JEW 



IGN 



superior officers. Bills granted by French 

 subject^ to Jews cannot be demanded, 

 unless their holders prove that the full 

 value was given without any fraud. All 

 debts accumulated by interest above five 

 per cent, are to be reduced by the courts 

 of law ; if the interest growing on the ca- 

 pital exceed twenty-three per cent, the 

 contract is to be declared usurious. No 

 Jew is to be allowed to trade without a 

 patent, which patent is to be granted to 

 such individuals only who produce a cer- * 

 tificate to the Prefects that they are no 

 usurers. These regulations are to be con- 

 tinued during ten years only, "in the 

 hope, that, after that period, there will be 

 no difference between the moral charac- 

 ter of the Jews and the other citizens of 

 the empire." If the contrary shall ap- 

 pear, the law will be continued in force. 

 It is doubtful, whether the faith of the 

 children of Israel in Bonaparte, as their 

 re igning Messiah, will not be a little stag- 

 gered by these regulations. Bonaparte 

 has had the following return made to him 

 of the number of Jews in all the different 

 parts of the habitable globe, viz. in the 

 Turkish empire one million ; in Persia, 

 China, and India, on the east and west of 

 the Ganges, three hundred thousand; and 

 in the west of Europe, Africa, and Ame- 

 rica, one million seven hundred thousand; 

 making an aggregate population of three 

 millions. One-third of this number are 

 already under the dominion of the French 

 empire. For an account / of the Jewish 

 ceremonies, &c. see the late Mr. David 

 Levi's work on that subject. 



The following is a summary of their re- 

 ligious creed : 1. That God is the crea- 

 tor and active supporter of all things. 2. 

 That God is ONE, and eternally unchange- 

 able. 3. That God is incorporeal, and 

 cannot have any material properties. 4. 

 That God shall eternally subsist. 5. That 

 -God is alone to be worshipped. 6. That 

 whatever has been taught by the prophets 

 is true. 7. That Moses is the head and 

 father of all contemporary doctors, and of 

 all those who lived before, or shall live 

 after him. 8. That the law was given by 

 Moses. ( J. That the law shall always ex- 

 ist, and never be altered. 10. That God 

 knows all the thoughts and actions of 

 men .11. That God will reward the ob- 

 servance, and punish the breach of his 

 laws. 12. The Messiah is to come, though 

 he tarry a long time 13. That there 

 shall be a resurrection of the dead 

 when God shall think fit. These doc- 

 trines, commonly received by the Jews 

 to this day, were drawn up about the. end 



of the eleventh century, by the famous 

 Jewish rabbi, Maimonides. 



In England, in former times, the Jews, 

 and all their goods, belonged to the i-liief 

 lord where they lived ; and he had such 

 an absolute property in them, that he 

 might sell them ; for they had not liberty 

 to remove to another lord without leave. 

 They were distinguished from the Chris- 

 tians in their lives, and at their deaths ; 

 for they had proper judges and courts, 

 where their causes were decided. By 

 stat. Edward I. the Jews, to the number 

 of 15,000, were banished out of England; 

 and never returned, till Oliver Cromwell 

 re-admitted them. Whenever any Jew- 

 shall present himself to take the oath of 

 abjuration, in pursuance of the 10 George 

 III. c. 10, the words upon the true faith 

 of a Christian shall be omitted out of the 

 oath, in administering it to such persons; 

 and the taking the oath, by persons pro- 

 fessing the Jewish religion, without these 

 words, in like manner as Jews are admit- 

 ted to give evidence in the courts of jus* 

 tice, shall be deemed a sufficient taking 

 of the abjuration-oath. If Jewish parents 

 refuse to allow their Protestant children 

 a maintenance suitable to their fortune, 

 the Lord Chancellor, upon complaint, 

 may make such order therein as he may 

 think proper. 



JEWS harp, in music, an instrument 

 well known among the lower classes in 

 this country, but almost the only musical 

 instrument made use of by the inhabi- 

 tants of the island of St. Kilda. 



IGNATIA, in botany, a genus of the 

 Pentandria Monogynia class and order. 

 Natural order ofLuridse. Apocinese, Jus- 

 sieu. Essential character : calyx five- 

 toothed ; corolla funnel-form, very long ; 

 fruit one-celled, many seeded. There 

 are two species, viz. I. amara, and I. 

 longiflora. 



IGNITION, in chemistry, is that illumi- 

 nation, or emission of light, produced in 

 bodies by exposing them to a high tem- 

 perature, and which is not accompanied 

 by any other chemical change in them. 

 It may be distinguished from combustion, 

 a process in which there is also the emis- 

 sion of light and heat. Combustion is the 

 result, not of mere increase oftempara- 

 ture in the body wh;ch suffers it, but of 

 the chemical action of the air, or of a prin- 

 ciple which the air contains : hence com- 

 bustible substances are alone suspectible 

 of it, and when the process has ceased, 

 the body is no longer combustible. Igni- 

 tion is an effect of the operation of caloric 

 alone ; it is wholly independent of the 



