82 WEST SHORE. misery caused by thli decree. Tbe record! of the timet u made by the non-Jewish pent, and most of them by servants of tbe dominant church, blot to all eternity tbe pagei of Spanish history with tbe tortures, indigni ties and atrocltlM endured by thli people, with none to condemn tbe out rages, none to protest against them. Tbe question has been asked : Can tbe Jew be" patriotic? We have become to Inured to being considered as of different flesh, disposition and temperament to tbe rest of humanity that we seldom note these questions, save In the silent protest of the misrepre sented soul. We know that none can form deeper, more lasting attachment to borne and country than those of our race. Hpain bad passed from a land of adoption to a land of inheritance to them. It had been for centuries the borne of their ancestors who bad been consistently and conspicuously de voted to its interests. Parents, children, brothers, sisters had been born there, lived there, died there, and in Caatllian ground their loved remains were lying. They bad reared their homes of comfort and content, cultiva ted the fine arts, reached the most advanced standing in the professions and sciences of the day. I'rescott and Mlllman both declare that even the humblest among them were possessed of a marked degree of Intelligence and dexterity In various skilled pursuits. And now they were to leave their homes, all the fond ties of memory and hope, forbidden to carry either gold or silver with them, given over to the pleasure of a blood-thirsty, greedful mob and the fearsome silent halls of the Inquisition chambers, to depirt whither T Oh, pregnant spectacle! Look at it now with the light of four hundred years of history shed upon It I Faitb inspired, with constancy and courage, they started forth, God their hope, bis promises their berittge. Clinging to a religion which taught charity universal, they fled from the barbarity of those who raised the black fltg in the name of abundant mercy and sharpened the sabre of assassination on the stones of love, peace and good will. Four hundred years have passed, and how wonderfully has tbe course of events been directed. Upon the shores discovered the very year our Hpanlsh ancestors were given to torture, spoliation and death, has been established a government may heaven bless and preserve it which ac knowledges equality of man and protects his personal and religious freedom. The influence of the example of this just and generous government hss broadened the humane views of the contemporary world, has shed the lus tre of Uie divine light of man's Inherent liberty, replacing with Its radiance the darkness of contracted views and prejudiced opinions. Thought and reasoning have, through it, taken tbe place of blind acceptance of tradi tional error and conceptions clouded by the superstitions of periods averse to investigation or the regeneration of fixed ideas. But alas, with some ex ceptions. The spirit rampant in France, Germany and Kngland in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, culminating In Hpain in the fllteenth, still flourishes with added complexities and dissimulations. Dire ful Is that spirit to-day In the land governed by a despot who trusts not his own flesh and blood, pieces no confidence In the sons of bis own mother. Who sees conspiracy In every line traced by tbe hand of Intelligence, who reads revolt In every expression of individual opinion. Shall we trace tbe parallels to be drawn between the Russia of to-day, imieding with all its absolute power the courts which knowledge and the love of liberty always pursue together, and the Hpain of four hundred years ago, controlled by an element jealous of the spread of general Information, stunted In soul and ab solutely heartless in regard to human rights T No! I feel that the mere suggestion It sufficient Whatever the pretext, if pretext be made, Uie real cause of persecution is to-day as It was (our hundred years ago, as It always hat been agreed, bigotry, bate, dense, unreasoning Ignorance and natural brutality. The lot of Uie Jews living beneath Russian rule bat never been happy and many have been the periods when their treatment hat been bar barous and cruel In Uie extreme. At no Ume have they been regarded as possessing any rights or priveleges save Uiose of sufferance, and even these at Uie caprice of petty officials and (rtqnently at Uie will and pleasure of an ignorant, unreasoning mob, auUioriied to plunder to ravish and to kill. They have been deUrred from following agricultural pursuits, forbidden to rent, own or occupy lands. They have been restricted In all other evoca tlont, shut out totally from all Uie recognised Industrial guilds, and bur dened with arbitrary and exorbitant tribute, obliged to purchase Uie very air Uiey breathe. Educational Institutions have been closed to them, Uie practice of the liberal professions prohibited and Uielr dwellings fixed with in limits subject to Uie change and whim of those vested with irretonsible authority. And Uien Uie world hu been called upon to point at them Uie Anger of scorn, and taunt Uiem with following Uie only pursuits left Uieui to eke out an existence. Hut the ever-Increasing severity, Uie Inhuman re strictive measures and compulsory edicts, which, In 1HS2, forced eighty Uiouaand of Uieee people Impoverished from Uielr homes before Uie protest of civilisation were heard and recognised, and which have now been re vived with additional severities not then conceived, arise from Uie (act thai Instead of being reduced to Uie level desired by Uie government, Uie level of Ignorant and mere animal existence, Uiey are held high above It through powers as inexplicable to Uieinaelves as to Uie world at large. Miraculous as It may appear, large numbers of Uiem have gained knowledge and ac quired an Intelligence which makes Uiem marked In Uielr surroundings. They have attained professional prominence and ability, and although only ton and in me district, five and even three per cent of the students at SJZ onal institution can be Jews, one of the preeen to. revived persecution is that this five per cent, dominate the remaining J five r cent., to the detriment and injury of the great poputa and Absolute monarchy of the Romanoff, and the established religionof toe powerful Greek cburcb. All the other charge, are worthy of precisely toe .credence. Permit me to analyze them. But final i,note signet the (act that tbi. autocratic and determined power, with it. traditional pol icy of quick, silent and effective cruelty to all whom it would strike, ha. designed to make any charges at .11. In a brief notice, however of toe pro test, of England recently vouchsafed through the columns of toe Impend organ of Russia, three cause, are stated for the oppressive measures against Uie Jews. First, Uiat Uiey remain as alien, in the country and endeavor to shirk army duty. Secondly, that they loan money to the peasants and con sequently render Uieir debtors dissatisfied and engender hate. Thirdly, that they spread nihilistic doctrines among the students, if allowed in any of tbe colleges, and become, thereby, a dangerous element to toe estab lished form of government. As to the first charge, statistics show a fair proportion of Jewish sub jects in the army and show also that their treatment there and the special rules and regulations applied to the Jewish soldiers alone, are hardly such ss to impel their voluntary influx into the ranks. No matter what their bravery or services may be, and there are many instances of exceptional qualities recorded, they can never advance-promotion is an absolute im possibility. Nor do they rank with the common soldiers who are not Jews. They are a specially degraded class, without right of appeal. Their live, are considered of no value, and no hesitation is felt in putting them to tor ture or death either for avowed cauBe or through official caprice. Can they be expected to enthusiastically enter a slavery more abject than that en dured by Uieir Egyptian predecessors, without that hope of bettering their condition which sometimes renders a temporary servitude bearable T But admitting that Uiey may endeavor to escape this service they are not per mitted to do so. If the Jewish recruit, when called for, doe. not appear, all his relatives, paternal and maternal, in all their branches, are liable to punishment and floe for bis failure, and Uieir liability is exacted to its full est extent and dltcomfiture. This count of Uie Indictment against them also terms them " aliens." Oh, how bitter is the mockery of that word as Uius applied. Aliens Indeed I Born beneath the skies destined always to be cold to tbem; drawing in Uieir first breath, air to which they have no title ; lifting up baby bands to a sun which shines not for them ; doomed to skulk along the byways of lite, shunned and despised by those of happier fate who may walk boldly along Uie joyous highways. Aliens! Denied that precious, elevating feeling which makes the scent of certain flower, so sweet to us, the blades of grass io green, the sky so beautiful, became they are the flower., Uie grasses and the skies of our native land. Bitter Indeed is the fate of the man without a country; stunted hi. heart; all the blos soms of love, loyalty, hope and pride nipped In the bud by the frosty breath of Uiat cruel mandate " You shall have no life with us." Aliens 1 lean speak to you of the love of Uie Jew for Uie land in which he is born ; of the loyalty which Is a very part of hi. nature. Only permit him to love your flag, let him feel that you do not grudge him a share in toe common weal, and to Uie day of hi. death unswerving is his patriotism, and toe lesson and example which he displays to his children. The Russo-Jewish ques tion would be speedily settled if Uie government did not force these people to be .(rangers and aliens to Uieir native land and heap still farther indig nity upon them in holding them up to the derision of the world as what this attitude compels them to sppear. In Uis second charge tbe Jew. are accused of lending money to the peasants and taking therefor mortgages on their personal property. It is far from my desire to utter a word of harshness concerning the Russian peasant. My heart harbors Uie deepest pity and consideration for his con dition. Not upon his sou) rests the guilt of the evil which through him finds its expression and culmination. I will simply sum up these state ments upon which those who are competent to express the tacts agree. As a rule he Is licentious, Intemperate and Improvident. The Jew i. none of Uieee. lie marries in Russia very early in life and devotes himself from the very threshold of hit manhood to Uie ties of family life. Although bur dened with .peclal taxation and subject at all Umes to the legalized robbery of officials, without rights of remonstrance except at the risk of liberty, he does somehow manage, through thrift, industry and frugality, to save a few poor coins year by year. And 1. It not a sad commentary upon to. human sense of fustic, to note in U.i. connection that what is considered a virtue n U.e Christian Is made to appear a hideou. vice in Uie Jew ? He pays all the taxes demanded of the most severely Uxed classes, and in addition a tax for wearing his hat in hi. synagogue, a tax for placing candles upon his ilkiSn ' S4b,rh ' ta D"r tabling its cost agnail meau killed and prepared according to Jewish rites, a special Ucens. tax or perfuming any religious ceremony in hi. horn.; andVo offseUU toi. two great pnvileg,, are otTerM to hi. raee-w tbwlate div