from other Jews; they are orthodox, and believe in the Talmud"[44]--a
reason for persecution in Holy Russia!

Montefiore's visit to Russia, from which so much had been hoped, did not
improve the situation in the least. For all his strenuous efforts, he
was compelled to leave the Jews as destitute as he had found them. Nay,
they might truthfully have said to the Moses of England what their
ancestors had said to the Moses of Egypt, "Since thou didst come to
Pharaoh, the hardness of our lot has increased." From the first of May
(1844) they were not allowed to continue to earn the pittance necessary
to maintain life, as, for instance, by the slavish labor of breaking
stones on the highways, with which three hundred families had barely
earned dry bread.[45] The great love and respect shown to the uncrowned
king of Israel proved to the czar's officials the existence of some
artful design on the part of the Jews, and convinced them especially of
the disloyalty of Montefiore. The latter, they maintained, was scheming
to set himself up as the Jewish czar. Hence every movement of his was
closely watched, every word he uttered carefully noted, and not a few
Jews were left with memorable tokens for doing homage to the English
baronet. Their disabilities were not removed, their condition was not
improved, the hopes they entertained resolved themselves into pleasant
dreams followed by a sad awakening.[46]

Yet, though his visit did not, as Sir Moses had anticipated, "raise the
Jews in the estimation of the people," it was not without beneficent
effect on the Jews themselves. It cemented the "traditional friendship"
which has always existed between Anglo-Jews and Russo-Jews more than
between any sets of Jews of the dispersion. It disclosed to the latter
that there were happier Jews and better countries than their own; that
there were men who sympathized with them as effectively as could be.