Neander observes that it has been justly remarked that the distinctive peculiarity (die auszeichende Eigenthümlichkeit) of the Hebrew nation from the very first was, that conscience was more alive among them than any other people. -Pflanzung and Leitung, p. 91, edit. 1847.

EARLY RESTRICTIVE LAWS.

The law of the Salien Franks, the law of the Burgundians, contain terrible denunciations against the Jews. The laws of the Visigoths are not less cruel. It was under these latter that the population of the South of France and of Spain existed. About this period the clergy would have relegated the Jews to complete isolation. About the year 465 a canon of the Council of Vannes forbade priests to associate with Jews, or to eat with them. The Councils of Agde (506), and of Epaone (517), extended this prohibition to Christians in general. The Council of Orleans (533) forbids marriage with them. An edict of Childebert (533) prohibits the Jews' appearance in public during certain days; also the possession of Christian slaves. In 618, Clotaire II. took from Jews the privilege of instituting any lawsuit against Christians. At last, a decree of Dagobert (633) orders them to quit the dominions of that prince, unless they consented to profess immediately the faith of Christianity.-T. MALVEZIN. Hist. des Juifs à Bourdeaux.

THE NAME D'ISRAELI.

My grandfather, who became an English denizen in 1748, was an Italian descendant from one of those Hebrew families, whom the Inquisition forced to emigrate from the Spanish Peninsula at the end of the fifteenth century, and who found a refuge in the more tolerant territories of the

Venetian Republic. His ancestors had dropped their Gothic surname on their settlement in the terra firma, and grateful to the God of Jacob, who had sustained them through unprecedented trials, and guarded them through unheard of perils, they assumed the name of D'ISRAELI, a name never borne before nor since by any other family, in order that their race might be for ever recognised.

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Undisturbed and unmolested they flourished as chants for more than two centuries, under the protection of the Lion of St. Mark, which was but just, as the patron saint of the Republic was himself a child of Israel. But in the middle of the eighteenth century, the altered circumstances of England-favourable as it was then supposed to commerce and religious liberty-attracted the attention of my great-grandfather to this island, and he resolved that the youngest (sic) of his two sons, Benjamin, "the son of his right hand," should settle in a country where the dynasty seemed at length established, through the recent failure of Prince Charles Edward, and where public opinion appeared definitely adverse to persecution on matters of creed and conscience.-RIGHT HON. B. D'ISRAELI. Life and Writings of I. D'Israeli.

JEWISH FAMILIES IN ENGLAND.

The Jewish families, who were then settled in England were few, though from their wealth and other circumstances they were far from unimportant. They were all of them Sephardim, that is to say, children of Israel, who had never quitted the shores of the Midland Ocean, until Torquemado had driven them from their pleasant residences and rich estates in Arragon, and Andalusia, and Portugal, to seek greater blessings even than a clear atmosphere and a glowing sun, amid the marshes of Holland, and the fogs of Britain. Most of these families, who held themselves

aloof from the Hebrews of Northern Europe (then only occasionally stealing into England as from an inferior caste), and whose synagogue was reserved only for Sephardim, are now extinct; while the branch of the great family, which, notwithstanding their own sufferings from prejudice, they had the hardihood to look down upon, have achieved an amount of wealth and consideration which the Sephardim, even with the patronage of Mr. Pelham, never could have contemplated. Nevertheless, at the time when my grandfather settled in England, and when Mr. Pelham, who was very favourable to the Jews, was Prime Minister, there might be found, among other Jewish families flourishing in the country, the Villa Reals, who brought wealth to this country almost as great as their name, though that is the second in Portugal, and who twice allied themselves with the English aristocracy; the Medinas, the Laras, who were our kinsmen, and the Mendez da Costa, who, I believe, still exist.—Ibid.

LORD BEACONSFIELD'S GRANDPARENTS.

Whether it was that my grandfather on his arrival was not encouraged by those to whom he had a right to look up-which is often our case at the outset of life—or whether he was alarmed at the unexpected consequences of Mr. Pelham's favourable disposition to his countrymen, in the disgraceful repeal of the Jew Bill, which occurred a very few years after his arrival in this country, I know not; but certainly he appears never to have cordially or intimately mixed with his community. The tendency to alienation was no doubt subsequently encouraged by his marriage, which took place in 1765. My grandmother, the beautiful daughter of a family who had suffered much from persecution, had imbibed that dislike for her race which the vain

are too apt to adopt when they find that they are born to public contempt.

Seventeen years, however, elapsed before my grandfather entered into this union, and during that interval he had not been idle. He was only eighteen when he commenced his career, and when a great responsibility devolved on him. He was not unequal to it. He was a man of ardent character, sanguine, courageous, speculative and fortunate, with a temper which no disappointment could disturb, and a brain, amid reverses, full of resource.

He made his fortune in the midway of life, and settled near Enfield, where he formed an Italian garden, entertained his friends, played whist with Sir Horace Mann, who was his great acquaintance, and who had known his brother at Venice as a banker; ate macaroni which was dressed by the Venetian Consul, sang canzonettas, and notwithstanding a wife who never pardoned him for his name, and a son who disappointed all his plans, and who to the last hour of his life was an enigma to him, lived till he was nearly ninety, and then died in 1817, in the full enjoyment of prolonged existence.

My grandfather retired from active business on the eve of that great financial epoch, to grapple with which his talents were well adapted, and when the wars and loans of the Revolution were about to create those families of millionaires, in which he might probably have enrolled his own. That, however, was not our destiny. My grandfather had only one child, and nature had disqualified him from his cradle for the busy pursuit of men.—Ibid.

ISAAC D'ISRAELI.

The preceding two extracts are from the memoirs of this celebrated writer, and are compiled by his son, the

present Prime Minister. This memoir, which is prefixed to a new edition of "Curiosities of Literature," in three volumes, published by G. Routledge, 1858, displays the writer as an acute recorder of life and character, and at the same time as an affectionate son, gladly recounting the good qualities of an esteemed father. It is well worth reading. Curiously, however, it seems to ignore all that is connected with his father's secession from Jewish associations, which subsequently so greatly influenced the afterlife of the son himself.-P. A.

REMONSTRANCE AGAINST THE JEWS.

In the "Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series," under date, November 30, 1660, may be found a Remonstrance, addressed to the King, concerning the English Jews, showing the mischiefs accomplished by them since their coming in at the time of William the Conqueror ; the privileges which they have purchased by money; their prosperity, notwithstanding their oppressions and taxations, their ill-dealings, and banishment by Edward I., at the desire of the whole kingdom; yet they have since returned, renewed their usurious and fraudulent practices, and flourish so much that they endeavoured to buy St. Paul's for a synagogue in the late usurper's time, suggesting the issue of a commission to inquire into their state, and the imposition of heavy taxes, seizure of their personal property, and banishment for residence without licence, etc.-State Paper Department, Public Record Office, vol. xxi.

PETITION OF CONVERTS.

July, 1660. Peter Samuel and Paul Jacob, converts from Judaism to the Christian faith. That they may partake the benefit of the charity of Henry III., who founded a house for