pleased." When I taxed Martha herself, she owned to it directly, and, as usual in all dilemmas, gave me warning on the spot. That of course goes for nothing, but I shall never be able to keep her. As they say of all new converts, she runs quite into extremes, and I firmly believe is more of a Catholic than the Pope himself. For instance, there are several masses, at different hours of the day, to suit the various classes of people; and, will you believe it? she insists on going to them all! But this comes of foreign travelling. Well might I wish that I had never left Woodlands!

TO GERARD BROOKE, ESQ.

MY DEAR GERARD,

This morning I again called on our friend, and found him in company with a little man of such marked features, that between his physiognomy and his London-like pronunciation of English, it was impossible to disconnect him with old clothes, and oranges, Holywell Street, and the Royal Exchange. He was, however, a Prussian, and had simply carried the German pronunciation of W—which is identical with the Cockney way of sounding it into our own language.

I had scarcely been introduced to this Mr. Isaac Meyer, when another visitor was announced, who was likewise " extremely proud and happy to make my acquaintance:" but just in the middle of his pride and happiness, a glance at the little man stopped him short like a stroke of apoplexy. All his blood seemed to mount into his head; the courteous smile vanished; his eye glistened; his lip curled; his frame trembled; and with some difficulty he stammered out the rest of his compliment. In anticipation of a scene, I looked with some anxiety towards the other party, but to my surprise he was perfectly calm and cool; and was either unconscious of the other's perturbation, or took it as a matter of course. Any general conversation was out of the question: after a very short and very fidgetty stay, during which he never once addressed the object of his dislike, the uncomfortable gentleman took his

leave, and the other soon after concluded his "wisit." When they were gone, Markham explained the phenomenon. "The little man," said he, "is of the Hebrew persuasion; and the big one belongs to a rather numerous class, described by Saphir, whose satirical works, by the by, I think you would relish, in short, he is a Jew-hater, one of those who wish that the twelve tribes had but a single neck. You saw how he reddened and winced! As Shakespeare says, 'Some men there are love not a gaping pig, some that are mad if they behold a cat,' and here is this Herr Brigselbach quite set aghast, and chilled all over into goose-skin, at the sight of a human being with black eyes and a hook nose!"

"But surely," said I, "such a prejudice is rare except amongst the most bigoted Catholics and the lower orders?" "Lower orders and Catholics!-quite the reverse. I presume you heard of a certain freak of Royal authority, forbidding the Hebrews the use of Christian names, and enjoining other degrading distinctions. Such an example in such a country was enough to bring Jew-hating into fashion, if it had not been the rage before. But you must live in Germany to understand the prevalence and intensity of the feeling. You will not rank the editor of a public journal, or his contributors, in the lower and ignorant class: nevertheless my little Isaac the other day lent me a local paper, and the two very first paragraphs that met my eye were sarcastic anecdotes against his race. One of them was laughable enough, indeed I laughed at it myself; but in this country such stories are circulated more for malice and mischief than for the sake of the fun. It ran thus: A certain cunning old Jew had lent a large sum of money, and charged interest upon it at nine per cent instead of six, which was the legal rate. The borrower remonstrated; and at last asked the usurer if he did not believe in a God, and where he expected to go when he died? 'Ah,' said the old Hebrew, with a pleased twinkle of the eye and a grin, 'I have thought of that too; but when God looks down upon it from above, the 9 will appear to HIм like a 6.'"

"And what does Mr. Meyer say," I inquired, "of such attacks on his brethren?"

"Little or nothing. When I alluded to the paragraphs, and expressed my indignation, he merely smiled meekly, and said

a few words to the effect that 'suffering was the badge of all his tribe.' In fact they are used to it, as was said of the eels. By the by, Von Raumer speaks of a Prussian liberal, who abused Prussia as no better than a beast; but he surely forgot this oppressed portion of his countrymen. As to love of country in general, he is right, but has the degraded inhabitant of the Juden Gasse a country? To look for patriotism from such a being, you might as well expect local gratitude and attachment from a pauper without a parish! No, no, - that word, so dear, so holy, to a German, his Fatherland, is to the Jew a bitter mockery. He has all the duties and burdens, without the common privileges, of the relationship, he is as heavily taxed, and hardly drilled, as any member of the family; but has he an equal share of the benefits, does he even enjoy a fair portion of the affection of his brothers and sisters? Witness Herr Brigselbach. As for his Fatherland, a Jew may truly say of it as the poor Irishman did of his own hardhearted relative, 'Yes, sure enough he's the parent of me; but he trates me as if I was his son by another father and mother!"

By way of drawing out our friend, who, like the melancholy Jaques in his sullen fits, is then fullest of matter, I inquired if the bitterest writers against the country were not of Meyer's persuasion.

"Yes, Heine abused Prussia, and he was a Jew. So did Börne, and he was a Jew too, born at Frankfort, the free city of Frankfort, whose inhabitants, in the nineteenth century, still amuse themselves occasionally, on Christian highdays and holidays, with breaking the windows of their Hebrew townsmen. What wonder if the galled victims of such a pastime feel, think, speak, and write, as citizens of the world! As Sterne does with his Captive, let us take a single Jew. Imagine him locked up in his dark chamber, pelted with curses and solider missiles, and trembling for his property and his very life, because he will not abandon his ancient faith, or eat pork sausages. Fancy the jingling of the shattered glass, the crashing of the window-frames, the guttural howlings of the brutal rabble, and then picture a Prussian Censor breaking into the room, with a flag in each hand, one inscribed Vaterland, the other Bruderschaft, and giving the quaking wretch a double knock over the head with the poles, to remind

K

him that he is a German and a Frankforter! Was there ever such a tragi-comical picture! But it is not yet complete. The poor Jew, it may be supposed, has little heart to sing to

such a terrible accompaniment as bellows from without; nevertheless the patriotic Censor insists on a chant, and by way of a prompt-book, sets before the quavering vocalist a translation of Dr. Watts's Hymn of Praise and Thanksgiving for being born in a Christian Land!"

not a gros.

Amused by Markham's extempore championship of the twelve tribes, by way of jest I insinuated that, during his admitted scarcity of cash, he had perhaps been supplied with moneys by means of his clients. But he took the jest quite in earnest. "Not a shilling, my dear fellow, But I am indebted to them for some kindness and civility:for they certainly hate us far less than some sects of Christians hate each other. It's my firm belief that the Jews possess many good qualities. Why not? The snubbed children of a family are apt to be better than the spoiled ones. As for their honesty, if they cheat us now, in retail, we have plundered them aforetime by wholesale, and like master like scholar. But there's little Meyer, a Jew every inch of him, and with the peculiar love of petty traffic ascribed to his race. He will sell or barter with you, the books in his library, the spoons in his cupboard, the watch in his fob, and yet in all my little dealings he has served me as fairly as if he had flaxen hair, blue eyes, and a common journey-work nose, with a lump, like a make weight, stuck on the end. The extortions and cheating I have met with were from Christians; and, what is singular, the only time I ever had my money refused in this country, it was by Jews. There are many poor Hebrew families in Bendorf, and other villages on the banks of the Rhine, and it is a pleasant sight to behold, through the windows of their cottages, the seven candles of their religion shining, like the fire-flies of a German night, - the only lights in their darkness, to an outcast people in an alien land. In one of these humble dwellings at Sayn, I once left my hat and coat in exchange for a cap and kittel, preparatory to a broiling hot excursion farther up the country. During my metamorphosis, I happened to take notice of a sickly-looking crippled boy, about nine years old, who was sitting at a table in a corner of the room; and the mother informed me, with a sigh too easy to

On

interpret that he was her first-born, and her only son. my return I resumed my clothes, and offered the poor people a trifle for their trouble, but they had already been overpaid by a common expression of sympathy; and refused my money so pertinaciously, that I could only get rid of the coin by pressing it into the wasted hand of the helpless child. Poor little fellow! I wish I could hope to give him another, - but he was already marked for death, and his thin, sharp, sallow face seemed only kept alive by his quick black eyes!

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"In England," continued Markham, we have seen a Jewish sheriff of London; but I verily believe if anything could excite a rebellion in these provinces, it would not be the closing of the coffee-houses, and the suppression of the newspapers, but the making a Burgomaster of the race of Israel. However, all other brutal sports and pastimes are falling into decadence with the progress of civilization: Bear-baiting is extinct; Badger-drawing is on the wane; Cock-throwing is gone out; Cock-fighting is going after it ; and Bull-running is put down so put on your hat, my dear fellow, and let us hope, for the sake of Christianity and human nature, that Jew-hating and Jew-running will not be the last of the line!"

Our first stroll was through the market-place, which was crowded with countrywomen, many of them afflicted with goître. It has been supposed to arise from drinking snowwater; but as this country abounds in excellent springs, such a theory can scarcely be entertained. In Markham's opinion it is caused by the sudden stoppage of perspiration, and contraction of the pores, by keen blasts from the mountains, whilst the women are toiling bare-necked in the heat of the sun. I asked him if the accounts were correct of the unremitting industry and hard labor of the Germans. "In the towns," said he, "perhaps not: the men are either more indolent, or have less physical strength, than the English. I have frequently seen three or four fellows carrying or drawing loads that would be a burden for only one or two in London. Sometimes you see a leash harnessed to a small truck of wood; perhaps there is a woman along with them, and I have remarked that she is always in earnest, and, like the willing horse, does more than her fair share of the work. Indeed the softer sex has the harder lot here, for, besides what are with us considered masculine employment, in the fields and on the