has embarked upon this measure without having
solicited the explanations or justifications of this people, whereas,
according to common legal procedure, even an individual may not be
condemned without having been called upon to justify himself.

The rebuke had no effect. The Government preferred to render its verdict
_in absentia_, without listening to counsel for the defence and without
any safeguards of fair play. In line with this attitude, it also denied
the petition of the Vilna Kahal to be allowed "to send at least four
deputies to the capital as spokesmen of the entire Jewish people for the
purpose of submitting to the Government their explanations and
propositions concerning the reorganization of the Jews, after having
been presented with a draft of the statute." The final verdict was
pronounced in the spring of 1835, and in April the new "Statute
concerning the Jews" received the signature of the Tzar.

This "Charter of Disabilities," which was destined to operate for many
decades, represents a combination of the Russian "ground laws"
concerning the Jews and the restrictive by-laws issued after 1804. The
Pale of Settlement was now accurately defined: it consisted of Lithuania
[1] and the South-western provinces, [2] without any territorial
restrictions, White Russia [3] minus the Villages, Little Russia [4]
minus the crown hamlets, New Russia [5] minus Nicholayev and Sevastopol,
the government of Kiev minus the city of Kiev, the Baltic provinces for
the old settlers only, while the rural settlements on the entire
fifty-verst zone along the Western frontier were to be closed to
newcomers. As for the interior provinces, only temporary "furloughs"
(limited to six weeks and to be certified by gubernatorial passports)
were to be granted for the execution of judicial and commercial affairs,
with the proviso that the travellers should wear Russian instead of
Jewish dress. The merchants affiliated with the first and second guilds
were allowed, in addition, to visit the two capitals, [6] the sea-ports,
as well as the fairs of Nizhni-Novgorod, Kharkov, and other big fairs
for wholesale buying or selling. [7]

[Footnote 1: The present governments of Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, and Minsk.]

[Footnote 2: The governments of Volhynia and Podolia.]

[Footnote 3: The governments of Vitebsk and Moghilev.]

[Footnote 4: The governments of Chernigov and Poltava.]

[Footnote 5: The governments of Kherson, Yekaterinoslav, Tav