52 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-X 



for our own country. The immigration which comes to 

 us from these regions is among the very worst that we 

 receive from any part of the world. It is, in fact, an im 

 migration of the unfittest; and, although noble efforts 

 have been made by patriotic Israelites in the United 

 States to meet the difficulty, the results have been far 

 from satisfactory. 



There were, of course, the usual adventurous Ameri 

 cans in political difficulties, enterprising Americans in 

 business difficulties, and pretended Americans attempting 

 to secure immunity under the Stars and Stripes. The 

 same ingenious efforts to prostitute American citizenship 

 which I had seen during my former stay in Germany were 

 just as constant in Russia. It was the same old story. 

 Emigrants from the Russian Empire, most of them ex 

 tremely undesirable, had gone to the United States; 

 stayed just long enough to secure naturalization, had, 

 indeed, in some cases secured it fraudulently before they 

 had stayed the full time; and then, having returned to 

 Russia, were trying to exercise the rights and evade the 

 duties of both countries. 



Many of these cases were exceedingly vexatious; and 

 so, indeed, were some which were better founded. The 

 great difficulty of a representative of the United States 

 in Russia is, first, that the law of the empire is so compli 

 cated that, to use the words of King James regarding 

 Bacon s &quot;Novum Organum,&quot; &quot;Like the Peace of God, 

 it passeth all understanding. It is made up of codes in 

 part obsolete or obsolescent ; ukases and counter-ukases ; 

 imperial directions and counter-directions ; ministerial 

 orders and counter-orders ; police regulations and counter- 

 regulations; with no end of suspensions, modifications, 

 and exceptions. 



The second difficulty is the fact that the Buchanan 

 treaty of 1832, which guaranteed, apparently, everything 

 desirable to American citizens sojourning in the empire, 

 has been gradually construed away until its tattered 

 remnants are practically worthless. As the world has 



