On the fifth or sixth day after her accession to the throne, Catherine II. arrived at the Senate. It happened that on the agenda of that session was the question of the admission of Jews into Russia. The Senators unanimously declared that their admission was useful, but Catherine, in view of the circumstances at the time, found it difficult to give her assent. The Senator Count Odoyevski came to her aid. He rose up and said: "Before making a decision, perhaps your Imperial Majesty will consent to see the autograph decision which on a similar occasion was rendered by Empress Elizabeth." Catherine ordered the documents to be brought, and she found that Empress Elizabeth, prompted by piety, had written on the margin, "From the enemies of Christ I desire neither gain nor profit." It is necessary to observe that less than a week had passed since Catherine's accession to the throne. She had been placed on it for the defense of the Greek Orthodox faith; she had to deal with a pious people and with a clergy to which its estates had not yet been returned, and which, in consequence of this ill-fitting measure, had nothing to live on. The minds, as is always the case after such a great upheaval [the violent death of Peter III.], were in a state of great excitement. To begin her reign by the admission of Jews would not at all have helped to pacify their minds; to declare it as injurious was also impossible. Catherine acted simply: when the Procurator-General collected the votes and approached her for her decision, she said to him, "I desire that this matter be postponed for another time." Thus it often happens that it is not enough to be enlightened, to have good intentions, and even the power to realize them. In this way, in spite of the unanimous opinion of the Senate, that the admission of Jews was beneficial to Russia, and in spite of her own liberal frame of mind, Catherine II. left the Jewish question in its former state, being afraid of arousing against her the resentment of the reactionary element of the Russian people. In the very same year, on December 4, 1762, the Empress, in issuing a manifesto permitting all foreigners to travel and to settle in Russia, added the fatal formula, _kromye Zhydov_ ("except the Jews").