with her mother, have been sent to a
penitentiary.

The administration of an oath in judicial
proceedings was introduced by the Saxons into
England in the  year of our Lord 600. The oath
administered to a judge was settled in 1344.
The oath of supremacy was first administered
to British subjects, and ratified by parliament
in 1535. The oath of allegiance was first
framed and administered in 1605. The oath
of abjuration, an obligation to maintain the
government of king, lords, and commons, the
Church of England, and toleration of Protestant
dissenters, and abjuring all catholic pretenders
to the crown, was taken in 1701. Oaths were
taken on the Gospels as early as A.D. 528; and
the words, "So help me, God and all saints,"
concluded an oath until 1550. The test and
corporation oaths were modilfed in 1828. Acts
abolishing oaths in the Customs and Excise
departments, and in certain other cases, substituting
declarations in lieu thereof, were passed
in 1831. An affirmation instead of an oath,
as regards Separatists, was admitted in 1837.
In 1858 and I860, Jews, elected members of
parliament, were relieved from part of the oath
of allegiance. In fact, if we take a rapid glance
from the Deluge to the 26th July, 1858, when
Baron Rothschild took his seat as M.P. for
London, the startling conviction forces itself
upon us that we are gradually coming to the
"Yea, yea, and nay, nay," of St. Matthew.

The Test Act is a statute of Charles the
Second, directing all officers, civil and military,
under government, to receive the sacrament
according to the forms of the Church of England,
and to take the oaths against transubstantiation.
This statute was enacted in March, 1673. The
Test and Corporation Acts were repealed in
1828. This repealing act is entitled "An Act
for repealing so much of several Acts as impose
the necessity of receiving the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper as a qualification for certain
offices and employments."

Quakers conscientiously objecting to oaths,
their simple affirmation was accepted instead for
the first time in 1696. The "affirmation" was
altered in 1702, 1721, 1837, and in April, 1859.
The indulgence was granted to persons who
were formerly Quakers, but who had seceded
from that sect, in 1838, and extended to other
dissenters in Scotland in 1855. Quakers were
relieved from oaths when elected to municipal
offices, by an act which extended relief generally
to all conscientious Christians of the
Established Church, in 1828.

The Jews Oaths of Abjuration Bill had a
fierce contest.  Several times it passed in the
Commons, and was thrown out in the Lords
(1854-1857). In July, 1858, an act was passed
by resolution of the House to enable Jews to
sit in parliament; and, as stated above, on the
26th of July of that year, Baron Rothschild took
his seat as M.P. for London, to commemorate
which event he endowed a scholarship in the
City of London School.

The forms of oath are different in the various
sects of Christians, and also amongst infidels.
The Roman Catholics on the Continent swear
by raising the hand; the Scotch Presbyterians
do the same. Members of the Church of
England are sworn on the Gospels; so are Irish
Roman Catholics. In Wales there is a
remarkable difference in the manner in which
witnesses hold the Bible when they are sworn.
An English witness always takes the book with
his fingers under, and his thumb at the top of
the book. A Welsh witness, on the contrary,
it with his fingers at the top, and his
thumb under the book. The original oath was
probably taken by merely laying the hand upon
the top of the book without kissing it. Lord
Cuke says it is called a "corporal oath"
because the witness toucheth with his hand some
part of the Holy Scripture. Lord Hale says:
"The regular oath, as allowed by the laws of
England is: Tactis sacrosanctis Dei Evangelis
(You swear by touching the holy Gospels); and,
in the case of a Jew, Tacto libro legis Mosaicæ
(You touch the book of the law of Moses)."

At Oxford, the oath is administered as
follows:

"Ita te Deus adjuvet tactis sacrosanctis
Christi Evangeliis" (Thus God admonishes thee
to swear by the most holy Gospels of Christ).

In none of these instances does "kissing"
the book appear to be essential. Whereas the
present form is, "So help you God, kiss the
book;" but still a witness is always required to
touch the book with his hand, and he is never
permitted to hold the book with his hand in a
glove.

There can be little doubt that the judicial
oath was originally taken without kissing the
book, but with the form of laying the right
hand upon it. Amongst the Greeks, oaths were
frequently accompanied by sacrifice; it was the
custom to lay the hands upon the victim, or
upon the altar, thereby calling to witness the
deity by whom the oath was sworn. Christians,
under the later Roman emperors, adopted the
same ceremony.

According to the prophet Daniel, both hands
were held up: "The man clothed in linen,
which was upon the waters, held up his right
hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware
by Him that iiveth for ever and ever."

In Revelations we find: "And the angel
which I saw stand upon the sea and the earth
lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him
that liveth for ever and ever."

The various forms in which oaths were taken
are most curious. By an old German law a
wife could claim a present from her husband
the morning after the wedding-night, by swearing
to its amount, on her breast, or by swearing
on her two breasts and two tresses.

Nothing was more common than for a man
to swear by his beard.

Edward the First of England swore an oath
on two swans.

It was also very common from an early
period, both in England and abroad, to swear
by one, two, seven, or twelve churches. The