Weisweller, of Madrid, who this year received, from the Queen of Spain, the Order of Charles III.

1847. The States of Prussia, in 1847, conferred many privileges upon the Jews of Prussia.

Mr. David Salomons was, for the third time, elected an Alderman of the City of London; and, by virtue of the new Municipal and Corporation Act, he was at length able to accept the office and perform its duties,

This year was prolific of events of the highest importance. In order to bring to an issue the longpending question of the British Jews' admission to Parliament, the Liberal electors of the City of London resolved to avail themselves of the forthcoming general election to return Baron Lionel de Rothschild to Parliament, as one of their representatives. The Baron was elected, and upon the assembling of Parliament, he presented himself in due course at the table of the House of Commons to be sworn. As many eminent lawyers, among whom was Mr. Page Wood, afterwards Lord Chancellor Hatherley, expressed a confident opinion that the words, "On the true faith of a Christian," were not a part of the substance of the Abjuration Oath, and might, therefore, be legally omitted by those upon whose conscience it was not binding, the Baron offered to take the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration, on the Old Testament, and, omitting the words to which he objected, to end with the asseveration "So help me God." This was not permitted by the House, and the honourable member for London withdrew upon the order of the Speaker. As under the circumstances then existing there appeared to be no immediate prospect of his being able to serve

his constituents, in his place in Parliament, Baron de Rothschild resigned his seat. He was soon after re-nominated and re-elected by his enlightened constituents. Mr. David Salomons, at the general election of 1847, again attempted to enter Parliament. He contested Greenwich, and was again unsuccessful, as it was well known that he would be equally unable with the Jewish member for London to take his seat even if elected.

1848. Another measure for Jewish emancipation was again brought forward this Session; and, on the 4th of May, it was carried in the House of Commons. It was ably supported by Mr. Disraeli, Sir Robert Peel, and Lord George Bentinck, who had been earnestly entreated by the then Protectionist party to abstain from recording his vote in favour of the bill. To quote the late Lord Beaconsfield: "Enfeebled by illness, he had nearly brought himself to a compliance with a request urged with affectionate importunity, but from which his reason and sense of duty held him aloof. After long and deep and painful pondering, when the hour arrived, he rose from his bed of sickness, walked into the House of Commons, and, not only voted, but spoke in favour of his convictions. His speech remains one of the best ever delivered on the subject; not only full of weighty argument, but touched with a rich and even tender vein of sentiment." On the 25th of May the bill was defeated in the House of Lords by a majority of thirty-five Tory peers.

The most striking events relating to Jewish interests in this most remarkable and memorable year of revolutions, were the election of Mons. Cremieux, as

a member of the Provisional Government which succeeded the French Revolution in February; the election of Herr J. Manheimer to the Presidency of the Austrian Diet; and the election of the famous Dr. Gabriel Reisser, as Minister of State to the Prince Protector of Germany, John of Austria. This noted champion of the rights of conscience, alike religious and political, was one of the most prominent characters in Germany at that exciting period which immediately followed the French Revolution of 1848. Born at the commencement of the present century in the free town of Hamburgh, he, at a very early period of his public life, began to take an active part in the question of Jewish emancipation in Germany, which he advocated in a most able manner by his argumentative writings and his burning eloquence. Dr. Reisser was as emphatically a German as he was a zealous Israelite. He boldly claimed for German Jews their inalienable right, as German-born Jews, to participate equally with German-born Christians in the duties, the responsibilities, and the honours of State service in every capacity. In 1831 he addressed the Germans of every religious denomination on the position of German-born Jews; and he argued powerfully, if not always convincingly, with the then most implacable antagonists of Jewish progress, against whom he was ever ready to contend both with his pen and his tongue. In the exercise of the high and responsible office of State Minister, which he held in 1848, it became his duty to offer to King Frederick William IV., the Imperial Crown of Germany, which, however, it may be remembered, was not accepted by that Sovereign.

1849. Another Jews' Bill, which was brought forward in the House of Commons this Session, met with the same fate as former Bills. It was carried in the House of Commons, and defeated by an obstinate majority in the House of Lords.

1850. The House of Commons, by a majority of fifty-four, carried a motion to permit Baron Lionel de Rothschild, the duly-elected Member for London, to be sworn upon the Old Testament. Upon a motion of the then Attorney General, the House of Commons, by a majority of thirty-two, pledged itself to support a measure of Jewish emancipation during the next Parliamentary Session.

1851. Mr. Alderman Salomons was at length returned to Parliament as member for Greenwich. Under high legal sanction he presented himself at the table of the House of Commons to be sworn. He took the Oaths of Supremacy, Allegiance and Abjuration upon the Old Testament as far as the declaration, " On the true faith of a Christian," which he advisedly omitted, and concluded with the asseveration" So help me God!" He took his seat, spoke three times, and voted in three divisions on the Jews' Disabilities Bill, which was then read for the first time, and passed by a majority of fifty-four.

Mr. Salomons had advisedly incurred three penalties of five hundred pounds each, in order to test his Parliamentary rights in a Court of Law. Having effected his object, and being ordered by the Speaker to withdraw, he did so upon being lightly touched on his shoulder by the Serjeant-at-Arms, as sufficient evidence that he submitted only to coercion.

For important services rendered to Spanish emigrants in France, Mons. Emille Leon, of Bayonne, was in this year appointed by the Queen of Spain a Commander of the Royal Order of Isabella la Catolica.

1852. Mons. Achille Fould was appointed a French Minister of State by the Emperor Napoleon III.

1852. In this year an action was brought against Mr. Alderman Salomons, the Honourable Member for Greenwich, by a Mr. Miller, a common informer, to recover from him three penalties of five hundred pounds each for sitting, speaking three times, and voting in three divisions in the House of Commonswithout having duly taken the oath. The legal question at issue was whether or not the words, “On the true faith of a Christian," formed an essential part of the Oath of Abjuration. The contention of many eminent lawyers was that the phrase objected to by the professors of Judaism was not part of the substance of the oath, but only an averment, which might be omitted by Jewish members of Parliament as not binding on their conscience. This was the question which was argued with surpassing ability, before the late Lord Chief Justice Baron Pollock, and the late Mr. Baron Parke, Mr. Baron Alderson, and Mr. Baron Martin Their judgment was delivered on the 17th of April, 1852, against Mr. Alderman Salomons; on which occasion Mr. Baron Martin, who dissented from the opinions of his brother Judges, delivered a most lucid judgment in favour of the Honourable Member for Greenwich. The question was afterwards argued in a "Court of Error" in the "Exchequer Chamber," - lately abolishedbefore Lord Chief Justice Campbell, Mr. Justice