e." Nicholas I. rejected this plea, and
only agreed to postpone the expulsion until February, 1835, for the
reason that the new "Statute Concerning the Jews," then in preparation,
which was to define the general legal status of Russian Jewry, was
expected to be ready by that time. Similar short reprieves were granted
to the Jews about to be exiled from Nicholayev, from the villages of the
government of Kiev, and from other places.

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

5. THE CODIFICATION OF JEWISH DISABILITIES

No sooner had the conscription ukase been issued than the bureaucrats of
St. Petersburg began to apply themselves in the hidden recesses of their
chancelleries to a new civil code for the Jews, which was to supersede
the antiquated Statute of 1804. The work passed through a number of
departments. The projected enactment was framed by the "Jewish
Committee," which had been established in 1823 for the purpose of
bringing about "a reduction of the number of Jews in the monarchy," and
consisted of cabinet ministers and the chiefs of departments. [1]
Originally the department chiefs had elaborated a draft covering 1230
clauses, a gigantic code of disabilities; evidently founded on the
principle that in the case of Jews everything is forbidden which, is not
permitted by special legislation. The dimensions of the draft were such
that even the Government was appalled and decided to turn it over to the
ministerial members of the Committee.

[Footnote 1: See Vol. I, p. 407 et seq.]

Modified in shape and reduced in size, the code was submitted in 1834 to
the Department of Laws forming part of the Council of State, and after
careful discussion by the Department of Laws was brought up at the
plenary sessions of the Council. The "ministerial" draft, though smaller
in bulk, was marked by such severity that the Department of Laws found
it necessary to tone it down. The ministers, with the exception of the
Minister of Finance, had proposed to transfer all Jews, within a period
of three years, from the villages to the towns and townlets. The
Department of Laws considered this measure too risky, pointing to the
White Russian expulsion of 1823, which had failed to produce the
expected results, and, "while it has ruined the Jews, it does not in the
least seem to have improved the condition of the villagers." [1] The
plenum of the Council agreed with the Department of Laws that "the
proposed expulsion of the Jews (from the v