JEWS JODRELL. 



561 



quietly into the kingdom, where their descendants 

 remain to the present day. Napoleon caused 

 questions to be proposed to the Jews respecting 

 their allegiance to France, and having received the 

 most satisfactory answers, he assembled a Sanhed- 

 rim for the purpose of re-establishing the worship 

 of the synagogue in the empire. It is to be hoped, 

 that after the lapse of some centuries, Christian 

 nations will begin to discover, that their prosperity 

 and religion are not secured by absurd systems of 

 exclusion, which, instead of being a safeguard, are 

 only so many challenges to those without, to batter 

 down the walls which shut them out from the 

 rights they inherit from God and nature. 



It is not easy to estimate the numbers of a race 

 who are scattered to the four winds of heaven. 

 The returns made to Bonaparte fixed their number 

 at three millions. This is but a small number, 

 compared with former times. In France there are 

 about forty or fifty thousand. They are still ex- 

 cluded from Spain by an ancient law. In Great 

 Britain their number is variously stated, but not 

 exceeding twenty-five thousand. 



The protestant reformation wrought a great but 

 not a decisive change in favour of the oppressed 

 Jews; indeed the theological controversy which 

 prepared the way and smoothed the path for Lu- 

 ther's efforts, arose from Reuchlin's efforts in their 

 behalf. We allude to the generous and successful 

 exertions made by that excellent scholar and wor- 

 thy man, to save the Jewish writings from the 

 flames to which they were consigned by priestly 

 bigots, on the suggestion of the renegade Pfeffer- 

 corn ; a struggle that can never be forgotten, from 

 the torrent of ridicule with which Hutten over- 

 whelmed Reuchlin's opponents, in the immortal 

 "Epistolce Obscurorum Virorum." Under the re- 

 formed churches the Jews have been partially tol- 

 erated, and their privileges gradually increased ; 

 but as yet there are some protestant nations, 

 among which England must unfortunately be 

 reckoned, in which they do not enjoy the full pri- 

 vileges of citizens. We say unfortunately, because 

 we think our brief summary has shown, that in 

 every period when the Jews were oppressed, the 

 principles of evil in their creed became prominent 

 and active; but whenever they enjoyed security 

 and protection, the counteracting principles of 

 good began to work a moral regeneration. 



The Jews were not ungrateful to the reforma- 

 tion; in the early part of the last century they 

 became the most zealous supporters of the protes- 

 tant succession; and it is notorious, that when the 

 Jacobites threatened a run on the bank, the Jews, 

 not only of England but the continent, sent in 

 large supplies of bullion to support the credit of 

 the British government. 



In the year 1753, the Pelham administration, 

 with a laudable desire to reward Jewish loyalty, 

 and encourage the accession of such a wealthy peo- 

 ple to the subjects of the British crown, intro- 

 duced a bill for the naturalization of the Jews into 

 the House of Lords: it was supported by Sherlock, 

 bishop of London ; Seeker, bishop of Oxford ; and 

 Hayter, bishop of Norwich ; three names of which 

 the ecclesiastical annals of England may be justly- 

 proud, and it passed through the upper house 

 without opposition. Its reception in the lower 

 house, when first brought down, was on the whole 

 favourable; but the commercial jealousy of some 

 merchants in the city, the resentment of the Jaco- 

 bites for the efficacious check given to their ma- 



VII. 



chinations by the Jews, and the obstinate preju- 

 dices of those who prided themselves on preserv- 

 ing the folly of their ancestors, and calling it wis- 

 dom, roused a formidable resistance which the 

 ministers should not have ventured to encounter. 

 Appeals were made to the passions and prejudices 

 of the multitude ; " no Judaism " became a signal 

 as efficacious as "no Popery " thirty years after; 

 petitions poured in from every quarter; but the 

 ministers, strong in rectitude of principle, resolved 

 to proceed. The ministers persevered and the 

 bill was carried ; a general election was at hand, 

 and the opposition unhesitatingly availed them- 

 selves of the popular clamour to drive their politi- 

 cal rivals from the hustings. 



In consequence of the popular excitement, the 

 parliament were forced to repeal the bill in the 

 following year. Other nations outstripped Eng- 

 land in the march of liberality; in America, in 

 Holland, in Prussia, and in France, the Jews were 

 admitted to the privileges of citizens, and have 

 proved by their subsequent conduct that they 

 were well entitled to the favour. The Jewish 

 regiment in the Prussian service was the one that 

 acquired most glory in the memorable battles of 

 Ligny and Waterloo. In the year 1829, Mr 

 Robert Grant, then member for Finsbury, brought 

 in a bill for the emancipation of the Jews, but 

 withdrew it after it had made some progress, 

 chiefly because it was deemed imprudent further 

 to shock the prejudices of those who had been so 

 deeply offended by the concession of emancipation 

 to the Catholics. The speakers against the mea- 

 sure, with one exception, rested their arguments 

 on expediency. 



JODRELL, RICHARD PAUL, Esq., D. C. L., 

 F.R.S., and F.S.A. ; deputy lieutenant and justice 

 of the peace for the counties of Oxford, Derby, 

 Norfolk, and Middlesex ; was descended from an 

 ancient family, originally of Derbyshire, and after- 

 wards of Staffordshire. He was born Nov. 13, 

 1745; and, having lost his father in 1751, lived in 

 possession of his paternal estates for nearly eighty 

 years. He was educated at Eton and at Hertford 

 College, Oxford ; and his attachment to his classi- 

 cal studies was evinced by his compositions in the 

 Musae Etonenses, and by subsequent more labori- 

 ous publications. To the supplementary notes of 

 Potter's .flSschylus, printed in 1778, he was a con- 

 tributor ; in 1781 he publisned, in two volumes 

 8vo., " Illustrations of Euripides, on the Ion and 

 Bacchae;" and in 1790 another volume, "On the 

 Alcestis." The modern drama, also, as well as 

 the ancient, shared Mr Jodrell's attention. " A 

 Widow and no Widow," a dramatic piece of three 

 acts by him, was acted at the Haymarket in 1779, 

 and printed in 1780, 8vo. At the same theatre, 

 in 1783, was performed with success his " Seeing 

 is Believing," in one act, printed in 1786. His 

 tragedy, called " The Persian Heroine," having 

 been rejected by the managers of the two great 

 theatres, was printed in 1786, 8vo. and 4to. In 

 the following year he published " Select Dramatic 

 Pieces ; some of which have been acted on pro- 

 vincial theatres, others have been written for pri- 

 vate performance and country amusement." He 

 also published in 4to. 1785, "The Knight and 

 Friars," an historic tale, from Hey wood's rvnuxsmv. 

 In 1784 he became a member of the club founded 

 at the Essex Head, for the purpose of cheering the 

 declining days of Dr Johnson. He was elected a 

 fellow of the royal society in 1772, and of the so- 

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