advanced in support of them,
appeared to me to be of so much importance that I cannot
forbear submitting them to your Excellency's kind
consideration, bearing particularly in mind that the
adherents to the Oral Law, as the sacred and only
authorized commentary to the holy Scripture, have been
represented to your Excellency in a light certainly not
calculated to throw much lustre on Israel at large.

"The Talmud distinctly forbids us appropriating unlawfully
from our neighbour, whether he be Israelite or
non-Israelite, any object whatever, even of the smallest
value. ('Khoshen Mishpat, Halakhot Genebah,' ch.
ccclxxviii., secs. 1, 2.) Every kind of deception is
interdicted without respect to the person subject thereto
being Israelite or non-Israelite. (Maimonides, 'Halakhot
Deot,' ch. ii., sec. 6.) By the same authority we are
bound to act with equal fairness in the sale of any
article, be the purchaser Israelite or the follower of any
other faith. ('Khoshen Mishpat,' ch. ccxxviii.;
Maimonides, 'Halakhot Makhiva,' ch. xviii., sec. 1.) That
every temptation to do wrong may be avoided, an Israelite
is enjoined not to keep under his roof any bad coin,
unless he deface it so that it cannot be used as current
coin in dealing with any person, whatever be his religious
faith. ('Peroosh Hamishnayot teharambam Tract Kelim,' ch.
xii., Mishna 7.) The prohibition of such practices is
understood in the sacred text in Deuteronomy, ch. xxv., v.
16: 'For all that do such things, and all that do
unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.'

"Principles like these must surely tend to create good
feeling between all Israelites and their neighbours of
every faith.

"Sincere attachment and perfect obedience, the strictest
loyalty we are enjoined to evince towards the Government
of the country in which we live, and this is a truth, my
brethren rightly aver, prominently taught in our sacred
writings. Therefore, in the first place, we look upon the
monarch, though of another faith and nation, as the
anointed of the Lord (Isaiah ch. xlv., v. 1), and consider
his Government as a resplendence of the heavenly
Government ('Tract Berakhot,' p. 58). We are enjoined to
fear the Eternal Being and the King, and not to
confederate with those who are given to change (Proverbs
xxiv., v. 21). The prophets, in speaking of a
non-Israelite ruler, say: