148 REPORT — 1861. 



man generally, makes an exception in favour of the Jewish race, and says 

 that this race has settled the question that one race is cosmopolitan. 



The statistics which have been published respecting the Jews in different 

 countries seem to show that the Jew is subject to different physiological laws 

 from those of the people by whom he may be surrounded. This phenomenon 

 may, however, be explained by other physiological laws. M. Boudin supports 

 his views from the difference in the statistics of disease and death of the 

 Jews and the other colonists in Algeria. But the conditions of these two 

 are very different. The Jews have been in Algeria for a considerable time, 

 while the colonists are going there daily. Had M. Boudin proved that a 

 number of Jews and Frenchmen went to Algeria at the same time, and that 

 the Jews became more easily acclimatized, it might go some way towards 

 showing the advantage of the Jewish race over the Frenchman, if we could 

 not explain the phenomenon on other grounds. Had M. Boudin proved 

 satisfactorily that the Jew was cosmopolitan, we should not easily be in- 

 duced to admit that this was inexplicable by physiological laws. I do not 

 pretend to enter into any of the causes which may have enabled the Jew to 

 appear favoured ; but we must not hurriedly admit tliat there are excep- 

 tional laws in favour of any one race. On the same plea that M. Boudin 

 has claimed an exception in favour of the Jews, we may also advocate owe 

 on the part of the Gipsies. The chief cause, however, of the apparent 

 superiority of the Jews over some other races is the fact that they are a pure 

 race. All pure races support the influence of change better than mixed races. 

 The nomadic Arabs, as long as they remain pure, can also live in very differ- 

 ent temperatures and climates. The Chinese are also generally a pure race ; 

 and it is possible that the nearer the race approach the original type, the 

 greater power they have in enduring change of climate. But enduring 

 change of climate is not acclimatization. A process of acclimatization should 

 enable a race to perpetuate itself in a new region, without supplies of new 

 blood from its own region, and without, of course, mixing with the indigenous 

 races of the invaded country. The recorded historical migrations of nations 

 do not give us sufficient evidence to make us believe in different laws from 

 those which are in existence at this time. 



I am fully sensible of the great difficulty there is at present of defining 

 the exact limits of the various ethnic centres. When I speak therefore of 

 the European centre, I would also observe that this region is not necessarily 

 confined to the portion of the earth we call Europe ; on the contrary, I 

 should include the whole of those original inhabitants of the Mediterranean, 

 such as the Phoenicians, as belonging to the European centre. The modern 

 Jews*, for instance, who are most probably lineal descendants of the old 

 Phoenician merchants, are vastly superior to any purely Asiatic race. Never 

 was the Jew more calumniated than by saying that he is an Asiatic ! We 

 all know the distinctive characteristics of the various Asiatic races, and 

 nowhere do we find a people at all resembling the Jews. The only explana- 

 tion I have ever heard given of this contradiction is that by Mr. Burke. 

 That gentleman contends that there is a hierarchy not only in ethnic centres, 

 but similarly in their climates ; and that any race coming from an inferior 

 centre to a higher centre is thereby improved, other conditions being equal, 

 and provided of course that the change be not too violent. Thus he points 

 out the fact that the Jew has not degenerated in Europe, but has greatly 

 improved in spite of all disadvantages. He also very truly observes, that 

 no one will contend that the climate of Palestine will suit an Englishman as 



* I do not include in this term the fair-haired, blue-eyed race found in the Levant, and 

 who are called Jews by Mr. Lajard and Dr. Bsddoe. 



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