BOOK IV. 1655. Persons appointed to take them into considera tion. Zeal of the protector The persons appointed to sit on 'these propositions were chief justice Glyn, and chief baron Steele, with the lord mayor Dethick, the two sheriffs, two of the aldermen, Pack and Tichbourne, and the master of the Charter House. The clergy were Owen, Goodwin, Wilkinson, Nye, Cudworth, Whitchcot, and eight others: to whom were afterwards added Hugh Peters, Peter Sterry, and Bulkeley, provost of Eton College. Chief justice St John also appears to have been called in; and Cromwel's council assisted at the debates i The protector himself took a considerable part on the occa- in these conferences *. Sir Paul Ricaut, who was then a young man, and had pressed in among the crowd, said, he never heard a man speak so well, sion. alias David Abrabenel, a Jew, was presented to Cromwel to the same effect: to which is annexed the following memorandum : "His Highness is pleased in an especial manner to recommend these papers to the speedy consideration of the council. "Friday, 3 Nov. 1654. "J. Sadler." The original of this petition was sold by Sotheby in the present year 1828, being part of the collection of Thomas Lloyd, Esq, of Buckingham Street in the Strand. The wife of Menasseh was of the family of the Abrabenels, who claimed to be of the tribe of Judah, and of the royal family of David. Huetiana, p. 224, 225. Narrative in one sheet, published by authority, apud Tovey, Anglia Judaica. Echard ad annum. XVII. as Cromwel did on this occasion'. The confe- CHAP. rences however came to nothing. The citizens were divided in their opinions: but most of the 1655. divines were adverse to the measure, and pro- rence duced text after text against it with unremitting abortive. assiduity. Cromwel therefore judged it expedient to put an end to their deliberations". The confe proves 1656. They are But, though baffled in this, and not thinking it right under the circumstances, to grant the Jews neverthethat open establishment which he had meditated, he was not thus to be turned aside from his pur 1 Spence, Anecdotes, p. 77. Sir Paul was undoubtedly wrong, dazzled, it may be, with the greatness of the personage, and the memorableness of the scene. We have sufficient specimens of Cromwel's eloquence. He was seldom deficient in logic, seldom perhaps in fervour; but his discourses are deformed with verbosity and tediousness. m The Narrative above quoted, which appears to have proceeded from the pen of Menasseh, and is dated, 1 April, 1656, concludes, "What shall be the issue of all this, the Most High God knoweth. Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel still remains in London, desiring a favourable answer to his proposals; and, not receiving it, he hath desired that, if they may not be granted, he may have a favourable dismission, and return home. But, other great affairs being now in hand, and this being a business of very great concernment, no absolute answer is yet returned to him." In his Vindicia Judæorum, dated nine days later, p. 38, 39, he says: "As yet we have had no final determination from his Serene Highness. Wherefore those few Jews that were here, despairing of our expected success, departed hence. And others, who desired to come hither, have quitted their hopes, and betaken themselves, some to Italy, some to Geneva." less allowed an establishment and privileges. IV. 1656. BOOK pose. He granted to several of them a dispensation to come and reside in London, and from that time they built a synagogue, and formed themselves into a sort of community. This excited great discontent in a number of Christians; and among others Thomas Violet, a goldsmith, did every thing in his power to interrupt their settlement. About Christmas 1559 he applied to Mr. justice Tyrrel, one of the judges of the common bench, representing how greatly contrary to law it was, that these people should have the audacity to worship God according to the forms of the Mosaic dispensation in England"; and in December 1660 he, together with other merchants of the city of London, presented a petition to the king and parliament, praying that the advantages granted to them by the late usurper might be altogether revoked, and made of no effect o. n Violet, Petition to King and Parliament, p. 7. • This transaction of Cromwel is treated of with great obscurity in our histories; and Tovey, in his Anglia Judaica, expressly maintains that the Jews were not admitted into England till after the Restoration. Violet's account of his own proceedings places the matter however beyond the reach of controversy. There is a curious description of the ceremonies of their worship in 1662, in Ellis, Original Letters, Second Series, Vol. IV, p. 1, et seqq., from which it appears, that the writer "counted above one hundred right Jews in the synagogue, all gentlemen, not one mechanic person among them." To bring the question however to a still greater degree of evi XVII. 1657. dence, I applied to the Rulers of the Spanish and Portuguese Sy- CHAP. nagogue in Bevis Marks, and by their permission, Mr. Almosnino, their secretary, obligingly went over with me some of their oldest records. Among them I found an account of a lease of a piece of ground in the parish of Stepney, granted them in February 1654, for a burying ground. Also, an agreement in 1674, to enlarge, alter and improve the synagogue in Cree Church Lane, St Catherine Cree, London. The synagogue in Bevis Marks was not built till 1703. 252 IV. 1655. Manning shot. CHAPTER XVIII. PREPARATIONS FOR ANOTHER PARLIAMENT.- BOOK IN the month of December occurred the death of Manning, a spy of Cromwel, who had constantly attended the king, and had followed him to Middleburgh, when he came to that place for the sake of a more easy passage to England". His treachery being discovered, it was resolved to make an example of him; the duke of Newburgh gave his sanction to the deed; and Manning being accordingly conveyed into this prince's territories, was there shot with pistols . 1656. Preparations for another parliament. The time was now approaching, when it would be necessary for the protector to meet a new par Clarendon, Vol. III, p. 563, See above, p. 166. et segg. Ludlow, p. 609. Whitlocke, Dec. Thurloe, Vol. IV, p. 718. |