The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-10
.Peoneee Has Been AboIished.' -

contains an augury of the stability Of the
Mexican Government far more favorable than
would the news of the greatest victory which
the republic could have achieved. 1t is indeed
true that the world moves. One land after
another strikes the fetters from the slave, and
one by one they acknowledge the rights of
men as men. Russia, so long afflicted with
serfdom, declares all her serfs free. The
United States, amid the din of war, abolishes
human slavery, and excludes the mention of
slave from her laws. And now Mexico
places the peon on a level with his fellow-man,
and declares this variety of slavery at an end.
It is curious to mark the distinctions between
the "sum Of all villainies' as it exists in vari-
Gus portions of the globe--to see how in one
country its features are derived from the
ancient villeinage, in another from the old
Roman system, while in the third the
purest and most unmitigated atrocity is
allowed which has no precedent in history.
The system of serldom, as 1t existed in Rus
sia, can be traced, in its striking resemblance
to all its features, to the old Saxon institution
of villeinage. Or it may be more proper for
us to say that the serf aud villein were CON
temporaries, and that the one has continued
until now, while the other has long since
given place to the more enlighte ned freeman
of Anglo-Saxon liberty. In both of these
cases, we notice that the serf or villein was
attached, in the bonds of slavery, to rather
the estate of his master than to his person; or,
TO put it differently, he was kind Of family
relic, and not an article of merchandise.
Neither serfdom nor villeinage contemplated the
involuntary sale Of the inferior. The master
had his estate entailed, and the villein went
with the estate. We do not find on record
any account of the public sale or transfer of
these unfortunate people-that disgrace was
reserved for our enlightened age and free
country. The difference, however, between
the two systems in England and Russia must
have existed, or else the constitution of the
temperament of the two superior nations must
have been very great. In the former the villien
gradually rises from his degradation and infe-
riority, so that, when finally the statute trans
ferring all tenures into free socage was passed,
Lord Bacon mentions the fact that there were
not twenty villeins in the kingdom, and
these few were held by religious houses. So
that, under the milder sway ofthat system, the
inferior managed, by his own aid, to elevate
himself, and virtually abolish the institution
without any legal enactment. This may be
due to the Anglo Saxon love of liberty, or to
some superiority Of the system over that of
Russia. In the last-named country, for over
two centuries after the abolition in England of
villeinage, the serf continued in his ancient
bondage; and when the decree Of the Car
made him free man, he seems to have ad-
vanced no further in his progress towards i'm
provement than he was when he and his con
temporary villeins did service to their respec-
tive masters five hundred years ago. The
difference between the liberty-loving Saxon
spirit and the sluggish SlaYonic inertness
could not be more clearly marked than is
done by the conditions of these twin institu-
tions.
The variety of slavery with which Mexico
has been afflicted is peonsge, and bears
curious resemblance to the ancient Roman
system There can be few things more
ing between oppression in different ages
and different lands. In the ancient days of
Rome, the wealthy secured the bondage of the
poor by the surrender of the person of the
debtor into slavery until the obligation was
discharged, and this surrender reached to his
children. During the continuance of the
debtor in this state of subsection, he was in
capable of acquiring property, was attendant
on the person of his master, and was capable
Of resale by his virtual owner. In all essen
tial particulars he was as great slave as
though he were a Russian serf As time
went on his children were born into the same
condition as himself, and thus a system of
slavery gradually sprung up in the Roman
empire which partook of the barbarity of the
Russian and Saxon. To be sure the rights Of
the client were greater than those of the
villein, but the system remained a CRYING
wrong against the rights of man. The over
throw of the empire and the rude eoualitv
of the German conquerors overturned the svs-
tenn, and relieved those who were thus
oppressed on no other ground than the pow
erty of their ancestors. Mexican peonage is,
in fact, nothing but the Roman system-a
peOn is poor client. twas founded originally
in debt. AS the debt could not be paid, as
the peon could acquire no property, the
evil spread. Children, however, did not
inherit the servitude Of their parents,
vet gradually the whole land was
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