THE JEWS.
We have already alluded incidentally to the Jews. But the children of
Israel have been too long and too perseveringly an object of persecution
to all Christian nations, not to demand a more extended consideration.
Mankind, in the present age, though scarcely less disposed than of old to
exercise the tyrannical influence of the strong over the weak, appear to
have substituted political for religious animosities; and the war of sects
has been converted into the feuds of parties. The days of the fagot and
the pile are happily at an end; and instead of martyrs, sacrificed in the
name of religion, the victim is forced to exclaim on the scaffold: "Oh,
liberty! in thy name, how many crimes are committed!" The number of human
victims sacrificed to religious intolerance in the various countries of
the world, would, however, afford grounds for a fearful computation.
The very existence of the Jews may be regarded as among the miracles of
the Christian religion. A wandering nation, without King, without country,
without secular laws, maintained together only by the strength of a common
worship, could never have resisted the persecutions and proscriptions of
centuries, but for the intervention of the chastening hand of God. Even in
the countries where their existence is the happiest, stigmatized by public
detestation, and in highly Catholic nations treated as lepers, as parias,
as infected sheep--condemned to the hardest, and most ignominious
tasks--beaten, spat upon, despoiled, plundered, tortured, massacred--a
prey to the cupidity of the great, and the brutality of the little--such
is the history of the Jews from the days of Titus to the present time.
Nevertheless, they not only subsist, but flourish, in spite of the
universal prejudice against the name; maintaining unchanged, their laws,
customs, usages, and even physiognomy. The abhorrence with which they are
regarded by other nations, has necessitated intermarriages from generation
to generation, which serve to maintain the pure identity of the race.
The Romans not only detested the Jews for the same motive which produced
their hatred of the Christians, namely--the impossibility of converting
them to the worship of the false Gods of Paganism, but confounded Jews and
Christians together in a common persecution. Yet this equality before the
tribunals and executioners of the Emperors and Pro-Consuls of Rome, never
availed to diminish the mutual hatred subsisting between them. No
amalgamation was possible between them, even amid the flames of a funeral
pile. Nero, on one occasion, attempted to illuminate Rome by means of Jews
steeped in resinous matter, and thus committed to the flames.
No sooner had the Christians obtained supreme power, than they began, in
their turn, to inflict upon the remnant of Israel all the persecutions
they had themselves sustained at the hands of the Romans. The Jews were
compelled to wear a cap surmounted by horns, to show that they were
pre-destined to eternal punishment; and in a Council held at the Lateran,
at the commencement of the thirteenth century, they were forced to adopt
for robes, stuff of a yellow colour, bearing the representation of a wheel
or rack. During Passion Week, and at Easter, it was lawful to attack them
with any degree of ferocity. In many cities, it was the custom to inflict
corporeal punishment on a Jew publicly, every Good Friday, before the
great door of the Cathedral; in some, a positive crucifixion took place!
Eight times have the Jews been driven out of France. Dagobert enjoined
them to embrace Christianity, on pain of banishment; Robert the Pious
issued the same edict; Philip Augustus, after crucifying several at Bray
sur Seine, caused all their synagogues to be burned, seized their
possessions, released their creditors, appropriated to himself a fifth of
their substance, and the remainder to landholders of adjoining estates.
Philippe le Bel dismissed them the kingdom, leaving them only the funds
indispensable for the journey. Nevertheless they returned, to be again
exiled by Charles VI. Under Louis XIII, was issued a new edict of
banishment. It was only under Louis XVI, one of the most humane of Kings,
that the Jews were restored to rights of citizenship in France. Nor was
their condition better, at the same epochs, in Great Britain and other
adjacent countries.
A singular chance directed the attention of Napoleon to the condition of
the Jews. A representation of Racine's "Esther" was given one night at the
Opera for a benefit; and the following morning, Talma happening to
breakfast with the Emperor, the conversation turned on the performance of
the night before. As they were discussing the character of Mardochée,
Champagny, afterwards Duc de Cadore, made his appearance, who was at that
time Minister of the Interior. Napoleon instantly began interrogating him
concerning the position and resources of the Jews in France; and desired
that a report might be drawn up on the subject, and speedily submitted to
him.
Champagny lost no time in obeying; and the results of this accidental
circumstance was the removal of the civil disabilities of the Jews.
The prejudice, however, attached for so many years to the remnant of
Israel, is far from extirpated; and though in more than one country of
Europe, the honours of chivalry have been bestowed upon wealthy Jews,
influential in the financial operations of the kingdom, and consequently
in its politics, the popular feeling against them is unchanged. It is even
carried to a most unreasonable degree; and the Jews are reproached with
the very pursuits and professions forced upon their adoption by Christian
persecution. Commercial speculations were of course the sole resource of a
people without country, and without protection; and though we are indebted
to them for the useful financial substitute of bills of exchange, we use
the name of Jew almost synonymously with that of extortioner, without
regard to their commercial importance and utility.
The emancipation accorded them in France, was given chiefly for
considerations developed ten years before by Monsieur de Clermont
Tonnerre, and other celebrated orators before the National Assembly.
"The Code of Moses," argued they, "is conceived in a twofold spirit--a
religious, and a legislative. The political laws which it contains, have
ceased to be important--being only applicable to a nation nationally
combined and organized; whereas the Jews are a scattered and wandering
tribe, rather than a nation. The religious laws are a case of conscience;
serving to enlighten the spirit, and guide the social morality of the
children of Israel. From the period of the destruction of the Temple, the
Jews have politically ceased to exist; and these religious laws may be
said to operate in France, upon Frenchmen of the Jewish persuasion; in
Poland, upon Poles of the Jewish persuasion; in Germany, upon Germans of
the Jewish persuasion, and so forth."
Upon this showing, civil rights were conceded to them in France, on
condition of their contributing their quota to the maintenance of the laws
and Government of the country in which they were naturalized.
Till this epoch, a prejudice had prevailed in France that it was an
article of faith and duty among the Jews, to deceive and defraud a
Christian whenever it lay in their power; and that they were bound, from
the moment of their birth, by the Jewish law, to a strong animosity
towards us Christian people. Horrible rumours have been revived, at
different times, in different countries, of secret sacrifices of the Jews,
in which the blood of a Christian was a necessary component.
These questions were openly met and discussed in a manly and temperate
manner, in the great Sanhedrim, composed of the highest and most
enlightened Jewish authorities; when a peremptory denial was established
to all these injurious charges. Prejudices nearly as absurd, and quite as
groundless formerly existed in England against the Catholics; the removal
of their civil disabilities being equally the result of the progress of
public enlightenment.
As regards the question of usury so often imputed to the Jews, experience
has proved of late years, that the most notorious extortioners of this
description are of the Christian faith; and it is a question of ethics to
inquire whether there be greater turpitude in openly demanding an interest
of thirty per cent for a loan of money, or in obtaining the same profit by
sale or barter of commodities. A considerable number of tradesmen who
pride themselves upon their strict integrity, require a much higher ratio
of profit than the per centage of the money-lending Jews; nor is it
necessary to remind the reader that some of the most eminent bankers in
Europe, renowned equally for their probity and liberality, are of the
Jewish persuasion.