fortune, proclaimed as emperor by the Roman legions he had led to victory. But, controlled by prophetic fanaticism, they staked national existence on the desperate venture of war with Rome, and, losing all for which they had struggled for sixteen centuries, the flower of their race, snatched from massacre as profitable merchandise, was bought and sold in every slave market of the empire.

Christian theologians affirm that the descendants of the vanquished Jews have remained a PECULIAR PEOPLE for nearly two thousand years in fulfilment of Hebrew prophecy; but has not alleged prediction in this, as in countless other instances, produced its own fulfilment ? The first generations of exiled Jews naturally clung to the traditions of their race, and fostered gradually expiring hope with the promises of the prophets: but, before the time had come for social interaction to absorb them, as in the case of the lost ten tribes, within the family circles of surrounding nations, Christianity assumed the threatening form of religious intolerance, and forced the Hebrew race into a tribal isolation, which their theological enemies have been pleased to call the miraculous fulfilment of prophecy. Can any candid and impartial inquirer, whether Jew or Gentile, question that, if primitive and medieval Christianity had respected the social and political rights of the Hebrew race, in the same spirit of natural justice which now enrols them as the enfranchised, loyal, and prosperous citizens of the most enlightened modern States, they would have long since disappeared from history as a Peculiar People, and become an important element in the fusion of races forming the most civilised nations of modern times?

And if, in that case, some charming Esther or fascinating Rebecca had won the love and shared the throne of a Plantagenet or a Tudor, imaginative theologians, detecting a scion of Hebrew royalty in this queenly daughter of Judah, might re-adjust the orthodox interpretation of prophecy, and tell us that the throne of David had been restored in the modern glories of the British Empire.

The darkest pages in the history of Christianity are those which record the persecution of the Jews; and the pretensions of modern communities to civilisation are measurable by the meed of justice awarded to Hebrew citizens. Can we imagine a more amazing spectacle than Christianity appropriating the sacred literature of a Semitic tribe, adapting it to a new religion, and then persecuting and massacring its owners for proving faithful to their ancestral creed! We might as reasonably claim the Vedas as our own, reconstruct Brahminical theosophy, and insist on Hindoo acceptance of our interpretation under penalty of death.

All this is now, however, changed in the most enlightened communities, where the Jews enjoy a tardy recognition of their just claims as loyal citizens. In Germany, where we might reasonably hope for better things, a mild phase of Judæophobia has been aroused by apparent envy of Hebrew prosperity-in other words, Teutonic Aryans admit the intellectual superiority of their Semitic rivals. But neither Germans, Celts, nor Anglo-Saxons need wonder at being beaten in the race with Jews, whose intellectual heritage extends so many centuries beyond their own. When the founders of noble families in Europe were marauding barons, familiar with every form of violence, the Hebrews were

cultivating the arts of peace as merchants, bankers, usurers—if you will-storing up reserves of intelligence in the race which, under the social and political conditions of modern civilisation, are bringing them to the front in every field of intellectual labour, to reap a tardy compensation for the injustice of centuries.

The literary and political achievements of the late Lord Beaconsfield attest our theory. His brain was the storehouse of the intellectual growth of ages. If an Anglo-Saxon, his career would have been a marvellous feat of genius; but weighted in the race with all the disadvantages of Hebrew birth, his success overshadows even the greatest of his European contemporaries. The crowning glory of his life was this, that he, a Jew, born of a race on which Englishmen have looked coldly as mercenary aliens, understood more clearly than any other British statesman of his generation that the existence of the British Empire depends on the resolute maintenance of her imperial power, imperilled in modern times by the fallacious theories of Radical doctrinaires.

Let us hope that the anti-Jewish agitation, in so highly civilised a country as Germany, is nothing more than the temporary craze of an insignificant minority, guilty of nothing worse than calumniating their Semitic neighbours. But it is a grave question for the consideration of German statesmen, whether Teutonic denunciation of the Jews, passing beyond the frontier, is not an exciting cause of Russian atrocities among a less civilised race, interpreting the verbal animosity of Germans through the lawless violence of Tartars.1

1 The thanks of the civilised world are due to M. Tisza for his prompt suppression of anti-Semitism in Hungary.

The recent persecution of the Jews in Russia reveals the depths of Christian hypocrisy; for the enthusiastic avengers of Ottoman barbarism are now the fanatical murderers of inoffensive Hebrews; and British admirers of Holy Russia, fierce in denunciation of Islamite cruelty, now venture on nothing more than respectful remonstance with Russian atrocity.

The Government of the Czar assure us that they have done their best to protect Semitic subjects from outrage. Thus also spoke the Ottoman executive, when Christians suffered from Moslem violence. Are therefore diplomatic excuses for preventible crime more valid from Christian than Turkish lips? If, on the first warning note of popular reversion to medieval Christianity, Russian statesmen could not take the necessary precautions for disarming superstitious fanaticism, shall we infer that the Imperial Government has lost the power of maintaining law and order throughout the empire, and is therefore doomed to succumb to the first popular movement directed against its authority? Or shall we not rather assume that an executive, which brands a section of the population with social and political disabilities, has condoned in anticipation the injustice inflicted on them by their compatriots, acting in loyal sympathy with the religious intolerance of their rulers ?

According to our experience of modern Jews, they are quite content as the loyal subjects of Governments which grant them the same privileges as their Gentile neighbours; and they are even found clinging to homes, under civil disabilities, until driven forth as fugitives. by lawless violence. It is said that the Jews now flying

from the scene of Russian intolerance, experience a Messianic impulse towards the Holy Land-a not improbable tendency in men seeking the alleviation of calamity in dreams; but before accepting the impulse as national, we reasonably inquire whether the Jews of England, France, Austria, and America are willing to surrender assured prosperity in the countries of their adoption for a policy of adventure under Ottoman rule. If, indeed, the Sidonias of Israel are willing to contribute hundreds of millions towards the pious design of fulfilling prophecy, through the colonisation of Palestine, with the numerous sons and daughters of Judah, now scattered over the face of the habitable earth, this age of sympathy with national aspirations will surely cooperate in the purchase of the Holy Land, more especially as we are assured, on rabbinical authority, that the Hebrews no longer indulge in selfish dreams of a tribal Messiah, but await a cosmopolitan Prince, whose dominions shall alike embrace Aryan, Semitic, Turanian, and kindred races.

If, however, the modern magnates of Israel and Judah prefer to reign as monetary princes in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, to fulfilling prophecy by feeding countless flocks, as illustrious sheikhs of Palestine, should not all persecuted children of Israel hasten to those true lands of promise-Canada, America, Australia-where they may yet fulfil the visions of Abraham and the dreams of Jacob, in absolute immunity from the forebodings of seers and the anathemas of prophets, whilst tribal expectation of a Messianic Claimant for the throne of David and the dominions of Solomon gradually fade from the Semitic horizon,