In 1781 Councillor Dohm published his famous treatise ‘on the amendment of the political position of the Jews.’ This writer upholds the principle of bestowing liberty and equality of rights on the Jews, of their free admission to schools and colleges belonging to the State, of their unfettered practice of trades and professions, and even of their participation in public offices of trust. But he contends that the authority of the Rabbins over their congregations, their infliction of discipline, and, under some circumstances, of excommunication, must be upheld by the State. The publication of the work excited a good deal of angry feeling among the German Jews. The renowned Moses Mendelssohn, of whom we shall speak in the next chapter, published a letter respecting it, in which he denounced the spiritual tyranny of the Rabbins in indignant language, which had a very wide and important effect on his countrymen. In Russia, during this century, the position of the Jews was fully as miserable as in any European country. It has been already pointed out, that by the strict law of the land their presence was not permitted at all. And in Muscovy proper the exclusion was enforced with stern inflexibility. Under Peter the Great a few Jews were admitted into other portions of his dominions, the Czar having declared—so at least popular rumour affirms—that ‘he did not fear the presence of any Jews, for his Russians were a match for the craftiest among them.’ But during the reign of Elizabeth (A.D. 1545) their residence in Russia was again proscribed. They had contrived to secure the property of certain Siberian exiles, and invested it in foreign countries. Later in the century the policy of the emperors towards the Jews seems to have been to drive them out of the towns into the rural districts, with the idea, so often entertained by one theorist or another, of inducing them to discard commerce for agriculture. In the Ukraine, and there only, apparently, they have adopted that mode of life.[203] Of the Jews in Poland, which for many ages has been the country in all Europe where the Hebrew race has found the most secure home and the most hospitable treatment, we have not yet spoken. Their history, during the eighteenth century, is mainly the history of religious adventurers and rival sects. It will be better to consider these in a separate chapter. FOOTNOTES: