Far worse was the condition of the Jew in Alsace--a district German in everything save political allegiance. In that province oppression was of that dull, chronic kind which begets degradation without driving its victims to violent despair. The Jews in Alsace were simply regarded and treated as inferior animals. They lived in jealously guarded ghettos, egress from which had to be purchased from the local officials. The right of abode was vested in the hands of the feudal nobility; the same limitations as to the number of residents and marriages prevailed, and the same extortions were practised there as in Germany. The Jews had to pay tribute to king, bishop, and lord paramount for protection, besides the taxes levied by the barons on whose domains they dwelt, and the irregular gifts wrung out of them by the barons’ satellites. And, while money was demanded at every turn, most of the avenues through which money comes were closed to the Jews, cattle-dealing and jewellery being the only trades which they were permitted to pursue openly. The profits derived from these pursuits were, of course, supplemented by surreptitious and, consequently, excessive usury. This last occupation exposed the Jew to the hatred of the simple country folk, and to blackmail on the part of crafty informers. The discontent, fomented by the clergy and the local magistrates, culminated in a petition to Louis XVI., imploring his Majesty to expel the accursed race from Alsace. But it was too late in the day. The movement in favour of toleration had made too much headway. An enquiry was instituted, and the ringleader of the anti-Jewish agitation--a legal rogue rejoicing in the name of Hell--was convicted of blackmail and banished from the province, instead of the Jews. ♦1780♦ At the same time the latter presented to the King a memorial, drawn up by Dohm, and obtained a considerable alleviation of the burdens under which they groaned, of the restrictions which hampered their commercial activity, and of the missionary zeal of the Catholic priests, which threatened the religion of their children. Finally, they were relieved of the odious capitation tax in 1784, the year which witnessed the triumph of Beaumarchais’ _Mariage de Figaro_ at the Theatre Français--a rapier thrust at the dotard giant of feudalism, none the less deadly because inflicted amid peals of laughter; to be followed by the fall of the Bastille and of other things. In the same year a Royal Commission was appointed to revise the laws concerning the Jews and to remove their disabilities.