( 545 ) 



FREDERICK THE GREAT, AND THE JEWS OF BERLIN. 



THIS monarch looked upon the Jews who settled in the capital and 

 other towns of his dominions with a watchful eye. Unable to pre- 

 vent the accumulation of immense wealth in the hands of many indi- 

 viduals of that nation, he, like John of England, generally contrived 

 means to make them disgorge the riches they had amassed into 

 the treasury of the state ; or, like the Emperor Augustus, with re- 

 gard to the capitalists of ancient Rome, he declared himself their sole 

 heir and executor! By virtue of a decree of his chancery, and an 

 advertisement thereof in the "Gazette," he swept their long hoarded 

 heaps of pistoles into his own exchequer. 



Many, but futile, were the endeavours at concealment and affected 

 poverty on the part of the children of Israel ; Frederick's system of 

 espionnage was so adroitly managed, that he became intimately ac- 

 quainted with the number and value of their money-bags, and the 

 depth and contents of their coffers. If they attempted to export their 

 precious stones and metals, his douaniers arrested them in their pro- 

 gress ; and either seized them as contraband, and so confiscated them 

 for the use of the state, or, on the plea that such exportation was too 

 great a drain upon the available resources of the kingdom, they were 

 borrowed for government use, at nominal interest : but seldom did 

 it occur that either principal or interest was ever paid. 



When gold and silver were concealed in vaults and cellars, or buried 

 in the earth until opportunity should offer for clandestine exportation 

 to Holland previously to their proprietor's meditated flight from the 

 Prussian dominions, Frederick had due notice. If the deposit happened 

 to be small in proportion to the means of the depositor, his Majesty 

 considered the same merely as a nest egg, and he patiently awaited 

 the completion of the hoard; the unerring indication of which was, 

 the petition of Nathan Ben Samuel, or Joshua Ben Levi, for the royal 

 permission to visit his sick relatives at Amsterdam. Whilst the said peti- 

 tion was under consideration, one of Frederick's agents usually made 

 offer to purchase the house belonging to the retiring Israelite. This 

 being accepted, possession, or at least examination, of the pre- 

 mises followed ; and, by the purest accident in the world, the treasure 

 was brought to light and conveyed without delay , by his Majesty's 

 grenadiers, to the royal chancery. Remonstrances and explanations 

 were in vain, for such windfalls were declared to be the inalienable 

 droits of the Crown. 



In short, the Goldschmidts and the Rothschilds of the present day 

 would have stood no chance with him. He considered the moneyed 

 Jews to be but as so many sponges for the absorption of the over- 

 flowings of the national wealth, which he could squeeze into his own 

 reservoir whenever he wanted a supply. 



One rich individual, who had already been mulcted to a vast 

 amount in the shape of two forced loans (or, as Frederick quaintly 

 styled them, the voluntary contributions of his Jewish subjects), was 

 applied to a third time. What was to be done ? He could not deny 

 that he was in possession of the sum required, for he was known to 



