tions may require any alteration, or be susceptible of improvement.

We shall conclude this chapter with a quotation from the work of one of the most eminent of their teachersthe Rev. Rabbi Ascher. "In his Initiation of Youth" he has the following question and answer,-" Has the Israelite a fatherland besides Jerusalem? Yes, the country wherein he is bred and born, and in which he has the liberty to practise his religion, and where he is allowed to carry on traffic and trade, and to enjoy all the advantages and protection of the law in common with the citizens of other creeds; this country, the Israelite is bound to acknowledge as his fatherland, to the benefit of which he must do his best to contribute. The sovereign who rules over this land is (after God) his sovereign; its laws-so long as they are not contradictory to the Divine Law-are also the Israelite's laws; and the duties of his fellow citizens are also his duties."

CHAPTER VIII.

NATIONAL TRAITS OF CHARACTER.

IMPRESSED with the idea of the great difficulty of doing justice to any community, in endeavouring to analize its general character, from the numerous exceptions that present themselves to every rule, we thought of closing our pages without adverting to the subject and especially as our object has been not to advance our own opinion on any subject, but merely to relate things as we found them; but after much reflection, we have resolved to add this chapter in attempting to give a summary of the character of the British Jews. And here we must confess that we have no sympathy with those authors, who, reckless of facts and history both sacred and profane, would lead us, for the sake of building up a theory, to believe that the difference of character among the nations is founded upon constitutional and unchangeable principles. We believe, with one of the most gifted of authors, that God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth'-and although a

variety of causes may co-operate to modify the character, still the great agents of all moral change are religion and education.

After much inquiry and reflection, we verily believe that the British Jews are not guilty of any habitual vice peculiar to themselves; but on the other hand, that they are less addicted to the immoralities that so frequently disgrace their Gentile neighbours.

And here we may observe that they are

1. Industrious. The British Jew is not brought up in idleness, whatever his wealth may be; nor the poor, entirely to depend upon charity. Jewish loungers are few-but all have some occupation to follow—some duties to perform. And how widely different a spectacle, in this respect, the Jewish localities present, when placed in juxta-position to many Gentile localities in the metropolis, is but too obvious.

2. Abstinent. Drunkenness is not one of the besetting sins of the Jewish community; but on the other hand, they are exceedingly abstemious. In the drinking habits of Jew and Gentile, there is a marked contrast, both in private families as well as public parties. Jewish taverns are also few in number; and those are attended more, we believe, as places to transact business, or for some kind or other of merchandize than for drinking. The consequence is, that few Jews are drunkards; and those disgusting scenes of intoxication, so frequently witnessed in many parts of London, are rarely seen among the Jews.

3. Cleanly. What we mean here is, not that the Jew displays any inherent inclination to form habits of cleanliness, more strictly than his neighbour of the same

station in life, but that he is bound, according to the principles of his faith, to exercise periodical cleanliness, such as bathing-cleansing himself and his dwelling for the sabbath, and festivals; and the annual renovation on Passover. Thus, compared with their Gentile neighbours of the same classes, the Jewish community is superior in cleanliness.

4. Decent. There is much decency among the Jews. We shall here only instance one thing-their dwellings. It is well known what shocking scenes are common among the poor of London, especially the Irish, a dozen or more persons of both sexes, living and sleeping in one dark and filthy room, without any partition whatever. Such scenes are never witnessed among the Jews-the poorest of whom have a separate room for each family.

5. Hospitable. We have seen in another chapter their charitable institutions-we only refer here to their domestic hospitality. This is enjoined as a religious duty; and is very generally exercised. We know families whose houses are always open to their poor brethren, especially on sabbath and festivals; and these are not solitary instances-but all classes, we believe, are commendably given to hospitality.

6. Sabbath-keeping. We have treated the sabbath, and the mode of its observance in another chapter-we only refer here to the fact of their general cessation on it from toil and business. There are Jews in London and out of London, who keep neither their own sabbath, nor the Christian; these, however, are only few—the great body of their community, lay aside all their labours during one day in every week. And here again their

community presents a marked contrast to many of their Gentile neighbours who have no sabbath-no break in their routine of toil to renovate the body or improve the mind.

The cultivation of these social virtues gives to the Jews advantages over the thousands of their Gentile neighbours, who so shamefully neglect them. In nothing does this appear more evident, perhaps, than in point of health. As an example, we subjoin the following extract from the Report of the General Board of Health on the Epidemic Cholera. "It is a well-ascertained fact, that the Jews residing in London, have suffered less in proportion to the population than the other inhabitants. It is reckoned that there are about 20,000 Jews in the metropolis. The number of Portuguese Jews, is about 3,000; and up to 13th September, only two cases of death from cholera had occurred among them. Not a single case of cholera happened in the Portuguese Jews' Hospital in the Mile-end-road. In the year 1832, only four deaths from cholera occurred among this section of the Jews. The above facts are recorded on the information kindly furnished to me by Mr. Almosnino, the Secretary of the Portuguese Synagogue in Bevis Marks'.

"Mr. Liddle having received further information from the secretaries of the Great Synagogue, Duke's-place, and the new Synagogue, Crosby-square, says: I may fairly infer, from the above respectable sources of information (the best that can probably be obtained on this subject), that the Jews have suffered much less from cholera in proportion, than the other classes of the community, probably not more than thirteeen out of a