e of all difficulties. It was not satisfied with
barring college-bred Jews from the civil service and an academic career,
thus limiting the Jewish physicians and lawyers to private practice; it
was anxious to restrict even this narrow field of activity still open to
Jews. In view of the fact that the Jewish jurists had no chance to apply
their knowledge in the civil service, and were entirely excluded from
the bench, they naturally turned to the bar, with the result that they
soon occupied a conspicuous place there, both quantitatively and
qualitatively. Their success was a source of annoyance to the Russian
anti-Semites, both those who hated the Jews on principle and those who
did so selfishly, being themselves members of the bar. These enemies of
Judaism called the attention of the Government to the large number of
Jewish lawyers at the St. Petersburg bar--a circumstance due partly to
the natural gravitation towards the administrative and legal center of
the country, and partly to the fact that the admission of Jews to the
bar met with less obstruction from the judicial authorities in the
capital than in the provinces, where professional jealousy frequently
stood in the way of the Jews.

The reactionary Minister of Justice, Manassein, managed to convince the
Tzar that it was necessary to check the further admission of Jews to the
bar. However, from diplomatic considerations, it was thought wiser to
carry this restriction into effect not under an anti-Jewish flag, but
rather as a general measure directed against all members of
"non-Christian persuasions." The restriction was therefore extended to
Mohammedans and the handful of privileged Karaites, [1] and the religious
intolerance of the new measure was thus thrown into even bolder relief.

[Footnote 1: See on the Karaites, Vol. I, p. 318.]

On November, 1889, an imperial ukase decreed as follows:

That, pending the enactment of a special law dealing with this
subject, the admission of public and private attorneys of
non-Christian denominations by the competent judicial institutions
and bar associations [1] shall not take place, except with the
permission of the Minister of Justice, on the recommendation of the
presidents of the above-mentioned institutions and associations.

[Footnote 1: "Public (literally, sworn) attorneys" are lawyers of academic
standing admitted to the bar by the bar associations. "Private
attorneys" are lawyers without educational