The condition of the Jews in Russo-Poland was, if possible, even worse than in Lithuania and Russia proper.  Nothing, in fact, but the auto-da-fe was needed to give it the stamp of medieval Spain.  As before the division of Poland, the Poles suspected the Jews of disloyalty to Poland, while the Russians suspected them of disloyalty to Russia.  Hitherto too proud to soil his hand with a manual or mercantile pursuit, the Polish pan, now that the glory of his country had departed, and he was deprived of his lordly estates, began to engage in business of all kinds, and, finding in the Jewish trader a rival with whose skill and diligence he could seldom compete, he became embittered against the entire race.  This was the cause of the innumerable restrictions, the extortion, and exploitation in Russo-Poland, which surpassed those of Russia proper.

The Jewish archives—­said Doctor Marcus Jastrow, then Rabbi in Warsaw—­were humorously known as “California” or the “Mexican Gold Mines.”  Jews had to pay at every step.  They had to pay a Tagzettel [daily tax] for permission to stay in Warsaw, which permission, however, did not include the luxury of breathing.  The latter had to be purchased with an additional ten kopecks per capita.  The income from these taxations amounted to over a million and a half, but in spite of all this the Jews were regarded as parasites, as leeches feasting upon the life-blood of their Christian compatriots.[47]

Such is the background upon which the picture of Haskalah is to be drawn—­black enough to throw into relief the faintest ray of light.  The Russian Jews, during the reign of Nicholas I, found themselves in a position possible only in Russia.  They were not allowed to emigrate, nor suffered to stay.  In 1823 they were expelled from the farms, and had to crowd into the cities; in 1838 they were expelled from the cities, and forced to go back to the country.  Then Siberia was opened to them, but when it was found that even the land of the outcasts was hailed as a place of refuge by the Jews, they were told to go to Kherson.  At last arrangements were perfected to allow them to colonize Lithuania—­all at once even this was interdicted.  They had been conquered with the Poles, yet were left unprotected against the Poles.  Could they help suspecting the tyrant of what he really intended to do—­of seeking to diminish their numbers by conversion?  Is it surprising that when he determined to open public schools and establish rabbinical seminaries, Jews looked upon these, too, as the sugared poison with which he intended to extirpate Judaism?  Or can we blame them for being determined to the last to baffle him?  Nicholas did not understand the great lesson taught by the history of the Jews and inculcated in the old song,

  To destroy all these people
  You should let them alone.