Part 42 (1/2)
”Entering with the deepest respect into the details of this subject, I would most earnestly solicit and supplicate--
”_1st._ That my brethren should enjoy without reserve the fullest and completest right of settling at their own choice in any part of the Russian territory comprised within seventeen governments or provinces, a surface occupying 17,000 square miles, and that to this end His Majesty the Emperor would be most graciously pleased to cancel all laws and customs which prevent them from settling in any towns and villages of the Guberniums of Livonia and Courland, in the cities of Kiew (formerly a most considerable Hebrew congregation), Nicolaiew, and Swatopol, and in the villages situated in the Guberniums of Whitebsk, Mogilew, Tschornigow, and Poltawa, and that His Majesty would further graciously and mercifully deign to cancel entirely the Ukases which order the removal of all Israelites for fifty wersts from the frontiers and sea sh.o.r.es, leaving to summary individual punishment any evil disposed persons who might partic.i.p.ate in offences against the revenue, and by His Majesty's great kindness exciting the good and loyal to combine amongst themselves to put down all such nefarious practices, as I faithfully believe that moved by His Majesty's high policy and favour they would do.
”_2nd._ That they should be allowed to live in every town or village situated within the already mentioned s.p.a.ce of 17,000 square miles without being confined to any particular street or restricted locality, and to establish manufactories. It should be borne in mind that the Hebrew population has greatly increased since the period (December 9, 1804) when they were first confined to the above-named s.p.a.ce. From my own observation I can affirm that in many places the Hebrew people live crowded together to such a degree, that four or five families have no more room to occupy than that which would barely suffice for one family in any other Gubernium inhabited by His Majesty's subjects of another creed.
”_3rd._ The suspension of the Ukase respecting the removal from the inns in the villages, and permission to the Hebrew inhabitants of the Gubernium of Courland to keep farms, inns, and baiting stables agreeably to an Imperial Ukase of the 13th April 1835-64.
”_4th._ The admission of the Hebrew mechanics, artizans, and tradesmen inhabiting Courland into the Christian corporations of their respective trades, or to subst.i.tute the privilege of forming their own corporations so that the Israelite might have the advantage of being allowed to keep his journeymen, apprentices, or other a.s.sistants to his trade belonging to his own creed or to any other, and thus avert inevitable distress.
”_5th._ Permission to Hebrew merchants throughout Russia belonging to any one of the three guilds to travel into the interior of Russia for commercial purposes, and to visit Moscow and St Petersburg with the same freedom as the merchants of other creeds, and the extension of this permission to their agents, and also to mechanics of every description, and to carmen, waggoners, and labourers for the more successful prosecution of their business; of course upon the condition of their being provided with the customary pa.s.sports. Respecting those individuals who do not belong to any of the four cla.s.ses, my humble pet.i.tion to His Majesty's Government would be to permit them to go into the neighbouring Guberniums for the purpose of their making purchases of the produce of the land and necessary provisions. Such privileges to Hebrew merchants and others, instead of being a disadvantage to commercial persons of other creeds, would, I think, operate to their great benefit, for compet.i.tion and activity are the mainsprings of prosperous commerce, and these elements would become increased universally amongst the trading cla.s.ses by this act of favour.
”_6th._ Permission to re-establish the congregational unions called Kahals, which serve them as their natural point of centralization; and to leave all congregational offices in the hands of Israelites, so that their finances, their charitable inst.i.tutions, and their minor duties may be under their own administration. This boon would, I am sure, be particularly satisfactory to my brethren, and would especially call forth at the same time their confidence and affection towards His Majesty's person and his Government, and that proper feeling of self-respect without which they cannot be expected to rise from their present condition of despondent degradation.
”_7th._ Permission to Israelites to avail themselves of the a.s.sistance of Christians in the various occupations of life--a measure which would tend strongly to soften down those feelings of difference which now exist between these two cla.s.ses of His Majesty's subjects, and to obliterate that line of demarcation which His Majesty and his Government justly regard with so much regret.
”_8th._ Permission to the Israelites to live as agriculturists in the vicinity of their Christian neighbours.
”_9th._ The right of keeping brewhouses.
”_10th._ Promotion from the ranks of Hebrew soldiers or sailors who distinguish themselves in the Imperial army or navy.
”_11th._ And, in fine, the removal from the Israelites of all such taxes and restrictions as at present they are made to bear in a greater number and to a greater extent than other cla.s.ses of His Majesty's subjects, and in particular that of the Sabbath Light, which presses so heavily on the poor.
”Such are the general details of the request that I most respectfully solicit your Excellency to lay before His Majesty the Emperor. I most humbly and earnestly pray, that in the great opportunity which Divine Providence has opened to His Majesty, he will raise the fallen, relieve the oppressed, cheer the desolate, and by a high and magnanimous measure of policy set an example which the whole world, and especially my brethren, will never cease to remember with grat.i.tude and admiration.
”Your Excellency will observe that what I here entreat in the name of my brethren, as well as in that of every friend of humanity, amounts in fact to nothing more than that which your Excellency's most enlightened and benevolent Sovereign has already accorded to His Hebrew subjects, by the declaration contained in the doc.u.ment with which your Excellency obligingly furnished me.
”Under existing circ.u.mstances, deprived as they are of the means adverted to in that declaration, of turning their activity to useful objects, and of establis.h.i.+ng their prosperity upon a safe basis, poverty, distress, and the annihilation of all hope must be the fate of His Imperial Majesty's most faithful and loyal Hebrew subjects, and indeed they appear already reduced to the lowest depth of distress.
”I therefore most humbly approach His Majesty's philanthropic Government with my fervent prayer, that it will be pleased to carry out without delay the good and humane intentions of His Most Gracious Majesty the Emperor, manifested in his decrees.
”With respect to the real disposition of my brethren, I feel it right to mention that from communications which I held with the Russian authorities during my permitted visit to the Israelites in His Majesty's dominions, I have reason to think that my co-religionists have been generally exempt from the commission of capital crimes, and that even in regard to ordinary morality and the greater proportion of minor offences, their conduct is of a very exemplary kind. I sincerely hope that this statement will accord with the reports in the possession of His Majesty's Government. I feel confident that His Majesty's Government will reflect upon another pleasing fact of which I was also informed, that the Israelites have never been connected with the formation of any plot or scheme against those in authority, but on the contrary have endeavoured on all occasions to serve their country with earnest zeal, and with most unanimous sacrifices of life and property. As an instance, I shall only mention their exertions in favour of the Empire which they have the happiness to inhabit, during the presence of the French in Russia, in the year 1812, and more particularly in the revolt of the year 1830. On the latter occasion the Israelites were highly gratified by a proclamation, which their magnanimous Monarch caused to be issued in his name, by the Adjutant General Prince Nikolai Andrewitz Dolgarukow, in which His Majesty condescended to express his great satisfaction with my brethren, and, moreover, renewed his a.s.surance to them that they should find in Russia, under the glorious sceptre of their exalted Monarch, a fatherland and security of their property and privileges.
”I am happy to repeat my statement to your Excellency that the same loyal sentiments towards His Majesty's Government, which they have invariably cherished, still animate their hearts, and that they embrace with avidity every opportunity to accede to the wishes of the Government.
”The following fact will, I trust, bear me out in my a.s.sertion. On His Majesty's desiring that the Israelites should change their costume, for which, as having been peculiar to themselves and their ancestors, they had a natural predilection, they have shown their obedience to this desire, though this was not done without considerable pecuniary sacrifice and ruinous loss to many whose warehouses were well provided with furs and silks.
”I beg to a.s.sure your Excellency they are ready to cultivate the land; they are prepared to undertake any work however laborious; they wish to establish manufactories of every description; they are desirous to cultivate their minds to the best of their power by the study of modern science and literature. Be a.s.sured that poverty, restriction, and disproportioned taxation have alone heretofore prevented them from effecting these objects. But it is in the power of His Majesty's Government to raise and revive them all, by simply decreeing the removal of existing impediments to their full enjoyment of all the privileges which their most humane and paternal Emperor has granted them.
”I beg to a.s.sure your Excellency that I well know how to appreciate the great confidence which His Majesty's Government has placed in me, in granting the privilege of personally witnessing the state of my brethren in Russia.
The influence which I flatter myself that I have with them, I have exercised for the purpose of strengthening them in their continual efforts to meet the wishes of His Majesty's Government.
”With your Excellency's kind permission I shall have the honour from time to time to address your Excellency on the important matter which forms the subject of my present communication, and to which His Majesty's enlightened Government has devoted itself with so much zeal and humanity.
”I shall ever gratefully remember the kindness and attention which your Excellency was always pleased to evince towards me during my stay in the Imperial city, and your Excellency will give me leave to say that my visit to Russia will ever be remembered with heartfelt grat.i.tude for the greatest condescension and humanity of the most ill.u.s.trious and magnanimous Emperor Nicholas, from whose royal lips I heard that I should have the satisfaction of taking with me his a.s.surances and the a.s.surances of his Ministers that he was desirous to improve the condition of my co-religionists.
”In most fervent prayers I unite with two millions of His Majesty's faithful Hebrew subjects, supplicating the most High to grant long life and everlasting glory to their beneficent Sovereign, who we further pray may behold the fruition of his desire to ensure the happiness of every cla.s.s in his dominions, and thus reap the sincerest grat.i.tude of every humane and philanthropic heart.
”It may be proper to observe that, mindful of the condescension and confidence reposed in me by His Imperial Majesty, I consider this report, together with the two reports by which it is accompanied, a private and confidential communication.
”In conclusion, I entreat your Excellency's indulgence to pardon the length at which I have ventured to intrude on your Excellency's attention, and with feelings of the most profound respect, I have the honour to be your Excellency's most faithful and devoted humble servant,