(VOL. I, PP. 474, 475.)
From a scarce collection of pamphlets concerning the naturalisation
of the Jews in England, published in 1753, by Dean Tucker and others,
I beg to send the following extracts, which may be of some use in
replying to the inquiry (Vol. i., p. 401.) respecting the Jews during
the Commonwealth.
Dean Tucker, in his _Second Letter to a Friend concerning
Naturalisation_, says (p. 29.):--
"The Jews having departed out of the realm in the year 1290,
or being expelled by the authority of parliament (it matters
not which), made no efforts to return till the Protectorship
of Oliver Cromwell; but this negotiation is known to have
proved unsuccessful. However, the affair was not dropped, for
the next application was to King Charles himself, then in his
exile at Bruges, as appears by a copy of a commission dated
the 24th of September, 1656, granted to Lt.-Gen. Middleton, to
treat with the Jews of Amsterdam:--'That whereas the Lt.-Gen.
had represented to his Majesty their good affection to him,
and disowned the application lately made to Cromwell in their
behalf by some persons of their nation, as absolutely without
their consent, the king empowers the Lt.-Gen. to treat with
them. That if in that conjunction they shall assist his
Majesty by any money, arms, or ammunition, they shall find,
when God should restore him, that he would extend that
protection to them which they could reasonably expect, and
abate that rigour of the law which was against them in his
several dominions, and repay them."
This paper, Dean Tucker says, was found among the original papers of
Sir Edward Nicholas, Secretary of State to King Charles I. and II.,
and was communicated to him by a learned and worthy friend. The Dean
goes on to remark, that the restoration of the royal family of the
Stuarts was attended with the return of the Jews into Great Britain;
and that Lord Chancellor Clarendon granted to many of them letters of
denization under the great seal.
From another pamphlet in the same collection, entitled, _An Answer
to a Pamphlet entitled Considerations on the Bill to permit Persons
professing the Jewish Religion to be naturalized_, the following, is
an extract:--
"There is a curious anecdote of this affair," (about the Jews
thinking Oliver Cromwell to be the Messiah,) "in Raguenet's
_Histoire d'Oliver Cromwell_, which I will give the reader
at length. About the time Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel came to
England to solicit the Jews' admission, the Asiatic Jews sent
hither the noted Rabbi Jacob Ben Azahel, with several others
of his nation, to make private inquiry whether Cromwell was
not that Messiah, whom they had so long expected. (Page 33.--I
leave the reader to judge what an accomplished villain he will
then be.) Which deputies upon their arrival pretending other
business, were several times indulging the favour of a private
audience from him, and at one of them proposed buying Hebrew
books and MSS. belonging to the University of _Cambridge_[4],
in order to have an opportunity, under pretence of viewing
them, to inquire amongst his relations, in Huntingdonshire,
where he was born, whether any of his ancestors could be
proved of Jewish extract. This project of theirs was very
readily agreed to (the University at that time being under a
cloud, on account of their former loyalty to the King), and
accordingly the ambassadors set forwards upon their journey.
But discovering by their much longer continuance at Huntingdon
than at Cambridge, that their business at the last place was
not such as was pretended, and by not making their enquiries
into Oliver's pedigree with that caution and secresy which was
necessary in such an affair, the true purpose of their errand
into England became quickly known at London, and was very much
talked of, which causing great scandal among the _Saints_, he
was forced suddenly to pack them out of the kingdom, without
granting any of their requests."