The lord mayor. aldermen, and livery of London, first presented a petition to parliament against the proposed naturalization, in which they expressed their apprehension that the bill, if passed into a law, would tend greatly to the dishonour of the Christian religion, and endanger the con stitution. Alarm and prejudice spread rapidly and power fully; a zeal, the most furious, vociferated in the pulpits and the corporations against the bill ; and by the next ses sions of parliament, instructions were sent to almost all the members to solicit of it ; the minister yielded, and the bill was repealed by an act which received the royal assent the same session.
By the 10th of George III. cap. 10, whenever any shall present himself to take the oath of abjuration, tlie words " upon the true faith of a Christian," shall be omit ted out of the oath. In courts of justice, they are sworn according to their peculiar rites. If Jewish parents refuse to allow their Protestant children a suitable maintenance, the lord chancellor may make such order as he may think proper.
A few years since a society was formed in London for promoting Christianity among the Jews, and branches of the society have been established in different parts of the kingdom. They have published several reports ; but the utility of this society has been questioned, and it has been alleged, we hope without reason, that they have not been sufficiently attentive to the investigation of the character and probable motives of their converts.
Our limits will not permit us to dwell long on the his tory or present state of the Jews in other countries ; nor are we in possession of materials sufficient to enable us to enter into detail on these points. In France, the prejudices of Voltaire against the Jewish religion, for a long time pre vented the philosophic sect in that country from extending their liberal :leas of toleration towards the Jews. In 1788, however, the academy at Mentz proposed, as a prize ques tion, " Are there means of rendering the Jews in France usefuller and happier ?" APolisk Jew, a counsellor of Nancy, and the celebrated Abbe Gregoire, shared the prize. The work of the Abbe on the moral, physical, and political re generation of the Jews, is an admirable performance. In the constituent assembly, Mirabeau, Clermont, Tourere, and Rabaud, advocated their cause. The attention of the French government, however, does not seem to have been directed towards them till the year 1806, when Bonaparte issued a decree regarding them, in which he appointed an assembly of deputies from them at Paris in the month of July : when they met, they were attended by commissioners on the part of Bonaparte. After assurances of liberty and protection on the one hand, and of gratitude and obedience on the other, it was agreed that a grand Sanhedrim should be opened at Paris, at which should be preserved as much as possible the ancient Jewish forms and usages. This was announced to the Jews in France and Italy, in an address, which advised them to choose men known for their wisdom, in order to give to the Sanhedrin a proper degree of weight and consideration. The Sanhedrim assembled on the 9th of February, 1807 : they drew up 27 articles for the re-organization of the Mosaic worship ; and passed several regulations on the subject of divorce, polygamy, marriage, moral, civil, and political relations ; useful professions, loans among themselves, and loans between Israelites and those who are not Israelites. At their second meeting in
1\ larch, a law for the condemnation of usury was passed. Bonaparte soon found, however, that he was not likely to accomplish his object of constraining his Jewish subjects to assist in the cultivation of the land, and in furnishing their quota of conscripts. In March 1808, he issued ano ther decree respecting them, in which he calls upon them to follow the pursuits of honest industry, and to purchase landed property. This decree also annuls all obligations for loans made by Jews to minors, without the sanction of their guar dians ; or to married women, without the consent of their husbands ; or to military men, without the authority of their officers. There were also severe regulations respecting usury. At this period, the following return was made to Bo naparte of the number of Jews in all the different parts of the habitable globe, viz. in the Turkish empire, 1,000,000 ; in Persia, China, and India, on the east and west of the Gan ges, 300,000 ; and in the west of Europe, Africa, and Ame rica,1,700,000,making an aggregate population of 3,000,000. It would appear, however, from subsequent enquiries on this subject, that this number is very far below the truth. Indeed, in Poland alone, recent and well-informed travellers reckon that there are 2,000,000 Jews. The Prince Primate of Frankfort, following the example of Bonaparte, put an end to every humiliating distinction between the Jewish and Christian inhabitants of that city. Since the overthrow of Bonaparte, however, the inhabitants of Frankfort are said to have displayed great illiberality and intolerance against the Jews : and, indeed, this feeling has manifested itself generally throughout Germany. In this part of Europe, the popular prejudice against Judaism was attacked some years ago by Lcssing, in his plays of Nathan the Wise, and the Monk of Lebanon ; and, at the same time, Moses Men delsohn published an 'excellent defence of general tolera tion, under the title of Jerusalem. C. W. Dohm, a Prus sian, in the year 1781, published in German, Remarks on the means of imliroving- the civil condition of the Jews, which calleu forth several pamphlets on the same topic, of which the best were those of Schlotzer and Michaelis. In Hol land, the condition of the Jews has long been favourable. In Italy, the fit st attempts were made to prepare the minds .of the people for their toleration. Simone Lazzarato, of Venice, is mentioned as a pleader in their cause ; the friends of the Socini, also, were thought to entertain sentiments favouran1e to them ; but the interference of the inquisition in 1346, to suppress the club of Vicenza, proved preju dicial to the Jews, in depriving them of several of their most zealous advocates or apologists. In Spain, they ob tained a fooling after the Mahomedan conquest of that country, but they were driven out of it by the decrees of Ferdinand and Isabella. Mr. Semple, in his second Jour ney in Spain, relates, that the Jews of Barbary, Smyrna, and Constantinople, generally speak corrupted Spanish, which he considers as a clear proof of the amazing num bers of that people that must have been driven out of Spain, and scattered all over the coasts of the Mediterranean. The laws, both of Spain and Portugal, are still most cruel against them, though they are not now often strictly en forced.