The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2986, 20 January 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 1881.

From English papers to hand by the last mail, and notably from the Jewish Chronicle and the London Era, we learn that there is again revived in Germany a social agitation such as disgraced the country about half a century ago. We allude to the shameful and unjustifiable persecution of the Jews. At the present moment the Jews are greeted with insults and threats similar to those which from 1830 to 1840 drove away from the land men and women who had done honour by their talents and virtues to the country in which they lived. Amongst the persecuted at that time was Heine, the greatest of modern German poets, whose enemies were much increased because of his belonging to the Jewish race. What can be the real cause of the present persecution is difficult ■ to Bay. It cannot be religion, for the bulk of the people are Atheißts, and it can be of little consequence to them as to the religious beliefs of the Hebrews. Yet pamphlets are sold by thousands in the German cities denouncing the Jews, and Government officials open threaten them. How unreasonable, cruel, and ignorant is all this. Well may the poet lament " what man has made of man " by envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. If only the Gentiles would follow the Jews in many of their habits, customs, and social laws, the world would be the better for it. How many of our gigantic workhouses'

could be pulled down if we paid the same : care and took the same watchful interests in our poor as the Jews. Who ever hears ft a Jewish vagrant dying of starvation in the public streets ? while the small proportion of crimes of violence in the Hebrew community reflects the greatest honor upon the race. No other people pay the same respect to human life ; no other people show such tender respect to childhood, and the ties of marriage are infinitely more respected than in Christian communities. And is it possible for the Germans to forg&t that the greatest modern composers, Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer, Halevy, and others and the greatest thinkers and scientific men have been of the same race? The only tangible ground for suspicion against the Jews is their having shown sympathy with the inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine in their eeparation from France. But does that justify wholesale persecution ? The Jews lent the Germans their money freely to prosecute the war against France, and did not exact more than the market rate of interest. Many Jewish writers in the reviews, periodicals, and newspapers did all they could on behalf of the Fatherland, ancl it cannot be denied that they have conducted themselves like Good citizens. There may have been a few agitators, perhaps, in their ranks, but ac a rule it was not in the Hebrew race that the Socialist, the Nihilist, and the Communist was to be met with. This attitude towards the Jews in Germany is a disgrace to the country and to modern civilisation Savage tribes have shown greater tolerance.