The act of the 9th Geo. IV. c. 17 substitutes for the sacramental test a form of declaration to be made by every person, within one calendar month next before or upon his admission into any of the corporate offices mentioned in that act, or within six calendar months after his appointment to any place mentioned in the fifth section of that act. As this declaration contains the words "upon the true faith of a Christian," it has the effect of excluding Jews from corporate offices, and, in connection with the Abju ration Act, from places under govern ment, so far as they are not relieved by the Annual Indemnity Act. The abju ration oath, which contains the same words, has the effect of excluding the Jews from parliament. (1 Geo. I. at. iL c. 13; 6 Geo. III. c. 53.) But in 184.5 an act was passed (8 & 9 Vict. c. 52), by which, instead of the declaration required to be made by 9 Geo. IV. c. 17, every person of the Jewish religion is permitted to make and subscribe another declaration, of which a form is given in the act, within one calendar month next before or upon his admission into the office of mayor, alderman, recorder, bailiff, common councilman, councillor, cham berlain, treasurer, town-clerk, or any other municipal office in any city, town corporate, or borough in England. The declaration, instead of the words " upon the true faith of a Christian," runs in this form: " I, A. B., being a person pro fessing the Jewish religion, having con scientious scruples against subscribing the declaration contained in an act, &c.
(referring to the 9 Geo. I V. o. 17), do solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare, that," &c. [Jurriess or TUB Pesci, p. 134.] It has been considered to be the law till the present, that all gifts for the sup port of the Jewish religion were void, as being what are legally termed supersti tious uses. There is a singular decision by Lord Hardwick (Ambler's Reports) in the case of a gift for the support of the Jewish religion. Part of the money intended by the Jewish donor to support his own creed was given to the Found ling HospitaL But these legal excep tions are also abrogated by the 9 & 10 Viet. c. 59, and Jews, with the rest of the community, are free to endow schools and other charitable foundations. Nei ther are they any longer obliged to main tain such of their children as may be come Protestants a and further, the law is repealed that prescribed to them to wear a badge of yellow taffeta. It is a vulgar error, still entertained by some, that Jews, even if born in this country, are aliens. Jews are British subjects, like any other persons who are born here. (Blunt's History of the Establishment and Residence of the Jews in England, with an Enquiry into their Civil Disabi lities, London, 1830; Goldsmid's Remarks on the Civil Disabilities of British Jews, London, 1830; Report of the Criminal Law Commissioners, on Penalties and Dis abilities in regard to Religious Opinions, 1845. This report states also the law as to Jews in Ireland and Scotland.)