ting and voting in parliament, and for the enjoyment of certain offices, franchises, and civil rights; it was enacted that all such parts of such acts as required the declarations, or either of them, to be made or subscribed by any of his Majesty's subjects, as a qualification for sitting and voting in parliament, or for the exercise or enjoyment of any office, franchise, or civil right, be (save as after excepted) repealed. "Any person professing the Roman Catholic religion, being a peer, or who should be returned as a member of the house of commons, should sit in either house respectively, being in all other respects duly qualified, upon taking and subscribing the oath mentioned in the act,1 instead of the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration,-and should vote at elections for members of parliament, and of representative peers of Scotland and Ireland, and be elected such representative peers. But no person in holy orders in the church of Rome shall be capable of being a member of the house of commons. "Roman Catholics may hold all civil and military offices and places of trust and profit under the crown upon taking the oath, except those of guardians and justices, or of regent of the United Kingdom, lord-chancellor, lord-keeper, or lordcommissioner of the great seal; or lord-lieutenant, lord-deputy or chief governor of Ireland, or high commissioner to the general assembly of the Church of Scotland. They may be members of lay corporations, and hold office therein, and vote in any corporate election or other proceeding; but they must not vote at or join in the election, presentation, or appointment to any ecclesiastical benefice or office in the gift of a lay corporation; nor can they hold any office in the Church of England or Ireland, or the Church of Scotland, or the universities, or colleges. "They are prohibited from assuming or using the name, style, or title of archbishop of any province, bishop of any bishopric, or dean of any deanery in England or Ireland, on pain of forfeiting and paying, for every such offence £100; 1 See the oath, ante, p. 444. CH. IX.] ACT FOR RELIEF OF JEWS. 567 and any Roman Catholic ecclesiastic wearing the habits of his order, save within the usual places of worship of the Roman Catholic religion, or in private houses, shall, on conviction, forfeit for every offence £50. "Where the right of presentation to any ecclesiastical benefice shall belong to any office in the gift or appointment of the crown held by a Roman Catholic, the right of presentation shall be exercised by the archbishop of Canterbury. No Roman Catholic shall directly or indirectly advise the crown or the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, concerning the disposal of any ecclesiastical preferment in England, Ireland, or Scotland; on conviction, he shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanour, and disabled for ever from holding any office, civil or military, under the crown." The prohibition of assuming ecclesiastical titles is, by a a later act, extended so as attach the penalty of £100 to procuring from Rome, or publishing any bull or authority for constituting archbishops or bishops of sees within the United Kingdom; or for assuming or using the name, style, or title of archbishop, bishop, or dean of any city, town, or place in the United Kingdom, although it be not a see or deanery of the Church of England.1 THE JEWS, natives of the country, did not obtain any legislative recognition as British subjects, at the Revolution, nor until the reign of her present Majesty. In the year 1753 an act was passed to enable foreign Jews to be naturalized without taking the sacrament; but it was repealed in the following year, as a concession to popular feeling, then strongly adverse to the Jews. The Sacramental Test Repeal Act facilitated, but did not remove all obstacles to the admission of Jews to corporate offices; for although it relinquished the sacrament, the substituted declaration was sanctioned by the terms, upon the true faith of a Christian." The declaration was altered, in 1845, in favour of the Jews, by an act "for the relief of persons of the Jewish religion, elected to municipal offices," which enacted that 1 14 & 15 Vict., cap. 60. instead of the declaration in the Sacramental Test Repeal Act, every person of the Jewish religion shall be permitted to make and subscribe the following declaration within one calendar month next before, or upon his admission into the office of mayor, alderman, or any municipal office in any city, town, town corporate, borough, or cinque-port within England or Wales. Declaration. "I A. B. being a person professing the Jewish religion, having conscientious scruples against subscribing the declaration contained in the Act 9 Geo. IV. cap. 17, do solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare that I will not exercise," etc., as in the declaration, to the end.1 The act which enabled the houses of parliament to admit Jews, by passing resolutions for omitting in their favour the words " and I make this declaration upon the true faith of a Christian," declared that in all other cases, except for sitting in parliament, or in qualifying to exercise the right of presentation to an ecclesiastical benefice in Scotland, where a Jew is required to take the oath, the declaration shall be omitted. The Jews are prohibited from holding those of fices and ecclesiastical privileges which are denied to Roman Catholics.2 The legislature has of late years applied to all religious bodies, not being part of the established church, whether Roman Catholics, Protestant Dissenters, or Jews, the same laws as to the registration of their places of worship. The registration required by the Toleration Act, was applied to Roman Catholic places of worship in 1791,3 and by a more recent act Roman Catholics, in respect of their schools, places. for religious worship, education, and charitable purposes, in Great Britain, and property held therewith in England, are made subject to the same laws as protestant dissenters. An act to the same effect was passed in favour of the Jews.5 A See the Declaration, ante, p. 562. Ante, p. 567. 1 8 & 9 Vict., cap. 52. 4 2 & 3 Wm. IV., cap. 115. 3 31 Geo. III., cap. 32. 59 & 10 Vict., cap. 59. CH. IX.] .] OF CATHOLICS, DISSENTERS, AND JEWS. 569 general register-office, for the registering of births, deaths, and marriages, having been established by act of parliament, the registration of these places of worship was transferred to the registrar-general, in lieu of the bishops' and archdeacons' courts, and the court of quarter-sessions, where the Toleration Act required the chapels to be registered. But again that act was repealed by another act, which enacted that if the congregation should desire it, but not otherwise, their place of worship should be certified to the registrar-general. It also provided that the places of worship of protestant dissenters, Roman Catholics, and Jews, or of any other body or denomination of persons, may be certified to the registrargeneral through the registrar of the district, who should record the same; and such registration should be in lieu of that required by the Toleration Act. 1 15 & 16 Vict., cap. 36. 2 18 & 19 Vict., cap. 81; A.D. 1855. A congregation may certify themselves as persons who object to be designated by any distinctive religious appellation. CHAPTER X. THE PEOPLE. THEIR RIGHT TO LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT. Local Self-Government.-In Boroughs.-Counties.—Parishes. THE principle of Local Self-Government which exists in England, has doubtless exercised very great influence in the production of the freedom enjoyed under the constitution. It is not intended to make an attempt to trace that influence through the gradual advance of the institutions, but only to suggest some facts without which the full extent of the liberty and power possessed by the people cannot be fully appreciated. The nature of the Anglo-Saxon courts and motes was favourable to self-exertion and self-reliance on the part of the people; but at a later period the chartered boroughs stand out conspicuously as institutions imbued with the spirit of freedom, and at the same time furnished with power to advance and defend it. These fought out their own independence from their feudal lords, and became the seats of self-government, on principles opposed to arbitrary or centralized power. The burgesses, with the mayor or portreeve, and aldermen, as their executive officers, elected by them, regulated the affairs of their boroughs, in trade and police, independently of any direct supervision on the part of the crown or its officers, and without any appeal on the part of the inhabitants, except through the courts of law, when cases arose of an illegal character. The tendency of these institutions was republican or democratic, rather that monarchical; and the election of members to the house of commons being vested in the boroughs, they |