hs hence, when the returned
lists of the stoppages in the East and West Indies, consequent upon the
late failures here, come home. The Western Bank of Scotland is whispered
about. If that were to fail, it might bring the canny Scots to their
senses; but they are a headstrong race.

A committee on commercial distress having been appointed, the principal
reason for the summoning of the new Parliament in the autumn had been
satisfied, and an adjournment until a month after Christmas was in
prospect. Before, however, this took place, a new and interesting
question arose, which led to considerable discussion, and which
ultimately influenced in no immaterial manner the parliamentary position
of Lord George Bentinck.

The city of London at the general election had sent to the House of
Commons, as a colleague of the first minister, a member who found a
difficulty in taking one of the oaths appointed by the House to be
sworn preliminarily to any member exercising his right of voting. The
difficulty arose from this member being not only of the Jewish race, but
unfortunately believing only in the first part of the Jewish religion.

CHAPTER X.

_The Jews_

THE relations that subsist between the Bedoueen race that, under the
name of Jews, is found in every country of Europe, and the Teutonic,
Sclavonian, and Celtic races which have appropriated that division of
the globe, will form hereafter one of the most remarkable chapters in
a philosophical history of man. The Saxon, the Sclav, and the Celt
have adopted most of the laws and many of the customs of these Arabian
tribes, all their literature and all their religion. They are therefore
indebted to them for much that regulates, much that charms, and much
that solaces existence. The toiling multitude rest every seventh day
by virtue of a Jewish law; they are perpetually reading, 'for their
example,' the records of Jewish history, and singing the odes and
elegies of Jewish poets; and they daily acknowledge on their knees, with
reverent gratitude, that the only medium of communication between the
Creator and themselves is the Jewish race. Yet they treat that race as
the vilest of generations; and instead of logically looking upon them
as the human family that has contributed most to human happiness, they
extend to them every term of obloquy and every form of persecution.

Let us endeavour to penetrate this social anomaly that has harassed and
perplexed centuries.

It