The National Register.
London, England, 1817-06-02 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

services will be gratefully felt by all fitture historians;
as their numbers in Poland arose from the same religi-
ous zeal which banished the reihrmation, the .lews were
allowed un entire liberty of cons,ience, and which aliind-
ed more to their learned men there than in any other
place in Europe. Ilumburgh has been styled the
lesser Jerusalem from their numbers and commerce.

Passing thence into I lungary, we are treated with a
short recapitulation of the grand Jewish Council in
(i5O, On the plain of Ageda, about leagues from
Buda, for a complete investigation whether, after 16
centuries, "the Messiah was already come"—and the
majority held that his delay arose from their sins and
impenitence. They next proceeded to enquire into the
pretensions of Jesus of Nazareth. They admitted or
some Roman Catholic priests to explain the grounds o_
their fitith ; who, not content to prove him to be the
Messiah, began to extol the worship, ceremonies, and
authority of their church, in which they were inter-
rupted by the agitation of the offended Council, who
cast dust upon their heads, crying out, Blasphemy
tke. They were persuaded not to consult any Protestant
Divines, and then the meeting was dissolved.
The first conscientious convert recorded throughout
these annals of ages, is one Mordecai Ben Moses, of
Germany, who, utter having written against the New
Testament, restudied it, renounced his errors, and in
1701 was baptised. If in these times other Jews could
be induced to search as he did, they would most proba-
bly attain the same result. Three similiar instances
are subjoined, alter their study of the 58d, of Isaiah.
In the afiltirs of the Jews at Rome, we find their
fate fir better than in other countries; although some
of the Popes have been very rigid masters over them,
yet, in general, they seem to have met with more lenity
from that church than front any other potentate.—ln
1.595, Avignon was added to the cities of refuge, and
they have ever since been settled there with entire li-
berty to exercise their religion. David Bomberg, in
1511, is mentioned with great respect as the first printer
of Hebrew bibles—and cardinal Huge's division of the
Scriptures into chapters, in 1240 ; their division into
verses by Mordecai Nathan, in 1445. Towards the close
of the sixteenth century, there were 800 of this nation
at Padua, who had three synagogues. They had a
very handsome ghetto or quarter assipted them, with
three gates, which were shut every night ; the inscrip-
tion over one of them begins with these words—
" That the people, heirs to the kingdom of Heaven,
may have no communication with those who are disin-
herited." _ _

1 he terrors of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal,
had the effect of converting, in appearance, many Jews
—but when at length they could nut endure the mask,
they tied to England and other countries: some, how-
ever, remained to avail themselves of the dissimulation
said to be known by the Talmud, and actually in this
disguise, attained some of the departments of the Catho-
lic priesthood, and many Franciscans, Dominicans, and
Jesuits, went continually to the synagogue at Amster-
dam, to confess and esoiate their dissimulation, and
many inquisitors and bishops were of the Hebrew ori-
gin. Mod. Univer. Hist. 13, 357. Gisborne's Christian
Religion, 210—So lately as 22d July, 1800, the King
of Spain ordered his ministers not to deliver any pass-
ports to Jews to enter his dominions.—The Spanish
and Portuguese Jews pretend to derive their origin
from the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who were
sent into Spain at the Babylonish Captivity, and they are
so proud of this origin, that they have separate syna-
gogues, and deny any communion with the German
Jews. A Jew in Berlin married the daughter of a
Portuguese Jew physieian.--her parents went into
mounting, us for her death. Gregoire.
The author very judiciously notices the chief of the
learned men who have flourished in each country
through which she tracts the Jewish history, and
which fills up a chasm otherwise very wide in their an-
nals. Among those who acquired great influence in
Holland, we are treated with an interesting memoir of
Menasses Ben Israel, who, among his many other
writings, published " The Hope of Israel," in which it
is only said that he attempted to prove that the Ameri-
can natives are the descendants of the Ten Tribes—pro-
bably Dr. Boudinot was led to his elaborate research on
the same subject by this work. Joseph Athites, a Spa-
niard by birth, published, in i 661, an elegant Hebrew
bible, in which, fin the first time, the verses were num-
bered, and fiar which lie received front the States a
mold chain and medallion. We are next furnished with
an ample abstract of the life of the vacillating Acosta,
whose doubts and indecision led him to infidelity, and
in 161.7 finished in suicide !—Spinoza is shortly men-
tioned, who was a Jew by birth, a Christian through
policy, and an Atheist by principle—which he reduced
to a system. Notwithstanding these writers, the Jews
in Holland arc stated to be the moat enlightened part of
the community.
We bear willing testimony to the author's accuracy
in describing the conduct of Oliver Cromwell to the
.Jews, anti to his rejection of their vain flattery its offer-
ing him the title of Messiah, as also to the subsequent
bill for the repeal of the act of Queen Anne, authoris-
inm their re-establis7iment in England; but from that
period, there is too rapid a step to their present condi,-

1 ' :

thin, to the death of Messrs. Goldsoti.l, t t:i
literary merit of J. Van Oven, Esq.-on ail of *lb..:
the reader wishes for more ample detail. From this
point the author takes a succinct view of the Jews in
all the states of Elirope, and last of all their history in
America—and concludes her very able compilation by
their general character, moral and literary—their pre-
sent numbers—and some very appropriate and pious re-
tleetion.—adopting die fiireible simile of St. Paul,
limn. 11, 2.5. The natural branches of the Olive
Tree, though now broken off by unbelief; will be grafted
in again, and participate with the Gentiles in the
blessings resulting from faith in the Messiah."—We
take leave of our author with regret, we have cherished
her work as Cowis2r eheriihee llomerand we sin-
cerely hope, that an English edition of it, will place
it in the first libraries of our country.