Lords Sitting of 16 May 1805

MINUTES.
Sir J. Stewart, accompanied by several members, brought up a message from the house of commons, in purport requesting, that the earl of St. Vincent be permitted to attend on the select committee of that house, to whom the consideration of the case of sir Home Popham, bart. is referred. On the motion of lord Hawkesbury, it was ordered to be communicated to the messengers, that their lordships would send an answer by messengers of their own; which was accordingly done by the lord chancellor.—Several private bills were brought up from the commons, which were severally read a first time.—The bills upon the table were read in their several stages.

LOCAL OATHS' BILL.
The order of the day for the second reading of a bill introduced by the earl of Radnor, "for enabling bodies corporate, in the cases and under the restrictions therein contained, to obtain the correction of local oaths, administered by the said bodies corporate," being read, the bill was accordingly read a second time.
Lord Hawkesbury felt it proper to oppose the further progress of the bill. What their lordships would do, were they to pass the bill in question, would be to enact a general law for a particular case; a principle which he must always object to. If any particular corporation, or body of men, felt themselves aggrieved or inconvenienced by the mode in which the oaths they were obliged to take were dictated, let them come to parliament, state the specific grievance, and what they conceived to be a reasonable remedy, and he was willing to pay every attention to it; but to a general law, such as the present bill went to enact, in consequence of some difficulties experienced, or objections entertained, to the form of their oaths, by the corporation of a particular place, was what he could not consent to. He should therefore resist the further progress of the bill.
The Earl of Radnor defended the grounds on which he brought forward the measure

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and adverted to some cases in which a correction or alteration of the oaths was evidently necessary. It had been his duty, in an office which he had the honour to hold, to administer the oaths to certain members of a corporation, parts of which were positive nonsense, and other parts inconsistent with, or contradictory to each other; these were referred to by the noble earl, and created some risibility among their lordships. There was every proper caution adopted in the provisions of the bill, to prevent any improper use being made of it. The intervention of the judges of assize was required by the bill, and, after these, the lord chancellor was recurred to, as checks and controls with respect to proceedings under the authority of the bill; at the same time, his lordship did not seem willing to press the bill.
The Lord Chancellor was willing to allow his noble friend every credit, as to the purity of his motives in coming forward; and the object, which was good in itself, was endeavoured to be attained by the purest means, but, with his noble friend who first spoke, he rather disapproved of enacting a general law, when a remedy was called for on the part only of a particular place. He thought the mode of application, under the circumstances of the particular case, for redress to the crown, would be a preferable mode to that prescribed by the bill, as well as readier and more unexceptionable mode. Upon the whole, he would beg leave to recommend his noble friend to withdraw the bill.
The Earl of Radnor spoke shortly in explanation; after which the lord chancellor moved, "that the bill be committed this day three months," which was ordered accordingly; and, in consequence, the bill is lost for the present session.—Adjourned.