to the
original inhabitants and turn them in the direction of productive labor.

[Footnote 1: Popularly known by his middle name as _Yozel_.]

Were--the petitioners declare--the new generation which has been
brought up in the spirit and under the control of the Government,
were the higher mercantile class which for many years has diffused
life, activity, and wealth in the land, were the conscientious
artisans who earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, to receive
from the Government, as a mark of distinction, larger rights than
those who have done nothing to attest their well-meaningness,
usefulness, and industry, then the whole Jewish people, seeing that
these few favored ones are the object of the Government's
righteousness and benevolence and models of what it desires the Jews
to become, would joyfully hasten to attain the goal marked out by
the Government. Our present petition, therefore, is to the effect
that our gracious sovereign may bestow his kindness upon us, and, by
distinguishing the grain from the chaff, may be pleased to accord a
few moderate privileges to the most educated among us, to wit:

1. "Equal rights with the other (Russian) subjects or with the
Karaite Jews [1] to the educated and well-deserving Jews who possess
the title of Honorary Citizens, to the merchants affiliated for a
number of years with the first or second guild and distinguished by
their business integrity, to the soldiers who have served
irreproachably in the army."

2. The right of residence outside the Pale of Settlement "to the
best among the artisans" who possess laudatory certificates from the
trade-unions. The privileges thus accorded to "the best among us"
will help to realize the consummation of the Government "that the
sharply marked traits which distinguish the Jews from the native
Russians should be levelled, and that the Jews should in their way
of thinking and acting become akin to the latter." Once placed
outside their secluded "Pale," the Jews "will succeed in adopting
from the genuine Russians the praise-worthy qualities, by which they
are distinguished, and the striving for culture and useful endeavor
will become universal."

[Footnote 1: On the emancipation of the Karaites see Vol. I, p. 318.]

The petition reflects the humiliating attitude of men who were standing
on the boundary line between slavery and freedom, whose cast of mind had
been