The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-29

mlmfcal 70 the holy race; ana Oited In PROOF OF
this strong assertion the case of Pharaoh,
Nebuohadnegzsr, Antioohus, Epiphauius, and
POmpey. The paper went on TO say that no
country which favored that race had ever
failed to flourish, though IL retrained from
citing the examples Of his second proposition.
Lastly, II rrayed the Lord Protector to repeal
the laws passed under the Kings against the
Jews, and to permit synagogue to be built
In London. FrFrH.
The author of this petition was Manssseh
ben Israel, Jew OF Portuguese descent, then
living in Amsterdam-a man of fine culture
and unquestionable piety. English ambasss-
dors had been received in the Dutch capital,
not only by the Government, but by the
churches. Not the least eager to hail the
new Commonwealth were the Hebrew mer-
chants, and o grand reception was 40
corded to her ministers in the synagogues.
Manasseh took advantage of this visit to urge
upon Cromwell the recall of his people from
their long exile
Cromwell favored the petition. The Lord
Chief Justice and the Lord Chief Baron re-
ported against maintaining the old statute of
exclusion. The Lord Mayor and Sheriff de-
clared that the City was willing to receive the
Jews as brethren. But the old enemies Of the
Jews were still strong. The clergy, even the
Puritan clergy, could not see their way to
such liberal concessions as the lawyers and
citizens were prepared to make. To the
divines, Jew was man of a stiffneoked
race, who had rejected the true Messiah
and put the Son OF God to shameful
death. Owen, Cradock, and their brethren
turned over the leaves Of prophecy. Manasseh
had very skilfully fallen in with Puritan ways
of thought; limiting that the Judgment was
ut hand, and the day of final reconciliation
nigh. Cromwell, struck by this suggestion,
urged the divines to adopt q healing policy;
but the preachers held to the doctrine that the
Jews were God-sbsndoned people, unfit for
association with Christian men. Cromwel's
eloquence was highly praised; and the sub
jeot being one which he knew, he probably
spoke beyond his usual style but neither
Glynn's law nor Cromwell's eloquence availed
| in presence of these hot divines. The clergy
stood out; and even after Hugh Peters and two
other advocates of Manasseh's scheme were
added to the conference, the clergy were OBJ
stinate and powerful enough to defeat Crom-
Wells plan. t' -.I .I ,.. .... ...
But the Lord Protector was q law unto him
self. II regular act could not be obtained
empowering the Jews to settle in England
once again, not as "King's men," but as citi-
zens and equals, men with legal rights,
he could and would permit them to come
in as "Protector's men," In that quality
a few of them came back from Amster-
dam and Leyden. Under Cromwell, they
had no persecution to fear and no exac-
tions to resist. They came back on suffer-
ance only; but they soon established char
acter in London which made them many
friends. In a few years, opinion underwent q
change; the clergy lost their power; the old
abominable laws were all repealed and the
Jew, who had ventured to come home as a
Protectors man." became a peaceable and
prosperous citizen of the realm.
Among the Jews themselves, Cromwell is
regarded as the man to whom, under God,
they are chiefly indebted for their happy re-
turn to q country which had cast them out
for 400 years. But Cromwell might never
have called that conference in the Long Gal
lery of Whitehall had he not been urged by
Manasseh ben Israel, the pious and able Por-
tuguase Jew; copy of whose rather scarce
| petition to his Highness the Lord Pre-
tector has been reprinted at Melbourne in
| Australa-a city which is more populous
than Jerusalem, and which is built on a con-
tinent of which Manasseh never heard the