Exhibition - From Bank to Westminster

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.

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