To pass to a more important country, Austria, the Jews, early in this century, were somewhat severely dealt with. The successors of their great patron and friend, Joseph II., annulled many of the privileges he had granted them. Indeed, for the greater part of the present century they have been subject to what must be regarded as unreasonable restrictions. They were not allowed to rent or purchase land, nor could they remove from one place to another without the special permission of the Government, and a heavy capitation tax was exacted of them. This, however, was reduced in 1848, and twenty years afterwards they obtained from the Government the entire freedom which they now enjoy. Several Jews, we are told, are now members of the legislature. These regulations have the force of law in Hungary as well as in Austria proper; but neither the Government nor the people accord them the perfect liberty and equality which the law professes to secure. The antipathy to them all over Central Europe is well known. In Hungary, within the last few years, this has been painfully illustrated by the trial at Nyireghyaza, which for many weeks attracted the attention of all Europe. As it illustrates, more forcibly than any comment could do, the true status of the Hungarian Jews, it will be proper to give an outline of the occurrence here. In March, 1882, a young girl named Esther Solymosi suddenly disappeared. She was discontented with her situation, and had quarrelled with her mistress. A few weeks afterwards, a Jew named Scharf, together with one or two other of his countrymen, was charged with having murdered her, in order to use her blood for ritual purposes. At first, the sole evidence was a Jewish child, five years old, who said that he had seen his father and brother cut the girl’s throat, and catch her blood in a basin. The brother, a boy of fourteen, at first denied any knowledge of the transaction, but afterwards retracted the denial. He now said that he had not been present when the deed was done, but he had seen it through the key-hole of the door of the tabernacle. There was no corroborative evidence of his tale, and, in addition to the fact that it was in the teeth of his first evidence, it was proved that it was impossible to see through the key-hole of the door in the way he had described.