[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 qualifications who receive permission to practise from the “judicial institutions,” i.e., the law courts.  They are not members of the bar.]

It goes without saying that the Russian Minister of Justice made ample use of the right conferred upon him of denying admission to Jews as public and private attorneys.  While readily sanctioning the admission of Mohammedans and Karaites, the Minister almost invariably refused to confirm the election of young Jewish barristers, however warmly they may have been recommended by the judicial institutions and bar associations. [1] In this way, many a talented Jewish jurist, who might have filled a university chair with distinction or might have attained brilliant success in the legal profession, was forced out of his path and deprived of an opportunity to serve his country by his labors and pursue a career for which he had fitted himself at the university.  Instead, these derailed professionals went to swell the hosts of those who had been wronged and disinherited by the injustice of the law.

[Footnote 1:  During the following five years, until 1895, not a single Jew received the sanction of the Minister.]

4.  DISCRIMINATION IN MILITARY SERVICE

It seemed as if the Government was intent on making a one-sided compact with Russian Jewry:  “We shall deprive you of all the elementary rights due to you as men and citizens; we shall rob you of the right of domicile and freedom of movement, and of the chance of making a livelihood; we shall expose you to physical and spiritual starvation, and shall cast you out of the community of citizens—­yet you dare not swerve an inch from the path of your civic obligations.”  A lurid illustration of this unique exchange of services was provided by the manner in which military duty was imposed upon the Jews.  Russian legislation had long since contrived to establish revolting restrictions for the Jews also in this domain.  Jews with physical defects which rendered Christians unfit for military service, such as a lower stature and narrower chest, were nevertheless taken into the army.  In the case of a shortage of recruits among the Jewish population even only sons, the sole wage-earners of their families or of their widowed mothers, were drafted, whereas the same category of conscripts among Christians were unconditionally exempt. [1] Moreover, a Jew serving in the army always remained a private and could never attain to an officer’s rank.