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, Tavrida, and Bessarabia.]

[Footnote 6:  St. Petersburg and Moscow.]

[Footnote 7:  The time-limit was six months for the merchants of the first guild and three months for those of the second.]

The Jews were further forbidden to employ Christian domestics for permanent employment.  They could hire Christians for occasional services only, on condition that the latter live in separate quarters.  Marriages at an earlier age than eighteen for the bridegroom and sixteen for the bride were forbidden under the pain of imprisonment—­a prohibition which the defective registration of births and marriages then in vogue made it easy to evade.  The language to be employed by the Jews in their public documents was to be Russian or any other local dialect, but “under no circumstances the Hebrew language.”

The function of the Kahal, according to the Statute, is to see to it that the “instructions of the authorities” are carried out precisely and that the state taxes and communal assessments are “correctly remitted.”  The Kahal elders are to be elected by the community every three years from among persons who can read and write Russian, subject to their being ratified by the gubernatorial administration.  At the same time the Jews are entitled to participation in the municipal elections; those who can read and write Russian are eligible as members of the town councils and magistracies—­the supplementary law of 1836 fixed the rate at one-third, [1] excepting the city of Vilna where the Jews were entirely excluded from municipal self-government.