Editor's Note: This is a very awkwardly written decree, even for a Czarist decree. If I interpret it correctly, it basically says that Jewish children of soldiers who are Cantonists are exempt from taxes, if they were born illegitimately to a Jewish couple now divorced. Why? Well, because one is Jewish if one's mother is Jewish. Therefore, if the child was born out of wedlock, and the parents divorced, then in the Czar's mind, the child was no longer Jewish, and therefore deserved the benefit of not being taxed as a Jew, but only if he was the child of a soldier, and presumably a Cantonist himself.
On not adding to the taxed estates, the illegitimate children of soldier's wives divorced in Jewish Law.
The divine Emperor, that the illegitimate children of soldier's wives divorced in Jewish Law are removed
from the taxed estates, and to honour the children of soldiers.
(V.P.S.Z. Vol. XXIX, No. 27,936).
