ALLEGIANCE TO SOVEREIGNS.
The difficulty anent the oath ol allegiance in the British House of Commons is now in a fair way of settlement. A Select Committee recommended that Mr Bradlaugh be allowed, on conscientious grounds, to waive the formal pledge of allegiance to the Sovereign and her heirs, and that he be permitted to make an affirmation, without kissing the New Testament. The House, after discussion, rejected this recommendation by a narrow majority. Then Mr Bradlaugh was ordered to withdraw. He appeared at the bar, claimed his right to sit, refused to retire, and was given into custody. About two days after, ho was released, on the motion of the Opposition leader. Next the Government proposed to bring in a bill giving effect to the recommendation of the Select Committee. A cable despatch received last night states that the Opposition have now agreed not to resist the bill; and so we are face to face with the innovation of permitting avowed Republicans in politics, and avowed atheists in religion, to sit in the British House of Commons without exacting a formal recantation, or compelling a compounding with their conscience. Can this be what Tennyson meant in describing our inimitable Constitution as broadening down from precedent to precedent ?
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Bibliographic details
Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 541, 3 July 1880, Page 2
Word Count
208ALLEGIANCE TO SOVEREIGNS. Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 541, 3 July 1880, Page 2
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