LETTER LXIII.

Jews in England.

I WENT yesterday evening to the Synagogue. Never did I see a place of worship in which their was so little appearance of devotion. The women were in a gallery by themselves, the men sate below, keeping their hats on, as they would have done in the street. During the service they took from behind their altar, if that word may be thus applied without profanation, certain silver-utensils they cannot be called, as they appeared to be of no possible use-silver ornaments rather, hung with small rattle bells, and these they jingled as they carried them round the room then replaced them in the receptacle. This was the only ceremony. It is impossible to describe the strange and uncouth tone in which the priest sung out a portion of the Pentateuch, from a long roll. The language was so intolerably harsh, and the manner in which it was chanted so abominably discordant, that they suited each other to a miracle; and the larynx of the Rabbi seemed to have been made expressly to give both their full effect.

In former times the toleration of the Jews gave occasion to the same disturbances here as in the rest of Europe. They cheated the people, and the people in return took advantage of every tumult to plunder them. The famous king John, who offered to turn Mohammedan if the Miramamolin would assist him against his rebellious subjects, extorted a large sum from a Jew of Bristol by a new and ingenious kind of torture: he condemned him to have a tooth drawn every day till he consented to lend the money; and the Jew parted with six grinders before he submitted. After the schism as the heretics began first to persecute the Catholics, and then one another, the misbelievers

were forgotten. Cromwell even favored them; in one respect he differed from all his contemporary fanatics, for he willingly allowed to other sects the toleration which he claimed for his. Under his protection Manasses Ben Israel pinted three editions of the Bible in Hebrew. This Rabbi is generally supposed to have been a Spaniard, but the Portuguese claim him; and I think we shall not be disposed to contend with them for the honor, especially as 'most persons would decide in their favor without examination.

During the last reign an attempt was made to naturalize them, in a body; and the measure would have been effected had it not been for the indignant outcry of the people, who very properly regarded it as an act of defiance, or at least of opposition, to the express language of prophesy. But this feeling has abated, and were the attempt to be renewed it would meet with little opposition. In Catholic countries our pictures and crucifixes perpetually set before the christian's eyes the sufferings of his Redeemer, and there is no possibility of his forgetting the history of his religion. Even the most trifling ceremony is of use. At one of the public schools here, the boys on Easter Sunday rush out of the chapel after prayers singing,

He is risen, he is risen,

All the Jews must go to prison.

This custom is certainly very old, though I cannot learn that it was ever usual to imprison this wretched people upon this festival. Some of these boys cut the straps of a Jew's box one day, and all his gingerbread nuts fell into the street. Complaint was made to the master; and when he questioned the culprits what they could say in their defence, one of them stepped forward and said, 'Why, sir, did not they crucify our Lord' Without admitting the plea in excuse it may be remarked, that if the boy had not remembered his Easter rhymes he would have been as indifferent to the crime of the Jews as the rest of his countrymen.

Some years ago one of the best living dramatists wrote a comedy for the purpose of representing the

The play was

Jewish character in a favorable light. very successful, and the Jews were so well pleased that they presented the author with a handsome gratuity. A farce was brought forward at another time called the Jew Boy; and the fraternity knowing that it was impossible to represent this class favorably, assembled in great numbers and actually damned the piece. This single fact is sufficient to prove that the liberty which they enjoy is unbounded. It is not merely the open exercise of their religion which is permitted them, they are even suffered to publish and write against Christianity. If the permission of blasphemy were no sin, there would be little evil in this licence, so little are they able to make proselytes. The only apostate whom they have made within the memory of man is the very person who occasioned the insurrection against the Catholics in 1780 and who afterwards lost his senses, renounced his faith, and, though of noble family, died in a public prison a lamentable instance of divine vengeance,

In Rome these misbelievers are obliged to hear a sermon once a week; here a sermon attracts them as a novelty. One of the Methodist itinerants, some few years ago, fancying that like St. Vicente Ferrer he had a special gift for converting this stiff-necked generation, undertook to confute their errors and invited them to attend his preaching. The place appointed was the great Methodist Chapel in Tottenham Court Road; and they assembled in such crowds as to fill the chapel and the court in which it is built. One of the windows was taken out, and the orator taking his stand in the opening addressed the congregation both within and without at the same time. There can be no reason to suppose that they came with hearts more accessible to conviction than usual; but had it been the case, the method which this fanatic took was little likely to be successful; for he began by telling them

* This was Cumberland's play of THE JEW. AM ED. This was publicly asserted at the time, but untruly.-Tr.

that he was not yet twenty years old, that he had no human learning whatever, and that for all he was about to say to them he trusted to the immediate impulse of the Lord. The rest of his discourse was in character with the beginning, and the Jews returned; the greater number ridiculing, his folly, the more thoughtful remembering their own law against him who presumes to speak in the name of the Lord what the Lord hath not commanded him to speak. Yet from the readiness with which they assembled to hear him it does not appear impossible that if some true Christian inspired with the zeal of our St. Vicente, were to collect them together their curiosity might be made use of to the triumph of the faith and the salvation of souls.

The English church has no zeal for souls. At the beginning of the last century the daughter of a rich Jew, by name Jacob Mendes de Breta, was at her own instance publicly baptised. The father ran into the church like a madman, charged the officiating clergyman to desist, and when he perceived that this was in vain, cursed his child with the bitterest imprecations, and prayed to his God that the church might fall in, and crush all who were concerned in the ceremony. After this he utterly disowned her :-the law had made no provision for such cases, and the parish were obliged to support her; which, to their honor they did in a manner suitable to her former situation in life. At their petition, however, a bill was enacted compelling the Jews to provide decently for their converted children. Thus much was done upon the emergency of the case, and nothing more. Not the slightest effort is made for their conversion, nor the slightest impediment opposed to the public celebration of ceremonies which the Gospel has expressly abrogated. The Jews have nothing to complain of, except that they pay tithes to the clergy and that they are liable to the trouble of parish offices-the law even allowing them to be made church-wardens. Any person may be excused from serving this office if he chooses to pay a fine amounting to about ten pieces of eight: it is not long since a parish in London nominated a Jew for the sake

of getting this money; he, however, was determined to disappoint them by taking the situation;-the profanation was theirs, not his;-and accordingly the church affairs for the year were actually managed by this son of the Synagogue.*

It may well be supposed that when Bonaparte was in Syria his movements were anxiously watched by the

* A similar circumstance took place in New-York previous to the revolution. A respectable Jew was so unfortunate as to incur the ill will of an influential neighbor who, in resentment, proposed him as candidate, and actually obtained his election to the office of constable-in vain he endeavored to procure his discharge. "Well" said he, " I will do my duty then." Sunday came; he seated himself in front of his house. A servant passed with a burden-he took it from himanother went to the pump for water-he took the buc ket from him, ordered him home, saying "I will permit no Sabbath breaking while it is my duty to prevent it." A consultation took place and a complaint entered against him in court, where he so well justified himself that the award favored him.-He was never again elected constable.

At that period, in conformity to European prejudices, it was customary to treat the individuals of this scattered nation with utter contempt, and on all occasions to insult them :-since then, these prejudices have gradually worn off until scarce a vestige remains. We now rejoice in their prosperity, and are pleased to see them assume that respectable rank in society, to which many of them, for their virtues, are so eminently entitled ;-In our principle cities these associate in the most respectable circles--their females are most amiable among the amiable-their young men in loftiness of mind equal to the most noble; despising all meanness. In charity-unequalled in the giving of alms.Generosity with them is not only habitual but constitutional. These remarks are the consequence of long intimacy with some, and a close observation of them generally, AM. Ed.

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