152
��NOTES BY THE WAY.
��1901, Aug. 31.
George Eliot's 1 Daniel
Deronda.'
Zangwill's ' Children of the Ghetto.'
��The Jews of
Holland and
William of
Orange.
��Prof. Marks
on 'The Jews
in Modern
Times.'
��Spanish article in the
of
to secure equality of rights.
��"He described her wonderful beauty, related the story of her firm adherence to her religious faith under the most trying circumstances, and particularly illustrated her loveliness of character and zealous philanthropy." P. 234.
Scott thereupon took Rebecca Gratz as the original of the heroine in ' Ivanhoe.' This writer (p. 235) says that Scott sent a copy of the book to Irving, with a letter, in which the question is asked, " Does the Rebecca I have pictured compare with the pattern given ?"
George Eliot's * Daniel Deronda ' was, however, as Lady Magnus states, the first serious attempt by a great writer to make Jews and Judaism the central interest of a great work ; and it was not until after a long interval that this was followed by Mr. Israel Zangwill's ' Children of the Ghetto : a Study of a Peculiar People.' The last treats mostly of the Jewish poor, and, in fact, puts into romance the revelations first made by the commissioners of The Morning Chronicle so far back as 1849.
A notable characteristic of the Jew has always been his faith- fulness and affection for the land of his adoption. The Jews of Holland were full of gratitude to William of Orange for the freedom he had given them, and, when he was in need of funds to fit out his expedition to England, one of their community placed at his disposal two millions of guilders, saying : "If you succeed, you will no doubt repay the loan ; if you fail, I am content to lose it in the cause of religious freedom." Prof. Marks, in a lecture delivered at South Place Institute, ' The Jews in Modern Times ' (' Religious Systems of the World,' Sonnenschein, 1890), referring to France as being the first Christian State of Europe that fully carried into effect the principle of liberty of conscience, when in 1789 it proclaimed complete emancipation to all its Jewish subjects, says that " they have repaid the debt by a passionate devotion to all its national interests." France contains upwards of a hundred thousand Jews, and they are remarkable for their staunch patriotism. They differ from their ancestors of a bygone age, in so far as they have lost all feeling for the land of the Patriarchs, and exult in the exclama- tion, " Notre Zion c'est la France."
The Great Powers at the Congress of Vienna in 1814, in return for the patriotic efforts made by the Jews during the war, caused to be inserted a special article in the treaty pledging themselves to secure for the Jews perfect equality of rights in all the Allied States. It was long, however, before the pledge was redeemed by Germany and Austria, while in Russia it still remains unfulfilled, a ministerial edict limiting the number of Jewish students in the Russian universities to three per cent of the total number of the alumni. This applies to all the Imperial universities, except that of Moscow, to which no Jew is admitted.
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