368

DOMESTIC MANXEKS OF TUE PBUSSIANS.

honour, tliat they would not only be incapable of any mean-ness themselves, but unwilling to witness any wrong done byothers to their fellows : — in a word, if we are unable to speakof them as an intellcctual race, can we, consistently withtrutb, call tliem a noble, a generous, a just, a kindly, or aPhilanthropie one ?

Let us see.

Last "Fastnacht'''' (Shrove Tuesday) a public "MashirteBaV was given at Treves, and late in tne evening a Prussianofficer went to rouse a companion-in-arms, who was asleep onone of the tables in tlie refreshment-room. As he shook hisfriend, and called him by his name, a Jew, who was drinkingthere, mocked him; whereupon the officer seized a glass ofwine that was standing near him, and dashed the Contents intothe Israelite's face. The Jew muttered some words of revengebetween his teeth, and withdrew from the " saal." The officersreturned to the ball-room, and shortly after, while they weredancing there, the Hebrew came back and threw a tumbler ofwater at the lieutenant who had treated him in a similar man-ner. In an instant the officer's sword was unsheathed, and theJew, though unarmed, attacked upon the spot; he raised achair to defend himself, but was soon run through the body,and whilst in the act of falling, thrust through the throat bvthe enraged lieutenant, On the morrow the officer went to Inacolonel, and reported himself as having " stuck a Jew," where-upon he was placed under arrest, and subsecuiently tried; butthough he was found guilty, the punislunent awarded wasnominalhj a year's confinement in the fortress of Ehrenbreit-stein, but which virtually consisted in being compelled to re-turn to his quarters at the same hour as the private soldiersevery night.

It may, however, be urged in justification of so lenient asentence, that it is neecssary to uphold a high feeling of