robbery, and murder, yet the quiet, masters of
the property and welfare of hundreds, in an unnatural adventurous
position, and yet always steadily occupied, amidst the densest mass of
Christians, yet separated from them by iron boundaries, they lived a
twofold life; in presence of Christians they were cold, stubborn,
patient, timid, cringing, and servile, bowed down under the oppression
of a thousand years: yet all the pride of noble blood, great wealth,
and superior talent, the full glow of southern feeling, every kindly
emotion and every dark passion were to be found in that race.

After the Thirty years' war, the Jews obtained scarcely more protection
from the fury of the multitude, and their spiritual trials became
greater. If the Protestants, who were then weak and embarrassed, vexed
them more by repulsive arrogance than by their arts of proselytism, the
old Church was the more zealous. They were more prosperous in trade and
usury since the Westphalian peace, indeed a splendid prospect had
opened for them. The diminution of international wholesale business,
the ruin of old commercial houses at Nuremburg and Augsburg, the
continued depreciation of the coinage, the unceasing need of money,
with the territorial lords, small and great, was favourable to the
multifarious activity of the Jewish business, which found skilful
instruments throughout all Germany, and connections from Constantinople
to Cadiz. The importance to German trade of the close cohesion of the
Jews amongst themselves, at a period when bad roads, heavy tolls, and
ignorant legislation, placed the greatest limits upon commerce, is not
yet sufficiently appreciated. With unwearied energy, like ants, they
everywhere bored their secret way through the worm-eaten wood of the
German Empire: long before the letter post and system of goods carriers
had spread a great network over the whole circuit of the country, they
had quietly combined for these objects; poor chafferers and travelling
beggars, passed as trusty agents between Amsterdam and Frankfort,
Prague and Warsaw, with money and jewels under their rags, nay
concealed within their bodies. In the most dangerous times, in spite of
prohibitions, the defenceless Jew stole secretly through armies, from
one German territory into another; and he carried Kremnitzer ducats of
full weight to Frankfort, while he circulated light ones among the
people. Here he bought laces and new church vestments for his
opponents, t