectuclly as the other. Lord
John Russell now proposes the very rational ex-
pedient of opening Parliament to whom'oever a
constituency wishes to represent it, BY the repeal
of the Oath of Aburation, and the substitution OF
simple promise Of allegiance to the regning
Sovereign, according to the Act for settling the
Crown on the Princess Sophia and her descendants,
or az it NAV be otherwise settled by Parliament,
with the usual sanction Of SO help me God
Nothing can be more sensible than this proposition
The old Oath is mere dead letter-as dead as the
unfortunate race it was lsveled at and its contnu
apce, which had long been mere formal baolt,
has now become political vice, since it is per-
verted into an instrument of persecution, entirely
aside frol it, original intention II will be curious
to see whether simple justice and common sense
will triumph over the inve.efacy Of habit and
prejudice at once. 1t will be queer sight to see
nobe lords and right reverend prelates refusing to
repeal an utterly obsolete oath, for the sake Of an
incidental irju.tics perfectly mmaterial to the
purport ar object Of the oath itself 1t would be
legislative action worthy of issuing from the Cir
cumlocution Office, and very successful carrying
out of the policy Of how not to do it." But 1t
must be done, and before long, in spite Of Taper
or Tadpole or of the Tite Barnacle interest.
Among all the philanthrOpc movements which