The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-18 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMEN .

HOUSE OF COMMONS, Arum 17.
Mr. ROBERT GRANT, in continuation, said—
zens of the state in which they were casually placed ?
notwithstanding their anticipated return to India? It
was answered that " every Jew was regarded as a citizen
of the state in which he lived, that he must obey the
laws of the country, and conform hirn.e f in all
transactions and affairs to the civil laws of the land ;
but that if called on to serve in the army, he was
exempted from having a religious custom which was
incompatible with the military profession.—( Hear.)
He asked what had been the practice of that people to
which the objection was made He would only state facts
in general terms, though the Committee might perceive
that he could go into a very long statement. Even in
the time of their captivity, when they were cast among
the Persian and Babylonian nations, the same objection
of unsocial nature was made to them, and their
unsocial feelings and doctrines were urged upon
the sovereigns by whom they were protected. An address
was handed to the anotisrch of Persia which concluded
with these words—" It it please the King let it be:written
that they (the Jews) be all destroyed "—(hear)—that
monarch, who was the first Artaxerxes, agreed in the
premises of the address, hut differed from the conclusion,
and he destroyed—not those who objected to the Jews, but
the objector—(H-ar, hear, and laughter)—and thus he
put an end to toe argurnent.—( Hear, hear.) He sh auld
however, be sorry that such would be the fate of the
present objectors --(Hear and laughter.) He could
adduce many instances to show that notwithstanding
the affection they always manifested for the soil
the country, and the institutions of their forefathers in
Palestine they always acted the part of good
ci-
tizens in those countries in which they sought protection.
At last th. dispersion took place which reduced them to
the state in which they bad been fur nearly 1800 years
There was one fact that was curious, as it found aparallel
about our 'awn time. The Emperor Julian, called some-
what aptly Julian the Ap state, was particularly
anxious to conciliate the Jews, and he premixed them
a restoration of their own country. He had the art, how-
! ever, of endeavouring to bend them to his own political
purposes.—( Hear, hear.) Has great and only r ival was
the Persian Monarch, anal his great enterprise in which he
wished to get the aid of the Jews was to attack the Persian
monarchy. He used all his arts to conciliate the Jews of
Mesopotamia. But they refused to listen to Julian's
wishes—they kept in arms against him—they impeded
his progress—they gave him the first check in his victo-
rious career, which led to his flush discomfiture, and
overthrow of all his hopes. There was a similar example
in modern times. He did not say that the policy of Na-
poleon was not mingl, t: with better feelings ; but in the
advantages he gave the Jews he had undoubtedly a politi-
cal object; though he found that the Jews would not be-
tray their duties as citizens. In all the Statss where the
Jews had been well treated they had always loved the
Mocarch who protected them, and had always performed
the duties of good citizens. Passing by all the ancient
part of their history, subsequent to the dispersion, though
he might borrow illustrations of the same truth from
that, he would come to what was called the golden age of
the Jewish dispersion and captivity—be meant that period
before any persecution was adopted, and when they were
employed by all the great Sovereigns of Europe. How
did they behave ? It was uniformly found that they were
faithful to their masters, and not less to the country in
which they lived. It was hardly necessary that he should
remind the Committee of Charlemagne, who, on a great
occasion, when he sent an Ambassador to the Caliph,
Haroun Alraschid, employed as his Ambassador a
Jewish subject. The same was the case with the ce'e-
Mated Pope Gregory the Great, who employed them
in offices of trust and honour, and encouraged them
to cultivate the land. But perhaps the most remark-
able scene of their glory was Spain, where they not
only were admitted to high places, but were the chief
agriculturists of the country, and under the Moorish
sovereigns, obtained a great name and power in the laud.
manyUnd ocertehuepaCthiorni:t;an sovereigns, though excluded from
eminent men of thethe country. After were
that
periodamongst
the crusade against the Jews, in which he was sorry to
say France and England led the way. That was the iron
age of the Jews, as Mr. Millman said ; the iron age, not
from their crimes but from their sufferings. The iron of
oppression then entered deeply into their souls, and they
began the