[Footnote 1: See on the meaning of the term "resolution" Vol. I, p. 253,
n. 1.]

Less yielding was the Tzar's attitude on the question of the partial
enlargement of the Pale of Settlement. The Department of Laws had
suggested to grant the merchants of the first guild the right of
residence in the Russian interior in the interest of the exchequer and
big business. At the general meeting of the Council of State only a
minority (thirteen) voted for the proposal. The majority (twenty-two)
argued that they had no right to violate the time-honored tradition,
"dating from the time of Peter the Great," which bars the Jews from the
Russian interior; that to admit them "would produce a very unpleasant
impression upon our people, which, on account of its religious notions
and its general estimate of the moral peculiarities of the Jews, has
become accustomed to keep aloof from them and to despise them;" that the
countries of Western Europe, which had accorded fall citizenship to the
Jews, "cannot serve as an example for Russia, partly because of the
incomparably larger number of Jews living here, partly because our
Government and people, with all their well-known tolerance, are yet far
from that indifference with which certain other nations look upon
religious matters." After marking his approval of the last words by the
marginal exclamation "Thank God!", the Tzar disposed of the whole matter
in the following brief resolution: "This question has been determined by
Peter the Great. I dare not change it; I completely share the opinion of
the twenty-two members."

While on this occasion the Tzar endorsed the opinion of the Council as
represented by its majority, in cases in which it proved favorable to
the Jews he did not hesitate to set it aside. Thus the Department of
Laws, as part of the Council of State, and, following in its wake, the