Immediately on the receipt of the ukase the local authorities embarked upon their task with relentless cruelty. By January, 1824, over twenty thousand Jews of both sexes had been driven from the villages of both Governments. Hordes of hapless refugees, with their wives and children, began to flock into the overcrowded towns and townlets. There they could be seen, stripped almost to their shirts, wandering aimlessly in the streets. They lived in frightful congestion, as many as ten of them being squeezed into a single room. They were huddled together in the synagogues, while many of them, unable to find shelter, remained on the streets with their families facing the winter cold. Sickness and increased mortality began to spread among them, particularly in the city of Nevel. Even the anti-Jewish Governor-General Khovanski, who was making a tour of inspection through the stricken district, was stirred by the spectacle, and advised the Committee of Ministers to stop the disastrous expulsions. But the blow had been dealt. By the beginning of 1825 the majority of rural Jews had been expatriated, and turned out into the wide world. The question naturally arises, whether this human holocaust was required in the interest of the country. The Government itself gave the answer twelve years later--when it was too late. As far as White Russia is concerned--quoth the Council of State in 1835--experience has not justified our anticipations of the usefulness of the indicated measure [the expulsion from the villages]. Twelve years have passed since it was carried into effect, but from the data collected in the Department of Law it is quite manifest, that, while it has ruined the Jews, it does not in the least seem to have improved the condition of the villagers. The White Russian orgy of destruction was merely the prelude to a new legislative campaign against the Jews. Almost simultaneously with the ukase ordering the expulsion of the Jews from the villages, another ukase was issued on May 1, 1823, calling for the establishment of a new "Committee for the Amelioration of the Jews." The Committee, which included among its members the Ministers of Interior, Finance, Justice, Ecclesiastic Affairs, and Public Instruction, was intrusted with a very comprehensive piece of work-- to examine the enactments concerning Jews passed up to date and point out the way in which their presence in the country might be rendered more comfortable and useful, also what obligations they are to assume towards the Government; in a word, to indicate all that may contribute towards the amelioration of the civil status of this people.