"Tbe 6pectator," 310 19tb, 1851
THE bill for the alteration of those • phrases in the oath of abjuration which prevent its being taken by Jews, and thus make of it an instrument for excluding gentlemen of the Hebrew faith from Parliament, has been rejected by the Peers. The position assumed by the opponents of the measure is not permanently tenable They are contending not for a law that explicitly declares that Jews shall be excluded from Parliament, but for a law that keeps them out as it were accidentally. The tendency of events is to denude the Legislature of any special and exclusive religious character. The House of Commons is already an heterogeneous assortment of many discordant sects ; and the discussions respecting episcopal emoluments all point to a material change in the status and political weight of the prelatical members of the House of Lords. The exclusion of the Jews from Parliament, like the exclusion of the Roman Catholics, must have an end some day ; although, looking to the way in whioh the contest is waged, we do not venture to guess how near or how remote that day may be.
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