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to all persons in that situation ? From the way the gentlemen have argued this case , one may suspect that they would have no objection to follow up their reasoning *; and certainly it appears to me , that the exclusion , if to be made at all . must extend
to all sects , to all but members of the established church . How can a Quaker , for instance , have the benefit of the Charity upon their principles ? My Lord , the gentlemen have dwelt upon the old legal disabilities of the Jews , and have built their argument for exclusion
from civil rights upou the opinions and practices of barbarous times , which are to be dignified with the authority of law . The Jews were certainly expelled this country by a violent act of arbitrary power , totally repugnant to every principle of justice , and the whole transaction deserves only to be
buried in silence and oblivion , ns a disgrace to the country . Libelled and traduced by the calumnies and inventions of bigoted monks , and loaded with imputations of fancied crimes , they were given up as it were to the fury of a deluded populace , their lives and properties were invaded by
the hand of rapacious and arbitrary power ; but is such a transaction to be held up as the law of the country ? Are the Jews to labour under disabilities long ago discarded from the minds of every one , and scouted in every court of justice ? Under the
auspices of Oliver Cromwell , fortunately a body of industrious and useful citizens was restored to the country , and the Jews have ever since been protected in the exercise of their religion , and in practice , at least , continued in the full enjoyment of civil rights .
If the argument , that the Jews can have no benefit from institutions created during their persecution , be good , how can a Jew have the benefit of the Poor Laws ? The Statute of Elizabeth , by the same reasoning , must be held never to have contemplated Jews . In general , to be sure , they have not the benefit of the Poor Laws , for
they , much to their credit , generally support their own poor ; but while Jews are actually obliged to fill the office of churchwarden and overseer , ( and perhaps it will astonish the gentlemen to hear that they do fill such offices , ) while they are obliged to bear all the burdens , who is to say that they arc to be deprived of the benefit of these institutions of the country ?
I contend , that when the Jews were restored to the privileges of subjects under Oliver Cromwell , they became entitled to the benefit of all institutions except such a » are necessarily confined to the established religion . If , however , your Lordship is only to look at the civil condition of the Jews-in
its lowest state , and to say that as there is r » legislative alteration , the prejudices and
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bigotry of barbarous and unenlightened times are to form the present rule of decision , then they must be a proscribed people they must continue to be subject to all the
old legal disabilities ; the barbarous notions of the dark ages must be maintained ; and the Jews must remain , as Mr . Shad well observes , a perpetual miracle , the ^ perpetual subjects of Christian persecution .
With regard to the statue , Mr . Shad well in particular has made many observations , through all of which I cannot and do not think it necessary to follow him \ he has shewn now ( as he has before this done ) that he understands the Christian religion , but I cannot think it is quite clear , he understands the Jewish equally well . Upon his construction of the second
commandment , not only no Jew hut no Christian could be a trustee ; he will hardly contend it is not equally forbidden to one a 3 to the other to set up a graven image for worship : but who is required to fall down and worship » Sir William Harper ?—What is therein the Jewish faith which prevents the repair of his monument ?
With regard , too , to the TVst and Corporation Acts , I must think Mr . ShadwelPs argument equally inapplicable : lie quotes Sir William Blackstone on the subject , and bestows great praises , not undeserved in many respects , to be sure , though I cannot
but think he might have chosen a more fortunate instance of the qualities he commends than a passage in which he praises the Test and Corporation Acts . But this argument , if good for any thing * , excludes all Christian sects as well as Jews .
If Jews cannot be trustees , because they cannot be members of the corporation , will not this apply equally to all Dissenters ? With regard to the attendance on public worship , I think the phrase used was expressly intended to give the most
enlarged privilege ; no exclusive words are used . There is no mention of church , of anything * that can confine the benefit of the charity . The intent seems to be merely to require the sober , regular compliance with tl \ e religious duties and services , whatever they might be , of the claimant .
It did not , most likely , erer occur to the founder , that Jews might want the benefit of the Charity , and therefore it is wot to be wondered that the worship requhed should be confined to the Sunday ; but even with this , a Jew might literally comply . It is not true that the synagogue is not open on a Sunday , it is open every day , and it
would not be difficult for a Jew to perform that part of the duty if it was thought proper to require it . Surely it isT putting at any rate a very forced construction , to say that these words are to exclude Jews by requiring the performance of au act , which is not at all necessarily incompatible with their habits or worship .
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Intelligence . —Right of the Jews to English Charities , 593
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¥ OL . « I | . 4 O
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1818, page 593, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2480/page/57/
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