JEWISH DISABILITIES.

TO THE EDITOR Of THE SPEOTATOR.

Worcestershire. Si h Math 1833.

St it—I have read, with more sorrow than surprise, an extraet in your Specta- tor of last week, from the speech of Mr. Coats/err on the question of " Jewish Disabilities." It is matter of notoriety, and perhaps only a natural conse- quence of the peculiar circumetanees in which be has been placed, that talents of a very high order, are, in Mr. CORBETT, clouded occasionally by prejudices equally strong. Yet the public were scarcely prepared for so unqualified a dis- play of intolerance, as that in which the honourable member for Oldham in- dulged on the occasion alluded to. Mr. CORBETT, in reply to the speech of Mr. M. D. Hiss, carped at the phrase " lower orders," made use of by that gentleman' and asked him—" Who were the lower orders?" " Were they not all made by the same head ?" Let me retort the question of Mr. Cosearr ; let one ask him, Is not a Jew also a man ?—fashioned in the same form as him- self ?—endowed like him with reason ?—t'estined to move on the same sphere, and alike accountable to his Creator, not for the religion he may have professed, or the name he may have horn, but for the deed,/ which lie has done. Is an adherence to the faith of one's fathers, which Mr. Conerrr appears to consider as a virtue in himself, to become a handle for reproach only in the case of a Jew? And to whom is Mr. CORBETT indebted for the transmission of the tenets of that religion, upon the strength of la, belief inn which he arrogates to himself such a decided superiority over a class of his futile:v.111cm if not to the Jews? Is the name of Jesus Christ " in the mouth of those who dishelieve in intl deny his Divinity, more profaned than when it is made the watchword of op- pression and intolerance in the bands of his avowed disciple? Let us suppose that Mr. COBERTT, with the abilities and feelings he now possesses, had chanced to be born of Jewish parents : would he then have considered that circumstance a good and sufficient reason for his leading a life of oliscurity—for bis being covered with obloquy—for his utter exclusion, by law, from every situation of humour and profit which Inc might otherwise 'worthily have aspired to Pal? Are talents and virtue less estimable—would they be less likely, if allowed a: field for exer- tion, to be publicly beneficial, proceeding front the breast of a Jew, than from that of a Christian?

' If the Jews be indeed, as Mr. CORBETT asserts, " blasphemers by profession.," has he been specially delegated to take cognizance of their lieresyll can he pre- sume to pronounce thet Ins creed is the only one that leads to Heaven? is he prepared to defend the position " Hors de l'eglise, point de salut?" Mr. COR- BETT reproaches the Jews with their propensity and ability to amass money; and indeed they are generally considered so unscrupulous as to the means whereby they accomplish this end, that their very name has become a proverb—a by- word for trickery VIII fraud. The stigma may now be a merited one: but let us inquire whether the Jews alone deserve to be held responsible for the odium of it : we will take a parallel ease from the transactions of our own day. Have not the Reformers of England, consisting for the most part, until recently, of the middle and labouring classes—the pillaged and half-ruined " plebeians "- have they not in numetous instances been styled the " rabble "—reproached and derided for their poverty, by the identical men, or set of men, whose acts said -laws have made them poor ; to support and pension whom, and whose caste, they have been taxed and tithed into that state of pauperism which constitutes at once their crime and their disgrace? Even thus has it fared with the unhappy Jews; were they not, for ages, driven from country to country like dogs—for- bidden to engage in traffic, or to gain their bread by honest industry—demed the protection of the laws—harassed, hunted, trampled upon, reviled, and spit upon ? Was it likely, FO situated, that they should hesitate to revenge themselves on their

o ppressors by the only means in their power—by the practice of extol don and ov i

ary? If, n spite of obstacles so apparently insuperable, the Jews succeeded, in some instances, in accumulating wealth—if they were suspected even of pos- ' messing riches—were they not sulttect to fines, imprisonment, and every species of torture, in order to wrest from them those riches, real or imaginary.? Who has not heard of the inhuman treatment which the " Jew of Bristol" received at the command of a King of England, and a Christian "by profession?" The character which the Jews bear at the present day, has been forced upon them . by centuries of tyranny ; during which it was essential not only to their worldly prosperity, but to the actual preservation of their existence, that they should deny their wealth,—that they should employ that craft and cunning in its ac- quirenwnt which is now turned against them as a reproach. It is Christian op- pression which has made the word Jr w, alinost synonymous with that of KNAVE. The situation of the Jews, not only in England, hut in every country professing Christianity, was for a long time precisely that of DAMOCLES at the banquet ; over whose head hung an unsheathed sword, suspended by a single hair ! Even when persecution against them slackened, they were liable, at any moment, to be stripped of all their possessions, and driven, like sheep, from their places of refuge, according to the humour or the necessities of the reigning monarch. It never entered into any Christian head, that a Jew should be treated like a man. Mr. CORBETT complains that the Jews have recently. acquired the right of pos- sessing freehold property in England. lie should in Justice direct his complaints against those Englishmen who have brought our laws relative to money into a state so unsound and unnatural, that Jews, both Hebrew and Christian, have , been enabled to acquire immense wealth, in an incredibly short space of time, and in a manner wholly unprecedented. It is not in human nature, Jewish or Christian, to neglect any means, open by the laws of the land, of acquiring in- dtpendence. I am no partisan of the Jews, as such; I am unacquainted with any member of the Jewish persuasion.; but I hold it to be equally opposed to reason, justice, and true religion, that the creed which a man may profess, and which he receives as a sort of heirloom at his birth, should oF itself suffice to exclude him from a participation in those advantages which he would else be qualified to share. I am fully aware of the unpopularity of the Jewish faith; and I know that the line of argument adopted by Mr. COBBETT was the best

calculated to succeed, by appealing to the ignorance and the prejudices of those of a different persuasion. The Jews are regarded as a sort of moral monsters,

on account of an event which took place, near two thousand years since, after a manner widish is now and has longbeen very properly exploded: It is not, per- haps, generally known to the people of England, that death by crucifition, was not, in the case alluded to by Mr. COBBETT, an isolated, or a pointed instance of cruelty, but the general mode of execution, which the Jewish law assigned to criminals; and answering, at that time, in Judea, the same end as the perhaps

more humane method of inflicting death by the axe, the rope, or the bullet, in

later times. I have heard some persons remark, " that the Jews have DO right in England, and that they ought to be compelled to return to their own Country."

This is much upon a par with the humanity which dismisses the petition of a starving Irish peasant, by desiring him to repair to his own parish for relief ! The Jews were forcibly ejected from their own country, ages ago, by the law of the strongest: compelled to migrate, in search of subsistence, to foreign dimes, they have lost their rank as a people, and have now neither home nor country! If, however, the Jews are looked upon as a nuisance here, let a coun- try he allotted to them, where they may go and exercise their religions rites un-

molested ; nor he subject to the derision or scorn of a body so infinitely their superiors in the virtues of charity and toleration, as the " professors " of Chris- tianity ! Mr. COBBETT alluded to the " noise " which be savs is made by the

Jews in the performance of their devotions. It nuist he loud indeed, if it ex- ceed, in this respect, that sonorous nasal symphony which may be heard to proceed from the conventicles of those of our own sectarians yclept " Metho- dists." It is trite to remark, that persecution, whithersoever directed, invari- ably defeats its own intention ; and never was this axiom more forcibly exempli- fied than it has been in the history of the Jews. Moreover, intolerance in re- ligious matters, though it may, for the moment, pander to the gratification of national or individual prejudices, never fails, in the unimpassioned decision of succeeding generations, to meet with its appropriate reward. Of all the wisa

and beneficent acts that distinguished, in ancient times, the reign of the great CYRUS in the East, the one for which history ham awarded him the greenest laurel

in his wreath of fame is, the release of the Jews from an odious and cruel cap- tivity. It was a prostration of power at the shrine of justice ! To select a core- trary example—of all the weak and vicious acts which sullied the government of Loots the Fourteenth of France, that which has left the darkest and most in- delible stain on his memory is, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and subse- quent persecution of the Huguenots. And ill does it become the avowed friend of

the People— the able and strenuous advocate of the liberties of Englishmen—the patriot who, liming a long life, has carried on a steady and glorious warfare against oppression and misrule ; ill does it become such a man now, when his labours bid fair to be crowned with success—when his foot toucles, as it were, the treshold of the temple—to snund the harsh trumpet of intolerance in the ears of the Jews! If Mr. CORBETT had Amid, " Charity begins at home : let us

.first of all legislate for our own country; let its see her sons once more pros- perous and happy : we may then, with more propriety than now we can, turn our tittention to the consideration of the wants and wishes of those who, al- though they are aliens, have an undoubted right to be protected by salutary and

equitable laws." If something to this effect had proceeded from Mr. CORBETT, W011111 it Dot —I appeal to every impartial and dispassionate person—have been

in better taste, and more correct keeping with that love and advocacy of liberty for which Mr. ColusErr aspires to Inc and is distinguished ; and more strictly in accordance with that freedom of thought and feeling which inn his own case he an highly prizes, and so tenaciously defends? I am, Sir, yours respectfully,

A FARMER'S DAUGHTER.

[The pres:ure of matter, while the Parliament was sitting, delayed the insertion of this letter, which, as appears by its date, has been lying by us for. some tinie. Our clever and amiable correspondent would have saved herself the trouble of attempting seriously to convert Mr. COBBETT to a more liberal mode of thinking on the subject of Jewish emancipation, if she had held the same opinion as ourselves with respect to the sincerity of his opposition to it. We bIlieve that Mr. Commix is only playing off apiece of waggery.—En.)