J E W. 
817 
may believe that all thofe orders or commands which compofe 
the Mofaic code have been equally revealed, he is not held to be¬ 
lieve that all are equally obligatory. Some of thefe define 
the connection between man and his Creator j others be¬ 
tween man and man, as members of a political fociety; 
find a third between fubjefts and their fovereign. The 
firft appeal to our confidence, and are independent of 
temporal events; the fecond and third, from the nature 
of the objects-they decree on, cannot enjoy the fame per¬ 
manence; they cannot be immutable, connected as they 
are with the circumftances of place, of time, and that po¬ 
litical ftate to which they apply. This political ftate has 
been overturned, or diffolved by flow and unexpected revo¬ 
lutions, and neceflarily loofens thofe bonds which origi¬ 
nated in its exiftence, and were preferved by its duration. 
“ Is there no difference between a conftituted political 
body, and a people difperfed among all the nations of the 
earth; between a nation which exiffed three thoufand 
years ago, and the defcendants of that nation, fpread at 
this moment among all others, and to whofe laws they 
are religioufly bound, adopting for their country the fpot 
they inhabit, and all that they preferve of their ancient 
itate being only the manner of worfliipping the Eternal ? 
For, in the ftate of difperfion in which they have lived fo 
many centuries, they have never had a chief for their re¬ 
ligion, no particular depofitory, no guardian, of their law, 
no regulator of their ecclefiaftical hierarchy. Their great 
jfanhedrims had difappeared, like fo many other inftitu- 
tions; and it is in this defolate ftate that we have reached 
the prefent times. 
“Yet the opinion prevailing, that we were attached to 
another terreftrial country, continued to form an oblta- 
cle to our being incorporated with other nations, fo as to 
efface for ever the line of demarcation between Ifraelite 
and Chriftian. Thus reduced to form unavailing vows, 
we have long fhared in the duties of fubjefts, without 
participating in their rights, and in the charges of focie¬ 
ty, without enjoying its advantages. With the infiula- 
tion which religion produced, a civil and political infu- 
lation was combined. We were ftrangers to whom go¬ 
vernment granted an.afylum; men rather fubjefted than 
fubjefts; rather domiciliated than citizensj men on whom 
humanity would beftow natural rights, but to whom falfe 
politics denied to grant civil ones. 
“ Is it furprifing, when we refleft on the moral effeft 
of fucli ah order of things, that this effect fhould mani- 
feft itfelf among an ignorant multitude, by a vile and de¬ 
grading charafter ? among men endowed with fome ele¬ 
vation of foul, by a defire of feeking, in the acquifltion 
of wealth, fome indemnification for being deprived of 
ferving their country, and diftinguifhing themfelves in 
civil and military employments? 
“ In refuting thus to the Ifraelite the fweet happinefs 
of faying to himfelf, / have a country, fome, in truth, might 
eafily have believed, at certain moments, that this people 
had none. With a noble pride we now declare we pof- 
fefs one.” 
The eloquent prefident then fums up the argument 
•which turns on the diftinftion made between the com¬ 
mands of the law of Mofes; one clafs being eflentially re¬ 
ligious and irrevocable, and the other political inrtitu- 
tions, liable to change. “The French government re¬ 
quired that this diftinftion fliould be authorifed by a 
.great fanhedrim, becaufe many Ifraelites, whofe con¬ 
fidences were fcrupulous, and who declared that the fpi- 
ritual and temporal fovereignties were united, could not 
conceive that the religious ordinances could ever be fepa- 
rated from the political ones ; but the declaration the fan¬ 
hedrim adopt, unites the triple benefit; i. To have given 
this guarantee to the government, a. To take away the 
fcruples which fome appear to have felt. 3. To do away 
•the error which attributes to the Ifraelite a want of at¬ 
tachment to the country he inhabits. 
“ Such, doftors of the law and notables, is the advan¬ 
tage of a religion which has particular rites, but an uni- 
VOL,X. No .jzi. 
verfal worfhip. The univerfal worftiip remains, but the 
particular rites ceafed, when they became impracticable 
by the tranfportation of that religion of a particular coun¬ 
try into fuch various climates. 
“ Permit one refleftion which the memorable event of 
this day fuggefts. Among the fovereigns whom liiftoiy 
prefents as truly great, there are few who have not been 
either founders or proteftors of religion ; but too often, 
in maintaining the majefty of a religion, they have 1'u.L- 
lied its fplendour and obfcured their own glory, in be¬ 
coming perfecu tors of a different religion. It could only 
appertain to a fovereign, whofe valour and whole genius 
aftonifh his contemporaries, as they will pofterity, to re- 
eftablilh the catholic religion, and at the fame time to 
place by its fide two religions, of which one, the com¬ 
mon fource of both, riles for t-he-firft time fince eighteen, 
centuries, from the obicurity which difguiled and con¬ 
cealed it.” 
He concludes, “Til! now thofe who have read the liif- 
tory of the modern Hebrews have found nothing but an 
uninterrupted feries of exiles, confifcations, violations of 
public faith, rebellions and maffacres, the fhame of rea- 
fon and the opprobrium of humanity. The reader is fa¬ 
tigued with this continuity of terrific pictures, where the 
innocent and the feeble are fieen gafping under the pow¬ 
erful opprefl'or, and where men transform themfelves to 
tigers among the handful of miferable fellow-beings whole 
only crime confifts in adoring the Eternal in a different 
manner. At length, in this hiftory exills an epoch, on 
which the virtuous friends of humanity may paul'e with 
delight; and this epoch is the reign of the magnanimous 
prince who governs us.” 
In the fittings of the 9th of March, the chief of the fan¬ 
hedrim clofed it with an animated oration: he declares 
that the law of Ifrael is perfeft, and contains no anti-focial 
principle. He apoftrophifes Napoleon as the idol of 
France and Italy, and devotes the Jewifli nation to his 
commands. He finilhes by faying, “I proclaim the dole 
of the fittings of the grand fanhedrim, conformably to the 
orders tranfmitted to me." 
It does not appear that any new regulations or other 
proceedings relative to the Jews have been adopted in 
confequence of the above communications between tho 
heads of that people and the French government; but it 
is afferted by fome, that the Jews have been forced to pay 
a large fum of money that they may continue to enjoy 
the advantages of citizens of France. 
So lately as Oftober laft, (1810,) the eleftor (king) of 
Saxony abolilhed the perfonal impolfi to which all French, 
Dutch, Weftpbalian, Danifli, Bavarian, and Polifli, Jews 
were fubjeft, as well as thofe of the duchies of Frankfort 
-and Anholt. 
Of the Logic, Theology, and present Customs, 
of the Jews. 
The manner in which the modern Jews fet about inter¬ 
preting the Scriptures has been but little adverted to by 
Chriltians in general, perhaps becaufe many of the prin¬ 
cipal Hebrew works have not been tranllated, and a .len¬ 
der knowledge of the Hebrew tongue was not thought 
fufficient to read them in the original. The rabbis draw 
their decifions from thirteen different ways of arguing 
from the text of the written law : this they ufually call 
Middoth. They lay fo great a ftrefs upon thefe modes of 
reafoning, that they have thought proper to give them a 
place in their liturgies, where they are read over with the 
reft of their hymns. In the Seder Tdphilloth they are in- 
ferted among the hymns, with this introduction: “Rabbi 
Iftimael fays, The fienfe of the law is difcovered by thir¬ 
teen modes of argumentation and they contain a fvf- 
tem of what may be called Talmudic logic or reafoning. 
I. Light and heavy. This is what the logicians call ar~ 
gumentum ab impart. If a fmall thing produces fuch ef- 
fiefts, how much greater will a greater thing produce ? 
The iiiftance which the Talmudifts bring for this out of 
5 Y Scripture^ 
