drafted by the same Committee and had now been submitted to the Council
of State for revision." The petitioners go on to say that, weighed down
by a succession of cruel discriminations affecting not only their rights
but also their mode of discharging military service, the Jews would
succumb to utter despair, did they not repose their hopes in the
benevolence of the Tzar, who, on his recent trip through the Western
provinces, had expressed to the deputies of the Jewish communes his
imperial satisfaction with the loyalty to the throne displayed by the
Jews during the Polish insurrection of 1831. The Kahal of Vilna,
therefore, implored the Council of State "to turn its attention to this
unfortunate and maligned people" and to stop all further persecutions.

A more emphatic note of protest is sounded in the memorandum of Feigin.
By a string of references to the latest Government measures he
demonstrates the fact that "the Jewish people is hunted down, not
because of its moral qualities but because of its faith."

The Jews, faced by the new statute, have lost all hope for a better lot,
inasmuch as the Government 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