The "welfare" held out to the converts was of a rather substantial nature. Each of their groups was to be allotted free crown lands in the southern and northern provinces, with the right of founding all kinds of settlements, townlets, and cities. They were to be granted full civil equality, extensive communal self-government, and special alleviations in the payment of taxes. These groups, or colonies, of Jews, after being converted to the Greek Orthodox, Catholic, or Lutheran faith, were to form part of the "Society of Israelitish Christians," which was to be managed by a special committee to be appointed in St. Petersburg under the patronage of the Emperor. The solemn phraseology of the Imperial ukase shows unequivocally that the Government was not satisfied with the modest task of rendering assistance to occasional neophytes. It was ready to embark upon a vast undertaking, that of encouraging baptism among the Jewish population, and organizing the converted masses into separate, privileged communes, to serve as a bait for the Jews still languishing in their old beliefs. The imagination of the Russian legislators pictured to them the fascinating spectacle of huge masses of Jews marching "to join the faith of Christ," drawn to it not only by heavenly, but also by earthly, "bliss." The missionary mood of the heads of the Russian Government was speedily utilized by Lewis Way, a representative of the London Bible Society. Way was thoroughly imbued with the apocalyptic belief in the approaching redemption of Israel under the ægis of Christianity. This however did not prevent him from looking upon present-day unconverted Israel with sentiments of profound respect, as the banner-bearer of a great Divine mission in the history of mankind, and he was deeply aroused over the civil disabilities to which they were subjected in the various countries of Europe. When the monarchs who had concluded the Holy Alliance assembled, in the autumn of 1818, with their ministers and diplomats at the Congress in Aix-la-Chapelle, Way grasped the occasion to submit to Alexander I. a "Memorandum Concerning the Condition of the Jews,"[273] in which he appealed to the Russian Tzar to emancipate the Jews of his dominions and persuade the Prussian and Austrian rulers to do likewise. In the course of my protracted travels through the lands of Poland, for the purpose of gathering information about the Jews, I came--says Way--to the conclusion that Providence has not in vain placed so many thousands of Jews under the protection of three Christian sovereigns. Rather has this taken place in fulfilment of the promises given to the Patriarchs.