was neither hatred nor revenge, but the fulfilment of such action which in the opinion of some coincided with the aims and desires of the Government, and in the opinion of others was even authorised, and finally in the eyes of the ignorant peasantry was the fulfilment of the Imperial Word. Therefore, in my opinion, it is impossible to absolve the Central Administration from _moral_ responsibility in the Kishineff plunderings and murders. I consider our Government guilty on account of the patronage afforded to a narrow Nationalist idea, on account of its short-sighted and summary dealings towards the provinces inhabited by alien races, and on account of the fact that this policy fostered mutual hatred and distrust among the various nationalities; finally, because the central power encouraged these brutal phenomena, which disappear as soon as the Government openly declares that Pogroms are a crime for which the local administration will have to answer.” Prince Ourousov concludes, therefore, that whereas the idea that Plehve had deliberately organised anti-Jewish riots is a legend, nevertheless his Government cannot be absolved from the suspicion that it exerted indirect influence on the riots through the action of minor anti-Jewish-minded officials who knew that their action would not meet with disapproval alone, and by its constant refusal to check the violence of the anti-Jewish Press. If one realises, therefore, that the Pogrom was not a natural and fortuitous occurrence, it is morally not difficult to say that it was effected “by order.” But the chief cause of the mischief which makes such riots possible is the existence of the special legislation to which the Jews are subjected in Russia. As long as one part of the population is legally and civilly inferior to another part, the legally superior portion will always, especially if it consists of uneducated peasants, think that it is acting patriotically in ill-treating the legally inferior portion. Moreover, the endless bother incurred by every small official, owing to the carrying out or the neglect of the innumerable preventive regulations respecting the Jews, is sufficient in itself to embitter the local officials against the Jews. I have selected this portion of Prince Ourousov’s book out of many other interesting things, and dwelt upon it at length, because the question is still vital and actual.