261.

Repeal of Corporation and Test Acts

(1828, May 9. 9 George IV. c. 17. 65 S. L. 22.)

WHEREAS an act was passed in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, entitled, An Act for the well governing and regulating of Corporations: and whereas another act was passed in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, entitled, An Act for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants: and whereas another act was passed in the sixteenth year of the reign of King George the Second, entitled, An Act to indemnify Persons who have omitted to qualify themselves for Offices and Employments within the Time limited by Law, and for allowing further Time for that Purpose, and also for amending so much of an Act made in the twenty-fifth Year of the Reign of King Charles the Second, entitled, An Act for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants, as related to the Time for receiving the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper now limited by the said Act: and whereas it is expedient that so much of the said several acts of parliament as imposes the necessity of taking the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper according to the rites or usage of the Church of England, for the purposes therein respectively mentioned, should be repealed; be it therefore enacted by the king’s most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this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, that so much and such parts of the said several acts passed in the thirteenth and twenty-fifth years of the reign of King Charles the Second, and of the said act passed in the sixteenth year of the reign of King George the Second, as require the person or persons in the said acts respectively described to take or receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper according to the rites or usage of the Church of EngLand, for the several purposes therein expressed, or to deliver a certificate or to make proof of the truth of such his or their receiving the said sacrament in manner aforesaid, or as impose upon any such person or persons any penalty, forfeiture, incapacity, or disability whatsoever for or by reason of any neglect or omission to take or receive the said sacrament, within the respective periods and in the manner in the said acts respectively provided in that behalf, shall, from and immediately after the passing of this act, be and the same are hereby repealed.

II. And whereas the Protestant episcopal Church of England and Ireland, and the doctrine, discipline, and government thereof, and the Protestant presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the doctrine, discipline, and government thereof, are by the laws of this realm severally established, permanently and inviolably: and whereas it is just and fitting, that on the repeal of such parts of the said acts as impose the necessity of taking the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper according to the rites or usage of the Church of England as a qualification for office, a declaration to the following effect should be substituted in lieu thereof; be it therefore enacted, that every person who shall hereafter be placed, elected, or chosen in or to the office of mayor, alderman, recorder, bailiff, town clerk or common councilman, or in or to any office of magistracy, or place, trust, or employment relating to the government of any city, corporation, borough, or cinque port within England and Wales, or the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, shall, within one calendar month next before or upon his admission into any of the aforesaid offices or trusts, make and subscribe the declaration following:

’I, A. B., do solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, profess, testify, and declare, upon the true faith of a Christian, that I will never exercise any power, authority, or influence which I may possess by virtue of the office of to injure or weaken the Protestant church as it is by law established in England, or to disturb the said church, or the bishops and clergy of the said church, in the possession of any rights or privileges to which such church, or the said bishops and clergy, are or may be by law entitled.’

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