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CHAPTER CIII.

A. D. 1517 to 1849.

The Dispersion since the Reformation General Remarks Usefulness of the Jews in

THE Dark Ages, commencing in the fifth century, and ending in the fifteenth, had now finished their sluggish and disastrous course. They brought with them woe and misfortune to all, but to none more than to the descendants of Abraham. As we have seen, during this long night of the world, they were subjected, by the dominant powers both of the West and of the East, to every species of deprivation, persecution, and misery. Not a tithe of the hardships and injustice which they endured has here been put on record, and, indeed, only an inconsiderable proportion of their crimes. But, in regard to their fellow-men, the punishment seems to have far exceeded the provocation. They were Jews, and therefore hated, scorned, and oppressed by all mankind. Such were the ancient predictions of their prophets.

But the times were changed. The spirit of persecution, though by no means extinct, began by degrees to abate, and the general Jewish character to undergo some improvement. The great events of this period the invention and rapid progress of printing and the Reformation - could not but have some effect on the condition of the Jews. This people were by no means slow to avail themselves of the advantages offered to learning by the general use of printing. From their presses at Venice, in Turkey, and in other quarters, splendid specimens of typography were sent forth, and the respect of the learned world was insensibly increased by the facilities thus afforded for the knowledge of the Scriptures in the original language, and the bold opening of all the mysteries of rabbinical wisdom to those who had sufficient inquisitiveness and industry to enter on that wide and unknown field of study.

The Reformation affected the Hebrew people rather in its remote than in its immediate consequences. They were still liable to suffer from the prejudices entertained against them by men in power; but, excluded from one city or state, they found refuge in another till the storm passed off. Wherever they had opportunity, they opened important branches of commerce, though they were usually more addicted to money-lending and the sale of gold trinkets and jew elry. Luther was disposed, on the whole, to regard this people humanely; though detesting them usurers, he thought their conversion should be at tempted only by persuasion. But the condition of the Jews was ameliorated through the Reformation, by its indirect action in raising up new and more dangerous enemies to the power of the Catholic church. They were, in fact, forgotten or overlooked in the conflict. Their condition was ameliorated especially by the wise

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At the commencement of the eighteenth century, Poland and the adjacent provinces had, for some time, been the head-quarters of the Jews. Here they had almost every branch of traffic; in some towns, they formed the greater part of the population. In that kingdom, they constituted the only middle order between the nobles and the serfs. There, also, was the seat of rabbinical papacy. In Western Europe, in the mean time, those great changes which disorganized the framework of society, were maturing. The condition of the Israelite, and even his religion, was affected by the new opinions, as they affected Christians and Christianity. Time-honored institutions and principles were, in both orders, for a time shaken. By the philosophic, atheistic school the Jews were detested, as the ancestors of the Christians. But the problem of toleration and freedom was in process of being worked out by degrees. The new views had, in effect, an application to all nations and classes of men. Still the early and ancient prejudices against the Hebrew race abated but slowly.

The legislation of Frederic the Great - in the middle of the eighteenth century - was rigid and absurd. It limited the number of the Jews in the kingdom; divided them into those who held an ordinary or extraordinary protection from the crown; banished widows who married foreign Jews, and enacted other similar relics of the dark ages. In England, a more tolerant spirit was exercised, though a bill for naturalizing all the Jews who had resided three years in the kingdom, which was passed by both houses of Parliament in 1753, caused so great a popular clamor, that it became necessary to repeal the obnoxious statute. In Italy, after the French revolution, this people enjoyed freedom and quiet. In Rome, they experienced some restrictions. In the maritime towns, they continued to prosper.

In Germany, the celebrated Moses Mendelssohn, a Jew of vast genius and learning, had the influence, through his temper and writings, to inspire an unusual kindness of feeling toward the race to which he belonged. By his example, he emancipated many of the Jewish youth from the control of rabbinism. In the year 1780, when Joseph II. ascended the throne, among the first measures of this restless and universal reformer was one for the amelioration of the condition of the Jews. They had been barely tolerated for some time previously, except that, in certain parts of the empire, they lived without much molestation. The act of Joseph opened to them the schools and universities of

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the empire, and an almost unlimited field of trade. few restrictions, however, were imposed upon them. The French revolution that event which effected so many changes, both evil and good, and whose consequences are still in progress among mankind - found some Jews in France, as a few were permitted to settle there after the great final expulsion, and a number had been allowed to remain in the country. In the years 1784 and 1788, some grievances were redressed, in reference to this people, by the king's government; but, in 1790, they were recognized as citizens of the great republic. In 1806, Napoleon, in the height of his power and grandeur, condescended to take into consideration the condition of the Jews, and summoned a grand sanhedrim to assemble at Paris. Several important questions were submitted to be answered by that body. The deputies, upon their assembling, gave different answers to the questions, though it is supposed that these were not universally recognized as the authoritative sentence of the nation. Napoleon's object was less a matter of vanity and benevolence than of policy. He knew their importance in the financial department of his government and empire, and was not unwilling to secure their aid and friendship. The result was a decree, declaring those only to be French citizens, who followed some useful calling, while all Jews were subject to conscription.

The laws of France relating to the Jews have remained unaltered, unless of late. In Italy, excepting in the Tuscan dominions, they became, some few years since, subject to the ancient regulations, which were more favorable than in most other countries of an early date. In Rome, all distinctions, separating them from the rest of the community, have, it appears, been abolished. In Germany, not long since, some hostility was lurking in the popular feeling, not so much from religious animosity as from commercial jealousy, in several of the great places of trade. The king of Prussia, even before the year 1815, when the diet of the German empire had pledged itself to turn its attention to the improvement of the civil state of the Jews, had encouraged the interests of education among that people. His zeal for this and other important objects, in reference to them, was not wasted on an ungrateful race. Many of them are stated to have fallen in the Prussian ranks at Waterloo. As late as the year 1829, while the states of Wurtemberg were discussing a bill for the extension of the civil rights to the Jews, the populace of Stuttgard surrounded the hall of assembly with fierce outcries,-" Down with the Jews; down with the friends of the Jews!" But, to the honor of the states be it said, they remained unmoved, and proceeded to ratify the obnoxious edict. The policy of the Russian government seems to have been, in more modern times, less liberal than that of other European governments. The overthrow of the rabbinical authority has been aimed at; many Jews have been transferred from the crowded Polish provinces to the less thickly settled parts of the empire. Some restrictions as to trade have been imposed within the present century; and a decree of the emperor Nicholas, some eighteen or twenty years since, seemed to be directed partly at the rabbins, and partly at the petty traffickers. The latter are entirely prohibited in the Russian dominions.

In the United States, under the constitution, the Jews have all the liberty, rights, and privileges,

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which any other class of citizens enjoys; all offices of power and trust are open to them, equally with the members of any other creed or sect; and they have uniformly been treated with the consideration and respect to which all the inhabitants of the land are entitled, according to their personal character and conduct. Although, in all Protestant countries, they may not receive the consideration which is thus accorded to them in the United States, yet they are treated with great comparative mildness and charity. In England, they have been long allowed the full liberty of their religion, an unrestrained freedom of commerce, and the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of their property. More recently, the civil disabilities have been removed, and a professed Jew-Baron Rothschild-for the first time, has been admitted as a member of Parliament.

The Israelitish race, driven, at an early period, from their native land by the Roman arms, have never since fully re-occupied it. At present, only a small proportion of its inhabitants are Jews, although their numbers have considerably increased of late years. The country languishes under the rule of the Turks, having a mixed population of Ottoman Turks, Greeks, Arabs, Turkomans, Copts, and Armenians. As the Turkish government has recently manifested a spirit of liberality and toleration, the country will doubtless improve with a good deal of rapidity.

An ancient people, called the Druses, still occupy the more northern heights of Lebanon; but, as they properly come within the limits of Syria, we shall notice them in giving the history of that country. A small remnant of the Samaritans still worship on Mount Gerizim. The city of Tiberias, built by Herod the tetrarch, is still a place of residence for the Jews. In the minds of many of this race, the hope of a return to the home of their fathers is cherished with the liveliest enthusiasm and the fondest affection; and occasionally, in modern times, there have been seeming indications of the possibility, if not probability, of the event.

In our day, the Jews have partaken largely of the spirit of the age. Individuals of this ancient and renowned race appear to be pressing, with new earnestness and success, into every path of honorable distinction. A great degree of intellectual activity, indeed, prevails throughout the nation. Besides the indefatigable toils of Wolff in all parts of the world, many distinguished Hebrews, accepting Christ as the true Messiah, have made great efforts to convert their race, and unite them in a consentaneous effort for the improvement, elevation, and moral regeneration, of all who bear the name of Judah, or boast the lineage of Jacob.

The Hebrew race, at present, occupy the four quarters of the globe. They are found under every climate, in every region, under every form of government, wearing the indelible national stamp upon their features, united by the close moral affinity of habits and feelings, and, at least the mass of the community, treasuring in their hearts the same reliance on their national privileges, the same trust in the promises of their God, the same conscientious attachment to the religion of their fathers, the same hope of return to Canaan and prosperity in the land of their glorious ancestors. But, whatever purposes may have been once answered by Judaism as a local, restricted, representative religion, and they were infinitely important purposes, it is plain that a religion like Chris

CHAPTER CIV.

m

Hebron

Gaza - Samaria

ure

the course of the preceding narrative, the extent, sions, population, &c., of the Jewish dominions → been incidentally presented, and, perhaps, with nuch minuteness as the design of this work would it. In addition, it may be remarked, that, as to nt, the Hebrew territory properly included, as setand afterwards conquered by the twelve tribes, area of seven degrees of latitude, by about as ay of longitude. This was in the time of David Solomon, when the empire was most powerful. Arnon was the boundary which separated the Drews on the east from the Ammonites, and on the h from the Moabites, until they were subdued by id. Then the lines of his dominion extended has far as 35° 15′ of latitude, where the city of ■psacus was situated. The kingdom of Damascus, the cities of Batack and Banath, was for a time ocied by the armies of David. On the east, his minions may, in a loose sense, be said to have ended to the Euphrates, as they reached to the ensive deserts which gird the shore of that river.

The portions assigned at first to the several tribes d not here be repeated, but the names of the several sions of the Holy Land, as it was known in the s of its splendor, are here given. It embraced JuSamaria, Galilee, Syro-Phœnicia, and Perea, with er smaller divisions. These continued nearly the me to the time of Christ. The numbers and military er having also been successively exhibited in the rative, it remains that we give only their present aber. Scattered and divided over the face of the h, they have now, of course, no military power aside In that of the communities to which they belong. ome instances, though not all, they may add their ta to the national strength. This is allowed, and n required, in some governments, as in ours, but is Dably, even at this day, no part of the regulation of e countries containing within them a Jewish popion. The aggregate of the Hebrew nation in the ld is still very considerable. They have ever been a t prolific race, as the history of their repeated wars massacres, destruction and repair, has evinced.

To estimate the number of a people thus scattered diffused in almost every nation, is an attempt ch no one can make with any hope of a certain roximation to the truth. Estimates have, however,

Netherlands, 80,000; France, 60,000; Italy, Great Britain, 12,000; Cracow, 7,300; Ionia 7000; Denmark, 6000; Switzerland, 1970; 430;- total, 1,918,053. The Jews of Amer North America, 5000; Netherlandish Colonie Demerara and Essequibo, 200; - total, 570 the Jewish population has doubtless increased since this estimate was made, especially in the States. If it has participated in the proportion crease of the inhabitants of Europe and Ameri the general pacification in 1815, we may pl number of this people at least one third high the Weimar statement. In the United States, the extent of immigration of late years, we ma at more than ten times the number there assi this country.

As to military power - militia levies sometim Jehoshaphat's reign, brought more than a million into the field at once. The standing army o amounted to twenty-five thousand, and the m upwards of a million of men; and this force ena Jews, in Solomon's time, to hold the political of the world - being between Egypt and all on the one side, and Assyria, at the head of f the other

Chief Cities. - Such, in ancient times, v fertility of the soil of Palestine, and the dens industry of its inhabitants, that many consi cities were sustained, and very many more to smaller size. Indeed, for the extent and resou the country, it is wonderful that such collecti people were brought together for the purposes ( and the arts, and especially for war.

We are informed by Josephus that, in Galilee there were two hundred and four cities and that the largest of the cities had one hundred al thousand, and the smaller towns fifteen thousa habitants. If this were literally so, and the othe of the Holy Land bore any proportion to this a it displays an astonishing state of things in res the productiveness of the territory, and the ing of its people. Its largest and most celebrate -one of the most celebrated in the worldmost hallowed in its associations, was Jerusalem

According to Josephus, Jerusalem was the of Melchisedec's kingdom, called Salem, in G And the Arabians assert that it was built in ho Melchisedec by twelve neighboring kings, and 1 called it Jerusalem. But nothing is known wi tainty respecting it till the time of David, who ca it from the Jebusites, and made it the capital kingdom.

It has undergone a greater variety of fortune