Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.For a complete list, please see the end of this document.
"As the twelve tribes had many interests incommon, and, in some respects, formed but onepolitical body, the magistrates of all the tribesmet in general assemblies to consult for the goodof the nation."
Jahn's History of the Hebrew Commonwealth.
Whoever regards the state of our community in this country, must cometo the conclusion, that we have arrived at an important period, when wecan no longer defer the consideration of matters of vital interest, ifwe would escape the well merited condemnation of the world at large, orthe just reproaches of conscience in ourselves. We stand in a positionwhere the past, the present, and the probable future are alikepresented to our view; the first to instruct and warn us, and the twolatter to furnish us with every motive to exertion which can begathered from the impulses of hope and fear, from a perception of ourown best interests and of those of our posterity. That the honour andreputation of the Jewish body are and have been at stake, must begranted by those who admit, as facts, the circumstances to which it isthe aim of this Pamphlet to draw the public attention. The greatmajority of our poor are uneducated in the holy tenets of our creed—intheir duties as citizens—in the proper arts of life; while poverty anddistress abound in the dwellings of vast numbers of our brethren,partially mitigated, indeed, not permanently provided for, by the manyexcellent and worthy charitable societies which surround us. These aretruths which painfully arrest the attention of individuals; and itbecomes the duty of the whole, to seek the means of meeting the[4]difficulties of the case. In the ensuing pages I venture to suggestsome propositions for the purpose.
In all well constituted societies, it has been found necessary to havea head, from which all government, laws and regulations, have emanated.These governments have been formed either of one person or more, theobject being, "a means to an end," or more fully speaking, "theproduction of the greatest possible amount of human happiness." Thisfact is so universally admitted, that associations for every object,whether religious or political, scientific or trading, have recourse toa governing body for carrying out their particular views; and, perhaps,I am not far wrong in stating, that the only exception in Great Britainof an extensive religious community being without a government is to befound amongst the Jews, not because the exigency is less, but because,from their first establishment in this kingdom, the want was never somuch felt as at the present moment; their position has now becomematter of inquiry to every enlightened mind, and many circumstanceshave recently shewn the disadvantages which a want of system hasentailed upon those who profess