We have also among us a remnant of Israel. A people who, when masters of
their own country, were scarcely ever known to travel, and who are now
seldom employed in any thing else. But, though they are ever moving,
they are ever at home: who once lived the favourites of heaven, and fed
upon the cream of the earth; but now are little regarded by either:
whose society is entirely confined to themselves, except in the
commercial line.
[ILLUSTRATION: Birmingham Theatre, Hotel and Tavern.]
In the Synagogue, situated in the Froggery, they still preserve the
faint resemblence of the ancient worship. Their whole apparatus being no
more than the drooping ensigns of poverty. The place is rather small,
but tolerably filled; where there appears less decorum than in the
christian churches. The proverbial expression "as rich as a jew," is not
altogether verified in Birmingham, but perhaps, time is transfering it
to the Quakers.
It is rather singular, that the honesty of a jew, is seldom pleaded but
by the jew himself.