EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS FROM GERMANY.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 925, 12 March 1881, Page 5

EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS FROM GERMANY.

The Germans are determined not to be behind their old rivals the French in any respect, and as the latter have lately signalised themselves by their expulsion of the Jesuits, the Teutons have made an effort to deal in the same summary manner with the Jews. Beyond the fact that both Jesuits and. Jews are unpopular, there are only two facta which connect them. Both are powerful, and envied for their power, and both are communities apart from, and in a certain sense opposed to, the peoples among whom they reside. The bitterest indictment that was levelled in the Prussian chamber against Hebrew citizens was that they constituted an imperium in imperio ; that they did not intermarry with their neighbors, and that in politics, religion and society alike, they pointedly severed themselves from those with whom they walked and talked, bought and sold, with as little scruple as Shylock. No doubt a number of minor associations have served to make the peculiar people peculiarly obnoxious to particular sections of European society. Two of the greatest powers of the time are wielded by Jews. They control to a great extent the continental money markets and the continental newspapers, and with the power of the press and the power of the purse conjoined,', awaken the envy and sometimes the 'Suspicions of those who have strong national sentiments. Their financial operations have been for centuries largely in the way of loans, and because they have followed out the rigid law jof Moses when requiring their due, they have rendered themselves unpopular in many successive generations. Except in a 'social'way the German agitation, as might have been anticipated, has been fruitless. It is strange indeed in this age of self-congratulatory enlightenment to find any kind of revival of the mediaeval,feelings against the Jews. As the Court preacher in Berlin is the most active person connected with the movement, it is plain that the religious bigotry characteristic of the middle ages has not a little to do with the disturbance which has just arisen.