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At the same time, the legislation which was the result of this extraordinary assembly did not sufficiently satisfy all the hopes that had’ been staked upon it, but it was a useful precedent, and time might also bring with it efficacious reforms amongst the Jews, as well as a cessation of their hostilities against the Christians.

The Emperor was back in Paris from his tour in Italy on January Ist, 1808. During his stay in that country, and before his journey to Bayonne, there was published the result of the assembly of Israelites which preceded and followed the convocation of the great Sanhédrin. At the time of the 1805 campaign, Napoleon had been struck by the invasions of the Jewish race. He had given attention to the best means of remedying the damage caused in certain provinces, and notably in Alsatia, by the system of usury, which threatened to cast the finest estates in certain districts into the hands of a vile and degraded race. He wished also at the same time to lead the Jews on to the practice of mechanic and liberal professions, and to engage in indtistries of which honesty approved. To effect these useful reforms, an assembly of the principal Jews of France and Italy had been convoked in Paris, and there were appointed as commissioners of the government at this meeting, MM. Molé, Portalis and Pasquier. The result of this first meeting was the convocation of a great Sanhédrin, an extraordinary superior council, at which formerly state and church matters were decided upon in Jerusalem, and which had never been called together since the days before Jesus Christ. This council sui generis, which was held in Paris, in 1807, whilst Napoleon was fighting the Russians in Eastern Prussia, was composed in conformity with historical traditions. It was to formulate doctrinally the proposals discussed at the first meeting. M. Molé, the reporter, in his account of the motives which had decided the imperial government to call the Sanhédrin together, gave a magnificent eulogy of Napoleon. The novelty of such a spectacle, this resurrection of an authority and of customs dating from the darkest ages, excited very strong curiosity and interest at the time. Although the sittings were held in camera, a number of people managed to be present and the result was awaited with curiosity by the outside world. To the decisions rendered on political, civil and religious questions, which decisions were sanctioned by a decree, the Emperor added special clauses tending to encourage the Jews to engage in agriculture, and to render all illegal trafficking and practices of usury impossible amongst them. The exceptions from the rights common to other citizens which had necessarily to be imposed on the Jews, were limited to a period of ten years. The Emperor’s anxiety to settle all these questions won him the gratitude of the enlightened members of the Jewish world. At the same time, the legislation which was the result of this extraordinary assembly did not sufficiently satisfy all the hopes that had’ been staked upon it, but it was a useful precedent, and time might also bring with it efficacious reforms amongst the Jews, as well as a cessation of their hostilities against the Christians.

Click here to read the Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte.