e 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 circumstance 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 citizenship 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 assistants;
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 destitute; 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