that their moral character is different from that of every other communion, and that the difference is not to their honour. If whilst they kept little or no faith with Christians, they were eminent for fair dealing and kindness one' with another, our disapprobation would be in some respects lessened; but the experience of our courts of law and justice seems to shew that there is little sympathy between them, and that they are ready to prey upon and to do violence to one another on slight provocation or temptation. We have been slow in taking this view of their character, but it has been forced upon us by events, and nothing would give us more pleasure than to be convinced that we have underrated the actual morality of the Jews.

In religion, strictly so called, this people are yet lower in the scale of intellect and worth. A stupid indifference has encrusted the minds of the greater part of them; and a considerable portion of the remainder are scarcely concealed infidels. The professedly religious Jews are grossly superstitious. These, as far as we can learn, have no settled and distinct faith. They have their days, their fasts, their readings, their prayers; and there religion ends. What inquiry do they make into the true sense of their Scriptures? Fitted above all other persons to understand and elucidate the Old Testament, they do nothing for it as expositors, commentators and critics. Distinguished by their profession of the Divine Unity, whenever are they heard to assert this glorious doctrine publicly, and to protest against what must appear to them the polytheism and idolatry of the communions by which they are surrounded? They have, in most countries, full religious liberty, and their uniform silence upon the "first of all the commandments" must, it is feared, be put down to the account of ignorance, indifference, scepticism or worldly-mindedness. Bound as they are by rigid and unaccommodating religious institutions, instances of apostacy are very common amongst their youth. Few, indeed, profess to be converted to the Trinitarian corruption; but many sink into the world, and their families, without religious knowledge or religious principle, become by virtue of their birth and residence members of the "Church as by Law Established," a church which worships God under names and forms forbidden by Moses and the Prophets, and unknown to Jesus Christ and the Apostles.

Societies for converting the Jews have hitherto failed,

and we can scarcely regret the failure, since if they had succeeded in making the Jews Trinitarians," the last error would have been worse than the first." Abandoned chil dren, probably half-Jews by descent, have been taken up and provided for by these zealous proselyting associations; and so far it is well. Here and there a trader in opinions comes amongst them from the Jews, and now and then a wretched individual who is seeking for food. We do not find, however, that they entice over respectable and religi ous persons of the Jewish faith, much less persons whose minds are at all enlightened. There has been a disgusting exposure of roguery amongst the Jew-Society converts. Several of these renegades, after being fed with Christian "bread and wine," have relapsed into their former state, and have been reconciled to their own people by penance. and by the mulcts which the credulity of their proselyting patrons has enabled them, to pay.

But whilst every other people is in a state of intellectual excitement and moral improvement, can the Jews remain stationary and preserve their hard and unamiable character? We think not. Symptoms have appeared on the Continent of a disposition to a change for the better, in this hitherto inflexible nation. A very few of their writers have attempted to purge their religion from superstition and to reduce it to the rational standard of the law of Moses; and some synagogues have, we learn, diminished the number of ceremonies, and introduced a purer worship, and a worship not wholly in a dead language, which to many even of the Jews is an "unknown tongue."

More recently an attempt at reformation of Judaism has been made, and is we hope still making, in the United States of America; a favourable spot for the noble experiment. In our last Volume, XI. 359, we gave some account of a proclamation by Mordecai Manual Noak, "Citizen of the United States, late Consul of the said States for the City and Kingdom of Tunis, High Sheriff of New York, Counsellor at Law," who styles himself a Judge in Israel, and proposes to establish a Jewish Republic, in Grand Island, in the State of New York, on which he is about to lay the foundation of a City of Refuge, to be called Ararat. And an American Correspondent in the Monthly Repository, Vol. XIX. p. 554, says, referring to the Jews, persons of that denomination are found in some of the most responsible civil situations under our

National and State Governments; they are also officers in the army and navy, editors of some of our most popular newspapers, s, and teachers of excellent schools, to which Christians send their children with as little repugnance as to those of their own creed."

The attempt to which we have referred is explained in the North American Review for July of the present year, in a notice of the two following publications: "1. The Constitution of the Reformed Society of Israelites, for promoting true Principles of Judaism according to its Purity and Spirit. Founded in Charleston, South Carolina, January 16, 1825. Charleston, 1825. 8vo. pp. 16.2. A Discourse, delivered in Charleston, South Carolina, on November 21, 1825, before the Reformed Society of Israelites, for promoting true Principles of Judaism according to its Purity and Spirit, on their First Anniversary. By Isaac Harby, a Member. Charleston. 1825. 8vo. pp. 40.

The Reforming Israelites at Charleston, to the number of forty-seven, addressed a memorial to the synagogue in that place, praying for certain alterations in the worship. This was rejected by the Vestry without discussion or the right of appeal. Hereupon the petitioners formed themselves into a Society and drew up a Constitution, of which the following are a few of the Articles :

"As soon as this Society finds itself able, it will educate a youth or youths of the Jewish persuasion classically in the English, Latin and Hebrew languages, so as to render him or them fully competent to perform divine service, not only with ability, learning and dignity, but also according to the true spirit of Judaism, for which this institution was formed; and in the meanwhile, this Society will adopt and support, as soon as practicable, any person so qualified for the sacred office.

"It shall be the primary object of this Institution to devise ways and means, from time to time, of revising and altering

This is a Quarterly Journal, in the manner of our Quarterly and Edinburgh. It is compiled with great ability, and may be placed beside the above-named celebrated periodicals. Already, it has raised the standard of literature and taste among our Transatlantic brethren. The religious opinions maintained in the Review are such as would be esteemed heresy wherever there is a political and Trinitarian Church; its politics are, we need not add, republican, but at the same time not intemperate. In this work, England is treated with marked respect, though the national bigotry of some Englishmen who write upon America, is not spared.

Any Hebrew, having attained his seventeenth year, and desirous of becoming a member of this Society, shall make application by letter addressed to the president and members."

The Reviewer says that it has been vaguely suggested, though it is not hinted in these documents, that the new Reformers among the Jews, both in America and Europe, have it in contemplation to remove their Sabbath forward one day, so as to make it coincide with the day of rest of the Christian.

An interesting paper is inserted in the Review from the pen of a Jewish Reformer. This writer estimates the Jews in the Old World, at six millions; in the New, at six thousand only. The congregation at Charleston consists of six hundred persons. The city of New York equals and will soon double it. This informant says,

"Men, who reflect, go any where in pursuit of happiness. The immediate ancestors of the most respectable Jews in these United States came, some for the purposes of commerce, others for the more noble love of liberty, and the majority for both. In Georgia and in South Carolina, several honourably bore arms in the revolutionary war. My maternal grandfather contributed pecuniary aid to South Carolina, and particularly to Charleston, when besieged by the British. My father-in-law was a brave grenadier in the regular American army, and fought and bled for the liberty he lived to enjoy, and to hand down to his children. Numerous instances of patriotism are recorded of such Israelites.

"As to the descent of the Jews of the United States, they are principally German and English; though South Carolina has a portion of French and Portuguese. My ancestors came originally from Barbary, where my father's father enjoyed a post of honour in the palace of the Emperor of Morocco, that of Royal Lapidary. He fled to England, and married an Italian lady. My father left England for Jamaica before he was twenty years of age. He afterwards settled in Charleston, and, I think