Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore Part 41

"May it please your Excellency,--In addressing your Excellency after my return from Russia to this country, I deem it an imperative duty to express again to your Excellency the deep sense of grat.i.tude I feel for the distinguished honour which has been conferred upon me by His Imperial Majesty, in granting me so gracious a reception, and to a.s.sure your Excellency that the kind promises which I have received from that most exalted and magnanimous Monarch, and his enlightened Ministers, to promote the welfare of my co-religionists dwelling in His Majesty's vast empire, have not only been a source of great delight to the Israelites in Russia, and to their brethren in England, but have very extensively afforded great satisfaction to the friends of humanity throughout Europe.

"The perusal of the very important doc.u.ments which your Excellency was pleased to place in my hands previously to my departure from Saint Petersburg, gave me an additional proof of the paternal principle entertained by His Imperial Majesty towards his Hebrew subjects; and when that august Monarch graciously intimated to me that I should go and see the state of my brethren, I hailed the opportunity which was thus afforded to me to communicate to them the good intentions of the Government, and to persuade them cheerfully to conform to the benevolent intentions of their wise and powerful Monarch.

"It is now my momentous task in compliance with your Excellency's benign suggestion, to report to your Excellency the result of my visit to His Majesty's Hebrew subjects, and I feel confident that your Excellency will deign to regard my communication with the indulgent attention and consideration which the cause of philanthropy has ever received from your Excellency, the more so as I have the gratifying promise of your Excellency to place my representation in the hands of His Majesty, whose great object it has ever been to adopt every suitable measure for securing the moral and physical welfare of every subject under His Imperial sway.

"From the information which I gathered during my sojourn among the various Hebrew congregations in Russia, confirmed by my own personal observation, I am enabled to affirm that my brethren in His Majesty's empire are fully sensible of the good intentions of His Majesty's Government, that they speak with enthusiasm of the magnanimity of their mighty Sovereign; and declare their readiness at all times and under all circ.u.mstances to serve their country to their latest breath.

"It did not, however, escape my notice that there exist some obstacles which prevent the benign rays of His Majesty's mercy from imparting to His Hebrew subjects the full measure of comfort to which the wise and just general laws of the Russian Government would ent.i.tle them; I therefore, with your Excellency's permission, will now briefly repeat the advantages granted to them by their excellent Monarch, and venture to describe briefly to what extent and by what measures they are administered to the Israelites. I shall, at the same time, not withhold from your Excellency some observations upon the charges preferred against them, which I will leave to the wise and profound judgment and candid and indulgent consideration of your Excellency.

"In the doc.u.ment your Excellency was pleased to hand me it is stated to the effect--That the union of the Polish Provinces with Russia was for the Israelites a new epoch; that the Imperial Government not only allowed them, like its other subjects, to partake of all civil rights, and granted them permission to be received in the corporation of the body of town merchants, but also accorded them the privilege of taking part in the elections, and of being themselves eligible to become members of common councils, and to fill other local offices. Besides this, they were permitted to acquire immoveable property, and to settle as agriculturists, either on their own estates or on the lands of the crown, in which latter case Government also granted them support and freedom from all taxes, the Israelites also enjoying the right of settling in seventeen Governments (a superficies of 17,000 square miles) among a population of twenty millions of inhabitants, in countries where, by means of the harbours of the Black Sea (and in part through those of the Baltic), a lively commercial intercourse is kept up both in Russia and with foreign countries, have had, it is stated, all possible means in their hands of turning their activity to useful objects, and of establishing their prosperity upon a safe basis.

"The knowledge that such privileges have been accorded cannot but excite a deep and universal grat.i.tude towards His Imperial Majesty for the paternal care which has thus been taken of his Hebrew subjects. But on a careful examination into the condition of the Israelites in some places situated within the above named 17,000 square miles, causes appear to prevail owing to which they do not actually derive from these enlightened measures the advantages they were intended to confer.

"I would respectfully invite your Excellency's attention to the circ.u.mstance that in the entire Government of Livonia there is only the city of Riga in which the Israelites are permitted to dwell, and there only to the number of about one hundred families. In Courland only those Israelites who were present in the year 1799 and their families are permitted to remain, but even those who have acquired the rights of citizenship are greatly restricted in their respective trades, for a Ukase, dated in April 1835, declares the Israelites in Mitau, in consequence of a privilege granted to the Christians of that city in the year 1785, disqualified to be received into the Christian corporations of the body of tradesmen or mechanics. The result of such a restriction is that the Israelite is never regarded as a master tradesman, and therefore cannot employ in his service either a journeyman professing the Christian religion or one who adheres to the principles of his own religion.

He is likewise prohibited from keeping apprentices even of his own creed. Thus the Israelite is prevented from following any trade that requires particular a.s.sistants; he cannot with any prospect of success become a joiner, locksmith, blacksmith, or bricklayer, nor can he do the work of any mechanic where the aid of other persons is absolutely requisite. The disadvantages which he must labour under are indeed numerous. Where there is a large family, and the children are of tender ages, it becomes scarcely possible for the parent to maintain them, and it must be evident that when men become enfeebled by old age, or afflicted by bodily infirmity, they can no longer exert personally the labour which their business requires, and thus they become utterly dest.i.tute; and when a parent dies his children, if not sufficiently advanced in years to have acquired from him a knowledge of his trade (to which he dared not apprentice them), must relinquish it altogether.

"Your Excellency may perhaps think me wrong in this a.s.sertion, the former Governor General, the Marquis Paulucci, having in the year 1820 interceded in the Israelites' behalf, and obtained permission that they should in future enjoy the privilege of teaching their children their respective trades. This privilege has, however, again been taken away from them. In the course of time most of the operative cla.s.s thus naturally became poor, to such a frightful degree that the community is obliged to furnish them with the necessaries of life. It may be said that Israelites who cannot follow the trade of their parents need not become a burthen on the congregation; an imperial Ukase having been issued in April 1835 to the effect that the Israelites in Courland should enjoy the right of keeping, either by rent or obrok, farms, inns, or baiting stables; but your Excellency will please to remember that this privilege was soon recalled. And, moreover, for some cause the Hebrews were ordered to quit the frontiers of Courland, as well as all the other places situated near the sea sh.o.r.es; and to withdraw fifty wersts into the interior of the country, which latter decree deprives them of the right to inhabit nearly one-third of that Gubernium. In the same province the Israelites are not only prohibited from settling with their families, but are prevented by the law from becoming contractors to the Crown and undertaking the erection of any government building, even though they might be merchants of the first or second guild. Neither are they suffered to sell goods by wholesale under their own firm.

"Your Excellency will give me leave also to advert to the expulsion of my brethren from the city of Kiew, where they are at present not allowed to remain even a single night; from the city of Nicolaiew, in the Gubernium of Kherson; the city of Swart-opol, in the Gubernium of Ekat-erinaslow; and all the villages situated in the Gubernium of Whitebsk, Moghilew, Tchornigow, and Voltawa, as well as all the other villages of those Guberniums situated within fifty wersts along the frontiers.

"If in consequence of the last Ukases the Israelites are also to be removed from all the towns and villages situate within fifty wersts of the Austrian and Prussian frontiers, and must quit every house where the sale of spirituous liquors is offered to the peasant, the number of exiles would surely equal the number of those who are already settled in the interior, and their fate cannot be any other than epidemic, disease, dest.i.tution, and starvation. This, as I had the honour of hearing personally from your Excellency, is not and never can be the intention of that great and most benevolent Monarch whose anxiety for the welfare of all his faithful subjects is so well known to all the world.

"With respect to commerce, the above-named s.p.a.ce of land of seventeen thousand square miles, if available to the Israelites, as was originally intended, would, in the opinion of most of them, afford sufficient scope for securing a flourishing state of commerce amongst them.

There are, however, some disadvantages against which the Hebrew merchants have daily to contend, and unless these be removed, the mere extent of land const.i.tuting the field for their exertions would not insure to them those advantages which they might have expected to realise from the benevolent intentions of their ill.u.s.trious monarch. Merchants professing any other faith, either purchase their stock in the interior of Russia, or proceed to foreign countries and import it from them.

But the Hebrew merchants have no permission to travel into the interior of Russia, with the exception only of those of the first and second guilds, whose privilege is restricted to making one journey for goods in the course of the year to Moscow; their sojourn in that city being limited--as respects the former to six months, and the latter to three months. Were they permitted to visit Moscow and other places at such times as their business might require, they would thus have sufficient opportunity for the necessary replenishment of their warehouses with the newest fashions in proper season during the year, which they cannot do if they are bound to lay in at once a stock for the whole year; and it is often the case that the purchases they have made in Moscow by the time they arrive at their destination are out of fashion. The Hebrew merchant is obliged to appear personally at Moscow, and dares not send his agent there to transact his business.

"Your Excellency will be pleased to consider the great expenses he must incur before he has the opportunity of offering his goods for sale, and the impossibility of his becoming prosperous in business whilst he is obliged to repair to Moscow for such goods as his Christian neighbour can import from the nearest factory in the interior of the land.

"The imperial city of Saint Petersburg the Israelite must never visit on commercial business; he is only allowed to appear there in connection with a law suit, or in some other particular occasion, of very rare occurrence. The Hebrew merchant thus has to contend with numerous difficulties in being obliged to import his goods from foreign countries, for the duty he has to pay on them is exceedingly high, therefore making it impossible for him to compete with his Christian neighbour. These disadvantages have reduced the commerce of the Israelites to a deplorably low ebb, and are banishing prosperity from amongst them. And it is a fact that in one of the princ.i.p.al cities where formerly there were thirty Hebrew Moscow merchants, there are at present only two, and these can only preserve their commercial standing by extreme exertion.

"Your Excellency will further condescend to take into consideration that there are various other disadvantages which the Israelites have to contend with, and which I shall merely mention in a few words for fear of encroaching upon your Excellency's most valuable time.

His Majesty's Hebrew subjects are deprived of their congregational unions known by the Hebrew term Kahal, and are thus debarred from the advantage of any great measure for their common relief, which might otherwise be effected through the community. The Kahal served as a central point in which every individual had an interest, and there were able to do something for the amelioration of their own town in particular cases, which cannot be done now. It is true their financial affairs are generally under the best care, being administered by the members of the Town Hall (Dume), where according to His Majesty's gracious Ukase, Israelites are ent.i.tled to be admitted; yet it appears they are excluded from the enjoyment of this privilege in some important cities where they were first refused admission as members of the magistracy, and subsequently excluded from partic.i.p.ating in the administration in the Town Hall.

The Israelites, under these circ.u.mstances, greatly suffer from the dissolution of their congregational unions. A Hebrew is not allowed to engage the a.s.sistance of any Christian servant, neither is he permitted to settle as an agriculturist within four or five wersts from the habitation of a Christian. He is not permitted to keep posting establishments. He is further prohibited from keeping brewhouses either in towns or villages. A Hebrew, when serving in the army or navy of His Majesty, can never rise even to become a subaltern. The Israelite suffers from all the above-named restrictions, notwithstanding the distinct desire of His Imperial Majesty that he should be allowed to partake of all civil rights like all the other subjects of His Imperial Majesty. I have thus endeavoured to present to your Excellency a brief view of some of the causes which operate to deprive my brethren of the full enjoyment of those privileges intended for them by their ill.u.s.trious and most humane Sovereign.

"There are, however, other causes which I fear also tend to this unhappy result. I refer more particularly to certain charges made against the Israelites, too important to be pa.s.sed over unnoticed, and which, entreating your Excellency's kind attention, I will now proceed to enumerate and comment upon.

"I have ascertained on enquiry that the following charges are preferred against the Israelites, viz.:

"That they are inclined to an idle course of life, and prefer petty commerce to agriculture; hence the prohibition not to live in Old Russia.

"That they impose upon the peasant, and in return for a small quant.i.ty of spirit, deprive him of all his property (hence the removal from all the villages in the Guberniums of Whitebsk and Moghelew).

"That all of them living near the frontiers have the reputation of dealing in contraband goods; hence the removal from all the towns and villages within the fifty wersts.

"In answer to the above accusations in general, your Excellency will permit me to say that I am far from being inclined to aver that an Israelite of a bad disposition is less capable of doing wrong than any other individual of bad principles belonging to any other creed, but I feel confident that a wise and just Government, like that of His Imperial Majesty, will not deem it right to punish many thousands of its Hebrew subjects for the transgressions of a few. Let him who offends against the law of the country, or violates the rights of his fellow creatures, be punished, but let all the rest enjoy the comfort designed for them by their magnanimous Monarch. I entreat your Excellency to consider that the number of Hebrews who maintain themselves by commercial enterprises is but a small portion of the whole, for, as I had the opportunity of seeing, most of them are either mechanics or common labourers; they do not appear to be of idle disposition; on the contrary, they seek work as far as they are permitted to extend their movements. In all those Guberniums where Israelites have the privilege of settling, there are some of them who are tailors, shoemakers, farriers, glaziers, &c., &c., others who employ themselves with a more laborious occupation, as that of a blacksmith, locksmith, bricklayer, carpenter, &c. There is a cla.s.s which may be reckoned amongst the artizans, such as watchmakers and goldsmiths, and another, which may be considered as a most numerous one, is that which consists of people who break stones on the chaussees, cut wood for fuel, or dig the ground and carry water, or remove heavy loads from one place to another. Your Excellency will, I believe, bear me out in this statement, for the Israelites to this very day remember with grat.i.tude when your Excellency, in the spring of 1845, feelingly expressed your approbation to General Bulmering of his having allowed the Israelites to break stones on the road. There is also another instance which speaks favourably for the Israelites in this respect. I allude to two of the finest houses at Wilna, the one belonging to Count Teschkewetz, and the other to the n.o.bleman Wilgatzke, but inhabited by the present civil Governor, both of which were entirely constructed by the Israelites. This, I venture to say, is a satisfactory proof of their being most anxious to work, and if the fact of their being seen walking about the streets without any occupation be urged against my a.s.sertion, I may be permitted to answer in their defence that want of work (within the boundary of those places where they are authorised to live) may be a.s.signed as the cause of it; for the Israelite cannot, like his Christian neighbour, quit one Gubernium and repair to another, where he may be sure to find occupation.

"Indeed there are often a great many Christian labourers to be seen in the Jewish Guberniums, in consequence of their business being slack in their own district.

"Your Excellency will now permit me to state my humble opinion with regard to the accusation of the Israelites feeling disinclined to cultivate the land. The great facilities which His Majesty's benevolent Government afforded me for the purpose of having the necessary intercourse with my brethren, enabled me to learn that they were always desirous, and are at present most anxious to devote themselves to agriculture. I shall adduce the following statement in support of this a.s.sertion:--In the year 1835, when His Imperial Majesty most graciously declared that the Israelites should cultivate the land, a great many of them shewed their willingness to desert their homes and move even to the remotest parts of the country. Unfortunately after several hundreds of Israelites had sold all their moveable and immoveable property to repair to Tobolsk and Omsk, in Siberia (these two places having been a.s.signed to them), and actually succeeded, though not without great sufferings on the road, in reaching, with their wives and children, the above-named colonies, it was intimated to them that the land was not to be cultivated by the Israelites. In the year 1840, a great many families went to Kherson for the same purpose, but a considerable number of them on their arrival found their plans frustrated. They were most kindly treated, it is true, by His Excellency the Governor of Wilna. Every adult received forty-eight copecks banco a.s.signations, and every child half that sum. They were also provided with the necessary vehicles for their conveyance, one being a.s.signed to each family; but as they proceeded thence into the other Guberniums the adults received only twenty-four copecks banco and the children twelve copecks banco each, and the number of vehicles was reduced to one for every two families. The emigrants had to wait several days before the vehicles were ready for their use, during which time they were not provided with the necessary diet money. They were further furnished with boats for the purpose of performing part of the journey on the river Berezina and Dnieper. The money requisite to pay the hire of these boats was deducted from the amount allotted for their diet. The Israelites were a.s.sured that it would take them only a fortnight's time to make the pa.s.sage on the rivers, and for this reason only received money to defray the expenses of their diet during that period; but the pa.s.sage occupied seven weeks, and they had to sustain themselves out of their own means. Many of them were great sufferers from severe cold and hunger, and a considerable number who had not even the smallest coin beyond that which they received from Government, being left without food, whilst they had to endure the inclemency of the season, necessarily perished.

"The survivors, on arriving at the places of their destination, found that they could not obtain possession of the houses, agricultural implements, and cattle a.s.signed for them in the month of May in accordance with the decree of His Majesty's Government, but had to wait for them until the month of August, and for the articles furnished to them which were of a very bad description, they were subject to a charge considerably exceeding their value.

"The rye seed which the Israelites ought to have received in the month of August, was not given to them before the month of October; the consequence was, that the crops of the first year did not prosper, and they were obliged to take provision from the Government for the next year also.

The seed for the summer crops which ought to have been given them in the month of March, they did not receive before the month of May; thus they were obliged to put the seed into the ground very late in the season, and heavy rains which followed again caused the crops to fail. The habitations a.s.signed for their occupation being of very bad materials, and badly constructed, most of them soon fell to the ground.

"Then followed an epidemic disease among the cattle, and the Israelites suffered a considerable loss. In consequence of this misfortune the Government benevolently ordered pa.s.sports to be granted in order that they might repair to other places for the purpose of gaining their daily bread; but instead of paying for a pa.s.sport valid for a year, according to the law of the country, they had sometimes to pay most exorbitantly.

"In addition to this and other similar hardships, I may mention the fact of the Poll Tax being demanded from the old settlers who are not liable to it.

"In the year 1844, when an Imperial Ukase appeared again inviting the Hebrews to agriculture, with a grant of support out of the Korabka, His Majesty's Hebrew subjects, desirous to avail themselves of this Ukase, not only forwarded their humble pet.i.tions on the subject to the Governors of their respective towns and villages, but even made voluntary offers to defray the necessary expenses from their own means. Your Excellency has full evidence of this fact in the numerous applications addressed to your ill.u.s.trious person, and I feel convinced that your Excellency will be surprised to hear that difficulties are thrown in the way on occasions like the following.

"Some Crown land situate in the vicinity of Wilna and Kowno was offered to the public by auction, and Israelites were prohibited from being amongst the applicants, although many of them distinctly declared their willingness to cultivate the land in question personally.

All this, I trust, will be sufficient to satisfy your Excellency that the Israelites are not averse to agricultural pursuits, and that there is no foundation for the charge brought against them in this respect.

"Having thus, I trust, convinced your Excellency that there is no just ground for the accusation that my brethren are disinclined to work laboriously and cultivate the land, I now humbly request your Excellency to consider with your wonted justice the two other charges brought against them, viz.:--

"That they impose upon the peasant and deal in contraband goods, these vices being traceable to a disposition to idleness. I trust, however, I have succeeded in proving that idleness is unjustly charged against them, and in further refutation of these two imputations against the Israelites generally, I may also be justified in observing that a man, however inclined he may be to acc.u.mulate riches, will not readily give up an occupation which insures him bread in comfort, and respectability for a business that is attended with little profit and great risk of life. I have already stated to your Excellency that only the fourth part of the Hebrew population in each town or village is engaged in commercial pursuits, and supposing even for a moment, that all the merchants in any one town might be liable to transgress the law of excise and customs (which case, I think, almost impossible, as the Hebrew law distinctly forbids such transgressions), surely so wise and benevolent a Government will not cause the removal of the entire Hebrew population from the Austrian and Prussian frontiers, because a few among them may have acted in opposition to the law? For these delinquents I do not intercede, His Majesty's wise and paternal Government will treat them like similar offenders in the Imperial cities of Saint Petersburg and Moscow, where I believe it will appear from the records preserved by His Majesty's Minister of Finance, there exists a great number of them notwithstanding the entire absence of Israelites. I implore only the extension of its merciful protection to the rest of the Hebrew inhabitants.

"The presence of the Israelites in the various villages throughout the Empire is said to be pernicious to the peasants. From the information I received, your Excellency will perceive that this cannot be the case. My informants a.s.sured me that since the Israelites were obliged to leave the Guberniums of White Russia and Little Prussia, the peasants have found themselves in a most deplorable state, and are very often in such an unfortunate condition that they are even without the seeds necessary for the future crops, which never happened whilst the Israelites were amongst them.

"There is also another striking proof which your Excellency, I am confident, will agree with me to be in their favour. If the Israelites had indeed imposed upon the peasants and impoverished them, the former, as they were obliged to quit the villages and join their brethren in the towns, would undoubtedly have carried some property with them, but their utter dest.i.tution was apparent from almost all of them becoming immediately a heavy burthen on the congregation, and many of them actually perished from want before they could reach the town fixed upon for their future abode.

"Your Excellency will also be pleased to reflect that the proprietors of the various establishments let on rent to the Israelites being themselves good and charitable Christians, and naturally most benevolently inclined towards their brethren in faith, would not have suffered their Hebrew tenants to impose upon them, and had the Israelites in reality been guilty of the crime, the proprietors would of themselves have driven them away.

"The circ.u.mstances, explanations of which I have now had the honour of submitting to your Excellency, have, however, in consequence perhaps of similar endeavours not having been made previously to the present moment, produced an unfavourable impression on the mind of His Majesty's Government; so much so, that His Majesty the Emperor, in his august solicitude for the welfare of the Hebrew population resident in his dominions, appointed a special committee to investigate the causes of the unsatisfactory state in which the population remains to this day, and to deliberate on the means fittest to be applied as remedies. The result of these enquiries was that the Israelites were represented to the Committee in very erroneous and unfavourable colours. Those who were characterised as rebellious and disobedient were therefore subjected to coercive measures as idlers who prove a burthen to the society of which they are members, and in order to be able to inst.i.tute a just discrimination between such Israelites as have sought to make themselves useful, and such as do not yet carry on a trade or some other legal occupation, His Majesty's Government calls upon the latter to enrol themselves in one of the four following cla.s.ses: 1st, one of the three guilds of merchants; 2nd, the burgess of a town by the purchase of a piece of land or a house; 3rd, a corporation of artizans, after having given the proof of ability required by the law; or 4th, the grand body of agriculturists, whether on their own property or under a proprietor. And such Israelites as shall not have placed themselves by the appointed time (the 1st January 1850) in one of the four cla.s.ses are to be subject to such restrictive measures as the Government shall think it right to employ.

"Believing that in consequence of such cla.s.sification more than four-fifths of the Hebrew population will necessarily have to be enlisted amongst those who, according to the above declaration, will be regarded as a burthen on society at large, I feel it a duty humbly and earnestly to make a few observations to your Excellency, and beg at the same time that your Excellency will be pleased to give credit to my a.s.surance that in this instance I am regarding the Israelites not with the sympathy natural to a brother in faith, but with the impartiality of a perfect stranger; the sentiments which I now shall have the honour to express to your Excellency being those only of a friend to humanity.

"There cannot exist a doubt that the above imperial decree will be a most beneficial incentive to a large number of the Hebrew communities to enrol themselves in some one of the four cla.s.ses in question; and his most gracious Majesty will now have the high gratification of knowing that in future those amongst his Hebrew subjects can, under no pretence whatever, be accused of idleness, the nature of their occupation being registered in the archives of the respective Guberniums they inhabit. I, however, humbly venture to suggest the addition of two other cla.s.ses to the four already specified, as a proceeding in accordance with the enlightened views of His Majesty's Government. I allude, first, to labourers of every description, domestic servants, clerks, commercial agents, brokers and employees, water-carriers, porters, waggoners and carmen, provision dealers, cutters of wood for fuel, and persons engaged in similar occupations. The nature of their pursuits does not qualify them to be enrolled in any of the four cla.s.ses, yet they are a body of people who, as your Excellency will admit, deserve to be looked upon with an eye of mercy for two reasons.

First, because they are continually exerting themselves by their incessant labours to maintain themselves and their families in an honest and respectable way; and, secondly, because the existence of such individuals is most essential to the promotion of the welfare and comfort of His Majesty's Hebrew subjects belonging to any of the four cla.s.ses. For if the latter were obliged to devote their time and attention to all the work originally intended to be executed by their inferiors, what would become of their business? Would it then not appear quite natural that in the course of time their situation would become precarious to such a degree that they would have to give up their avocations altogether. Another cla.s.s of people which I am particularly anxious to introduce to the consideration of His Majesty's Government is that which comprises the spiritual leaders of the congregations, a.s.sessors of the Hebrew ecclesiastical courts, scribes qualified to write the sacred scrolls of the Pentateuch, and other religious doc.u.ments, persons qualified to slay animals for food in conformity with the Jewish law, readers of prayers in the Synagogue, readers of the Pentateuch to the congregation, operators of circ.u.mcision, students who devote themselves to the study of Hebrew theology, and teachers of religion.

The body of people just mentioned, your Excellency will give me leave to say, I regard as the very soul of the congregation, for it is religion alone that makes a man true and faithful to his fellow creatures, and sincere and loyal to the Government under which he lives.

"His Imperial Majesty being sensible of this sacred truth, in his great mercy and paternal love to all his subjects without reference to their religious creeds, granted permission to his Hebrew subjects, the soldiers at St Petersburg, to have Synagogues of their own, and I a.s.sure your Excellency that I cherish with feelings of the deepest grat.i.tude to His Majesty, the memory of those days when, by his gracious permisssion, I was enabled to join my brethren in prayer. This event alone is a sufficient a.s.surance to me that His Majesty's Government will in its wisdom add all those individuals to the cla.s.ses of those who are considered as subjects useful to society. There are also individuals, though they cannot be brought under any of these various cla.s.ses, to whom the Government will, I dare hope, extend its mercy. I mean persons advanced in age, or in an infirm state of health, and others who have no choice but to cultivate the soil, but have not the means to purchase land and agricultural implements. In short, these observations are merely to show that an immense number of people still exist who may be in every respect useful, honest, industrious, learned, and distinguished in various branches without finding a place in any of the four cla.s.ses. A wise and humane Government then will surely not suffer them to be regarded as a burthen to the congregations, and cause them to be subjected to coercive measures.

"I have now shown (I trust clearly) to your Excellency that the reasons advanced for not extending to the Israelites the mercy of their most ill.u.s.trious and benevolent Monarch are unfounded incorrect representations, a circ.u.mstance which, of course, I am far from attributing to the most honourable and distinguished Committee appointed for the purpose, but to parties for unaccountable reasons inimically inclined towards the Israelites. I have further proved to your Excellency that the Israelites in general are not of an idle disposition; that, moreover, most of them are anxious to cultivate the land, and even pray for such occupation; that the majority of the Israelites dwelling near the Austrian and Prussian frontiers are so circ.u.mstanced that an accusation of transgressing the laws of excise and customs cannot in justice be preferred against them. I have also represented to your Excellency that the numerous restrictions under which the Israelites of all cla.s.ses suffer are a cause that their commerce can have no chance whatever of prospering, but that, on the contrary, they must from day to day sink into deeper distress; and, further, that the last measure adopted for the amelioration of their condition would tend to a contrary effect, unless the number of cla.s.ses be increased. It is an unquestionable fact that the great body of the Israelites in His Majesty's empire are in a state of extreme misery. I do not venture to discuss again the causes of these evils, but only speak of the reality and depth of their existence. His Majesty himself has seen them, the Special Commission has verified the fact, and I myself having had His Majesty's most gracious permission to visit my brethren, have been a sorrowful witness of it. This, then, being so, I am convinced His Majesty and his Government will bear with me while, with heartfelt grat.i.tude for the goodness which His Majesty has already extended to the House of Israel in his solicitude to be made acquainted with their real condition, I venture to submit to your Excellency my own very humble but earnest belief of the principles of policy which, if brought into action, would surely remedy most extensively the evils already described, and bring the work of investigation which His Majesty and his Government have begun to a most happy, glorious, and honourable consummation.

"I venture to hold my own views on this subject with confidence and decision, only because I know most intimately the feelings of my brethren. I have observed them closely in different parts of the world; have watched over them through a long life with very anxious attention; and could now, if it would benefit them, lay down that life for what I know to be their true character.

"Their natural disposition as a body, your Excellency, is not what it may have appeared to be. Expelled long ago with fearful slaughter from their ancient country, and dispersed in every land under heaven, the oppression of ages may have given them, in the eyes of His Majesty's Government, the semblance of a character which is not their own. That which they may appear to have may be artificial and superficial, forced upon them by long existing, most extraordinary, and peculiar circ.u.mstances.

For these evils His Majesty the Emperor holds the full and most efficacious remedy in his own most gracious heart and most powerful hands, under the blessing of Almighty G.o.d, which would surely rest upon him in the prosecution of such an unspeakably benign object.

"Will His Majesty deign to hear my most humble and most earnest pet.i.tion, and graciously put this remedy into application?

"I beseech indulgent consideration while, confiding in the n.o.bleness of His Majesty's mind, and in the high wisdom of His Majesty's Ministers, I proceed to describe it.

"It consists primarily in nothing more than the full and real accordance to Israelites of the boon which His Majesty's Ministers have informed me has been already designed for them by the Imperial Government--videlicit, "Equal rights with all other subjects of the empire." This great favour bestowed by His Majesty publicly, immediately, and without reserve would, I am deeply persuaded, produce the most beneficial results. It would cancel at once the heavy despondency produced by the degradation of ages; it would call forth the ardent grat.i.tude which I a.s.sure your Excellency abounds in the hearts of my brethren, and it would present to His Majesty's other subjects, and to the world at large, a most distinguished proof of His Majesty's paternal mercy, wisdom, condescension, and high magnanimity.

"I would not argue that this favour, if it had been granted without limit at other times, and under other circ.u.mstances, would have been productive of the same advantages. I would only humbly urge that now at this moment, when the minds of my brethren and of other men have been so powerfully drawn to observe His Majesty's attention to their condition, such a measure must be followed by most happy consequences.