Sl@- j E 
of the revelation of Mofes. They have faid that ufury 
was a-precept of our law! Have they been aware of what 
they faid? If we : have received our law from God, as 
they agree we have, God then would have commanded us 
to commit a crime! for ufury is a kind of robbery. This 
error, you know, originates in a falfie interpretation of a 
tingle word, neficch." - 
Here Mr. Furtado labours to prove that this word an- 
fwers to the Xatin word fanvs. To conclude that it 
means ufury, another word fliouid be found which means 
intercjl ; but, as fuCh a word does not exift, it follows that 
all intereft is ufury, and all ufury is interett. 
• He then.proceeds with great ingenuity : “.Mofes de¬ 
clares, Thou fiait not lend uponinteref to thy brother ; Deut. 
xxiii. 9. B.ut how could a fkilful legiflator (foine have 
faid) forbid a legitimate and moderate intereft between 
the Ifraelites? are we lpt rather to believe that be only 
interdicted-ufury from Hebrew to Hebrew, while he al¬ 
lowed it to be praftiled on the ftranger as an a<ft of hofti- 
lity ? Thus, as if it were not enough to accufe the di¬ 
vine law of having given a power to the Ifraelite to vex 
the ftranger by exacting a ruinous intereft, they have even 
attributed to it the inculcating this infamous traffic. On 
the-other hand, thel'e reafoners confound the manners and 
habitudes of modern nations with thofe of the higheft s an- 
tiquity ; and they falfely attribute tonhe infancy of lo- 
ciety what only belongs to its maturity, and too often to 
.its decrepitude.” 
Here lie refers to what he had delivered in the meet¬ 
ings before the fanhedrim was formed, in which, with 
great ability, he had Iketched a picture of the civil and 
ceconomical ftate of the Jewg in the time of Mofes. Equa¬ 
lity of property and mediocrity of private fortune were 
what they firft aimed to eftablifh. Hence the iijftitution 
of the fabbatical year, and the year of jubilee ;• the 
firft in every feventh year releafed all debtors from their 
.obligations, and the fecond every fiftieth year brought 
with it the reftitution of all eftat.es lold or mortgaged. 
It was eafy to forefee that the greater or lefs induftry, the 
different qualities of the foil, and many other fimilar 
caufes, would compel the more unfortunate Ifraelite to 
have recourfe to his profperous brother. "Moles forefaw 
that in urgent diftrefs the former might become a Have to 
the latter. With a view to this, he fays, “Thou (halt 
not lend upon intereft to thy brother.” All affiftance 
was to be gratuitous ; his people were a nation of agri- 
culturifts. The Jews, though Idumea was not diftant 
from the fea-coalts, inhabited by the Tyrians, the Sido- 
mians, and other nations poffelfing (hips and commerce, 
were never themfelves addicted to trade. From all this 
it follows, that the law of Mofes refpeCting intcrcf among 
Jews, was nothing more than a charitable precept, not a 
commercial regulation. 
He then exhibits a fine picture of the Jewifh people in 
Paleftine : “Never were the manners of any ancient na¬ 
tion, its government, its laws, its worlhip, more exactly 
delcribVd than our’s. All the monuments of hiftory at- 
teft the (implicity of our anceftors. A paftoral and agri¬ 
cultural life was their foie occupation ; rUltic games then- 
only pleafures. They had neither manufactures nor na¬ 
vigation; all their commerce with their neighbours was 
naturally limited to barter, at a time when money was 
rare, and its various ufes fo little known. They ‘lived in 
a happy ignorance of all thofe fumptuous embellilhments 
which are known only to great and opulent nations; 
they enjoyed a happinefs without fplendour, and knew 
to praCtife virtues without celebi^ty. Mofes would only 
make them a people of brothers; he would only main¬ 
tain a family equality ; he would not have in H'rael the 
poor and the rich. Hence thofe laws which, after a li- 
anited time, re-eftablilhed all property. What need had 
he to regulate cofninercial matters, fince all his ordinances 
tended to remove them from that ftate, and attach them 
/olely to agricultural induftry? For this reafon Mofes 
prohibited the Hebrew" to lend his brother money, grain, 
W. ", 1 
or any-thing, at intereft. He permitted, but ‘did not com¬ 
mand, it towards ftrangers. The rabbis even prohibit 
the Jew to take intereft from the Gentiles, left he (houki 
in time fo accuftom himfelf to the profit, that he might 
be induced to take it from his brethren. The jews in 
Rome declared, on their oath,-that ufury was not permit¬ 
ted to be praftifed, either with their brethren or with 
ftrangers. And this declaration- was certainly conform¬ 
able to religion and to truth, underftanjjing the term 
ufury in its popular ftgnification. 
“ If there are Jews who praftice ufury, they are abjeft: 
beings, unfaithful to the law of Moles, difavovved by 
God and man, and who only prophane the name.of Jew. 
There can be no ufurers among the Hebrew nation. Ufurers 
are neither Jews, Mahometan^, nor Chriftians; they be¬ 
long to no religion, and are difavowed by all. Doctors 
of the law, and notables, you well know-, that if we were 
at this moment living under the civil and political inftitu- 
tions of our patriarchal manners, and that there exifted 
fon-.e anti-focial ufurer among the people of IfraeJ, he 
would be ignominioufly expelled from their bolom.” 
In the fittings of the 2d of March, 1807, when they 
adopted thefe two decifions, the chief of the fanhedrim 
-delivered an animated difeourfe. He fays, that the vice 
of ufury, which has fo long l’erved as a fource of calumny 
to the Jews, but which originated only in the corruptidn. 
of the human heart, and the ignorance and intolerance of 
ages of fanaticifm, was always prohibited by the law. 
That many of their brethren have praflifed it, is a melancholy 
truth ; but the Talmudifts declare, that all who abandon 
themfelves to fuch monftrous exceifes will not at the day 
of judgment participate in the refiurrection. 
He then attributes the caufe of thel'e ufurious praftices 
among Jew's to their having been deprived of all civil and 
political rights; they mult long have ftruggled with their 
confidences; but their abandonment, and thefevereneefity 
of unhappy times, made the practice feem legitimate to thofe 
loft men. 
The prefident Furtado then addreffed the fanhedrim 
in an elaborate oration, beginning as follows : “-d)ou have 
at length clofed your important million, confided to you 
by a prince, wliofe kindr.efs has changed the deftiny of 
Ifrael, and annulled the civil and political anathema un¬ 
der which you have groaned fo many ages.” 
He declares, that, in their frequent conferences before 
the" fanhedrim was, formed, their ftudy had been to unite 
religious duties with what the circumftanccs in which they were 
now placed required. Thefe circumfances exafted no facri- 
fices from real piety, nor did their religion require that 
the civil advantages wdiich thefe circumftances offered to 
them (hould be refufed. “Thus (he continued) all that 
the pious man owes his God, the citizen his country, the 
■ fubjeft his fiovereign, you have performed; and your de¬ 
cifions conffitute a paft of alliance between our religion 
and our country! Above all, it was neceffary that this 
accufation of ufury, with which^the Hebrews are fo fre¬ 
quently reproached, as an effeft of their religion, ffiould 
• be branded with an indelible mark by an Ilraelitiffi afiem- 
bly.” 
Fie then developes and defends the great principle on 
which the prefent fanhedrim has formed its decifions. 
“ Some pious men-conceived that the legiffation of Mofes, 
containing law's on fpiritual duties and temporal inte- 
refts, oppofed by this union an invincible obftacle to an 
entire and (bcial incorporation with the people whole 
countries we inhabit. To diffipate this doubt, it was ne- 
ceffary to form a bafis for our decifions; and this princi¬ 
ple is contained in the preamble you have adopted. (See 
p.813.) There we eftablilh the diffinftion which exiffs 
between religious laws and political laws : the former are 
unalterable, whatever the eventual lituation of the Hebrew 
people may be ; but the latter are fubordinate in their 
execution to the human viciffitudes of their ftate, their, 
climate, their manners, and the laws of nations. And 
from all tiffs we might infer, that) though the orthodox Ifraelite 
may 
