By this device, the captain preserved all the Christians, and _deeped_
all the Jews.
* * * * *
Selden says, “Talk what you will of the Jews, that they are cursed, they
thrive wherever they come: they are able to oblige the prince of their
country by lending him money; none of them beg; they keep together; and
for their being hated, my life for yours, Christians hate one another as
much.” This was true, but it is also true that three quarters of a
century have not elapsed since hatred to the Jews was a national
feeling. In 1753, a bill was brought into the House of Lords for
naturalizing the Jews, and relieving them from persecuting disabilities.
It passed there on the ground that it would operate to the public
advantage, by encouraging wealthy persons professing the Jewish religion
to remove hither from foreign parts to the increase of the capital,
commerce, and credit of the kingdom. The corporation of London in common
council assembled, petitioned against it on the ground that it would
dishonour the christian religion, endanger the constitution, and
prejudice the interest and trade of the kingdom in general, and London
in particular. A body of London merchants and traders also petitioned
against it. Certain popular orators predicted that if the bill passed,
the Jews would multiply so fast, become so rich, and get so much power,
that their persons would be revered, their customs be imitated, and
Judaism become the fashionable religion; they further alleged that the
bill flew in the face of prophecy, which declared that the Jews should
be scattered without a country or fixed habitation till their
conversion, and that in short it was the duty of Christians to be
unchristian. But the bill passed the commons after violent debates, and
received the royal sanction. The nation was instantly in a ferment of
horror and execration; and on the first day of the next session of
parliament, ministers were constrained to bring in a bill to repeal the
act of naturalization, and to the foul dishonour of the people of
England at that period, the bill was repealed. From that hour to the
present, the Jews have been subjected to their old pains, penalties,
disqualifications, and privations. The enlightenment of this age has
dispelled much of the darkness of the last. Yet the errors of public
opinion then respecting the Jews, remain to be rectified now by the
solemn expression of a better public opinion. Formerly, if one of the
“ancient people” had said in the imploring language of the slave, “Am I
not a _man_, and a brother?” he might have been answered, “No, you are
not a _man_, but a _Jew_.” It is not the business of the Jews to
petition for justice, but it is the duty of Christians to be just.
* * * * *
In the “General Evening Post” of June 21, 1777, a paragraph states, that
“the following circumstance is not more ridiculous than true;” and it
proceeds to relate, that some years before, at Stamford, in the province
of Connecticut, America, it was determined to build a church; but
“though the church was much wanted, as many people in that neighbourhood
were at a loss for a place of public worship, yet the work stood still a
considerable time for want of nails (for it was a wooden building;) at
last, a Jew merchant made them a present of a cask, amounting to four
hundred weight, and thus enabled the church to proceed.” Such an act
might make some Christians exclaim, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a
_Jew_ rather than remain a Jew-oppressor under the name of a Christian.”
It is not, however, on private, but on open grounds and high principle,
that justice should spontaneously be rendered to the Jews. The Jew and
the Christian, the Catholic and the Protestant, the Episcopalian and the
Dissenter, the Calvinist and the Arminian, the Baptist and the
Unitarian, all persons, of all denominations, are willed and empowered
by their common document to acts of justice and mercy, and they now meet
as brethren in social life to perform them; but the unsued claim of
their elder brother, the _Jew_, is acknowledged no where, save in the
conscience of every “just man made perfect.”
* * * * *
To extend the benefits of Education to the children of the humbler
classes of Jews, is one of the first objects with their opulent and
enlightened brethren. The “Examiner” Sunday newspaper of the 4th of
February, 1825, cooperates in their benevolent views by an article of
information particularly interesting:--
“On Friday last, the Jews held their anniversary, at the London Tavern,
Bishopsgate-street, to celebrate their plan for the education of 600
boys and 300 girls, instituted April 20, 1818, in Bell-lane,
Spitalfields. It was gratifying to contrast the consideration in which
the Jews are now held in this country with their illiberal and cruel
treatment in former times; and it was no less gratifying to observe,
that the Jews themselves are becoming partakers of the spirit of the
present times, by providing for the education of the poor, which, till
within a very few years past, had been too much neglected; another
pleasing feature in the meeting was, that it was not an assemblage of
Jews only, but attended by people of other denominations, both as
visitors and subscribers. Samuel Joseph, Esq., the president, was in the
chair. Some loyal and patriotic toasts were given, appropriate addresses
were delivered by different gentlemen, and the more serious business, of
receiving and announcing new subscriptions, was much enlivened by a good
band of vocal and instrumental music. Among the subscriptions referred
to, one was of a peculiarly generous nature. An unknown hand had
forwarded to the treasurer on the two last meetings a sum of 200_l._
This year he received instructions to clothe all the children at the
expense of the same generous donor. The procession of the children round
the hall, was an agreeable scene at this important meeting. A poetical
address in the Hebrew language was delivered by one of the boys, and an
English translation of it by one of the girls, each with propriety of
accent, and much feeling.”
A record testifying the liberal disposition and humane attention of the
Jews to the welfare of their offspring, is not out of place in a work
which notices the progress of manners; and it is especially grateful to
him who places it on this page, that he has an opportunity of evincing
his respect for generous and noble virtues, in a people whose residence
in all parts of the world has advantaged every state, and to whose
enterprise and wealth, as merchants and bankers, every government in
Europe has been indebted. Their sacred writings and their literature
have been adopted by all civilized communities, while they themselves
have been fugitives every where, without security any where. They are
----------------a people scatter’d wide indeed,
Yet from the mingling world distinctly kept:
Ages ago, the Roman standard stood
Upon their ruins, yet have ages swept
O’er Rome herself, like an o’erwhelming flood,
Since down Jerus’lem’s streets she pour’d her children’s blood,
And still the nation lives!
_Mr. Bull’s Museum._
[10] Porter’s Flowers of the Saints.
[11] Mr. Fosbroke’s Brit. Mon.
[12] Ibid.
~February 24.~
_St. Matthias_, the Apostle. _Sts. Montanus_, _Lucius_, _Flavian_,
_Julian_, _Victoricus_, _Primolus_, _Rhenus_, and _Donation_, A. D.
259. _St. Lethard_, or _Luidhard_, Bp. A. D. 566. B. _Robert_ of
Arbrissel, A. D. 1116. _St. Pretextatus_, or _Prix_, Abp. A. D. 549.
_St. Ethelbert_, King.
_St. Ethelbert._
He was king of Kent, and, according to Butler, the first christian king.
It was under him that St. Augustine found favour when he landed in
England with his monks, and is said to have introduced Christianity to
the English people; an assertion wholly unfounded, inasmuch as it had
been diffused hither centuries before. Augustine established nothing but
monasteries and monkery, and papal domination.
Bertha, the queen of Ethelbert, was a convert, and her spiritual
director officiated, before Augustine’s arrival, in the little church of
St. Martin, situated just without Canterbury on the road to Margate; the
present edifice is venerable for its site and its rude simplicity.
Ethelbert’s power is said to have extended to the Humber, and hence he
is often styled king of the English. He was subdued to the views of the
papacy by Augustine. Ethelbert founded Canterbury cathedral, and built
without the walls of the city, the abbey and church of St. Peter and St.
Paul, the ruins of which are denominated at this day St. Augustine’s
monastery and Ethelbert’s tower. The foundation of the cathedral of
Rochester, St. Paul’s at London, and other ecclesiastical structures, is
ascribed to him. He died in 616. Sometimes he is called St. Albert, and
churches are dedicated to him under that name.