Washington telegraph., 1849-10-10
THE JEW OF THE PAST AND OF
s. THE PRESENT.

THE PRESENT.
In one of our late exchanges we see it
stated. that the banking house of the
| Rothschilds, which has branches in
France, Spain and Germany, refused q
loan of money to the Emperor of Austria,
except upon the condition that his
Majesty would first grant independence
to Hungary. What contrast does this
| simple fact exhibit between the Jew of
4849. and the Jew of centuries precedingt
From the day when the Holy City was
sacked by the legions of imperial Rome,
and her children driven forth. houseless,
homeless, and friendless, TO seek as a boon
what they could no longer demand as
a right--a resting place for their feet, and
a shelter for their heads, the Jews have
been the scorn Of all mankind Thew
have wandered for centuries from country
to country-they have penetrated the
frozen regions of the arctic circle-they
have been exposed to meridian sun
upon the burning plains OF the great
African Desert-they have betaken them.
selves to the high seas, and suffered the
capricious winds to watt them to every
portion of the habitable globe-they have
sought refuge among all the peoples of
the earth, among the civilized nations of
Europe, the wild borders of Tartary, the
INDECENT and languid Hindoo, the in.
dUstrious and poinsfaking subject of the
Celestial Empire, the varied races of in
terror Africa. and the swarming myriads
of the islands of the great deep; and in
all these diversified climates and localities,
and among all these nations, contrasted
as they are In every characteristic of
human nature, the Jew alone has met
with one common sentiment of hatred
and one uniform disposition to inhict upon
him pain, contumely and contempt. He
has borne for ages the ndeliable mark of
the displeasure of Divine Providence, and
all nations seem instinctively to have
recognized the fact, and to have emulated
each other in inventive methods of torture
and torment for him. In Spain. every
autO-dete was signalized by the broiiing
of Jew, and the dungeons of the In.
QUESTION, the rack, the wheel, the iron
boot, the we'll of reptiles, and all instru-
ments which malignity could invent,
were put in requisition to agoniZe him;
in Italy, similar system Of torments
awaited him for ages together; in France,
Germany and England he was looked
upon with absolute adherence, cut off
from all social and domestic communion,
forced to keep himself separate and dis
tinct, prosecuted, whipped, plundered.
beaten, subjected to chains, to labor, and
forever debarred from the privilege of
ow ming enough of his mother earth to
secure his body, after death, from the
beak of the carron bird. In Russia and
northern Europe, he was converted into
a beast of burthen, and compelled to toll
on from day to day beneath the cruel
lash of an unrelenting task-master, until
he sunk in absolute helplessness, and
was murdered to save the trouble and
expense of giving him fQod enough to
keep him alive. Among all the diversifi-
ed races and peoples Of interior Asia, the
same cruel fate awaited him--stripes
peltings and prosecutions, in every i'm:
aoinable form, beset him at every step of
his course. And even upon the distant
islets of the sea, the ignorant and thought
less savage was inspired with an jnstinc:
tive aversion to the Jew, and tasked his
feeble intellect to invent methods for in.
ficting injuries upon him.
But the progress of civilization, and
the purifying influence of a rational
Christianity, are rapidly obliterating every
trace of that barbarism and inhumanity
which, during the middle ages. defaced
and deformed every system of civil and
social institutions. The rights of man,
as member of the social body, and the
right of conscience, with its sole respon-
sibility to the Great Creator of all, have
been recognized by the laws Of all civiliz.
ed nations. and guarded and protected
with more or less of certainty. Even the
despised and condemned Jew has not
,een entirely overlooked in the general
process of amelioration. He cannot now
be legally robbed Of the fruit Of his tolls,
he cannot be prosecuted and tortured bv
the caprice and malignity of his fellows,
and he cannot be murdered at the option
of an arbitrary monarch, He is allowed
10 have home and fireside, TO gather
domestic comforts, and nurse the virtues
which beautify the family circle; and, by
his unwearied industry, steady applica-
ton, and sing,eness of purpose, he has
acquired power and influence in the
commercial system of the world, which
enables him even to control the despotc
wills of monarchs, and, in some degree,
the destinies of natious-iSt. Louis ReU.
c~~-~~~~-~----~--~~-~~-~
BEWARE OF BAD BooKs.-"Whv, what
harm will books do mef" The same harm
that personal intercourse would with the
h.I rhnx