est
resolution, notwithstanding the fact that the "great protest of 1882"
(at the Mansion House meeting)[1] had brought no results. "We read in
the history of the Jewish race that 'God hardened the heart of Pharaoh
so that he would not let the people of Israel go'; but deliverance came
at last by the hand of Moses."

[Footnote 1: See p. 288 et seq.]

After brilliant speeches by the Bishop of Ripon, the Earl of Meath, and
others, the following resolution was adopted:

That in the opinion of this meeting the renewed sufferings of the
Jews in Russia from the operation of severe and exceptional edicts
and disabilities are deeply to be deplored, and that in this last
decade of the nineteenth century religious liberty is a principle
which should be recognized by every Christian community as among the
natural human rights.

At the same time a second resolution was adopted to the following
effect:

That a suitable memorial be addressed to his Imperial Majesty the
Emperor of all the Russias, respectfully praying his Majesty to
repeal all the exceptional and restrictive laws and disabilities
which afflict his Jewish subjects; and begging his Majesty to confer
upon them equal rights with those enjoyed by the rest of his
Majesty's subjects; and that the said memorial be signed by the
Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, in the name of the citizens of London,
and be transmitted by his Lordship to his Majesty.

A few extracts from the memorandum may be quoted by way of illustrating
the character of this remarkable appeal to the Russian emperor:

We, the citizens of London, respectfully approach your Majesty and
humbly beg your gracious leave to plead the cause of the afflicted.

Cries of distress have reached us from thousands of suffering
Israelites in your vast empire; and we Englishmen, with pity in our
souls for all who suffer, turn to your Majesty to implore for them
your Sovereign aid and clemency.

Five millions of your Majesty's subjects groan beneath the yoke of
exceptional and restrictive laws. Remnants of a race, whence all
religion sprung--ours and yours, and every creed on earth that owns
one God--men who cling with all devotion to their ancient faith and
forms of worship, these Hebrews are in your empire subject to such
laws that under them they cannot live and thrive....

Pent up in narrow bounds within your Majesty's wide empire, and even
within those bounds f