at 5
per cent., tells them to take all they can from Catholics; it is
even hallowed as a custom in our morning prayers to solicit God's
help in catching out a Christian. There is more, citizens, and it
is the climax of abomination: if any mistake is made in commerce
between Jews, they are ordered to make reparation; but if on 100
louis a Christian should have paid 25 too much, one is not bound to
return them to him. What an abomination! What a horror! And where
does that all come from but from the Rabbis? Who have excited
proscriptions against us? Our priests! Ah, citizens, more than
anything in the world we must abjure a religion which, ... by
subjecting us to irksome and servile practices, makes it impossible
for us to be good citizens.[635]

The encouragement accorded by the Jews to the French Revolution appears
thus to have been prompted not by religious fanaticism but by a desire
for national advantage. That they gained immensely by the overthrow of
the Old Order is undeniable, for apart from the legislation passed on
their behalf in the National Assembly, the disorder of the finances in
1796 was such that, as M. Leon Kahn tells us, a contemporary journal
enquired: "Has the Revolution then been only a financial scheme? a
speculation of bankers?"[636] We know from Prudhomme to what race the
financiers who principally profited by this disorder belonged.[637]

But if the role of the Jews in the Revolution remains obscure there can
be no doubt of the part played by the secret societies in the revolt
against all religion, all moral laws, and social order, which had been
reduced to a system in the councils of the Illuminati.

It was this conspiracy that reasserted itself in the Babouviste rising
of 1796 which was directly inspired by the secret societies. After the
death of Babeuf, his friend and inspirer Buonarotti with the aid of
Marat's brother founded a masonic lodge, the _Amis Sinceres_, which was
affiliated to the _Philadelphes_, at Geneva, and as "Diacre Mobile" of
the "Order of Sublime and Perfect Masons" created three new secret
degrees, in which the device of the Rose-Croix I.N.R.I. was interpreted
as signifying "Justum necare reges injustos."[638]

The part to be assigned to each intrigue in preparing the world-movement
of which the French Revolution was the first expression is a question on
which no one can speak with certainty. But, as at the pr