Part 41 (1/2)
”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 establis.h.i.+ng 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 citizens.h.i.+p 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 flouris.h.i.+ng 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 fas.h.i.+ons 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 fas.h.i.+on. 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 banis.h.i.+ng 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.