qualification of certain Offices and Employments," a certain Declaration is prescribed to be taken in the Cases in the said Act mentioned: And whereas, by an Act passed in the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her present Majesty, intituled "An Act for the relief of Persons of the Jewish Religion elected to Municipal Offices," a certain other Declaration was permitted to be taken in certain Cases by Persons professing the Jewish Religion, instead of the Declaration required to be made and subscribed by the said Act of King George the Fourth: And whereas it is right to extend the Benefit of the last-recited Act to all other Cases in which the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth is by Law required to be taken: Be it enacted, That in all Cases which are not in the Provisions of the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her Majesty, in which any other of Her Majesty's subjects are required by Law to make and subscribe the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, Her Majesty's Subjects professing the Jewish Religion shall be required instead thereof to make and subscribe the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her present Majesty, which Declaration shall, with respect to such Person professing the Jewish Religion, be of the same Force and Effect as if he made and subscribed the said Declaration by the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, and shall be made and subscribed at the same Times and Places respectively, and preserved of Record in the same Manner as the last-mentioned Declaration is now by Law required to be made, subscribed, and preserved.

VI. Provided also, that nothing in this Act contained shall be held to alter or affect the Provisions of the Act passed in the Tenth Year of King George the Fourth, Chapter Seven, "for the Relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic Subjects." (Annual Register for 1858, vol. 100, p. 238.)

216. The Jewish Relief Act

(21 & 22 VICT., c. 49, July 23, 1858)

Annual Register

On the same day as that on which was passed the Oaths Act, there was passed a measure for defining the privileges of the Jews more clearly than this had yet been done. While the first portion of the Act is almost similar to the provisions contained in the Oaths Act, the latter portion expressly continues certain disabilities made necessary by the connection between Church and State. As a citizen, the Jew was to be henceforth regarded

as the peer of the Christian; but certain functions which trenched on the ecclesiastical ground were still withheld.

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE RELIEF OF HER MAJESTY'S SUBJECTS PROFESSING THE JEWISH RELIGION

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in the present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:

I. Where it shall appear to either House of Parliament that a Person professing the Jewish Religion, otherwise entitled to sit and vote in such House, is prevented from so sitting and voting by his conscientious Objections to take the Oath which by an Act passed or to be passed in the present Sessions of Parliament has been or may be substituted for the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration in the Form therein required, such House, if it think fit, may resolve that henceforth any Person professing the Jewish Religion, in taking the same Oath to entitle him to sit and vote as aforesaid, may omit the Words "and I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian," and so long as such Resolution shall continue in force the said Oath, when taken and subscribed by any Person professing the Jewish Religion to entitle him to sit and vote in that House of Parliament, may be modified accordingly; and the taking and subscribing by any Person professing the Jewish Religion of the Oath so modified shall, so far as respects the Title to sit and vote in such House, have the same Force and Effect as the taking and subscribing by other Persons of the said Oath in the Form required by the said Act.

II. In all other Cases, except for sitting in Parliament as aforesaid, or in qualifying to exercise the Right of Presentation to any Ecclesiastical Benefice in Scotland, whenever any of Her Majesty's Subjects professing the Jewish Religion shall be required to take the said Oath, the Words “and I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian” shall be omitted.

III. Nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to enable any Person or Persons professing the Jewish Religion to hold or exercise the Office of Guardians and Justices of the United Kingdom, or of Regent of the United Kingdom, under whatever Name, Style, or Title such Office may be constituted, or of Lord High Chancellor, Lord Keeper or Lord Commissioner of the Great Seal

of Great Britain or Ireland, or the Office of Lord Lieutenant or Deputy or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, or Her Majesty's High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

IV. Where any Right of Presentation to any Ecclesiastical Benefice shall belong to any Office in the Gift or Appointment of her Majesty, Her Heirs or Successors, and such Office shall be held by a Person professing the Jewish Religion, the Right of Presentation shall devolve upon and be exercised by the Archbishop of Canterbury for the Time being; and it shall not be lawful for any Person professing the Jewish Religion, directly or indirectly, to advise Her Majesty, Her Heirs or Successors, or any Person or Persons holding or exercising the Office of Guardians of the United Kingdom, or of Regent of the United Kingdom, under whatever Name, Style, or Title such Office may be constituted, or the Lord Lieutenant or Lord Deputy, or any other Ch ́ef Governor or Governors of Ireland, touching or concerning the Appointment to or disposal of any Office or Preferment in the United Church of England and Ireland, or in the Church of Scotland; and if such Person shall offend in the Premises he shall, being thereof convicted by due Course of Law, be deemed guilty of a high Misdemeanor, and disabled for ever from holding any Office, Civil or Military, under the Crown.

(Annual Register for 1858, ed. cit., p. 241.)

217. The End of the Slave Trade

Cobbett

The great struggle against slavery was fought out in the nineteenth century. Then it was that the question of emancipation of the negroes was agitated by the whole world. The movement resulted in the freedom of the negroes held in bondage by civilized nations, and in ending exportations of slaves from Africa. The success of the English movement was only brought about by a long and arduous combat on the part of its adherents, but it was largely instrumental in the general abolition of the system. The following extract portrays the closing scenes attending the passage of the Emancipation Act.

Lord Grenville moved the order of the day for taking into consideration the amendments made by the house of commons in the Slave Trade Abolition bill. His lordship observed that the object of the greater part of these amendments was to inforce penalties and forfeitures upon those carrying on the trade, after e period fixed by parliament

for its abolition, which it was not the practice of that house to enact. These amendments, therefore, were merely calculated the better to carry into effect the principle of the bill. With respect to the amendment in the preamble, leaving out the words, declaring the trade to be contrary to justice, humanity, and sound policy, it would not be imagined after what he had said upon the subject, that his opinion had sustained any alteration. It having, however, been thought right by the House of Commons to make this alteration, in order that the feelings of those concerned in the trade might not be wounded, he had no objection to it.

The Bishop of Landaff rose to deliver his opinion of the bill, which he had not till then an opportunity of doing. The right reverend prelate observed, that in judging of the propriety of the preamble as it originally stood, or of the amendments that had been made in it, the different states of slavery as they existed at different periods of the world should duly be considered. Certain conditions of slavery existed in the antediluvian world full 700 years before Noah; and such must have existed both before and after the formation of civil society. Under the circumstances of those times, multitudes must have existed, who could derive sustenance only from their labour, and who, in order to secure the means of support, were willing to surrender up that labour, and with it their freedom. Such a state of slavery might not indeed be considered as contrary to justice and humanity, because it was a voluntary act on the part of those who submitted to it; but, although that state of slavery might not be judged inconsistent with justice and humanity, it did not follow that other descriptions of it might not be highly inhuman and unjust; for what could be more contrary to justice and humanity, than to excite civil war in a country, and then take advantage of the calamities arising from it to force away the miserable inhabitants into an hopeless captivity? Such he conceived to be the nature of the trade which it was proposed to abolish. Its abolition was an act of national humanity and justice; it was an act that would never be blotted out in the records of divine mercy. He was ready to confess, that the most keenly exploring eye might not be able to dive into the consequences of such a measure; but as it evidently sprang from the root of undissembled piety and humanity, it should not be supposed to be productive of evil; but, on the contrary, that it must be healing and beneficial to mankind.

The Earl of Westmoreland could not let slip this last opportunity of entering his protest against the bill; he must therefore repeat some of his former objections to it, though he was aware that the repetition must be in some degree irksome to the house. At least he must remind them that one more occasion presented itself to allow them to rectify their opinions, which they should be the more induced to do from the awful warning contained in the petition which he had that day laid on their lordship's table. From that petition they might collect the dreadful consequences which even the resolutions of last year were producing in Jamaica. Every thing there seemed to indicate the approach of an organized insurrection, which might receive a new stimulus and encouragement from the bill now on the eve of passing. It, therefore, called again for the most serious consideration of their lordships, and that consideration would shew them that the proposed clauses involved the greatest inconsistencies, absurdities, and even impossibilities. As to the preamble, nothing could reconcile him to it. No good could be expected from it, while it might be attended with much mischief: he was, therefore, for leaving it out altogether. As to the consequences of the measure, they certainly appeared to him most alarming. If ever St. Domingo and Cuba were in the hands of our enemies, and if they resolved to carry on this trade, that alarm would prove but too well founded. He would even venture to say, that it was to the existence of the slave trade that their lordships were indebted for their being now sitting in that house. Our existence depended upon the strength of our navy, and the strength of our navy was chiefly derived from the slave trade. Their lordships must be convinced of it, if they but reflected that the town of Liverpool alone now sent out a greater number of privateers than were employed by the whole of the country against the enemy, in the time of Queen Elizabeth.

The Marquis of Sligo disapproved of the clauses, and contended, that the preamble contained a gross calumny.

The Duke of Norfolk was not very anxious on former occasions to support the measures of the abolition; because he knew that many of those who were loudest in its praise, were far from being sincere in their wishes for its success. Now, however, when it was taken up by ministers who had his confidence, and, who, he was satisfied, were incapable of any duplicity, the bill should have his most cordial support, and he should rejoice to see it pass. — The question was now