From by Mr. W. Hamilton Reid. Ces flots de peuple innombrable, Les rois les princes de la terre Unfortunately for this writer, he appears to mix the interests of the Still pursuing the favourite phanJews of France with those of this tom which the author of this Comcountry, by enlarging upon the recent pendious History of the Jews has occurrences in which they have been called up, he asserts, " They (the concerned. Carried away with his Jews) have laboured to prove that own ideas even of these events, he their promised restoration is accomgives them a turn and a colouring plished, and that the idea of their havmanifestly inapplicable. He says, ing the land of Palestine restored to "the Sanhedrin have recommended them is fallacious. They assert, that the Jews to conform, in all respects, the restoration of the Jews means the with the French civil code, morally restoration of their rights and priviand physically, except that of acknow- leges in society, equally with all the ledging Jesus Christ to be the Messiah, rest of the human race." Now the who they persuade themselves they real fact is, that the Jews have asserted have found in the person of Napoleon no such thing, and that they have Buonaparte.-Strange," he adds, " as never laboured to prove any thing this may appear to Englishmen," this like the accomplishment of their proprevalent. opinion is not only among mised restoration; but the compiler the illiterate and enthusiastic Jews, of the Compendious History, as he but the literati" have encouraged before confounded M. Crozet with it in their writings. Here follows the Jewish literati, is now confounda misapplied passage from the "New ing the Jews with the author of the Sanhedrin," which runs thus: "They, the Jews, have even gone so far as to apply the meaning of the second Psalm of David (Quare fremuerunt Gentes) to this extraordinary man: but as a proof of the inaccuracy of the transcriber, there are only a few loose or figurative phrases in the Hebrew addresses, odes, &c. hailing Napoleon the great prince their de liverer, &c.; and, as to the adaptation of the second Psalm, the work from whence the idea has been borrowed expressly mentions it as having been done by M. Crouzet, Proviteur du Prytannée, upon which the Redacteur of the Publiciste observed, "The intention of this translation is not difficult to discover;" and, if one could divest oneself of the idea of a Psalm, one might easily suppose it to be a panegyric upon the Emperor of France, or an imitation of the Hebrew. The stanza that follows is a pretty clear indication that this panegyric is that of a Frenchman, and not one of the Jewish literati :"Qu'els sont ces apprets formidable? Pourquoi d'un vain orgueil enfies, New Sanhedrin, &c. before mentioned. He has in reality so far laboured to correct the vulgar notions of the restoration of the Jews, as to occupy more than three chapters in his work, commencing at page 134 and concluding at page 177. Hence the Monthly Reviewers for May 1810 have justly inferred from the review of the New Sanhedrin, &c. &c. before referred to, that according to the author's sentiments, not the Jewish doctors, "that the prophecies do not import (as hitherto supposed) a literal return to Palestine, a literal reassembling of the twelve tribes, and a literal rebuilding of the temple; but that nothing more is meant than a moral regeneration of the descendants of Abraham; that the recal of the Jews is spiritual; that Jerusalem signifies a state, not a place; and that it is not necessary the new Jerusalem should be erected where the old one stood." These ideas of the completion of the prophetic scriptures, so far from being either French or Jewish, as the author of the Compendious History of the Jews represents them, that they are to be found expressly in the week on account of their sabbath, the writings of some of our best critics author justly ascribes to their frugaand most learned English divines, lity, industry, and perseverance in the particularly Dr. Lightfoot and Bishop means of obtaining wealth: If their Warburton. Dr. Lightfoot asserts, thirst for this, as he asserts, is un"that the calling of the Jews shall be in their places of residence among Christians, and that calling, he added, shall not cause them to change place, but condition." Bishop Warburton, in his observations upon the Jewish Naturalization Bill, thought that "the future restitution of the Jews to divine favour would consist, not in being recalled to their own original country, but in being naturalized and incorporated into the various communities of the faithful."-Vide Nicholson's Encyclopedia, article Jews. quenchable, the Jews probably will not allow the contrast between them and Englishmen in this respect, that is, "that the latter know where to stop." Besides, an apology may be made for the Jews, viz. that where he is not a denizen by law as well as by sufferance, he feels himself in a strange land, while common prudence and many unhappy precedents in the history of Christendom still call upon him to stand prepared for the worst. This Compendious History of the Israelites, upon the whole, contains a considerable portion of useful information, and is only likely to give offence from the accidental circumstance of representing a number of respectable English subjects in the same picture with French Jews!— The history of the English Jews might have been kept separate from theirs. They have never sanctioned their proceedings, nor held any correspondence with them, and this author might have made their loyalty a theme of panegyric equal with their industry and perseverance. Though not altogether accurate, the author's account of the civil condition of the English Jews is, in a great measure, creditable to both, though he might have spared himself the pains of informing the public in 1810 that they are content, that their lot had fallen in pleasant places." This acknowledgment was made for them by the author of the New Sanhedrin, upon the first appearance of that work in 1807. It is true, as he observes, that the presiding Rabbi (of the German Jews), "the Rev. Solo- We will venture to add, that had mon Hirschell, is highly distinguished the author of this work been acfor his talents, his social virtues, and quainted with the late transactions liberality of sentiment. From the between the English jews in this mehighest to the lowest, the Jews in tropolis and that class of the MethodEngland are industrious and attached ists stiling themselves evangelical, he to business. None of them are desti- might have added much to the importute of the means of subsistence, who tance of his sketch. The erection of are capable of walking the streets or the Jewish hospital in Mile End using their hands. No Jews are seen Road, the establishment of a Measking alms. For the indigent sick, thodistical Society to convert the hospitals (he might have said an hos- Jews, obtain their children, and raise pital is provided). Free schools are also money to induce Jewish men to marry provided. There are likewise nume- Christian women; and the contention rous respectable artisans among the which this new species of religious Jews of every description, but chiefly traffic and bribery has occasioned, in the jewellery and gold, and trinket would have amused the superficial departments. The term jewel was and interested the intelligent, particuno doubt derived from their name, as larly the best friends to good governthey were probably the first who in- ment and toleration: and those who troduced such ornaments into use, look to the preservation of the mild and are now the most considerable influence of the church of England, dealers in them, both in the raw and and compare it with the contrary efmanufactured state." Their happy fects produced by what is called pocondition as to competence, and even pular preaching, or rather preaching wealth, notwithstanding their holidays for popularity, in order to obtain paand the loss of two days in the tronage and a jesuitical ascendancy, first over subjects and then over sove- cerning the Jewish Nation," &c. parreigns. The effects of this new se- ticularly in his late work, entitled rious confederacy are beginning to be "The Wisdom of the Calvinistic Mepretty well appreciated. The Barris- thodists displayed," in a letter adter's Hints, &c. will not be lost and dressed to the Rev. Christopher we have the pleasure to find that they Wordsworth, D.D. dean and rector have been ably seconded by Mr. of Bocking, of which we intend an Thomas Witherby, author of "An account in our next. Attempt to remove Prejudices con ORIGINAL POETRY. H. W. ELEGY on the Death of an ingenious young Like him the monarch and the fetter'd Friend. Nor shall the maid with adulation swell, Nor vet with venal boasting fill the ear, But musing, silent, on his mem`ry dwell, And blot his imperfections with a tear The sweetest flow'r that decks the gay parterre, That teems, like Iris, with unnumber'd When reft of beauty by a hand severe, Not so shalt thou, my Lurustinus, sleep, Oft o'er thy urn shall meek-ey'd Pity weep, mard. Affection's sorrow's mantled round his heart, rust. Like tender blossoms in a forward spring, slave, The giddy youth, and hoary-headed sage, IRREGULAR ODE TO MORNING. Milton. HARK! his lusty voice I know, Chanticleer begins to crow; Slowly tell the hour of four, The linnet's notes at early dawn; Who lightly trips yon flow'ry lawn. And now while Phoebus deigns to throw Nor once repin'd at Heaven's all just de- While balmy dews the flow'rets drink, crees. By some romantic river's brink Amid where lambkins gamble. To breathe the placid air; cup, Shall lead forth her sons to the joys of the chace. Then will I seek some lonely spot, Where amaranthine flow'rets growWhere fast beside the peasant's cot There flows a gently rip'ling stream; To form a wreath, to deck the brow Of her whose love I most esteem. Then, come, sweet Aurora, let's hail the new day, And pluck little flow'rets, the blossoms of May: Together we'll roam, o'er the woodland and lawn, In search of Hygeia, the fair one I mourn. And should she prove kind when we've found her abode, I'll envy no blessing to mortals that's given; But, possessing sweet health, for the gift she bestow'd, I'll raise up an anthem, with thanks unto Heaven! Homerton, 1810. REUBEN VERITAS. CONTENTED CAPTIVITY, Bly rapt attention would engage Yet, sweet the captive minstrel sings, Conceives the cage a vernal grove; For she's the foe of dull-ey'd sorrow; And when her heavenly aid I borrow, She turns my care to extacy, And paints new pleasures for to-morrow. A. K. RUSTICUs. Virtue's fell foes! humanity's offence! Mockers of morals! enemies of sense! Degrading all God's loans with graceless leav'n, And spurn'd the offer'd panoply of Heav'n; Whose words, acts, looks, all libell'd, and all lied Without religion liv'd, or honour died! LETTER XIII. DEAR HANNAH, Now my muse shall here describe One striking difference in the courtly tribe, One strange appearance, which, to eyes like our's, [pow'rs. May seem a puzzling proof of wondrous Like thy soft damask and thy driven snow: Can locks replace, time's malice long had torn, Or grizzled reliques look far less forlorn; With living lustre, and rich tints like thine. weaves, Can match thy peerless mould or lily leaves! Nor can they smoothly swim along, like those, Thy undisturb'd habiliments inclose. Their auburn arms, when cloth'd with milk-white gloves, [loves; Or sickly, yellow-legged, half- famish'd fowl. Duns Scotus-like, in pickled, battered To anatomic eyes from top to toe, shewn, Without the trouble of dissecting arts, But can such irksome creature ever move One female bosom with the flames of love? With wrinkled skin, or flabby figure, nude, Or cordially request one tete-a-tete. With concave cheeks, lank limbs, and flatted crops; Who, like tin trumpets, tremulously But should their skilful shifts encounter shame, And keep awhile alive their hopes of fame, Yet soon each fiction fails, for nought supplies The fires departed from their haggard eyes- Their hesitating steps and trembling treads; Their legs, like walking-canes, though With other well known signatures-age, shrunk to half, Still cork-trees facile cortex finds a calf; And spindling columns, thus deceive the sight, Though not Corinthian then, but compo site Which all defy their artificial charms, And judgment doom them to eternal pains! |