Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 2Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
History
Critical and Historical Essays — Volume 2
Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
English literature -- History and criticism; Great Britain -- History
wonder that it is not united; to govern as if a section of the State
were the whole, and to censure the other sections of the State for their
want of patriotic spirit. If the Jews have not felt towards England like
children, it is because she has treated them like a step-mother. There
is no feeling which more certainly develops itself in the minds of men
living under tolerably good government than the feeling of patriotism.
Since the beginning of the world, there never was any nation, or any
large portion of any nation, not cruelly oppressed, which was wholly
destitute of that feeling. To make it therefore ground of accusation
against a class of men, that they are not patriotic, is the most vulgar
legerdemain of sophistry. It is the logic which the wolf employs against
the lamb. It is to accuse the mouth of the stream of poisoning the
source.
If the English Jews really felt a deadly hatred to England, if the
weekly prayer of their synagogues were that all the curses denounced
by Ezekiel on Tyre and Egypt might fall on London, if, in their solemn
feasts, they called down blessings on those who should dash their
children to pieces on the stones, still, we say, their hatred to their
countrymen would not be more intense than that which sects of Christians
have often borne to each other. But in fact the feeling of the Jews
is not such. It is precisely what, in the situation in which they are
placed, we should expect it to be. They are treated far better than
the French Protestants were treated in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, or than our Puritans were treated in the time of Laud. They,
therefore, have no rancour against the Government or against their
countrymen. It will not be denied that they are far better affected to
the State than the followers of Coligni or Vane. But they are not so
well treated as the dissecting sects of Christians are now treated in
England; and on this account, and, we firmly believe, on this account
alone, they have a more exclusive spirit. Till we have carried the
experiment further, we are not entitled to conclude that they cannot be
made Englishmen altogether. The statesman who treats them as aliens, and
then abuses them for not entertaining all the feelings of natives, is
as unreasonable as the tyrant who punished their fathers for not making
bricks without straw.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account