(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

In Defense of America’s Independence from Britain. In a rejoinder to an earlier (1778) pamphlet entitled Discours d’un bon Hollandois, this argues that England has traditionally been the most dangerous rival of Dutch commerce (p. 6). A year earlier in 1778, the author published Observations impartiales d’un vrai Hollandois. Our present work, as its title indicates, may be construed as the continuation of that work. In a lengthy footnote on p. 45 we find an attack upon “le celebre Mr. Pinto de la Haye” (the celebrated Mr. Pinto of The Hague.) The author, tongue in cheek, finds it difficult to conceive that the Discours d’un bon Hollandois and the excellent economic Traité de la circulation et du crédit (Treatise on Circulation and Credit) issued from the pen of the same man. Isaac de Pinto (1717-1787), a Dutch Jew of Portuguese descent, an economist and director of the Dutch East India Company, was one of the wealthiest Jews in all Holland. Hailed as one of the most brilliant economists of the age, Pinto was firmly opposed to the American Revolution, ostensibly on economic grounds, and gave vent to his thoughts in several works. See JE, Vol. X, p. 54; EJ, Vol. XIII, cols. 553-554; M.H. Gans, Memorbook (1977), pp. 112-113. French journalist Antoine-Marie Cerisier (1749-1828) proved himself to be a good friend of the nascent United States. John Adams visited Cerisier in Utrecht and was duly impressed by the later’s enthusiasm for the American cause. Cerisier was instrumental in assisting Adams in disseminating pro-American and anti-British propaganda in the Netherlands.