the following device was resorted to as a
makeshift. Solovyov's teacher of Jewish literature, F. Goetz, was
publishing an apology of Judaism under the title "A Word from the
Prisoner at the Bar." Solovyov wrote a preface to this little volume,
and turned over to its author for publication the letters of Tolstoi and
Korolenko in the defence of the Jews. No sooner had the book left the
press than it was confiscated by the censor, and, in spite of all
petitions, the entire edition of this innocent apology was thrown into
the flames. In this way the Russian Government succeeded in shutting the
mouths of the few defenders of Judaism, while according unrestricted
liberty of speech to its ferocious assailants.

3. THE GUILDHALL MEETING IN LONDON

The cry of indignation against Jewish oppression, which had been
smothered in Russia, could not be stifled abroad. The Jews of England
took the initiative in this matter. On November 5, 1890, the London
_Times_ published a letter from N.S. Joseph, honorary secretary to the
Russo-Jewish Committee in London, passionately appealing to the public
men of England to intercede on behalf of his persecuted coreligionists.
The writer of the letter called attention to the fact that, while the
Russian Government was officially denying that it was contemplating new
restrictions against the Jews, it was at the same time applying the
former restrictions on so comprehensive a scale and with such
extraordinary cruelty that the Jews in the Pale of Settlement were like
a doomed prisoner in a cell with its opposite walls gradually
approaching, contracting by slow degrees his breathing space, till they
at last immure him in a living tomb.

The writer concludes his appeal in these terms:

It may seem a sorry jest but the Russian law, in very truth, now
declares: The Jew may live here only and shall not live there; if he
lives here he must remain here; but wherever he lives he shall not
live--he shall not have the means of living. This is the operation
of the law as it stands, without any new edict. This is the sentence
of death that silently, insidiously, and in the veiled language of
obscurely worded laws has been pronounced against hundreds of
thousands of human beings.... Shall civilized Europe, shall the
Christianity of England behold this slow torture and bloodless
massacre, and be silent?

The appeal of the Russo-Jewish Committee and the new gloomy tidings from
Russia pub