estowal of civil and in part even political rights upon the
Jews, to be accompanied by a reorganization, of Jewish life along the
lines of European progress and a modernized scheme of autonomy. All
communal and cultural affairs shall be put in charge of "directorates,"
one central directorate in Warsaw and local ones in every province of
the Kingdom, after the pattern of the Jewish consistories of France.
These directorates shall be composed of rabbis, elders of the community,
and a commissioner representing the Government; in the central
directorate this commissioner shall be replaced by a "procurator" to be
appointed directly by the king.

[Footnote 1: See above, p. 16.]

This whole organization shall be placed under the jurisdiction of the
Minister of Public Instruction, who shall also exercise the right of
confirming the rabbis nominated by the directorates. The functions of
the directorates shall include the registration of the Jewish
population, the management of the communal finances, the dispensation of
charity, and the opening of secular schools for Jewish children. A
certificate of graduation from such a school shall be required from
every young man who applies for a marriage license or for a permit to
engage in a craft or to acquire property. "All Jews fulfilling the
obligations imposed by the present statute shall be accorded full
citizenship," while those who distinguish themselves in science an art
may even be deemed worthy of political rights, not excluding membership
in the Polish Diet. For the immediate future Novosiltzev advises to
refrain from economic restrictions, such as the prohibition of the
liquor traffic, though he concedes the advisability of checking its
growth, and advocates the adoption of a system of economic reforms by
stimulating crafts and agriculture among the Jews. In the beginning of
1817 Novosiltzev's project was laid before the Polish Council of State.
It was opposed with great stubbornness by Chartoryski, the Polish
viceroy Zayonchek, Stashitz, and other Polish dignitaries, whose
hostility was directed not so much against the pro-Jewish plan as
against its Russian author. The Council of State appointed a special
committee which, after examining Novosiltzev's project, arrived at the
following conclusions:

1. It is impossible to carry out a reorganization of Jewish life
through the Jews themselves.

2. The establishment of a separate cultural organization for the
Jews