Punch (31.1856)

PUNCH'S ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

not give Baron Rothschild the chance of flinging a New Testament
at the Speaker's head, and delivering a ribald speech in derision of the
Twelve Apostles. Where these Lords live and among whom, is one
question, and another is, in what estimation do they hold the assembly
of Gentlemen who assist them in legislation ?

In the Commons, Ms. Waxpole's motion for an address to unsettle
Irish Education was of course rescinded, but he and the other Conser-
vative leaders, not liking to be beaten, actually coalesced with the sup-
porters of the counter-motion, which was expressly intended to upset
Walpole's work. They pretended to see in its terms (which were
certainly weak and awkward enough) Dothing adverse to their own
views. This_ mockery (vehemently denounced by the Herald and
standard) did not satisfy the earnest ultra-Prote3tants, and they

ONDAY, June 23rd. Lord i behaved in a manly way, and divided on the real question. We are
Lyndhurst moved the se- \ sorry to sav that there are 95 of them. By the way, Mr. Punch, as a
cond reading of the Bill for friend of Her Majesty, protests against the system of sending one
admitting the Jew to Par- sort of message to heron a Tuesday, and then on the Monday and before
liament. Lord Stanhope, j she can answer it, bawling after her, " Hi! m'm, hi! That wasn't
better known as Lord j what we meant—this is it." Mr. Punch conceives such conduct to be
Mahon, the historian,_ op- j extremely American. The House adjourned after Mr. Bomba Bowyer
posed it, seeing, he said, a I had expressed the anger of his royal and priestly clients at the support
great_ difference between i which England is giving to Sardinia.

allowing people to admin- _ y _,, _ . _ . , _,.„ _ , _

ister laws, (as Jew Lord < Tuesday. Ihe Joint Stock Companies Bui went through Committee
Mayors, Jew Sheriffs, Jew m *ne Lords, obstante Stjperlapide, and then a Bill for knocking a nail
Sheriffs' officers and' Jew through the head of 120 Sleeping Statutes, and fastening down those
churchwardens do), and to I Siseras for ever, was read a second time. Lord Derby then played
frame laws. He was also i his adroit counter-card against the Jew Bill. The abjuration oath,

' which shuts out the Jews, contains a declaration against descendants
of the Pretender, and is therefore absurd and profane, there being no
such people. Lord Derby brings in a Bill to strike out the reference
to these descendants, and having thus purified the oath from absurdity,
leaves in the words excluding the Jew. To-night he carried his second
reading, and on Friday took the measure through Committee. Lord
Lyndhtjrst described it as a Sham, and Lord Campbell as a Botch.
It will probably pass the Lords, and the Commons will strike out the
excluding words—and then the Lords will re-insert them, and so on,
until the farce is over.

Great fun at the Commons' morning sitting. The Nabob of Surat
Bill came on for third reading, and the two heads of the_ ridiculous
double Government of India, Hogg, the Company's Chairman, and
Smith, of the Board of Control, abused one another soundly; Porcus
declaring that he had been deceived, and would never depend again
upon anything so " slippery" as Government, who had promised to
help the Company to cheat the Nabob, and were afraid to do so; and
Paber retorting that the difficulty arose fro oi the "slippery'' Court of
Directors, and rebuking the other for his habitual arrogance in talking
as if he, Hogg, were the Indian Government. When officials fall out,
Nabobs get their own, and the third reading of the Bill was carried by
a tremendous majority, 213 voting for Meer Jafpieb, and only twenty-
eight going into the pigsty. Yet the Commons did not think that
one good act in a day was enough—so in the evening they counted
out.

afraid that if Jews got into
Parliament, unrestrained by
the oath of abjuration, they
would begin to denounce the
Christian religion, and to
blaspheme its mysteries.
This cogent argument
seemed to have much weight
with the Lords, and after a
few more speeches, they
^yiljj' decided by 110 to 78—ma-
jority 32—that they would

Vol. 31.

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