| 588 this time as numerous as they were in the palmy days of David and Solomon.
There is another error in your paragraph which it may be well also to notice at this time. You state that the number of Jews has never materially varied from three millions, from the time of David downwards. Very nearly that number has been exterminated by wars and violence, from what may be considered the the commencement of their national troubles.
According to Josephus and contemporary writers there
were slaughtered in Caesaria, by the Syrians 20,000
In Jerusalem, occasioned by the insolence of a Roman soldier under the reign of Claudius 20,000
At Scitupolis 13,000
At Alexandria, in consequence of the rivalry of the Greeks and Egyptians 50,000
At Ascalon from the same cause 2,500
At Ptolemais 2,000
At Silucia, by the Syrians and Greeks 50,000
At the siege of Jerusalem by Pompey 12,000
BY an earthquake in Judea, 42 or 43 years before Christ 30,000
In consequence of a revolt occasioned by breaking a Roman
eagle placed in the portico of the temple, in the reign of Augustus 13,000
In a sedition suppressed by Varus, Governor of Syria 2,000
In an ambuscade before Ascalon, in the beginning of the war against the Romans 18,000
At the capture of Jaffa by Titus 15,000
At the siege of Jotapat 13th of Nero 40,000
Taking of Tariche, and at the naval battle on the lake Genserette 6,500
After this victory, Vespasian being in the tribunal at Tariche,
sent 6000 to Nero, to work at the Isthmus of the Mores-30,400
were sold at public vendue, and 12,000 old men, unable to
bear arms, were put to death 12,000
At the capture of Gamala by Titus 9,000
In a battle against Placidus, Lt. of Vespasian, near the village of Galara- 15,000
At the seige [siege] of Jerusalem and destruction of the temple by Titus 1,100,000
In the revolt of the false Messiah Barchechobas, and in
the several revolts under Adrian, Trojan, and Justinian 600,000
Add to this, that from the time of the adoration of the
golden calf, to the return of the ark, which had been
captured by the Philistines, there were destroyed 239,000
Making 2,248,000
This amount does not include neither the losses they met with in the wars anterior to the captivity, nor the persecutions and revolts in the time of the Emperors and the middle ages, nor the massacres which followed the Crusades, nor the proscriptions en masse which were so frequently renewed in different parts of the world, in the times of the invasions by the barbarians, and since their establishment in the Roman provinces. Under all these calamities and oppressions, the Jews like those vivacious plants which can resist the intemperance of all seasons, have been by divine interposition, enabled to sustain themselves amidst so many appalling obstacles, and have found in the strength of their laws, new principles of existence.
In pursuing the inquiry as to their numerical force, much interesting information has been obtained as to their various pursuits; and it is gratifying to learn that agriculture, their original occupation, claims a great portion of their attention. The plains of Nineveh Greece, Persia, Egypt, Lithunia [Lithuania], Ukraine and Moldavia, are full of Jewish agriculturalists [agriculturists]; they are, it is said, the best cultivators of the grape in Turkey; in all parts of the East they are dyers, workers in silk, weavers and blacksmiths; in Poland they are farmers, curriers, lace weavers, potters and silversmiths; and although the great body of the nation are still engaged in trade and commerce in every quarter of the world, with undiminished success, they are nevertheless receiving a more liberal education, and are cultivating a taste for the arts, many are pursuing the more enlightened and scientific professions with reputation, and are instituting reforms in the ceremonial parts of their religion, without invading any of its cardinal principles.
Wealth is not generally or equally diffused among the Jews, but the aggregate of their possessions constitutes them by far the most wealthy people on earth, and the enormous proportions are so located as to secure a very decided influence in the movements of every nation, making them, in a measure, the arbitrators of very important movements.
Although the Jewish people are entirely passive in relation to their restoration, and waiting the great advent with the same patience and humility which they have evinced for the last eighteen hundred years, relying with unabated
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