Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/493

 li. ROBINSON: ANTICIPATIONS 479 Partly principle, and partly necessity, compelled the Puri- tans to respect scruples about oaths and affirmations. Some of the sects were too strong to be oppressed; and, again, " variers " had the countenance of public opinion as long as they were " pious," and their variations within limits. A bill drawn by the Committee of 1653 did away with promis- sory oaths on admission into universities, corporations, soci- eties, companies, and with homage and fealty, and retained only oaths on admission to public offices. This anticipation of Locke and Berkeley and Bentham and even the Victorian legislation was due partly to dissent from the doctrine of the 39th Article, and partly to a sense of the harm done by multiplying oaths. ^ But how imperfect was this tolerance! Stat. 1650, c. 27, repealing the Elizabethan statutes which enforced attendance at church, itself enforced attendance at some place of wor- ship. The favour shown to the Hebrews, as much for pecuni- ary reasons as for religious, ^ did not extend to Secularists, Friends, Socinians, Roman and Anglo-Catholics. Such as it was, the Restoration put an end to it, and, in spite of the efforts made in 1668 by Hale and Bridgeman, it but slowly obtained once more. Gould, J., allowed witnesses to hold up their hands after the '45 and in 1786 : so did Wilson, J., and the Recorder of London in 1788; and so in 1791, after some demur, did Lord Kenyon.^ The philosophical views contained in the Report of the Oaths Commission, and more fully in Mr. Denman's bill, hardly existed under the Com- monwealth.^ 39th Article, and with St. 17 & 18 Vict. c. 71, §§ 43, 44. And see "Hudibras," 1, 2, 1112, and 2, 2, and "The Lady's answer to the Knight," 183, and Grey; "Exam. legg. Angl.:" Sanderson, " de Jur. Prom. Obi," s. f. Dury, "A case of conscience:" "A narrative of the late proceedings at Whitehall concerning the Jew^s:" Ben Israel, " Vindiciae Judaeorum:" Lingard, vol. 8, c. 7: Hallam, c. 11: Carlyle, "Cromwell," pt. 9. Con- trast Kal. St. Pap. (Dom. Ser.), 1660-1, p. 366. There were, of course, undisguised Jews in England before Cromwell connived at their return [Smith, "Willet," (1634)]. "Mildrone's Case, 1 Leach, C. L. 412: Walker's, id. ib. 498: Mee v. Reid, 1 Peake, 23. Cp. Reilly, 1 Jur. Soc. Pap. 435, foil., with Anstey. t6., 371, foil.
 * Cp. 6 Somers's Tracts, 181, with Bps. Burnet and Tomline on the
 * Brett, "Narrative of the proceedings of a great council of Jews:"
 * But see Cock, " Christian Govt.," p. 176.