"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 principal 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 entitled 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 participating in the administration in the Town Hall. The Israelites, under these circumstances, greatly suffer from the dissolution of their congregational unions. A Hebrew is not allowed to engage the assistance 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 illustrious 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 passed 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 quantity 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 class 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 gratitude 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 nobleman 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 assertion, 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 assigned 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.