Again, does the sovereign, by giving the royal assent to a Bill for the removal of Jewish disabilities, violate the undertaking of the coronation oath, ‘to maintain the laws of God, and the true profession of the Gospel’? By the ‘laws of God’ we must, I presume, understand ‘the commandments of God’ to be meant. The phrase occurs continually in Scripture in that, and no other, sense. But how is the maintenance of these impaired by the admission to the legislature of the Jew, who acknowledges these commandments as religiously as does the Christian? Again, there is ‘the true profession of the Gospel’—that is, I conclude, the profession of the Gospel, untainted by heresy or falsehood. But the Jew would have no power of tainting this, though he were to become a member of Parliament. Parliament does not determine theological controversies, sit in judgment on heresies, does not admit candidates for orders, does not ordain or consecrate. If the Jew were to be allowed, through his election to the House of Commons, to meddle with any of these things, that would, no doubt, be a very different matter, which all loyal Churchmen would resist to the utmost. But notoriously the Jewish member of Parliament neither possesses nor desires anything of the kind.[218]
There is, in truth, a confusion in some men’s minds between ‘God’s laws’ and Christian dogmas, which misleads them. As Head of the State, the sovereign upholds the ‘laws of God’—of public morality, that is to say—which are rightly so called, because they are primarily of God’s ordering. These, all men, whatever be their distinctive creed, are bound to support. As the Head of the Church, again, the sovereign maintains Christian dogmas through the ministrations of those who hold offices in that Church, and takes cognisance of denials and perversions of the Faith. To these offices there never has been any proposal to admit the Jews, nor is there the least likelihood that such ever will be made.
FOOTNOTES:
[214] Sir Moses Montefiore paid £1,200 for his admission to the Stock Exchange.
[215] In the twelfth prayer, used by the Jews for many centuries, in their public worship, occurred the words: ‘Let there be no hope for those who apostatize from the true religion, and let heretics, however so many they be, perish in a moment. And let the kingdom of pride (the Roman empire) be speedily rooted out and broken in our days.’ In the liturgy of the Ashkenazim this prayer (which tradition attributes to Gamaliel) now stands thus: ‘Let the slanderers have no hope, all the wicked be annihilated speedily, and all tyrants be cut off quickly.’ In that of the Sephardim the prayer runs: ‘Let slanderers have no hope, and let all presumptuous apostates perish in a moment. May Thine enemies and those that hate Thee be suddenly cut off, and all those that act wickedly be suddenly consumed, broken, and rooted out; and humble Thou them speedily in our days.’—Horne’s Introduction, iii. 474.
[216] Romans x. 1.
[217] Luke xxiii. 34.
[218] Sir G. Jessel would not present to a living, which was in his patronage as Master of the Rolls, on the very grounds here alleged—that he had nothing to do, and ought to have nothing to do, with the Christian Church. No doubt, in the present anomalous state of things, questions relative to the Church might be brought before Parliament with which no Jew could with any propriety interfere. But if he is to be excluded on that ground, then all but genuine members of the Church ought to be excluded also.
CHAPTER XLII.
A.D. 1800-1885.
THE JEWS IN FRANCE, ITALY, AND GERMANY.
We hear no more of the Jews in France, after the relief granted them by the Republican Government, until 1806; when Napoleon, who by his victory at Austerlitz had obtained almost undisputed supremacy in Europe, was arranging his schemes for carrying out that darling dream of his imagination, the Continental system. Few men were keener or more far-sighted than Napoleon. It cannot be doubted that he saw the great value which the cordial co-operation of the Jews would be to him, if he could only obtain it. Their secret but widespread system of mutual intercommunication,[219] their wealth, their intelligence, their perfect mastery of the principles of commerce, would greatly facilitate the designs he contemplated. It is probable that even then he meditated the resuscitation of the Kingdom of Poland, as a formidable opponent to Russia; and the vast number of Jews to be found in those countries rendered their goodwill of the utmost importance to the success of such a scheme. He convoked a meeting of Jews in Paris, which, to gratify their national sentiment, he called a Sanhedrin, and submitted to it twelve questions,[220] mainly relating to their social life and position in France. It had the effect, as he doubtless had anticipated, of drawing forth an assurance of their appreciation of the privileges of French citizenship, and their warm affection for their native land, as they designated France. The Imperial Government professed itself satisfied with the reply. A second Sanhedrin was summoned, at which foreign Jews were invited to attend, and a kind of constitution framed, by which it was hoped that the Jews everywhere throughout Europe would be bound. It was ratified by an imperial edict, and was, on the whole, extremely favourable to them. It took effect in France and all countries to which Napoleon’s authority extended, though in some parts, as Alsace, concessions were made to popular prejudice, and the privileges of the Jews curtailed. The effect was soon seen in the purchase of estates by Jewish proprietors, the employment of Jewish capital in manufactures, and the participation of the Jews generally in national schemes of foreign and domestic policy.[221] At the Revolution of 1830 the most complete equality of citizenship was granted them; and since that time there has been no alteration in the laws of France, so far as they are concerned.