a feeling of hatred towards Russia on the part of the mass of our people, I believe their feeling is precisely the reverse. I am satisfied that in this kingdom at the present time there is a feeling of deep sympathy with the people of Russia and with their ruler in the terrible calamities that have fallen upon their city and upon the Imperial family. When the late Emperor fell by the hands of the demoniacal assassins the whole country was filled with horror and dismay, which was expressed as with the voice of one man, not only because the people were appalled by the frightful crime, but because they remembered that the father of the present Emperor was the glorious emancipator of two millions of slaves. (Cheers.) And, after all, if we approach the present Emperor, what are we asking for? Are we asking anything to abate his dignity or to lower his power? Nay, on the contrary, are we not asking him to do that which will conduce very much to his honour? Are we not asking him to do justice to a large body of his loyal and suffering people? Are we only asking him to restrain violence, murder, outrage, and spoliation? Are we not asking him to be a Cyrus to the Jews and not an Antiochus Epiphanes? Are we not asking him to enter upon the greatest and noblest exercise of power to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free? These are the purpose and object of our meeting; this will be the prayer of our memorial, and may God in His mercy prosper it to the removal of those horrors and to the comfort of the Jewish people, on whose behalf we are gathered together! (Loud cheers.) His Lordship concluded by moving, "That, in the opinion of this meeting, the persecution and the outrages which the Jews in many parts of the Russian dominion have for several months past suffered, are an offence to civilisation to be deeply deplored."

Speech of the Right Rev. the BISHOP OF LONDON

My Lord Mayor,-One circumstance alone justifies me in rising at your request to second the resolution before such a meeting as this, which I am quite unfitted to address in the presence of those I see around me, and that one circumstance is the unavoidable absence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. I quite admit-indeed, I deeply feel-that the Church of England ought not, and I am sure will not, be backward in joining in the expression of a feeling of indignant sorrow at the statements which have come before us lately with regard to the treatment of the Jews in Russia. In the absence of the Archbishop, it might not be presumptuous in me, the Bishop of the most populous and most important diocese in England (hear, hear), if I venture, in the absence of anyone more fit, to second the resolution. Happily, no

words from me are needed. The case has been stated to you by the noble earl with a vigour which shows that age has not diminished his powers of speech (cheers) any more than it has extinguished or ever can extinguish his sympathy with suffering and his sense of indignation at injustice and wrong. (Renewed cheers.) The facts can scarcely be denied. If they could have been denied, what need for all those reasons which have been assigned why the English people should not have been so moved at reading of those atrocities? If the Russian Government had been able to say that the statements could be proved to be false, it need not allege that the English are afraid of Russia, and that we desire to turn out the Ministry. We have seen in the papers an attempt, hardly to deny the facts, but certainly to palliate them by excuses not only improbable, but utterly inadequate, and set before us, I may say, with a cynical indifference which one would be very reluctant to believe had been traced by the hand of a female. (Cheers.) There is one circumstance in those atrocities which must

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make every member of the Church, indeed, every Christian feel, together with his indignation, a certain shame. A few years back our country was horrified with accounts of atrocities committed in what were then provinces of the Turkish empire. The country was moved, but it had the consolation of knowing that though the sufferers were Christians the perpetrators were almost all of another creed. Now, alas! the case is the reverse; they who perpetrated these outrages are men who bear the name of Christians, so that the persecution of the Middle Ages, on which history has long set the stamp of reprobation, has been reproduced in this latter part of the 19th century, and the dark stain of rapine, lust, and murder is let fall again upon the fair fame of Christianity. (Cheers.) We do feel this; but I will venture to say that not in this crowded room alone, not in this metropolis merely, not in the cities and large towns of England only are the sympathy and horror felt which have been expressed before you and which called you together to-day, but in the quiet parsonages and in the most retired villages throughout England there is the same feeling of mingled horror, grief, and shame that now, in an age of civilisation, in the days when we think ourselves, and certainly are, better than our fathers in some respects, we find a Christian nation persecuting the Jews. (Cheers.) Knowing this, my Lord Mayor, I venture to assume, speaking here from this platform, that I may without presumption, or if it be presumption it will be easily pardoned, in the name of every member of the Church of England second the resolution which Lord Shaftesbury has proposed. (Loud cheers.)

Speech of His Eminence CARDINAL MANNING—

My Lord Mayor, Ladies, and Gentlemen-It has often fallen to my lot to move a resolution in meetings such as this, but never in my memory have I moved one with more

perfect conviction of my reason, or more entire concurrence of my heart. (Cheers.) Before I use any further words, it will, perhaps, be better that I should read what that resolution is. It is, "That this meeting, while disclaiming any right or desire to interfere in the internal affairs of another country, and desiring that the most amicable relations between England and Russia should be preserved, feels it a duty to express its opinion that the laws of Russia relating to Jews tend to degrade them in the eyes of the Christian population, and to expose Russian Jewish subjects to the outbreaks of fanatical ignorance." I need not disclaim, for I accept the eloquent disclaimer of the noble lord, that we are not met here for a political purpose. (Hear, hear.) If there were a suspicion of any party politics, I should not be standing here. It is because I believe that we are high above all the tumults of party politics, that we are in the serene region of human sympathy and human justice, that I am here to-day. (Cheers.) I can also declare that nothing can be further from my intention, as I am confident nothing can be further from yours, than to do that which would be a violation of the laws of mutual peace and order, and the respect which binds nations together, or to attempt to interfere or dictate in the domestic legislation of Russia. (Hear, hear.) I am also bound to say that I share heartily in the words of veneration used by the noble earl towards his Imperial Majesty of Russia. No man can have watched the last year of the Imperial family, no man can know the condition in which the Emperor stands now, without a profound sympathy, which would at once bind every disposition to use a single expression which would convey a wound to the mind of the Czar. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, I disclaim absolutely and altogether, that anything that passes from my lips-and I believe I can speak for all-should assume a character inconsistent with veneration for a person charged

with a responsibility so great. Further, I may say that while we do not pretend to touch upon any question in the internal legislation of Russia, there are laws larger than any Russian legislation-the laws of humanity and of God, which are the foundation of all other laws-(cheers,) and if in any legislation they be violated, all the nations of Christian Europe, the whole commonwealth of civilised and Christian men would instantly acquire a right to speak out aloud. (Cheers.) And now I must touch upon one point, which I acknowledge has been very painful to me. We have all watched for the last twelve months the anti-Semitic movement in Germany. I look upon it with a two-fold feeling in the first place with horror, as tending to disintegrate the foundations of social life; and, secondly, with great fear lest it might light up an animosity which has already taken flame in Russia and may spread elsewhere. (Hear, hear.) I have read with great regret an elaborate article, full, no doubt, of minute observations, written from Prussia, and published in the Nineteenth Century, giving a description of the class animosities, jealousies, and rivalries which are at present so rife in that country. When I read that article my first feeling was one of infinite sorrow that the power and energy of the Old Testament should be so much greater in Brandenburg than those of the New. I am sorry to see that a society penetrated with Rationalism has not so much Christian knowledge, Christian power, Christian character, and Christian virtue as to render it impossible that, cultivated, refined, industrious, and energetic as they are, they should endanger the Christian society of that great kingdom. I have also read with pain accounts of the condition of the Russian Jews, bringing against them accusations which, if I touch upon them, I must ask my Jewish friends near me to believe I reject with incredulity and horror. (Hear, hear.) Neverthless I