243 CHAPTER XVII. CONDITION OF THE JEWS IN ENGLAND.-FAVOUR- XVII. 1655. Condition of the Jews in En gland. A NOBLE design formed by Cromwel at this time CHAP. was in relation to the people of the Jews. They were detested through the Christian world, as the murderers of the Son of God; and the superstition of the dark ages caused this sentiment to shew itself in the most unheard of barbarities, and an unrelenting persecution. The peculiarities of this race of men, their singular diet and customs, and their striking physiognomy, kept alive the hatred, and aided the proscription. Yet they were the most industrious and sharp-sighted of mankind. As, by the laws of Europe, they could possess no land, and arrive at no public honours, and as it was morally impossible they should ac IV. 1655. BOOK quire the commendation or the love of any of the nations among whom they sojourned, they resolved to aspire to what was still within their reach, wealth, and whatever by the conventions of society represented wealth, whether coin, or any of those bonds, contracts, and written engagements, which are held sacred among mankind. Favourable disposition of Cromwel towards them. They were banished from England in the year 1290; and from that time no body of Jews formed into a community, could be found within our dominions. After the lapse of three hundred and sixty-five years, Cromwel determined to signalise himself by putting an end to this proscription. It was an enterprise worthy of his character. His comprehensive mind enabled him to take in all its recommendations and all its advantages. The liberality of his disposition, and his avowed attachment to the cause of toleration, ren • There were certainly Jews in England within this interval [among others we may mention Rodrigo Lopez, physician to queen Elizabeth, who was executed for a conspiracy to poison her]: but they were not tolerated in their ceremonies of religion; they had no place appropriated for public worship, and no cemetery for the burial of their dead. They therefore existed only in an insulated manner, without privileges, and, so to express it, without a name. They were never here in any numbers; one, and another only, came over, in neglect of religious rites, and severed from any assemblage of their countrymen, as they might be led by the thirst of gain, or any other adventurous enterprise, such as induces men from time to time to trample upon obstacles by which the generality of their species are accustomed to be restrained. XVII. 1655. dered it an adventure becoming him to achieve. CHAP. As a man, he held that no human being should be proscribed among his fellow-men for the accident of his birth. As a Christian, who looked forward in the faith of prophecy for the conversion of these our elder brethren in the rejection of polytheism, he knew that kind treatment and impartial justice supplied our best instrument for subduing their prejudices. And as a statesman, he was aware how useful the Jews might be made, to the nation, as the medium of commerce, and to the government, as the means of correspondence, the communicators of valuable information, and the divulgers of secrets with which it might be important for them to be acquainted. Ben Israel. How the intercourse began between him and Menasseh the objects of his liberality we are not fully informed. The first thing distinctly noticed on the subject, is, that a certain Menasseh Ben Israel, by birth a Portuguese Jew, but established in Holland, and one of the chiefs of the synagogue at Amsterdam, came over to England in the close of the year, to negociate with Cromwel on the subject. He was the most learned man of his nation, and universally respected, counting among his friends Huetius, Bochart, and Barlæus. Thomas Pocock, the son of the celebrated orientalist, who wrote the life of Menasseh, describes IV. BOOK him as a man in whom passion and fickleness had no sway, but who was little blessed with the goods of fortune d. 1650. His pro ceedings ly to the death of Charles the First. He says of himself, that, being excited by the subsequent great things the parliament had achieved five years before, and the unusual attempt in which they had engaged, and by the changes of so many nations, which of late the supreme governor of all things seemed to be bringing on the world, he had conceived that a fitter time could not be found for the experiment of restoring his countrymen to the privileges of men in this island. In execution of this project he had at that time applied from Amsterdam to the Long Parliament for, and had obtained, a passport. He was however prevented from making use of their indulgence. He then addressed the second [or Barbone's] parliament, and obtained from them the same favour, but was still detained on the continent. Finding however at this crisis that his coming over would not be unwelcome to Cromwel, he set out for London'. 1655. He comes into England. d Tovey, Anglia Judaica, p, 273, 274. Pocock's narrative is prefixed to a translation of Menasseh, De Termino Vitæ, 1699. Hope of Israel, translated into English, and published by authority in 1650, Dedication. e Vindicia Judæorum, by Menasseh, p. 38. Salmonet says, the Jews took occasion from the king's trial, to petition the council of war, that the act of their banishment might be repealed, and that' they might have St Paul's church for a synagogue; for which, and the Public Library at Oxford, they offered six millions of livres, XVII. He arrived in October, and immediately after pub- CHAP lished a tract, entitled A Humble Address to the Lord Protector in behalf of the Jewish Nation. 1655. the condi sires of the tions of Cromwel received him with much distinction, Cromwel and speedily appointed a conference of lawyers, appoints a citizens and preachers, to meet at Whitehall, to con- respecting sider the propositions of Menasseh. This assem- tion and debly sat four times in the month of Decembers. The Jews. desires expressed by Menasseh were, first, for the Proposiprotection of the government to his countrymen Menasseh. who might be willing to reside in England, secondly, that they might have a synagogue in London, thirdly, for a cemetery, fourthly, that they might be allowed freedom of trade, fifthly, that they might be permitted to determine processes among themselves, with liberty, if either party pleased, of appealing to the civil courts of the country, the party appealing depositing first the amount of the sum in dispute, and engaging to abide the sentence of the English judges, and sixthly, a revocation of such laws as might be found in existence, that were hostile to these privileges h. but the council of war insisted upon eight. The brokers employed by the Jews were Hugh Peters and Henry Marten. The proposal was submitted to the then house of commons by the council of war, along with a suggestion for the abolition of tithes. Histoire des Troubles de la Grande Bretagne, p. 309. It is useless to enlarge upon the absurdity of this statement. • Mercurius Politicus. Public Intelligencer. h Public Intelligencer, Dec. 24. Mercurius Politicus, Dec. 27. Previously to this time a petition from Manuel Martinez Dormido,. |