In the year 1230, the Jews took advantage of the pro tection and favour of Henry, and erected a very costly and magnificent synagogue in London ; but the people petition ed the king to take it from them, and have it consecrated, which was accordingly clone. In the 18th year of his reign, on a petition of the inhabitants of Newcastle, he granted them the privilege that no Jew should ever reside among them. It was during the reign of Henry that the Lombards settled in England, and by gradually superseding the Jews in the lending of money, and thus rendering them less necessary, paved the way for worse treatment than they had hitherto experienced. To such a pitch of hatred was the prejudice which had been gradually instilled into the people against the Jews arrived, that in 1262, the barons, being then opposed to the king, and wishing to bind the citizens of London to their cause, ordered 700 Jews to be slaughtered at once, their houses to be plundered, and their new synagogue burnt. It was, however, rebuilt ; but in 1270 it was taken from them, on the complaint of the Friars Penitents, that they were not able to make the body of Christ in quiet, on account of the great howlings which the Jews made during their worship.
In the third year of Edward I. a law passed the Commons concerning Judaism, which seemed to promise them some security. Nevertheless, in the year 1290, this monarch seized on all their real estates, and banished the whole of them from the kingdom. From 15,000 to 16.000 Jews were thus ruined, and then expelled. They left behind them several valuable libraries, particularly at Stamford and Ox ford. The latter being sold among the students, most of the Hebrew books were bought by the Roger Bacon, who, in a short note tut itten in one of them, declares they were of great service to him in his studies. The ex pulsion of the Jews at this time ryas so complete, that no farther traces of them in England occur till long after the Reformation.
Oliver Cromwell made the first attempt to restore to England the industry and wealth of the Jews : the inter course between them was managed by means of one Henry Martin, who persuaded a deputation it.om the Jews at Am sterdam to wait upon the English ambassador there : from him they obtained permission to send a public envoy with proposals to London. Manasseh Ben Israel, who stiled himself a divine and doctor of physic, but who was in reality a printer and bookseller, was selected for this embassy, of which he published a particular account. On his arrival in England, he presented an address to Cromwell, recog nising his authority, and solicting his protection. On the 4th of December 1655, the Protector summoned a conven tion, consisting of two lawyers, seven citizens, and 14 noted preachers, to consult upon this request of the Jews; but he found so much prejudice and opposition, that, after a con ference of four days, he dissolved the meeting. While this aflair was pending, a Rabbi propagated the opinion that Cromwell was the expected Messiah. About this time a few appear to have settled in London, since, in the year 1663, their register of births contained twelve names ; and during the whole reign of Charles II. who introduced the sale of patents of denization, their numbers increased.
In 1684, James II. remitted the alien duty upon all goods exported in favour of the Jews. This privilege was oppo sed by the English merchants, petitions from the Ham burgh company, from the Eastland company, and from 57 of the leading merchants of the city, being presented against it. After the Revolution, this privilege was taken away from the Jews. In the first year of Queen Anne, statute was passed to encourage the conversion of young Jews, by emancipating such converts from all dependence upon their parents ; and in the 6th year of George II. it was proposed that the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen of London should apply to Parliament for the suppression of Jew brokers ; no public proceeding, however, ensued.
In the 7th year of James 1. an act was passed, preventing all persons from being naturalized, unless they first received the sacrament of the Lord's supper, according to the rites of the church of England. This act effectually excluded the Jews from being naturalized. In the year 1753, a bill was brought into the House of Lords, and passed there without opposition, which provided that all persons professing the Jewish religion, who had resided in Great Britain or Ireland for three years, might be naturalized without receiving the sacrament of the Lord's supper. On the 16th of April this bill was sent down to the House of Commons, and, on its second reading, a motion was made for its being committed: bill was supported by the petitions of a few-merchants, chiefly dissenters: In behalf of it, it was argued, that it would increase the numbers and wealth of the people ; that a great portion of the funds belonging to foreign Jews, it would be highly politic to induce them to follow their property ; that connected as the Jews were with the great bankers and monied interests of Europe, their residence in England would, in futut c wars, give the nation a great command of capital, and facilitate loans ; that even their prejudices as a sect would operate in our favour, and oc casion our manufactures to be dispersed among the Jew shopkeepers in Europe, %rho now had recourse to the Jew merchants of Holland and other tolerant countries ; and lastly, that Poland had never risen so high a pitch of pros perity, as when her policy was most liberal to the Jews ; and that the sect itself had always abandoned its offensive prejudices in proportion to its good usage. On the other side it was urged, that by naturalizing the Jews, we should import vagrants and.cheats to but den our rates, and sup plant the industry of our labouring classes ; that the rites of Jews would always prevent them from incorporating with the nation, or becoming any real addition to its intrinsic strength ; while their early marriages and frequent divorces would occasion such a rapid increase of their numbers, that in the end they might become troublesome or even danger ous ; that Jewish nationality would intrigue all the trade into their own hand ; that they were enemies upon principle to all Christians ; and that it was endeavouring to oppose the plans, and to frustrate the prophecies of the Almighty, to gather together a sect, of which the Bible foretold the dis persion.