formation for all dignitaries and officials. The
ministers, governors and the vast army of subordinate officials, who
wished to ascertain the political course at a given moment, consulted
this "well-informed" daily, which, as far as the Jewish question was
concerned, pursued but one aim: to make the life of the Jews in Russia
unbearable. Apart from the _Novoye Vremya_, which was read by the Tzar
himself, the work of Jew-baiting was also carried on with considerable
zeal by the Russian weekly _Grazhdanin_ ("The Citizen"), whose editor,
Count Meshcherski, enjoyed not only the personal favor of Alexander III.
but also a substantial Government subsidy. These metropolitan organs of
publicity gave the tone to the whole official and semi-official press in
the provinces, and the public opinion of Russia was systematically
poisoned by the venom of Judaeophobia.

When the Pahlen Commission was discharged, the Tzar having "attached
himself to the opinion of the minority," [1] the Government had no
difficulty in finding a few kind-hearted officials who were eager to
carry the project framed by this reactionary minority into effect. The
project itself, which had been elaborated in the Ministry of the
Interior under the direction of Plehve, the sinister Chief of Police,
was guarded with great secrecy, as if it concerned a plan of military
operations against a belligerent Power. But the secret leaked out very
soon. The Minister had sent out copies of the project to the
governors-general, soliciting their opinions, and ere long copies of the
project were circulating in London, Paris, and Vienna. In the spring of
1890, Russia and Western Europe were filled with alarming rumors
concerning an enactment of some "forty clauses," which was designed to
curtail the commercial activities of the Jews, to increase the rigor of
the "Temporary Rules" within the Pale, and restrict the privileges
conferred upon several categories of Jews outside of it, to establish
medieval Jewish ghettos in St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kiev, and similar
measures. The foreign press made a terrible outcry against these
contemplated new acts of barbarism.

[Footnote 1: See p. 370.]

The voice of protest was particularly strong in England. The London
_Times_ assailed in violent terms the reactionary policies of Russia,
and a special organ, called _Darkest Russia_, was published for this
purpose by Russian political refugees in England. The Russian Government
denied th