The

vation of every individual, so are the Scriptures. Mishna is compared to wine, wine being very acceptable, but surely not absolutely necessary.* Still less necessary is spiced wine, to which the Talmud is compared; though happy is he who possesses all three in abundance.— HYMAN HURWITZ. Hebrew Tales, etc.

RESPECT FOR THE JEWISH NATION.

I look upon that people (the Jews) with astonishment and reverence; they are living proofs of facts most ancient and most divine. Wherever we have a Jew on the surface of the earth, there we have a man whose testimony and whose conduct connect the present time with the memory of all time.-BISHOP WATSON.

D'ISRAELI'S JEWISH ORIGIN.

Mr. D'Israeli is himself of Jewish origin, and he has identified his own natural powers, and his own ambition, with the history and destinies of that people; he has done more, he has sacrificed to his natural feelings his own good sense, and his appreciation of the circumstances of his own age and time. It is indisputably to his honour that while so many persons of his blood have condescended to the smallest devices, such as the elision of vowels, or the transposition of consonants, to veil the classical names of their families, or have dropped them altogether, out of a false shame, he should, without even the obligation of the religious duty, have frankly avowed the fact, and repudiated the notion of disgrace in this alien origin. This is not only honourable, but, like other bold avowals of the truth,

* Analogous to this I remember a passage in my English grammatical exercises, when under the educational charge of my respected schoolmaster whom I have quoted above: "It is no great merit to spell correctly, but a great defect to do it incorrectly."—P. A.

D'Israeli may hereafter

it is wise; for what distinction Mr. achieve, this circumstance can never be thrown in his teeth, and he has taken at least one weapon of prejudice out of the hands of his opponents.-Edinburgh Review, 1847.

THE OATH "MORE JUDAICO."

Among the (arrèts) decrees of the "Court of Colmar," vol. iv., page 368, etc., may be found the extract of a decree of said Court, under date of February 10, 1809, which (translated) reads as follows :-In conformity with the Imperial decree on this subject, and noting those of the Emperors Sigismund and Charles V., of the date of August 12, 1530, concerning the privileges of the Jews; of the jurisprudence adopted by the Court of Appeal of Brunswick-Luneburg; the regulations of the Imperial Chamber of Lower Austria; of those of Frankfort, under date of December 7, 1705; and of other States of Germany, it appears, that any Jew who has to take an oath, must present himself in the Synagogue, accompanied by ten Jews of the same sex, whose age must not be less than thirteen; his head being covered, his forehead and his hand bearing the THEPHILLIN SCHEL RASCH*, and SCHEL YAD, covered with his TALLIS, and wearing his ARBA CANPHOR (sic) with the ZIZZES. He must then present himself before the OREN, or the tabernacle. The COSCHER SEPHER THORA must be taken out, and carried with pomp to the ALMEMOR, where shall be read the passage concerning the oath. The THORA shall then be placed on the arm of the Jew, his right hand extended on the verse in the fifth book of Moses—“Thou shalt not take the name of

* The names of the holy appendages, etc., are all worded according to their designation in the Hebrew.

thy God in vain." After having heard the explanation of the Rabbi respecting the oath, and of the evil consequences attending perjury, he is to repeat the following formula :ADONAI! Creator of heaven and all things, who is equally my God, and that of all assembled here, I invoke Thee, by Thy Sacred Name, at this moment, when the truth is required to be declared, and I swear by Thee to speak all the truth. I swear, consequently, that. . . . . I pray Thee, Adonai, to aid me, and to confirm this truth; but in case that I should now employ any fraudulent concealment of the facts, may I be eternally cursed, and consumed, and annihilated by the fire in which perished Sodom and Gomorrah, and punished by all the maledictions written in the Thora, and may then the Eternal, who has created the leaves, the grass, and all things, never come to my help, nor to my assistance, in any of my affairs or of my troubles. But if I speak truly and act rightly, may Adonai be a help to me, and then only.-HALLEZ. Des Juifs en France.

Although time and improved intelligence have greatly modified, if not entirely abrogated, this invidious distinction, it will not be uninteresting to read the decision of the Court of Colmar of January 13, 1828, with the detailed opinions that preceded the decision. It may be found in HALLEZ, pp. 352-365.

The gist of the argument seems to be that the Chamber considers the oath as partly civil, and in a great measure as a religious obligation; that the Jews in Alsace being recipients of the Talmud obligations, are bound to adhere in this case to the dicta of their rabbins; but that the Jews of the South, who consider themselves amenable only to the Mosaic dispensation, do not require any special form of oath to verify their evidence. The decision concludes with stating that the enormous disproportion which exists between the two localities in this respect, explains also the

enormous difference between the respective Jews who people them, and that, if in fact, the judges of the South have the pleasing satisfaction of seeing in the Jews who are under their constant observation, only men who are honest, active, industrious-in a word, citizens, who equally are as useful to the country as to themselves—it may easily be conceived that they may, with perfect approval of conscience to justify themselves, release themselves from a special form of oath, no longer necessary, and which even could never have been legally prescribed to these southern Jews.

But, at the same time, these decrees do not decide anything for the Jews of Alsace, because they have among themselves a special rite and legislation, particularly with regard to oaths; and it is therefore more important to retain for them a formula, because it fulfils more effectively the purpose of the law, that of associating religious obligations with civil requirements.

It is to be hoped, that by the concurrence of those rabbins who exercise great authority, and have great influence, the desirable end may be obtained, of effacing all distinction between Frenchmen in general; it will then be easy for legislators to make this change, when facts and the spirit of progress shall have proved the real utility of such a measure.-Condensed and compiled from HALLEZ.

ORTHOGRAPHY OF PROPER NAMES.

One of our correspondents, a good Hebraist, objects to the general orthography of many Jewish eminent men. He observes-"The true name is Avravenel, and the proof is, that there is here (Constantinople) a Chacham named R. Jehuda Avravenel, and all the Eastern rabbins, pronounce the name in the same manner. There also are

other persons of the same surname residing here, and they are most probably descendants of the same Portuguese family. It is the same with the name of Kimchi, R. David Kimchi (the celebrated Hebrew grammarian) in which way also Western Jews pronounce it; but his name was Kamchi ; there are many families of that name here. So also with regard to the poet Salomon ben Djébirul, who with you is Gebiral, because people are ignorant of Judaic-Spanish R. Elias Misrachi is the name of this sage, and not Misrochi, as you sound it." I could easily, adds the writer, increase this nomenclature. Here I hear the names correctly spoken, and I venture to rectify that which is erroneous in Western designations. Archives Israelites,

names.

tom. xxv., 1864.

HASTY BAPTISM.

Geoffrey, son of Otho, succeeded his father in 1049 in the County of Macon, where there were many Israelites. An anecdote is related which testifies more to his zeal than to his intelligence. It was customary in the Church of Macon to baptise a child on Holy Saturday, at the Blessing of the Fonts. On one occasion, no infant having been brought for that purpose, Count Geoffrey, who was present, rushed out of church with some of his nobles, ran to the Hebrew bridge, seized a Jewish child, and brought him to the font for baptism. The Countess Beatrice, his wife, became godmother to the child, to which she gave the name of her husband. When he grew up (a prototype of Mortara), having persisted in his imposed Christianity, he became a monk of Cluny.-L'art de verifier les Dates, année 1049.

JEWISH BIOGRAPHY.

Mr. L. B. Phillips, who has published an elaborate work