Dr. SchOnstedt, the German Minister for Justice, has explained and
corrected in the Prussian Diet his strange speech on the appointment of Jewish notaries in the Reichstag. It seems that the Jews, who only form five per cent. of the total population of Berlin, already supply two- thirds of its lawyers and one-third of its notaries. Dr. SchOnstedt had admitted in the Reichstag that the Jewish lawyers were promoted to be notaries more slowly than the Christians, since, if the rate were uniform, they would soon swamp the ranks of the notaries, and this, in view of popular prejudice, was most undesirable. More than that, he added that the Ministry of Justice was the only Prussian Depart- ment which employed Jewish assessors at all. This state- ment naturally dissatisfied the Anti-Semites and disgusted the Radicals. As the Prussian Constitution enacts that appoint- ments to public posts shall be independent of religious pro_ fession, Dr. Schonstedt had practically impeached his col- leagues of violating their oath of office. From this awkward position he endeavoured to extricate himself in the Prussian Diet on Friday week by admitting that his remarks had been ill-advised, and urged in reply to his critics that the letter of the Constitution should not be always decisive. "Every case ought to be decided on its merits." Which simply means that, other things being equal, the Jew must always take second place. The episode is only one more illustration of the inevitable result of the fatal policy of limiting a Jew's choice of profession. The Germans have forced them into certain careers, and now they cry out because they block the advance of the less industrious Gentile.
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