MAY IS NOT MUST.
SOME well-meaning and not intolerant people oppose the exten- sion of political privileges to Roman Catholics, Jews, or others as the case may be, from a confusion of " may" and " must." When the Catholic Emancipation Bill was depending, we had terrible pictures of the consequences which must ensue if bigoted Catholics were placed in office • and now it i urged that the appointment of Jews to administrative office must oc- casion inconvenience, inasmuch as they cannot discharge its duties on their Sabbath, which is our Saturday. But permission to choose any eligible Jew or Catholic is very different from compulsion to choose an individual Jew or Catholic, whether eligible or not. You may accept his services, is very different language from you must employ him. It may be unadvisable for a young lady to marry a particular man, and yet be tyrannous to make a law that she must marry no man. A law declaring Jews eligible to Parliament, or to 1VIagistracies, will not make a single member of the Synagogue M.P. or Sheriff, . unless he can persuade constituencies that they have more to gain than lose by electing him : urge your objections to those who have the election. A correspondent who writes to remind us that a Jew Sheriff would be of no use on Saturday, should take courage from this reflection ; and should moreover bear in mind, that many have been made Sheriffs who were equally useless on - all the working-days of the week. As to Members of Parliament, - except while huddling up a wasted session, no Jews ever made Saturday a day of rest from useful work more religiously than they do.
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