Disraeli solves the problem
1858 brought a change of government. Benjamin Disraeli, the Leader of the House of Commons, himself of Jewish birth athough converted to Christianity, and a great friend of the Rothschild family, was keen to avoid the position where his own Conservative Peers in the Lords should block the Jewish Disabilities Bill. The solution, the brainchild of the Earl of Lucan, was ingenious, neatly sidestepping the problem. A compromise was arrived at whereby each House of Parliament, Commons and Lords, was allowed to decide for itself the words which were used to administer the oath. The House of Lords agreed to this, weary of the battle and wary of their constitutional position if they were to be continually in opposition to the Commons. The Lords became, therefore, an irrelevance to the issue and Lionel's re-entry to the Commons followed without further protest.
Lionel takes his seat
Lionel presented himself again in the House, declared his objection to the oath and withdrew. A vote on the new principle was taken immediately and was passed with little opposition. Lionel was summoned back in. He entered the Chamber flanked by Abel Smith and Lord John Russell, who had supported and encouraged him throughout his campaign. An eleven-year struggle thus ended with a simple ritual that nevertheless represented a major step forward in the long campaign for religious freedom and Jewish assimilation.
Lionel remained MP for the City of London for sixteen years. The year after he took his seat, he was joined in the Commons by his brother, Mayer, who was elected MP for Hythe in Kent. In 1865 his son Nathaniel became MP for Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire where the Rothschild family owned a number of properties.
