The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-04 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

A FEW WORDS RESPECTING THE EN-

FRANCHISEMENT of the JEWS.
ADDRESSED TO THE NEW PARLIAMENT.

BY F. H. GOLDSINTID. BENTLEY.

It will, no doubt, be in the recollection of
our readers, that in the year 1830 a Bill was
introduced in the House of Commons, having
for its object the removal of the political and
social disabilities of the Jews in this country.
This Bill failed ; but it may reasonably be doubted
whether the measure, if brought forward again,
in the Reformed Parliament, would meet with a
similar disastrous result. The author of the
pamphlet before us sets forth with great temper
and modesty the claims of his Hebrew brethren,
and shows that, although proscribed in England,
they are free in every other country wherein
there is a shadow of general freedom. England
partakes in the honour of oppressing the people
of Israel with the paternal Governments of
Russia, Prussia, Turkey, Spain, and Portugal !
Surely this stain ought to be obliterated from
our national character; and it is to be hoped that
the time is at hand when our common justice in
this particular may be equal to that manifested
by France, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, the
United States of America, &c. One of th e
most famous and most ancient people of the
earth should no longer be persecuted by laws
which, as much as any other kind of despotism,
disgraced the miserable, sanguinary, and ignorant
dark ages.
Mr. F. H. Goldsmid has, we believe, already
enjoyed what we hope is but a foretaste of other
concessions. He has lately been called to the
English bar, and is the first Jew on whom that
distinction has been conferred.

MISERRIMUS.-LONDON, 1833.

On a grave-stone in Worcester Cathedral, is this
emphatic inscription, " Miserritnus," with neither
name nor date, comment nor text. This striking
inscription the author of the little volume before us
has taken for his text. It is a fine subject for specu-
lation, and one in the hands of a master calculated
to rouse all our sympathies. Who was " Miser-
rimus ?" When did he live—when did he die—what
was t he withering, heart-breaking sorrow that induced
him to record above his grave so awful an acknowledg-
ment of suffering? Opinions will of course vary on this
subject. The young and the romantic will take it
for granted that he died of unrequited "first love ;"
the more worldly, that he was foiled in some darling
object of civil or military ambition. For our own
part, after considering the subject in all its bearings.
we have come to the conclusion that he was a suitor
in Chancery, and died of an interminable lawyer's
bill! For what other calamity could have impressed
him so forcibly with a conviction of the nothing-
ness—the more than nothingness—the positive,
immitigable wretchedness of existence ? Had he
been a lover, his heart might have been seamed
and scarred for a time ; but the reign
of sentiment having drawn to a close,
common sense would have made all smooth and
sound again. Had he been a disappointed politician,
his annoyances might have been mitigated by a
plunge into patriotism, or a position on the Opposi-
tion Bench. But the evils of Chancery were
without hope or remedy. Having once got into
that legal Tophet, the odds were that he would never
get out again. " Miserrimus " knew and felt this;
and his load of care having been increased beyond all
endurance by the presentation, one morning, of an
interminable attorney's bill, he felt with Cain that
his " punishment was greater than be could bear,"
so paid the attorney's debt and the debt of nature
at one and the same time, and summed up the sor-
rows of a Chancery suitor, in the one apt, expressive
phrase " Miserrimus."

The author of the present volume holds a different
opinion on the subject of the miserable" Unknown."
He makes him the victim of his own tiftndish tem-
perament. He endows him with wealth—talent—
rank—youth—and beauty—but bids them all
turn to poison, and minister as so many curses
to him. " Miserrimus"—according to our author,
who is evidently no veteran in years or judgment—
started in life with a large fortune and a most in-
fernal temper. So gratuitously fiendish was he in
this respect, that with scarcely a why or a where-
fore, he stuck a school-fellow in the back with a
penknife, and being of course expelled, went home
to his father's estates in the North, where a few
years afterwards he fell in love with the sister of
the lad whom he had thus aggrieved. She reci-
procates his feelings, but as the " course of
true love never did run smooth," it so hap-
pens that just when " Miserrimus" is about to
make an offer and discuss the nice question of set-
tlements and so forth, the brother, who has in the
interim grown up to manhood, returns home, learns
from his sister who it is she is in love with, and of
course forbids her marriage. " Miserrimus" fires'
up at this, and a most bloody duel is the conse-
quence, in which he shoots his antagonist. Un-
happily, just as he is quitting the field, the
sister of his victim comes by; and, after much ani-
mated altercation, refuses to have any thing more to
do with him. Frantic at such a disappointment, " Mi-
serrimus" flies off to Smyrna, where he embarks in
trade, is successful, and at the expiration of three years
returns to England, and takes up his quarters in the
neighbourhood of his old flame. She, however,
true to her vow, still refuses to see or hear from
him ; but being bowed down by family embar-
rassments, and unable to forget, even though
she affects to detest " Miserrimus," she hastens
to put an end to her existence, after the
most approved fashion, in a horse-pond. Just
at this crisis "Miserrimus" comes by, rescues the
drowning girl, bears her to his own house, after
reading a sort of posthumous confession of her love,
makes a deliberate offer (which is accepted), and
then as deliberately sets to with the work of insult
and torture. First, he rates her soundly for her
coldness and insincerity ; and then, as she gains
strength, and is enabled to endure a little more, the
brute fixes the day of marriage, previously telling her,
however, with singular honesty of purpose, that he
intends to be the tyrant rather than the husband.
A woman of any spirit would at once have declared
off on hearing this, but the poor girl, whose feeling.
have been wholly crushed out, makes no objection,
but is led like a lamb to the slaughter. 'nit.
ceremony then takes place, but by torch-light ; the
church is hung with black, two coffins are placed ot,
the altar, and all parties robed in the deepes,
mourning. We should not omit to mention the plea-
sant contrivance of t he mourning-coaches, which--for
" Miserrimus" has a taste for originality--are substi-
tuted for carriages in conveying the nuptial party to
church. Well, the ceremony at an end, the bride, bride-
groom,and bridesmaid walk home together,and on then
way, meet with an inscription which has been erect-