N° LXIV.

Tantum religio potuit fuadere malorum.

(LUCRETIUS.)

Such cruelties religion could perfuade.

(CREECH.)

REMEMBER to have read an account

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in a foreign Gazette of a dreadful fire, which broke out fo fuddenly in a house, where a great many people were affembled, that five hundred perfons perished miferably in the flames: The compiler of this account fubjoins at the foot of the above melancholy article, that it is with fatisfaction he can affure his readers, all the above perfons were Jews.

These poor people feem the butt, at which all fects and perfuafions level their contempt: They are fojourners and aliens in every kingdom on carth, and yet few have the hospitality to give them a welcome. I do not know any good reafon why these unhappy wanderers are so treated, for they do not intrude upon the labourer or manufacturer; they do not burthen the state with their poor, and here at least they neither till the carth, nor work at any craft, but content them

felves in general to hawk about a few refuse manufactures, and buy up a few caft-off clothes, which no man methinks would envy them the inonopoly of.

It is to the honour of our nation, that we tolerate them in the exercise of their religion, for which the Inquifition would tie them to a ftake and commit them to the flames. In some parts of the world the burning of a few makes a festival for all good Chriftians; it brings rain and plenty in seasons of drought and famine; it makes atonement for the fins of the people, and mitigates the wrath of an avenging Providence: Wherever they are obliged to conceal their religion, they generally overact their hypocrify, and crowd their houfes with faints and virgins, whilft crucifixes, charms and relicks are hung in numbers round their necks. The fon of Jewish parents is brought up in the most rigid exercises of mortification and penance, and when the destined moment is in near approach, when the parent must impart the dreadful fecret of his faith, every contrivance is put in practice to disgust and weary him with the laborious functions of their oftenfible religion: When this preparatory rigour is perceived to take effect, and the age of the fon is ripe for the occasion, the father takes him into the inmoft ohamber of

his

his houfe, faftens all the doors, furveys every avenue with the most myfterious attention, and drawing his sword with great folemnity, throws himself on his knees at his feet, and laying open his breaft, invites him to thruft the point to his heart-For know, my fon, he cries, I am a Jew, as all my fathers were: Kill me therefore on the Spot, or conform to the religion of your ancestors, for you are damned as a Catholic, if, knowing what you know, you neglect to betray me! This, as I have reason to believe, is no feigned anecdote, but a true account of those fecret mea❤ fures, which many Jewish families to this hour purfue for continuing the practice of their religion and fecuring themselves from discovery, where the confequences would be fo fatal,

Having thus, by way of prelude, briefly informed my readers what these miserable people are fuffering in fome countries, where they are fecretly fettled, I fhall now proceed to lay before them a letter, which I have lately received from one of that perfuafion, complaining of certain indignities and vexations from the humours of our common people, which, although they are but trifles compared to what I have been defcribing, are nevertheless unbecoming the character of fo illuminated and benevolent a nation as we have the honour to belong to.

SIR,

I AM a man, who stick close to my buf nefs, and am married to a fober industrious woman, whom I fhould be glad now and then to treat with a play, which is the only public amusement she has ever expressed a wish to be indulged in; but I am really under fuch difficulties, that I dare not carry her thither, and at the fame time do not like to difcover my reasons for it, as I fhould be forry to give her a dislike. to the country fhe is in.

You must know, Sir, I am a Jew, and probably have that national caft of countenance, which a people fo feparate and unmixt may well be fuppofed to have: The confequence of this is, that I no fooner enter a playhouse, than I find all eyes turned upon me; if this were the worst, I would ftrive to put as good a face upon it as I could; but this is fure to be followed up with a thousand fcurrilities, which I fhould blufh to repeat, and which I cannot think of subjecting my wife to hear.

As I fhould really take great pleasure in a good play, if I might be permitted to fit it out in peace, I have tried every part of the house, but the front boxes, where I obferve fuch a line. of bullies in the back, that even if I were a Chriftian

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Christian I would not venture amongst them; but I no fooner put my head into an obfcure corner of the gallery, than fome fellow or other roars out to his comrades-Smoke the Jew!Smoke the cunning little Ifaac !—Throw him over, fays another, hand over the fmoutch!-Out with Shylock, cries a third, out with the pound of man's flefh! - Buckles and buttons! Spectacles! bawls out a fourth-and fo on through the whole gallery, till I am forced to retire out of the theatre, amongst hootings and hiffings, with a fhower of rotten apples and chewed oranges vollied at my head, when all the offence I have given is an humble offer to be a peaceable fpectator, jointly with them, of the same common amusement.

I hope I fhall not incur your displeasure if I venture to say this is not very manly treatment in.a great and generous people, which I always took the English to be; I have lodged my property, which is not inconsiderable, in this country, and having no abiding-place on this earth, which I could call my own, I have made England my choice, thinking it the safest asylum that a wanderer and an alien could fly to; I hope I have not been mistaken in my opinion of it: It has frequently fallen in my way to shew some kindnesses to your countrymen in foreign parts, and fome are yet living, who, if they would fpeak