From the issue of the _Jewish Chronicle_ of May 27, 1881, p.

12b, it would appear that the deputation was received on Tuesday, May 24.] Subsequent events soon made it clear that the Government, represented by Ignatyev, was far from harboring any sympathy for the victims of the pogroms.

The public did not fail to notice the fact that the Russian Government, which was in the habit of rendering financial help to the population in the case of elemental catastrophes, such as conflagrations or inundations, had refrained from granting the slightest monetary assistance to the Jewish sufferers from the pogroms.

Apart from its material usefulness, such assistance would have had an enormous moral effect, inasmuch as it would have stood forth in the public eye as an official condemnation of the violent acts perpetrated against the Jews--particularly if the Tzar himself had made a large donation for that purpose, as he was wont to do in other cases of this kind.

As it was, the authorities not only neglected to take such a step, but they even went so far as to forbid the Jews of St.Petersburg to start a public collection for the relief of the pogrom victims.