Dr. Humphry Sandwith, writing from Belgrade, positively denies that the
Servians oppress Catholics or Protestants, or Jews qua Jews. As to Catholics, there are none. As to Pro- testants, the Government has built them a church in the capital, and pays the Protestant minister. As to Jews, they prosper in Belgrade, and are admitted into the municipality, but they are forbidden to settle in the interior, because they open dram-shops and lend money at usury. Dr. Sandwith seems to think that is not persecution ; but suppose the Servian Government banished all red-haired men because they sold drink and took interest, would he not call that persecution, especially if black-haired men might sell drink and hire out money at pleasure? The truth is the Jews are hated by the peasantry on religious grounds and by the bourgeoisie because they make money, and the Government, which knows better, yields to popular prejudice. Still the dif- ference between forbidding a man to live in a country village because he is a Jew, and chopping him up and violating his wife because they are Christians, is a perceptible difference. Lord Beaconsfield would call it a detail, but then details make up life.
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