The True Story of My Parliamentary Struggle

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Freethought Publishing Company, 1882 - 98 pages
 

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Page 39 - I, AB, do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Her heirs and successors according to law. So help me God!
Page 37 - If any person called to give evidence in any court of justice, whether in a civil or criminal proceeding, shall object to take an oath, or shall be objected to as incompetent to take an oath, such person shall, if the presiding judge is satisfied that the taking of an oath would have no binding effect on his conscience, make the following promise and declaration : ' I solemnly promise and declare that the evidence given by me ' to the court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but { the...
Page 73 - On the 17th, it was resolved, that John Wilkes, Esq. having been in this session of parliament expelled the House, was, and is, incapable of being elected a member to serve in this present parliament.
Page 73 - Parliament,' be expunged from the Journals of this House, as being subversive of the rights of the whole body of electors of this kingdom.
Page 28 - I then or since expressed any mental reservation, or stated that the appointed oath of allegiance would not be binding upon me : that, on the contrary, I say, and have said, that the essential part of the oath is in the fullest and most complete degree binding upon my honour and conscience, and that the repeating of words of asseveration does not in the slightest degree weaken the binding effect of the oath of allegiance upon me.
Page 76 - His view of the law and practice differing from my own, and no similar case having theretofore arisen, it became necessary that I should tender myself to affirm in a more formal manner, and this I did at a season deemed convenient by those in charge of the business of the House. In tendering my affirmation I was careful, when called on by the Speaker to state my objection, to do nothing more than put, in the fewest possible words, my contention that the Parliamentary Oaths Act, 1866, gave the right...
Page 69 - and I make " this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian...
Page 88 - If you have a legal disqualification, petition, lay it before the judges. When you ask me to make a statement, you are guilty of impertinence to me, of treason to the traditions of this House, and of impeachment of the liberties of the people.
Page 96 - Any form that I went through, any oath that I took, I should regard as binding upon my conscience in the fullest degree. I would go through no form, I would take no oath, unless I meant it to be so binding.
Page 80 - ... prefer not to utter if there were any other form which the law provided him; and I asked myself whether each of those members would not then have taken the form which was most consonant with his honor and his conscience. If I have not misread, some hon. members seem to think that I have neither honor nor conscience. Is there not some proof to the contrary in the fact that I did not go through the form, believing that there was another right open to me? ("Hear, hear," and "Order.") Is that not...

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