$ ; IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-VIII 



teresting people., but especially remember a luncheon with 

 Lord Rothschild, with whom I had a very interesting talk 

 about the treatment of the Jews in Russia. He seemed to 

 feel deeply the persecution to which they were subjected, 

 speaking with much force regarding it, and insisting 

 that their main crime was that they were sober, thought 

 ful, and thrifty ; that as to the charge that they were prey 

 ing upon the agricultural population, they preyed upon it 

 as do the Quakers in England by owning agricultural 

 machines and letting them put ; that as to the charge of 

 usury, they were much less exacting than many Chris 

 tians ; and that the main effort upon public opinion there, 

 such as it is, should be in the direction of preventing the 

 making of more severe laws. He incidentally referred 

 to the money power of Europe as against Russia, speak 

 ing of Alexander II as kind and just, but of Alexander 

 III as really unacquainted with the great questions con 

 cerned, and under control of the church. 



I confess that I am amazed, as I revise this chapter, 

 to learn from apparently trustworthy sources that his 

 bank is now making a vast loan to Russia to enable her 

 to renew her old treatment of Japan, China, Armenia, 

 Finland, Poland, the Baltic Provinces, and her Jewish 

 residents. I can think of nothing so sure to strengthen 

 the anti-Semites throughout the world. 



A few days later Sir Julian Goldschmidt came to me on 

 the same subject, and he impressed me much more deeply 

 than the head of the house of Rothschild had done. There 

 was nothing of the ennobled millionaire about him; he 

 seemed to me a gentleman from the heart outward. Pre 

 senting with much feeling the disabilities and hardships 

 of the Jews in Russia, he dwelt upon the discriminations 

 against them, especially in the matter of military fines; 

 their gradual and final exclusion from professions; and 

 the confiscation of their property at Moscow, where they 

 had been forced to leave the city and therefore to realize 

 on their whole estates at a few days notice. 



At Paris I also had some interesting conversations, re- 



