Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-14 00:00:00

THE JEWS AND THE ENGLISH.

Some time ago we directed the attention of our
readers to nr. Edgar Bauer's book on the English
liberty. We now give a translation of one of its
chapters, treating of a question which has lately
caused considerable anxiety and discussion both in
the lower and upper House—the admission of the
Jews to Parliament. We need not remark that we do
this simply with a view of showing to the English
public the dialectical manner in which continental
writers are wont to speak on religious topics. Mr.

Bauer says :
Sir F. Thesiger is afraid that the Christian character of
the English legislature will be destroyed if Englishmen
allow the Jews to participate in the business of law neekin e
But Sir Frederick forgets to define the foundation upon
which his argument rests ; he forgets to say what English
Christianity is. Three hundred years ago, when throughout
the whole of Europe the development of nationalities hid
itself beneath religious forms, when the Powers took their
stand according to their creed, the English nation adopted
this system of religious policy in downright earnest. Eng-
land established her State Church, she acknowledged no-
body for an Englishman who did not confess the religion of
the English State. Since that time Englishmen rejoice in
the name of a nation of believers. We praise them as the
people that has the most completely carried out the prin-
ciples of the Reformation, and which has the most
intimately connected them with its social institutions.
Have they done that merely for religious purposes ?
No, they did it on behalf of their national independence.
With the help of the Reformation the English have freed
their State from the influence of a foreign Sovereign, and
disencumbered their soil from the proprietorship of
an outlandish Church. The foreign Pope they have trans-
formed into a native one; they have taken the property
from the Rotnish Church, in order to invest it with the
dignity of truly English property, in the name of the
Reformation. The English have conquered their civil
rights, which laid the foundation of their national great-
ness. James the Second was expelled because he offended
against the national feeling iu trampling under his feet
the English form of Christianity. In the oath by which
the Englishman in the reign of William the Third
abjured the Pretender, he swore upon the true faith of a
Christian not in order to render prominent his quality of
a Christian, but because at that time an English Christian
meant a true-born Englishman. Christianity, therefore,
meant Englishism ; the true belief of a Christian was only
anothF,r expression for the true belief of the Englishman in
himself. His quality of a Christian was congruent with
his quality of a free and independent Englishman. Re-
ligion in England, being a national affair, has always con-
formed itself to the development and growth of the nation.
As long as the Englishmen was occupied with the interior
struggles of the common wealth, as long as his interest
was confined within the shores of his island, so long
his Christianity could likewise be encompassed within
distinct formulas of creed. The more his horizon widened,
the more decidedly the bonds which encircled his Chris-
tianity within official formulas have been burst asunder.
The Englishman who conquered India, who stripped Spain,
Holland, France,, of their colonies, was at the s title time
compelled to strip his Church of its exclusivenes', to
emancipate the Catholic, to concede to the Dissenter all
political rights. Now, when he embraces the whole world,
he may without fear embrace the Jew too. Vtrily, the
brave Rothschild,who lent to the British natioc twenty-four
millions to support it in its endeavour to humanise the
Crescent ; the brave Rothschild, who at the same time paid
to the Czar capital and interest of the Russo-Dutch loan ;
the brave Rothschild, whose extensiveness of action equals
the extensiveness of truly English enterprise—he may be
called an English believer, in the moat national sense of,
the word. Even the difference of race is no hindrance in
England to the admission of Jews into parliament.
Originating from the mixture of several races—Celt,
Saxon, Jute, Norman, Fiamander—the Eaglish nation
up to this day invites intermixture. Being the
youngest nation of Europe, she has not yet abdicated
the pleasure of matrimony. And having so many fa hers.
she does not care for boasting of a spotless pedigree.
What you English call pride of race is something more
valuable than that, it is the most lively feeling of nation-
ality. Sense of race is exclusive. It proceeds out of the
blood which in some nations may have remained unmixed,
but for all that has become muddy and generates sterile
revolutionary fevers, and barren dreams of past greatness
For the Englishman the assertion of his nationality has a
practical meaning, a connection with present interests. It
means his free soil on which be moves as a master; it
means his flag which rules the waves ; it means his industry
that fills the markets of the world, his power of grasp that
communicates to every foot of ground on which he plants
the British standard the quality an i the privilege of
British soil ' • it means the palpable right of his fist, which
gives to the Englishman a preponderance over the mopish
sentimentality of other nations. This feeling of nationality
may be agressive, but it is not exclusive. Tread upon
gnglish ground, submit to English laws, work with
English comprehensiveness, and by and by thou wilt
be an Englishman. The sense of race, therefore, does not
object in England to the complete emancipation of the Jews;
the Jew who wishes to be an Englishman may be one. We
are convinced that before long he will be invited to take his
seat in the legislature of the country.—London Paper.

FUGITIVE SLAVE-LAW TitoußLEs.—ln Ohio, the Fugi-
tive Slave-Law continues to be the cause of trouble and
bloadsbed. The Cincinnati paper of the 24th says :—" On
Sunday last three slaves—two belonging to Mr. John
Sanford, and one to Mr. John Berry—made tracks from
Henry county, Kentucky. They were traced across the
Ohio river, and on Monday discovered hi,iden in the
brush and behind logs, about four miles back from the
river, on Kane's Branch. The negroes, being aimed,
made a desperate resistance, and one of them, belonging to
Berry, while in the act of shooting Mr. James Humphreys,
one of his pursuers, was shot and instantly killed. The
second e=caped, while the third was arrested and taken
back to Kentucky."
LEGAL News.—The Equity Committee of the Incor-
porated Law Society have held several meetings lately to
consider the present state of the Chancery offices, and the
measures necessary to remove existing and noto?ious
The committee have, we understand, this week agreed
upon a report which deals with the Judges' Chambers, the
Taxing Masters' Offices, and the Accountant-General's
Office, where the present defec's are patent, and the re-
medies obvious. This report 'has been adopted by the
Council, and transmitted to the Lord Chancellor, who
promises to give it attentive consideration. Lord
Brougham has extracted from the Lord Chancellor a simi-
lar pledge as regards the Report on Registration of Title
to Land.—Solicifors Journal.

AGITATION AGAINST TUB DIVORCE BILL BY THE LERDS/
CLERGY.—A petition to the Rome of Commons is bein
organised by nearly fifty of the Leeds clergy against this
bill. The opposition is on the following grounds :
"That it is within the knowledge of your petitioners that
a large number of the clergy of the Church of England
consider such divorces and such marriages (as are proposed
by the bill) to be in direct opposition to the divine law,
as laid down in the New Testament. That in the event
of the bill now before your honourable house becoming law
these clergymen might at any time be called upon to solem-
nize the marriage of divorced persons, and to pronounce a
blessing upon those whom they believe in their canschnces
to be committing a sin." Another petition, having the
same objects, is also in course-of signature by the laity of
Leeds, and has already been numerously signed.
WILLS. AND CHARITABLE BEQUESTS.—The will of Wit!-
-

Liam Arkwright, Esq., of HothariaTlia.ll,- Yorkshire, his
been proved in London under £120,000 ; the Hon. Eliza
Dawson Darner, of Eaton-square. £30,000 : Richard
Ramsden, Esq., of Highbury, £BO,OOO ; W. Oliver, of
Finsbury, timber merchant ; £3.5,000 ; W. G. Mott, of
Cheapside, silversmith, £16,000 ; Alexander Robertson,
E-q., of Balgowrie-lodge, Aberdeen, £35.000 ; Thomas
Legh, Esq., of Lyne-h sll, Stockport, £30,000, both
within the province of Canterbury. Also the Rev. Joseph
Sikes, LL.D., of Newark-upon-Trent, £B,OOO, within the
province, and has left small bequests to the Societies for
Promoting Christian Knowledge, Propagation of the
Gospel in Foreign Parts, and the relief of Clergymen,
their widows, and orphans ; Joseph Tibbetts, of Birming-
ham, spoon manufacturer, £5,000 ; and has bequeathed
£lOO to the General Hospital, Birmingham, and £lOO to
the General Dispensary.—Illustrated London News.
FOREIGN LEGIONS —A. return to the order of the House
of Commons, printed on Saturday morning, gives some
information about the foreign legions raised during the
late war, and what they have cost. There were three of
these legions, German, Swiss, and Italian, numbering
altogether 737 officers, 899 non-commissioned officers, and
14,923 rank and file. The expenses incurred on their
account, in recruiting, clothes, pay, subsistence, and cost
of conveyance, have amounted to £1,118,941. Four
regiments of the German Legion, 4,250 strong, and a
brigade of the Swiss, 2,000 strong, were sent to the seat
of war, but saw no active service. On the disbanding of
the legiim, a number of the Germans, about 2,350, were
offered and accepted locations at the Cape of Good Hope
as military settlers. The expense of arming and equipping
these on proceeding to the Cape was £24,670 ; their pay
for three years will be £81,982, and the Cost of rations for
a Jur is £21,493.