When one of the witnesses retorted that the aggravation of the economic struggle was due to the artificial congestion of the Jews in the pent-up Pale of Settlement, the prosecutor shouted: "If the Eastern frontier is closed to the Jews, the Western frontier is open to them; why don't they take advantage of it ?" This summons to leave the country, doubly revolting in the mouth of a guardian of the law, addressed to those who under the influence of the pogrom panic had already made up their minds to flee from the land of slavery, produced a staggering effect upon the Jewish public.

The last ray of hope, the hope for legal justice, vanished.

The courts of law had become a weapon in the hands of the anti-Jewish leaders.
2.

THE POGROM PANIC AND THE BEGINNING OF THE EXODUS The feeling of safety, which had been restored by the published portion of the imperial reply at the audience of May 11, was rapidly evaporating.

The Jews were again filled with alarm, while the instigators of the pogroms took courage and decided that the time had arrived to finish their interrupted street performance.