nd customs cannot in
justice be preferred against them. I have also represented
to your Excellency that the numerous restrictions under
which the Israelites of all classes suffer are a cause
that their commerce can have no chance whatever of
prospering, but that, on the contrary, they must from day
to day sink into deeper distress; and, further, that the
last measure adopted for the amelioration of their
condition would tend to a contrary effect, unless the
number of classes be increased. It is an unquestionable
fact that the great body of the Israelites in His
Majesty's empire are in a state of extreme misery. I do
not venture to discuss again the causes of these evils,
but only speak of the reality and depth of their
existence. His Majesty himself has seen them, the Special
Commission has verified the fact, and I myself having had
His Majesty's most gracious permission to visit my
brethren, have been a sorrowful witness of it. This, then,
being so, I am convinced His Majesty and his Government
will bear with me while, with heartfelt gratitude for the
goodness which His Majesty has already extended to the
House of Israel in his solicitude to be made acquainted
with their real condition, I venture to submit to your
Excellency my own very humble but earnest belief of the
principles of policy which, if brought into action, would
surely remedy most extensively the evils already
described, and bring the work of investigation which His
Majesty and his Government have begun to a most happy,
glorious, and honourable consummation.

"I venture to hold my own views on this subject with
confidence and decision, only because I know most
intimately the feelings of my brethren. I have observed
them closely in different parts of the world; have watched
over them through a long life with very anxious attention;
and could now, if it would benefit them, lay down that
life for what I know to be their true character.

"Their natural disposition as a body, your Excellency, is
not what it may have appeared to be. Expelled long ago
with fearful slaughter from their ancient country, and
dispersed in every land under heaven, the oppression of
ages may have given them, in the eyes of His Majesty's
Government, the semblance of a character which is not
their own. That which they may appear to have may be
artificial and superficial, forced upon them by lon