Tombstone weekly epitaph., 1882-11-04
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
Prof GOidwin Smith on the Jews and Judaism in Prussia. Austria and Russia.
[ By J. D. PoMer.i
VII CnA II l'lING ARTIlI IL

David Hume downward, and find therein the prototype of Goldwin Smith, in tn, principles and prejudices which sully manhood, should unhesitatingly decline
 and from the consciousness ol ny inabil
 ity 10 execute the task to my sat.s faction
 His equal may indeed be found, but none
 who rises superior to him in acerbity ol
 feeling, bitterness of hate, malicious men
 dacity, impious utterances, prejudice and
 vindictive intolerance can be found in the
 wide range indicated above. Great vices
 are sometimes counterbalanced by great
 virtues; but in the case of Goldwin Smith
 we fail to find single mental or literary
 virtue that compensates for his vicious
 writings. These are of the most goddess
 character, and, besides, they contain, as I
 have shown in the two preceding articles,
 misstatements so palpable, so virulent and
 sounpardonable tEat, while reading them,
 one is at loss to account for the utter dis.
 regard of truth and decency which char.
 acterize them. Judging him, then, bv
 those writings and he.traits of character
 they reflect, is it any wonder that he so
 bitterly opposes the Jews, whom he hates
 with fierccness unparalleled. Indeed
 other peoples, too, appear to be no less
 fortunate in mourning his enmity. Of the
 Celtic branch of the great Caucasian race ! as eXemplified in the Hibernians he ap
 pears to be peculiarly and singularly en-
 amoured, inasmuch as he rarely misses an opportunity to manifest his interest in
 them. But his love for the agitating, rob- licking lrishman, is on a par with his love
 for the manual. ual.labor-shIrking" Hebrew.
 and of that sort of English affection Irish.
 men, past and present, have had enough. In
 THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW"
 of which, believe, he is editor, find him
 in an article bearing upon the Irish ques-
 tion, quoted thus: "The root of the calam-
 i,y lies insthe multiplication of the race,
 which the religious system encourages"
 How highly he thinks of the wise provi-
 sions of the Almighty for pcrpetuating the
 human race, as provided for by the reli-
 gious ceremony of marriage! Could Nal thusian doctrines and profanity, ask, 20 further? Had he graduated from Hades,
 and received from its presiding deity, Luci. fer, his title of professor, he could scarcely deal in more impious, brazen and defiant utterances than are set forth in the sen- tence quoted. To the minds of such able poltico-philoSophic writers and thinkers as Henry George, John Bright John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer "the root of the calamity" which now agitates and affiicts Ireland, England and Scotland, "lies" not Gin the reckless multiplication of their races," but rather in the iniquitous division of their broad and fertile lands. From the ownership of these spring all the mis- cries which atfiict the toiling masses of these class-fostering countries. Upon their ownership and the cunningly devised law of primogeniture winch is so potent factor in perpetuating arstocratic lineage, power and tyranny, are predicated the woes and suffcrings and slavery of their labOring millions. Goldwin's Smiths rancorous feeling for the Hebrews, as we'll as his dislike of religious and political freedom everywhere, may have been, and no doubt were, transmitted from sire to son the same as are other mental and phy- sical defects, If such should happen to be so, we cannot So much blame him, though we must blame him for having drawn hls educational in- spirations from the tainted sources which it is very evident he did. But to our nut. | tons. Among the many bitter taunts | hurled by Goldwin Smith at Judaism is the taunt of practicing the rite of circum- cision, after the manner of Apion in the | days of Josephus. This taunt has been | often before flung at the Jews for practic- | ing rite which they believe to have been | distinctly commanded to be observed. He | denounces it as a barbarous custom, but he | does not tell us wherein the barbarity con. | sists. If in the pain produced by the op- | erat on, would not suppose il any greater | than the pain inflicted in piercing a girls | ears for the purpose of complying with custom more decidedly barbarous in its | origin. The operation of vaccination IS
 NOT CONSIDERED DANGEROUS
 by physicians, and we know that it has a | highly salutary influence upon the human frame. Neither is the operation of cir cumcision dangerous, and besides, medical testimony declares it to be positively con- duciye to health; and moreover, it is in nowise mark of tribalism, but rather mark of the religious belief of the He brew people. So much for his opinion of the rite of circumcision. In former ar. ticle pointed out, among hls other ogre grious blunders, the blunder ofmaking the Jews responsible for "shlrking honorable labor" whereas he is entirely indebted to the cruel enactments of his early christian leaders for the "shirking" business. But if, as Prof. Smith asserts, the Jews are averse to manual labor, how comes it that we find so many thousands of them en- gagged in laborious mechanical pursuits in Russia and Asia. The English traveller, Sir A. H. Layard, 1 remember states that he met Jewish shepherds and farmers in many parts of the latter subdivision of the earth, who pastured their flocks and tiled the soil as their ancestors had done before them. In South Arabia also he in inmates, Tn his most entertaining work, he found the chief mechanical trades almost entirely in their hands, since the Mos ems despise artisans and look upon me ;hanical pursuits as unworthy of their at ention. And he says the same holds good 'f the Jews of Russia, whom he found idepts in the industrial arts, and moreover many of them practiced as physicians and were highly respected. And apropos of he mention of the healing art, myself must add my testimony in behalf of Jew sh physicians, one of whom, a native of Prussia, found not only an excellent physician but most accomplished sur ( ,eon. One more reason for his dislike of 1 he Jews, and it is the last 1 shall produce ; rom his schedule of indictments, and I hall say Vale to Goldwin Smith, even hough l have not yet reached the end. (