The Kanzas news., 1858-03-13
Russian serfdom.

RUSSIAN Emperor were IN earnest IN his ex-
pressed desire to abolish serfdem through
out the extent of his vast dominions.-
Ukases upon this subject have already been
addressed to the Military Governors and
the Governors-G General of the provinces of
Wilma, Grodno, and Kowno-that Is to say,
OF certain eastern provinces of the empire
as well as of those which in the old days
constituted the duchy. of Lithuania. By
intelligence still more recent we are inform
ed that circular of invitation had been ad-
dressed By M. Lanskoi, the Minister of the
Interior, to all the Governments through
out the Empire, desiring that they would
give this important affair their best consid-
GRAFTON. This circular has elected on all
sides an expression of good viii to give due
effect to the Emperor's wishes.
The population of the Russian Empire
IS set down at 10000, 900. The number
of persons who are held actually in serfdom
Is estimat d at f2, 900 900. There are be-
sides, 100000 other peasants ts-of whom
5000, 900 are located on the Crown Do
mains-who, although not nominally serfs,
are pretty much SO in reality. About ten
days ago we published a very interesting
account of Russian serfdom, which had
been prepared by our Berlin correspondent
IN as complete manner as the nature of
our information admits upon such subject.
The general survey of the Empire which
was ordered by the late Emperor Nicholas,
and which alone, if prepared, would have
enabled us to arrive at accurate conclusions,
was never completed. It may be that at
the last moment the Sovereign who has
tampered with the subject, and toyed with
conclusions as long as those conclusions
seemed remote, has shrunk from their real
izatiou. We must remember that all Russ
ian organization depends upon this very in
stitution, and that many men would be glad
arehy as the alternative. 1t must be OBJ
vious that any hasty or premature action
would be most certainly attended with far
greater evils than those it was intended to
cure; but still serfdom must be dealt with.
There has been an expectation throughout
the Empire that something would be done
when the present Emperor succeeded to
power. The rising murmur was repressed
in the days of Nicholas, because men said ::
''Yet little longer! We must bear the
burden for brief while ; this man will die,
and then another will rise up who will give
us relief Throughout the Empire this
CRY has gone, and it is supposed that very
grave consequences may follow, unless
something be done. Pushed, then, by the
necessity of the case. as well as by his own
private inclinations, the new Emperor has
invoked the action of his nobility, and these
ukases and this rescript have been the re-
suit. The class of serfs proper, that is, of
the first 10000 of whom we spoke
above, will be the first whose case will be
taken into consideration. Now, their actu-
al position is this: They are divided into
two sections one section adheres to the
soil, the other hires itself out to service on
the condition that each serf shall pay an
annual quota to the lord. 1t appears that
the great bulk of the serfs who remain ad-
Stricts gie6G live in communities or villages.
Each village or community pays fixed
| lpoll-tax to The lord of the manor according
/ to the number of male peasants which it
contains. The entire community makes
good the shortcomings of any defaulting
member. One of the strangest parts of the
arrangement, and one which acts, no doubt,
as deathblow to anything like real i'm
provement of the land subjected to this
communistic action, is that each household
which forms part of the community is
shifted about from good land to that which
| is the worst, so that each household may
! have its tnrn. Of course, under such a
system the accumulation of wealth or the
improvement of the land, is an impossibility
| The second section of serfs consists OF
those who are not tied to the land, but who
are permitted by their lord or owner TO hire
hr1f ho fhal
they shall pay to him year by year sum
certain The balance which they may earn
beyond this sum is nominally their own,
bui one of the feroest struggles which have
taken place with reference to serfdom is as
TO the sum at which the obrok or annual
tribute should be fixed. Most of the serfs
who are employed in the manufacturing es-
Establishments of Russia are said to be serfs
who are out upon obr0k. These few brlei
Suggestions may afford an idea of the mag
nitnde of the problem which the Emperor
| Alexander has now taken In hand. Setting
aside all considerations, such as those o.
the dangers which might arise from the sud
den liberation of this vast mass of igno'
rant and superstitious human beings, il
must be remembered that the Russian ar
my is recruited from the serfs as serfs now
are. The manufactures of the country are
kept alive by the serfs. The banking sys-
TEN of the country rests upon the serfs, a;
at present banks can only lend out deposit:
upon the security of the land, and it is the
serf who gives value to the land. Again
the organization of the serf communities
lilI-judged and impolitic as it is, still ccnsti
tutes the only effectual guarantee for th'
general quiet of the country. We do no
therefore say that serfdom ought not to b
dealt with as matter of policy as well a
lof right. The experiment, however, IS one
of the meet delicate nature, and the EmPe
ror Alexander has well nigh as much tc
fear from the objects of his philanthroPiC
policy as from the landed proprietors, many