Following the election, Lord Russell, still the Prime Minister, introduced a Jewish Disabilities Bill to overcome the problem. It was passed in the the Commons in February 1848, but then thrown out by the Lords - not once, but twice in 1848, and then again in 1849.

Lionel decided to put the issue to the electorate. He resigned his seat, and stood again in the resulting by-election, beating his opponent with a crushing majority - more than two thirds of the vote. The stand-off on the oath, however, remained unresolved.

A group of electors met at the London Tavern on 25 July 1850 to decide on tactics, and concluded that Lionel should go ahead and take up his seat. Lionel duly entered the House of Commons the next day.

The Clerk of the Commons rose in the customary way to invite Lionel to take the oath on the Old and New Testaments. Lionel demanded to swear on the Old Testament only. This drew howls of protest from the Tory benches, and Lionel was called upon to withdraw, which he did.

Four days later he reappeared. This time he read through the oath until he reached the final clause, 'on the true faith of a Christian'; then withdrew, declaring, 'I omit these words as not binding on my conscience'. The stalemate was to continue for a further eight years.

In 1851, the Jewish Disabilities Bill was rejected again by the Lords. The following year, Lionel was elected for the City of London for the third time. Each year from 1853 to 1857, the Disabilities Bill was put to the Lords again, and again defeated.

In 1857, Lionel went to the polls twice more. Re-elected, he resigned again when the Disabilities Bill was yet again defeated. This time he was returned unopposed in the City - the fifth time the electorate had voted him in.

Rothschild was not alone in his struggle. In 1851, another Jew had been elected to Parliament. David Salomons, who had already been elected a Sheriff and was later to be made Lord Mayor of London, was elected to the Commons in a by-election in Greenwich. He used less subtle tactics: he said the oath, leaving out the offensive words, then sat down. In the debate that followed, he spoke eloquently and voted three times, and was fined £500 for voting. His bold gesture failed, however, to win the argument, and he lost Greenwich at the next election.

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