Company as have been appointed by Her Majesty, shall cease, and the yearly sums payable to the Chairman, Deputy-Chairman, and other Directors of the said Company shall cease to be payable, and all Powers vested in Her Majesty of appointing Directors of the said Company shall cease and determine.

LXI. The Appointments and Powers of Appointment of Commissioners for the Affairs of India shall cease and determine.

LXII. All Books, Records, and Archives of the said Company, except such Books and Documents as concern the Ownership of Shares in the Capital Stock of the said Company, and the Payments to the Proprietors of such Capital Stock of their respective Shares of the Dividend thereon, shall be delivered into the Care and Custody of the Secretary of State in Council as they may direct.

LXIII. A Person succeeding to the Office of Governor-General may exercise his Powers before he takes his Seat in Council.

LXIV. Existing Provisions to be applicable to Secretary of State in Council,, &c.

LXV. Secretary of State in Council may sue and be sued.

LXVI. Secretary of State in Council to come in the Place of the Company with regard to pending Suits, etcetera.

LXVII. Treaties to be binding on Her Majesty, and Contracts, etcetera, of the Company may be enforced, etcetera.

LXVIII. Members of Council not personally liable.

LXIX. After the commencement of this Act, such of the Directors as have been elected by the General Court of the said Company, or who shall from Time

to Time be so elected, shall be the Directors of the said Company, and the major Part of such Directors for the Time being shall form a Court of Directors; and where the Presence, Signature, Consent, or Concurrence of Ten Directors is now requisite, the Presence, Signature, Consent, or Concurrence of the major Part of the Directors for the Time being shall be sufficient; and to the Intent that the Number of Directors may be reduced to Six, Two Directors only shall be elected by the General Court of the said Company at each biennial Election to fill the Vacancies occasioned by the expiration of the Term of Office of Directors; and so much of the said Act of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Years of Her Majesty as requires any of the Directors to be Persons who have resided Ten Years in India shall be repealed, and in the Oath to be taken by a Director of the said Company, under Section Thirteen of the said Act, the Words, "in the Administration of the Government of India in trust for the Crown" shall be omitted.

LXX. It shall no longer be obligatory on the Directors to summon Four General Quarterly Courts in every Year as heretofore.

LXXI. Except Claims of Mortgagees of the Security Fund hereinbefore mentioned, the said Company shall not, after the passing of this Act, be liable in respect of any Claim, Demand, or Liability which has arisen or may hereafter arise out of any Treaty, Covenant, Contract, Grant, Engagement, or Fiduciary Obligation made, incurred, or entered into by the said Company before the passing of this Act, whether the said Company

would, but for this Act, have been bound to satisfy such Claim, Demand or Liability out of the Revenues of India, or in any other Manner whatsoever.

Saving of certain Rights of the
Company.

LXXII. It shall be lawful for the Secretary of State in Council to pay to the said Company out of the Revenues of India such annual sum as Her Majesty, by Warrant under Her Royal Sign Manual, countersigned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, may direct for defraying the Expenses of and incident to the Payment to the Proprietors of the Capital Stock of the said Company of their respective Shares of the Dividend on such Stock, and of keeping the Books of the said Company for Transfers, and otherwise in relation to such Stock.

LXXIII. Nothing herein contained shall affect the Preference secured by the said Act of the Third and Fourth Years of King William the Fourth to the Dividend on the Capital Stock of the said Company, or the Right of the said Company to demand the

Redemption of the said dividend secured by such Act; and all the Provisions of the said Act concerning the Security Fund thereby created shall remain in force, save that when the Approbation of the Commissioners for the Affairs of India is required in relation to the Disposal of the said Security Fund, the Approbation of the Secretary of State in Council shall be required.

Commencement of the Act.

LXXIV. Save as herein otherwise provided, this Act shall commence and take effect on the Expiration of Thirty Days after the Day of the passing thereof.

LXXV. This Act shall be proclaimed in the several Presidencies and Goveruments of India as soon as conveniently may be after such Act had been received by the Governor-General of India; and until such Proclamation be made, all Acts, Matters, and Things done, ordered, directed, or authorized in India in the Name of the East India Company, or otherwise in relation to the Government of India, shall be as valid and effectual as if this Act had not been passed.

ACT.

quired by Law: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:

I. Instead of the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration, where the same are now by Law required to be taken, and taken and subscribed respectively,

"J A.B. do swear, that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and will defend Her to the utmost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatever which shall be made against Her Person, Crown, or Dignity, and I will do my utmost Endeavour to disclose and make known to Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, all Treasons and traitorous Conspiracies which may be formed against Her or them; and I do faithfully promise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of my Power, the Succession of the Crown, which Succession, by an Act, intituled, An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, is and stands limited to the Princess Sophia Electress of Hanover, and the Heirs of Her Body being Protestants, hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any Obedience or Allegiance unto any other Person claiming or pretending a Right to the Crown of this Realm; and I do declare, that no Foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Pre-eminence, or Authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this Realm; And I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian. So help me GOD." II. Where in the Oath hereby appointed the Name of Her present Majesty is expressed or referred to, the Name of the Sovereign of this Kingdom for the Time being, by virtue of the Act "for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject," shall be substituted from

III. The Oath hereby appointed shall be taken and subscribed in the same Cases, and by and before the same Persous, and at the same Times and Places, as the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration are respectively now directed to be taken, and taken and subscribed; and the taking and subscribing of the Oath hereby appointed shall have the like Effect as the taking, and taking and subscribing respectively of the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration would have had if this Act had not been passed; and the Refusal, Neglect, or Omission to take and subscribe the Oath hereby appointed shall be attended with the like Disabilities, Incapacities, Penalties, Liabilities, and Consequences as now by Law provided in the Case of Refusal, Neglect, or Omission to take, or take and subscribe respectively the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration; and all Provisions now in force shall be construed and take effect accordingly: Provided always, that no Person, having before the Commencement of this Act taken the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration, shall be required to take and subscribe the Oath hereby appointed, unless and until he would be by Law required to take the said Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration in case this Act had not been passed.

IV. Provided always, that every Person of the Persuasion of the People called Quakers, and every other Person now by Law permitted to make his solemn Affirmation or Declaration instead of taking an Oath, shall, instead of taking and subscribing the Oath

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hereby appointed, make and subscribe a solemn Affirmation in the Form of the Oath hereby appointed, substituting the Words solemnly, sincerely, and truly declare and affirm" for the Word swear," and omitting the Words "And I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian. So help me GoD;" and the making and subscribing of such Affirmation by a Person hereinbefore authorized to make and subscribe the same, with such Omission as aforesaid, shall have the same Force and Effect as the taking and subscribing by other Persons of the Oath hereby appointed.

V. And whereas by a certain Act passed in the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, intituled An Act for repealing so much of the several Acts as imposes the Necessity of receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as a Qualification for certain Offices and Employments," a certain Declaration is prescribed to be taken in the Cases in the said Act mentioned: And whereas by an Act passed in the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her present Majesty, intituled "An Act for the Relief of Persons of the Jewish Religion elected to Municipal Offices," a certain other Declaration was permitted to be taken in certain Cases by Persons professing the Jewish Religion, instead of the Declaration required to be made and subscribed by the said Act of King George the Fourth: And whereas it is right to extend the Benefit of the lastrecited Act to all other Cases in which the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth is by Law required to be taken: Be it enacted, That in all

Cases which are not within the Provisions of the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her Majesty, in which any other of Her Majesty's Subjects are required by Law to make and subscribe the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, Her Majesty's Subjects professing the Jewish Religion shall be required instead thereof to make and subscribe the Declaration set forth in the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of Her present Majesty, which Declaration shall, with respect to such Person professing the Jewish Religion, be of the same Force and Effect as if he made and subscribed the said Declaration by the said Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the Fourth, and shall be made and subscribed at the same Times and Places respectively, and preserved of Record in the same Mauner, as the last-mentioned Declaration is now by Law required to be made, subscribed, and preserved.

VI. Provided also, that nothing in this Act contained shall be held to alter or affect the Provisions of Act passed in the Tenth Year of King George the Fourth, Chapter Seven for the Relief of His Majesty's Roman Catholic Subjects."

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AN ACT TO SUBSTITUTE ONE OATH

FOR THE OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE,
SUPREMACY AND ABJURATION;
AND FOR THE RELIEF OF HER
MAJESTY'S SUBJECTS PROFESSING
THE JEWISH RELIGION.

[July 23, 1858.]

Whereas it is expedient that One Oath should be substituted for the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration now required by Law; Be it therefore

"I A.B. do swear, that I will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and will defend Her to the utmost of my Power against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatever which shall be made against Her Person, Crown, or Dignity, and I will do my utmost Endeavour to disclose and make known to Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, all Treasons and traitorous Conspiracies which may be formed against Her or them; and I do faithfully promise to maintain, support, and defend, to the utmost of my Power, the Succession of the Crown, which Succession, by an Act, intituled An Act for the further Limitation of the Crown, and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the Subject,' is and stands limited to the Princess Sophia Electress of Hanover, and the Heirs of Her Body being Protestants, hereby utterly renouncing and abjuring any Obedience or Allegiance unto any other Person claiming or pretending a Right to the Crown of this Realm; and I do declare that no foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State, or Potentate hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Pre-eminence, or Authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this Realm; And I make this Declaration upon the true Faith of a Christian. So help me God."

II. Where in the Oath hereby appointed the Name of Her present Majesty is expressed or referred to, the Name of the Sovereign of this Kingdom for the Time being, by Virtue of the Act "for the further Limitation of the Crown and better securing the Rights and Liberties of the SubVOL. C.

Time to Time, with proper Words of Reference thereto.

III. The Oath hereby appointed shall be taken and subscribed in the same Cases, and by and before the same Persons, and at the same Times and Places, as the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration are respectively now directed to be taken, and taken and subscribed; and the taking and subscribing of the Oath hereby appointed shall have the like Effect as the taking, and taking and subscribing respectively of the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration would have had if this Act had not been passed; and the Refusal, Neglect, or Omission to take and subscribe the Oath hereby appointed shall be attended with the like Disabilities, Incapacities, Penalties, Liabilities, and Consequences, as now by Law provided in the Case of Refusal, Neglect, or Omission to take, or take and subscribe respectively the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration; and all Provisions now in Force shall be construed and take effect accordingly: Provided always, that no Person, having before the Commencement of this Act taken the Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration, shall be required to take and subscribe the Oath hereby appointed, unless and until he would be by Law required to take the said Oaths of Allegiance, Supremacy, and Abjuration in Case this Act had not been passed.

IV. Provided always, that every Person of the Persuasion of the People called Quakers, and every other Person now by Law permitted to make his solemn Affirmation or Declaration instead of

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