I suppose that the most picturesque example in history of a trader’s trust in his fellow-trader was one where it was not Christian trusting Christian, but Christian trusting Jew.  That Hessian Duke who used to sell his subjects to George III. to fight George Washington with got rich at it; and by-and-by, when the wars engendered by the French Revolution made his throne too warm for him, he was obliged to fly the country.  He was in a hurry, and had to leave his earnings behind—­$9,000,000.  He had to risk the money with some one without security.  He did not select a Christian, but a Jew—­a Jew of only modest means, but of high character; a character so high that it left him lonesome—­Rothschild of Frankfort.  Thirty years later, when Europe had become quiet and safe again, the Duke came back from overseas, and the Jew returned the loan, with interest added.[2]

The Jew has his other side.  He has some discreditable ways, though he has not a monopoly of them, because he cannot get entirely rid of vexatious Christian competition.  We have seen that he seldom transgresses the laws against crimes of violence.  Indeed, his dealings with courts are almost restricted to matters connected with commerce.  He has a reputation for various small forms of cheating, and for practising oppressive usury, and for burning himself out to get the insurance, and for arranging cunning contracts which leave him an exit but lock the other man in, and for smart evasions which find him safe and comfortable just within the strict letter of the law, when court and jury know very well that he has violated the spirit of it.  He is a frequent and faithful and capable officer in the civil service, but he is charged with an unpatriotic disinclination to stand by the flag as a soldier—­like the Christian Quaker.

Now if you offset these discreditable features by the creditable ones summarised in a preceding paragraph beginning with the words, ’These facts are all on the credit side,’ and strike a balance, what must the verdict be?  This, I think:  that, the merits and demerits being fairly weighed and measured on both sides, the Christian can claim no superiority over the Jew in the matter of good citizenship.

Yet in all countries, from the dawn of history, the Jew has been persistently and implacably hated, and with frequency persecuted.

Point No. 2.—­’Can fanaticism alone account for this?’

Years ago I used to think that it was responsible for nearly all of it, but latterly I have come to think that this was an error.  Indeed, it is now my conviction that it is responsible for hardly any of it.

In this connection I call to mind Genesis, chapter xlvii.