The debate in the German Parliament on the position of
the Jews has ended in nothing. The Government drily declared that it had no intention of interfering with Jewish liberties, which'% guaranteed by the Constitution, but expressed no sympathy either with them or their opponents. As a whole, the Clerical and Conservatives parties showed themselves inimical to the Jews, while the Liberals argued in their defence. The principal argument against them was that, numbering only half a million, they made themselves much too prominent, but the debate was almost entirely unreal. It is too late in the day to disqualify quiet citizens on account of their race, or creed, or success, and a Parliament can do little either to deepen or remove a social dislike, which, after all, has little reason behind it, except the separate- ness of the attacked nationality. The way to break down that separateness is not to be angry at it, but to leave it alone. Jews cannot be suppressed by persecution, but they have a strong temptation to merge themselves in the nations they live among, and the less they are persecuted the more they yield to it. In Russia they keep up their role of excommunicating all who marry out of the race, but in England and France they are powerless. By 2000 A.D. the Rothschilds will be as Christian as the Barings, who may in past ages have been Behrens.
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