The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-07-20


One of the grandest, boldest, and most interest
ing movements of the age is that which has been
undertaken by ALEXANDER H., of Russia, for the
complete emancipation of the serfs. ALEXANDER l.
attempted it, and provoked such storm of oppo-
siton from the chiefs of the old Muscovite party,
that he was finally forced TO abandon the project,
and content himself with liberating the crown
peasants, which, like all the rest OF 'his chss III
bab;tino the central provinces, or what is gener-
ally known as Great Russia, had until mat Pc
r;od been held in bondage for many centuries. At
= later day, similar attempt was made by the
Czar NICHOLAS to give freedom to the serfs but
with all his absolute power, and resoute temper
he failed to bend the mobiles to his will They did
not refuse, in express terms, to comply with the
Imperial ukase;; for had they done that, they
would have been promptly stripped of their rank,
and sent to work out their forfeiture of the Impe-
rial favor in the wds of Siberia But they tenn
porized; they threw obstacles in the way of the
commissioners; they drew up petitions to the
Gar representing the injury that would be in
icted upon the material prosperity of the country
by social revolution involving interests so vast,
and by confounding suddenly the class dstinc-
tons which had existed for eight hundred years,
and upon which the foundations of the govern
meut were based. NICHOLAS well knew the diff
culties with which he would have to contend, and
though by no means convinced by the reasoning of
his Boyards, that his philanthropic designs were
impracticable, he remembered that his aces
sion to the throne was marked by revolution
which, but for his own indomitable courage and
presence of mind, babe fair to be successful, and
fully appreciated the force and ruthfuness of that
pithy remark which characterized the government
of Russia as "a despotsm tempered by assassina-
'stion." His predecessor, ALEXANDER l., had died,
not without suspicion of having been poisoned.
The Gar PAUL. the father of ALEXANDER, was
murdered in his palace by band of conspirators.
Forty years previously, PETER III. was dethroned
by conspiracy, and died in prison week after
wards, rs is generally supposed, by violence
Twenty years before that, the child Gear IVAN had
been summarily deposed, and ELIZABETH, the
daughter of PETER the Great, installed in his
stead. During period covering three quarters
of a century, or from 1740 to 1926, six sovereigns
had occupied successfully the throne of PETER the
Great, and OF these only the two Expresses ELIZA
BETH PETRowNA and CATHARINE III. were believed
to have died natural deaths. Such an historical
retrospect might well shake even the stout heart
of NICHOLAS, during the greater portion of whose
reign the old Muscovite party was still strong.
At all events, he desisted from his attempt to anne
lorate the condition of the serfs and directed all
his energies towards breaking down the influence
of the Boyards by the creation of new nobility
and by distributing amongst this class the chief
offices of State. His early desire to give freedom
to all the serfs throughout his dominons was,
nevertheless, still strong within him, and what he
could do in that direction, without arraying
against him the prejudices of the ancient mobiles,
he successfully accomplished He completed the
plans devised by ALEXANDER I. for releasing every
man who was held to enforced service upon the
crown lands, and on his death-bed he bequeathed
to his son and successor, the present Gar, the
task of carrying out under happier auspices, those
reforms, the prosecution of which he himself had
been constrained to abandon. We have all heard
in what spirited manner ALEXANDER ii. under
took the cause of the serfs. Ukase after ukase was
issued, ordering the organization of committees to
take into consideration the best manner in which
the serfs could be emancipated without inficting
too serious an injury upon the landed proprietors
and what compensation should be allowed to the
latter for the damage they would sustain by the
changes proposed. The committees met but
many of them had no heart in the work which
they were appointed to do. The mobiles resorted
to the old system of procrastnaton. Some of
them appealed to the Gar TO modify his views.
Others held aloof, and maintained towards the
commissioners that sort of passive resistance
against which it is most difficult to successfully
contend. Those who entered cordially into the
measures proposed by the Cxar were few in number
and, for the most part, inferior in rank, wealth,
and influence. The machinery which had been
put in motion, soon came in some places to dead
stop; in Others it worked irregularly. The CAR
endeavored to set things to rights in person. He
travelled through all the provinces where serfdom
exists. At each hating place he called the landed
proprietors together, and explained to them his
views. He threatened the obstinate; admonished
the reluctant and praised the willing. He fixed
the day upon which the commission should termi-
nate its labors and report the conclusions that
had been reached. That day has gone by long
since, and no report has been made. The b.
yards still hope to battle ALEXANDER, as they
bafhed his father, NICHOLAS. The prospects Of
freedom entertained by the serfs are already more
remote than they were a year ago. Chafng
under hope deferred, they have become disafec-
ted, and in instances have risen in insurrec-
ton. The Boyards, on the other hand, continue
sullen and tenacious, and demand that, if these
changes are persisted in, the entire system of
government shall be modified They have the
wit to perceive that one consequence of the
emancipation of the serfs will be to elevate
third class, at the expense of the power and in
fuence formerly exercised by an oligarchy If
you break down the feudal system in one respect,
they say to the CAR, we ask you to break it
down in all. Before you abolish our privileges
we respectfully request that you will consent to a
limitation of your own. If the serfs are to be
set free, let that act of grace be accompanied by
administrative reforms. Separate the police
"from the administration of Justice; introduce
"the principle of selfgovernment for all classes;
''throw open the courts of justice to the public;
"try criminals by oral evidence, and before
"a jury of their peers; make every one alike
responsible to the civil tribunals of the country.
make every Official personally responsible for
his acts, and suffer him no longer to shelter
'himself behind the commands of his superiors.
"pace the system of private and public credit
upon safer and more effective foundations ),
Such is, in brief, the substance of the remarkable
memorial which the nobility of the Province of
Vladimir have addressed recently to the CAR.
The magnitude and Importance of the admins
trative reforms suggested, are not more imposing
than the bodness of those who advocate them.
They deliberately strike at the root of govern
ment which is, at this day, as absolute as it was
in the times of IVAN the terrible. The conces-
sions for which they petition approximate closely
to those which were wrung from the hands of the
JOHN by the English Barons at Runny-
mede, and, although evidently intended as
counterpoise to the ukase commanding the eman-
cipation of theserfs, are unquestionably quite as
essential as free peasantry to the future advance
of the Russian Empire in prosperity and power.
The fact stated by us yesterday, that the injunc-
ton at suit of the State and city, restraining
the payment of the interest on the extra dividend,
had been dismissed, was correct The stockhold-