§ SIR R. H. INGLISsaid, there was upon the Paper a notice for the introduction of a Bill for altering the oaths taken by Members of Parliament, which would have been important if given merely by a private Member of Parliament—doubly important if given by a Member of the Administration—but which acquired pre-eminent importance when it proceeded from 336 the head of the Government. That notice was entered for a day on which orders of the day had precedence of Motions, and fourteen orders must he disposed of before any Motion could be brought on; and, observing that there was not a single day in the present week that had not preoccupied the attention of the House with some order of the day, he begged to ask the noble Lord, who had added this element of division to the discussions of that House, on what day after the Whitsun holidays he proposed taking the debate, and he trusted the defeat of his new Jew Bill, or, as the noble Lord termed it, the Bill for altering the Oaths taken by Members of Parliament?
§ LORD J. RUSSELLsaid, that he had discovered that it was not competent to him to introduce the Bill under the notice which he had given, but that it was necessary to go into a Committee of the whole House on the subject. It was his intention to propose, on Tuesday, the 27th inst., that the House should go into Committee of the whole House for the purpose of considering the oaths taken by Members of the two Houses of Parliament. He begged to remind the hon. Baronet, that in the year before last he stated—and he believed that he repeated the statement last year—that he was in doubt as to whether he should bring in a general Bill with respect to the oaths taken by Members of both Houses of Parliament, or whether he should introduce a Bill limited to the relief of members of the Jewish persuasion. He had tried the latter course; and the hon. Baronet appeared to think that he had sustained a defeat; but he did not think so, because he had been supported by a majority of that House. He now understood that some Members of the other House of Parliament entertained scruples with respect to the oaths which they were called upon to take, and particularly as regarded the oath of supremacy, because they conceived that the Pope had spiritual power in this realm. He, therefore, proposed to make the oaths more simple, in order that all Her Majesty's subjects might be able to take them; and he would call upon the House to resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House, for the purpose of considering the subject, on the 27th instant.
§ SIR R. H. INGLISsaid, the noble Lord had stated that his object was to enable all Her Majesty's subjects to take the Parliamentary oaths; now he begged to ask 337 whether in the term "all" the noble Lord included Mahomedans, Pagans, and Jews as well as Christians?
§ LORD J. RUSSELLanswered, that his measure would apply to all Her Majesty's naturalised subjects within the realm; and he was not aware that there were many Mahomedans or Pagans in this country.