XI PECULIAR CONTROVERSIAL METHODS 397 



Gadara had no official status ; and they had no 

 more civil right to punish law-breakers than any 

 other strangers. 



In my turn, however, I may remark that there 

 is a " point " which appears to have escaped Mr. 

 Gladstone's notice. And that is somewhat un- 

 fortunate, because his whole argument turns upon 

 it. Mr. Gladstone assumes, as a matter of course, 

 that pig-keeping was an offence against the " Law 

 of Moses " ; and, therefore, that Jews who kept 

 pigs were as much liable to legal pains and 

 penalties as Englishmen who smuggle brandy 

 (" Impregnable Rock/' p. 274). 



There can be no doubt that, according to the 

 Law, as it is defined in the Pentateuch, the pig 

 was an " unclean " animal, and that pork was 

 a forbidden article of diet. Moreover, since pigs 

 are hardly likely to be kept for the mere love of 

 those unsavoury animals, pig-owning, or swine- 

 herding, must have been, and evidently was 

 regarded as a suspicious and degrading occupation 

 by strict Jews, in the first century A.D. But I 

 should like to know on what provision of the 

 Mosaic Law, as it is laid down in the Pentateuch, 

 Mr. Gladstone bases the assumption, which is 

 essential to his case, that the possession of pigs 

 and the calling of a swineherd were actually 

 illegal. The inquiry was put to me the other 

 day ; and, as I could not answer it, I turned up 

 the article "Schwem" in Riehm's standard 



