Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/329

 II S. XL APRIL 24, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

319

in Great St. Helen's. This Synagogue has a history of which the United Council is entitled to be proud. Scarcely more than a, century after readmission, and with a sense of dubious tenure keenly enforced by the popular clamours of only a few years earlier, nevertheless, with that unquench- able spirit which Disraeli depicts so epi- grammatically in his Hebrew novels, a small and earnest body of pioneers determined to rear another Bethel in 1760, which they designated "The New Synagogue." This little " Shool " was the modest prototype of the magnificent structure which sprang into being in the second quarter of the nine- teenth century, and was to become a keen rival to the dominant centre of worship in Duke's Place. Many causes contributed to the forward movement in 1836. The -community had greatly increased in social influence, in numbers, and in wealth, and lived in considerable ease in Finsbury and the adjacent districts. Many of those who founded the imposing edifice in the narrow fastness of Bishopsgate were shining lights in the banking and commercial world ; many of them were the progenitors of dis- tinguished Hebrews of to-day to enumerate only the most conspicuous. Sir David "Salomons, M.P. for Greenwich ; Marcus Samuel ; Sir Henry Isaacs, Lord Mayor ; and Moses Angel, Head Master of the Free 'School. All those departed worthies found attractions in public life, and were foremost in every fight for civil and religious liberty. For more than forty years that Synagogue shaped the character of its congregants ; but when the course of progress rolled west- ward, and such suburbs as Maida Vale, Highbury, and Hampstead began to attract wealthy residents, its fortunes declined. There was no further need for its ministra- tions. Its doom was sealed, but not alto- gether. For, in order to sustain the glories of historic continuity, so dear to the genius of Israel, the United Synagogue, at an aug- mented outlay far in excess of the original estimates, piously resolved to have all the interior ornamentation, accessories, and staple features of the parent institution bodily transferred, and built into the new house of God in Stamford Hill. In addi- tion thereto, and in confident expectancy of a large spiritual revival under the direc- tion of the present Chief Rabbi, there were included under one roof with it a magnificent hall and spacious classrooms, dedicated to one of its illustrious founders Marcus Samuel with subsidiary annexes for social and literary reunions. M. L. R. BRESLAR.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

BURKE' s WIFE. It is stated by Lord Morley, and now again in ' The Cambridge History of Literature ' (xi. i. p. 1), that Burke's " wife was a catholic who con- formed to the Anglican church after her marriage." |

Is there not evidence to show that, as generally in Irish " mixed marriages " (Burke and his wife each being the offspring of such a marriage), the son followed the Protestant father, and the daughter the Protestant (Presbyterian) mother ?

Richard =fMiss Nagle Christopher=f.

Burke (Protestant)

Edmund=

(Catholic)

Nugent (Catholic)

(Presby- terian)

= Jane

(Protestant (Protestant son) daughter)

Is there not evidence what is it ? for the truth of all the statements in Prior's Life

(a) As to Burke's parents. " His father was a Protestant." Of his sister, Mrs. French

"Educated in the faith of her [and Edmund Burke's] mother, as is commonly the case with girls in Ireland, where the parents are of different religious persuasions, she was a rigid Roman Catholic, exemplary in her duties, and kind and charitable to her poorer neighbours."

(b) As to Mrs. Burke's parents.

" Her father a Roman Catholic, her mother a rigid Presbyterian, who not only stipulated for the free enjoyment of her own religion, but for the privilege of educating her daughters in the same tenets ; which were strictly retained by Mrs. [Edmund] Burke. It has been asserted, through ignorance or determined party animosity, that she was a Romanist."

W. F. P. STOCKLEY.

Univ. Coll., Cork.

CHARLES DICKSON, TRANSLATOR or BION AND MOSCHTJS. I have lying on my desk a duodecimo (6'3 by 3'8 in.) with the title :

" The Idyllia and other poems that are extant of Bion and Moschus : translated from the Greek into English verse. To which are added a few other translations, with notes critical and ex- planatory. London : printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, Paternoster Row ; and Payne and Foss, Pall-Mali. 1825.

Apparently there is no copy of this book in the British Museum. It is entered in