admitted before long to equal civil
and political rights with other Russian subjects of the Emperor, and I
feel sure the hopes will not be disappointed. The Jewish revolutionaries
in the past have been the most dangerous of all, and I believe there has
never been any conspiracy of real moment in which they have not taken a
share; but there again, as we think of their degradation in country
villages, we cannot but ask, "How could anything else be expected of
them? Treated as they have been, their boldest spirits would be sure to
plot." The Jews with us are loyal and patriotic citizens and though
proud--as they have a right to be--of their race, they are proud also of
their nationality. So it will be in Russia when she gives them freedom.
None will be more patriotic than they, amongst all the mixed races which
make up the empire. They have given a foretaste of this already. A
writer in the _Contemporary Review_ last December (Gabriel Costa), in
telling us something of what "Freeing Six Millions" would mean, points
out that while no Russian Jewish soldier could hold commissioned rank,
nor aspire even to be the conductor of a military band--though none
could be more fitted--nor be accepted as an army surgeon, yet when the
call to arms came great numbers of Jewish doctors were summoned to the
front, and obeyed the call. He also tells us how Jews of all social
grades contributed freely to the Red Cross funds, whilst--most wonderful
of all--the Jews of Kishineff, where one of the most terrible of all
Russia's "_pogroms_" or massacres (the word means literally destruction)
took place, offered up prayers in its synagogues for the success of the
Russian army.

It is a very significant and instructive fact of life that where great
issues have to be faced together, whether it is by few or many, those
barriers which have been considered fundamental, of race, religion, and
politics, have a strange way of disappearing and sinking out of sight.
Sometimes it is disconcerting, but often it is most encouraging and even
inspiring. And so when Jews are confronted by the tremendous issues of
this war they find that they can pray for those towards whom but lately
they have been burning with a deep sense of indignant wrong. Russians
and Poles have been at enmity together for generations now, but in face
of the common peril and the common foe all this is forgotten, and the
Russian officers sent to head-quarters soon after the invasion of Poland