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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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the former Act , and a meeting was directed to be hrfd in the Town-Hall of Bedford , for the election of trustees by the ballot , notice being given , however , in the parish churches , that such election was to be held . The
Act then prescribed the form of the oath to be taken by the trustees * with tfegard to which he should observe , that it certainly contemplated that Quakers might be elected trustees , if they chose , only by giving their affirmation instead of their oath * The
Act also prescribed , that if any * ' of the powers of this Act should be found to be inconvenient , that . then , if any doubts should arise on its nature and importance , such doubts should ,
by a petition , be referred to the person or persons holding the Great Seal , which Court had full power to hear the same in a summary way , and the orders made by the person holding the Great Seal were to be final . " It
was further ordained , that , in the event of the trustees having misdemeaned themselves , then the Attorney-General might , either on his own account , or at the instance of others , complain that the funds of the Charity were misapplied . Surely , when the Act of Parliament specified the individuals to be rewarded , this was
to be borne in mind . The school was the place , and also the manner was pointed out where education was to be taught , in which the children were to be instructed . The Act further prescribed , that all the children born in the town of Bedford should
be taught in such manner as the master , with the approbation of the trustees , should think proper . The ninth resolution ordained , that the
Warden and Fellows of New College should appoint Visitors , &c . and that at least three scholars should enjoy the privilege of having £ 40 . a-year each , as exhibitioners at either of the two Universities . All the other funds
being thus applied , the remainder , viz . £ 80 O . yearly , to poor maids , which sum was to be given them in *? qual shares , to be drawn by lot ; a residue to be given to poor housekeepers , and the rest to female servants , who had for five years lived in the town of Bedford . Such were in general the provisions of both Acts of Parliament ; and , after
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looking into all the affidavits , it ap * peared to him , that , till lately , that is , within the last thirty years , no resistance had been made to Jewish applicants . He had now before him , however , the affidavit of Isaac Lyon Goldsmidt , a Jew , who declared that he was an elder in the Jewish
Synagogue of DukeVplace , and that in December he wrote to the mayor on the subject , stating that he understood some difficulty had arisen on the subject , but that the Jewish nation had already , to a limited extent , erijoyed the benefits of the Charity . The letter also stated , that the writer had
recently been told , that Jewish applicants were refused , but that he doubted whether such information was accurate , the Act of Parliament relative to the Charity having been acted upon for fourteen years . The letter further said , that it hoped the time was now come , when man would act
with charitable views and friendship to jnau , whether the applicant worshiped his Creator in the church , thfe chapel or the synagogue . By the bye , on this point he might say , that much had been stated at the bar relative to
the Act of Toleration . Much as he respected that Act , he must say , ifc was not at all concerned here ; but in reference to what was said in the letter of Mr . Goldsmidt , he must say , as a judge in that high Court , that when a judge in that Court was told that there was not and should riot be in
the administration of public justice , any difference between him who worshiped in the church and chapel , and him who offered up his prayers in the synagogue , such a judge ought always to remember , that , by the blessed
providence of Almighty God , tlie Christian religion was happily a part of the law of the land , and as it was such part of the law , he must apply to it such just construction as the Acts of Parliament prescribed . An answer was sent to the letter of Mr .
Goldsmidt , b \ the mayor , in which it was declared that the trustees had indeed admitted the child of Michael Joseph to a participation of the benefits of the Charity , but that finding that the nqmber of Jews were on the increase , they ( the trustees of the Charity ) doubted whether such persons as Jews could be admitted , and on this
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566 Intelligence . —Bedford Charity .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1819, page 580, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1776/page/56/
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