Goldsmid, Francis Henry. Remarks on the Civil Disabilities of British Jews.

(ANGLO-JUDAICA)

Richard Taylor

London

1830

FIRST EDITION.

Roth, Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, p. 232.

Argues for the repeal of the Abjuration Oath which consists of the words "upon the true faith of a Christian," and for the right of a Jew to sit in Parliament. A Table on p.70 places the number of Jews in London at about 18,000; and 9,000 in other parts of the Kingdom; for a total probable number of Jews in Great Britain and Ireland of 27,000. Sir Francis Henry Goldsmid (1808-1878) was in 1833 the first Jew called to the English Bar. He was permitted to omit the words "upon the true faith of a Christian" when taking the oath and was indeed a strict Sabbath observer. In 1860, he entered Parliament as a Liberal M.P. for Reading. See P.H. Emden, Jews of Britain, pp. 137-140