In addition to these defects the Russian peasant is a constitutional procrastinator. He never does to-day what he thinks he can by hook or by crook put off till to-morrow. Two of the most precious boons of his newly-acquired liberty, in his eyes, were the license it allowed him to postpone his work as long as he liked and to drink as much as he liked. Under the old system “the proprietor thrashed his serfs if they were drunk too often, and he kept their pockets so empty, and the price of the vodki, of which he was the monopolist, so high, that they had comparatively little opportunity of gratifying their passion for liquor. This was very well while it lasted, but now that the control is withdrawn the reaction is all the greater.”[169] This is an ample answer to the charge brought against the Jew as the promoter of intemperance. As to the charge of collusion with Government officials, it can easily be met. Both culprits, of course, deserve punishment. But it is scarcely fair that the one should be only fined, dismissed, or imprisoned, and the other slaughtered or starved with the rest of his nation. With regard to “boycotting” outsiders and playing into each other’s hands, is it not natural that people belonging to a sect which their neighbours scorn should assist their fellow-sufferers in preference to their persecutors? There is no stronger bond between man and man than the bond of a common stigma. The charges of immoral pursuits and habits of depravity may, or may not, be exaggerated. But, even admitting that the Jew is all that his Russian enemy considers him to be, a sufficient answer to the invectives of the latter is supplied by the old saying: “Every country has the Jews it deserves.” Without having recourse to the obvious retort--which in the case of the Russian peasant would be particularly apposite--that, if there was no demand for the facilities for immorality supplied by the Jew, the Jew would not think it worth his while to supply them, we may urge the self-evident truth, that legal disabilities, by barring the way to an honest and honourable career, drive their victims to the exercise of the lowest and meanest of callings. The struggle for existence under such banausic conditions degenerates into a savage warfare in which there is no room for scruple or shame. The outcast has no reputation to lose. And, the more unprincipled the contest becomes, the greater grows the necessity for oppression, in countries where statesmanship has not yet discovered less rude remedies. It is a vicious circle from which there appears to be no escape.