THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6362, 8 April 1882, Page 5

THE P ERSECUTION OF THE JEWS IN RUSSIA.

GREAT MEETING IX LONDON. "Br the last mail we have full reports of the great meeting held at the Mansion House to pn;t-;.it against the persecution of the Russian Je--v.3. The Lord Mayor of London presided, and long before the hour announced for the commencement of the proceedings the ha!! was thronged, in every nook and cranny with a large and influential gathering. It is a significant indication of the state of public feeling in England on the subject of the persecution of the Jews, that all reference to the name of Mr. Gladstone, who played so prominent a part in the Bulgarian atrocity agitation, was received with hisses. A large num- I ber of letters of apology were read trom eminent personages containing forcible expressions of opinion. Karl Shaftesbury moved the first resolution, denouncing the persecution and the outraces which the .fews are suffering, and alluded to the nameless cruelties inflicted upon them with much solemnity, even with emotion. The Bishop of London who seconded the resolution, which was subsequently carried unanimously, feelingly expressed the concern with which the Church of England viewed the circumstance that the atrocities were the work of those who professed to be Cf ■■'■ itians. Cardinal Manning was the next speaker. In the course of his speech he said : '•I have read that the cause of what has happened in Prussia is, that the Jews have been pliers of infamous trades—usurers, immoral, demoralising, and I know not what. When I read these accusations, I ask, will they be cured by crime, murder, outrage, abominations of every sort ? (Cheers.) Are they not learning the lesson from those who ought to teach a higher'/ Again, if it be true, which I do not believe, that they are in the condition described, are they not under penal laws? (Hear, hear.) Is there anything that can degrade men more than to close against intelligence, energy, and industry, all the honourable careers of public life? (Cheers.) They bring these accusations against the Russian Jews : why do they not bring them against the Jews of Germany ? "Why do they not bring these accusations against the Jews of Franco? If the charge is brought against the Jews of Russia, who will bring it against the Jews of England? (Loud cheers.) For uprightness, for refinement, for generosity, for charity, for all the graces aud virtues that adorn humanity, where will be found examples brighter, or more true of human excellence, than in this Hebrew race? (Renewed cheers.) We have in our hands the Russian laws affecting the Jewish subjects of the empire. I would ask what is the remedy for a population in this state—is it more penal laws ? Is it to disqualify them from holding land? Is it to forbid them to send their children to higher places of education ? No. I believe that the remedy for this state of things is two-fold—first, the vital supremacy of Christian law in all its amplitude. (Cheers.) Tile other remedy I believe to be this, a stern aud merciful execution of justice upon evildoers, coupled with a stern and rigorous concession of all that is right in the law of nature and of God to every man. (Cheers.) There is a book which is common to the race of Israel aud to us Christians. That book is a bond between us, aud in that book I read that the people of Israel are the eldest people upon the earth. Russia, and Austria, and England, are of yesterday compared with the imperishable Jewish race. We are in the bonds of brotherhood with it. The New Testament rests upon the Old. They believe in half of that for which we would give our lives. Let us then acknowledge that we unite in a common sympathy. I read in that book, 'I am angry with a great anger with the wealthy nations that are at ease, because I was a little angry with Israel, and they helped forward the alllietiou.' That is, My people were scattered ; they suffered unknown aud unimaginable sufferings, and the nations of the world tli.it dwelt at ease and were wealthy, and had power in their hands, helped" forward a very weighty affliction which was upon them all. My lord, I only hope this—that not one man in England who calls himself a civilised or Christian man will have it in his heart to add by a I single word to that which tin's great and i ancient and noble people sutler ; but that [ we shall do all we can by labour, by speech, aud by prayer to lessen, if it be possible, or at least to keep ourselves from sharing in sympathy with these atrocious deeds.'" (Lo'ud cheering.) Canon Farrar, who followed, asked why were the Bulgarian atrocities to bo denounced with I 'burning indignation, and the Russian atrocities to be listened to with freezing apathy ? Was it because the sufiorera in one ease were Bulgarians, and in the other were Jews ? Was it because the offenders in oi;e case were Mahomedaus, and in the other Christians ; or, because one Government was weak, and the other mighty? Was it because in one case the atrocities were committed amid the turbulence of war, and, in the other, in the depths of peace ; because oue were a sort of spasm in a comparatively transient agony, and the other the outcome of deep-seated and longcontinued disease * It was because we felt friendship that we claimed the right to remonstrate, as we always had done in such eases. It was a positive duty that the voice of England should Is heard, and that she should not speak with bated breath and whispering humbleness. (Cheers.) The Jews were the most tram-pled-upon nationality in the world. It was the nation to which humanity owed the deepest debt, and on which humanity had inflicted the deepest wrong. (Cheers.) With us they were loyal aud useful citizens, and so they would be in Russia, if Russia listened to our appeal. Other speakers also addressed the meeting. Other meetings of a similar character have been held throughout England.