therto, then, been, and for so long, one of
rigid exclusion? The Pale, to which they are limited, includes only the
ten provinces of Russian Poland, and fifteen provinces in Western
Russia, and the arrangements were made first by the government of
Catherine the Great in 1791, and definitely settled in 1835. Even there,
though by law they are entitled to live and follow their particular
tastes and callings freely, yet we are told that "harassing laws
restrict their initiative and make even their right of residence within
the Pale itself become something of a chimera." Why is this policy of
vexatious exclusion so persistently followed? We are told that it is
because the Jewish element is a sordid and deteriorating influence, bad
for the local and national life alike, and a hindrance to the nation's
progress. This, however, was clearly not the view of M. de Plehve when,
as Minister of the Interior, he received a deputation of representative
Jews petitioning for an extension of civil rights. He is reported to
have said to them, "It is not true that the Tsar and myself regard the
Jews as an inferior race. On the contrary, we regard them as
exceptionally smart and clever. But if we admitted Jews to our
universities, without restriction, they would overshadow our own
Russian students and dominate our own intellectual life. I do not think
it would be fair to allow the minority thus to obtain an advantage over
the majority in this way." He did not seem to see that, as those in
question were _Russian subjects_, the very ability to which he gave his
testimony was being prevented from enriching the national life. This is
a fallacy as old as history itself, and pursued by that shortsighted
Pharaoh on the Nile of whom it is significantly said, by way of
explanation of his folly, that "He knew not Joseph!" As we read the
records of Scripture--and the historical books are for the most part
extraordinarily dispassionate and free from undue Hebrew bias--we see
that neither Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, nor Persia had any cause to regret
giving Jews a place in their national life, and that their fatal
mistakes, even with the Jews themselves, lay in _not_ following Jewish
counsels.

The Jews have what can only be called a genius for patriotism, and in a
way not to be explained they breathe in this spirit very deeply towards
any nation which bids them welcome, and offers them a home. During my
first service in Siberia, described in another chapt