In this way the Russian Government succeeded in shutting the mouths of the few defenders of Judaism, while according unrestricted liberty of speech to its ferocious assailants.
3.

THE GUILDHALL MEETING IN LONDON The cry of indignation against Jewish oppression, which had been smothered in Russia, could not be stifled abroad.

The Jews of England took the initiative in this matter.

On November 5, 1890, the London _Times_ published a letter from N.S.Joseph, honorary secretary to the Russo-Jewish Committee in London, passionately appealing to the public men of England to intercede on behalf of his persecuted coreligionists.
The writer of the letter called attention to the fact that, while the Russian Government was officially denying that it was contemplating new restrictions against the Jews, it was at the same time applying the former restrictions on so comprehensive a scale and with such extraordinary cruelty that the Jews in the Pale of Settlement were like a doomed prisoner in a cell with its opposite walls gradually approaching, contracting by slow degrees his breathing space, till they at last immure him in a living tomb.
The writer concludes his appeal in these terms: It may seem a sorry jest but the Russian law, in very truth, now declares: The Jew may live here only and shall not live there; if he lives here he must remain here; but wherever he lives he shall not live--he shall not have the means of living.

This is the operation of the law as it stands, without any new edict.