PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN ROME.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1048, 29 April 1865, Page 4

PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN ROME.

The Roman correspondent of The Times remarks that no one, on reading the Encyclical, will be astonished to hear of any excesses that may be committed against that unfortunate and persecuted people, the Jews; that would follow as the consequence of the right claimed by the Pontiff " to punish with temporal punishments the violators of its laws,'' and, as if in a hurry to exercise the right, the Cardinal Vicar celebrated Christmas by the followingcruel tyranny :— " In the Via di Pasta were three clothes shops? kept in the names of Christians, but supplied by the Jews, who are i-aid to have been in partnership with them. It is probable that trade jealousy was awakened, and informed the Cardinal of the facts; however that may be, the three unhappy men were summoned by his Eminence's order before the President of the Hione di Colonna and informed that they must close their shops by the Ist January, 180.1. One of them remonstrated strongly against the durezzu (cruelty) of the order, paid it would ruin him, added that it was just at Christmas time that they could turn a penny, and entreated for delay. The remonstrance was called impertinence, and the man was ordered to close his shop, not on the Ist of January, but immediately. The poor fellow appealed directly to Monsignor Matteueci, the head of the police, who enjoys a certain reputation for humanity and justice, and Monsignor sent for the President. The President made his report, and represented the remonstrant as having been guilty of great impertinences; but Matteueci urged that a fine might suffice, and that it would be hard to ruin a man. The shop was therefore permitted to remain open until the Ist of January, when it and, I take it for granted, the other two shops were closed. To explain this case more fully, I must tell you what is the precise position of the Jews in Rome. By the laws of the Curia Ecclesiastica they could not live out of cloisters, as the Ghetto is called in official language; on the succession, however, of Pius IX., it was represented to him that the district was too confined, and permission was given to them to carry on trade and live outside, but in the immediate vicinity. In opposition to this official report, it is stated by others that the privilege extends to trade only. The limits of this privilege are not precisely defined, as far as I can make out; the Piazza di Tartaruga I know comes within it, so that the law maybe broken almost unconsciously, and official caprice has a wide field of action. By special privilege, let me add, several. Jews have shops in other parts of the city, but thfcy are foreign Jews; natives are subject to all the rigor of the laws which I have described. The information which I send you is not derived from Jewish source-3 —a fact which _t is necessary to communicate, as, were tbe contrary suspected, laminformed,the p ositionof this persecuted people would be, rendered still worse. Also, at PATEESON ,