The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1868-05-05
Not n Parallel Case.

Not n Parallel Case.
In February, 1861, the Emperor
of Russia issued an ordinance by
which he declared that the slaves
should be free from the jurisdiction
and power of the proprietors, and
that they should have nll the rights
aud privileges of free citizens, their
services to be continued for O short
period, in order to allow of the neces-
sary arrangements under the ordi-
nance being carried out. In de-
termining upon this course, the
Emperor, with commendable frank
ness, stated to his mobiles, that rs he
governed Russia by his own sole will,
it was his will that serfdom and
slavery should be abolished through
out his dominions. The slaves thus
emancipated consisted of the Russian
peasantry, and of the descendants of
Tartars, Films, Poles and many
others who, centuries ago, were made
prisoners in war, and of many of the
native population, who, in o violent
age, obtained protection from the
mobiles on condition that they and
their descendants should become
slaves. There must have been some
10000, 600 of the Russian people
emancipated by this ordinance from
all bondage except that which every
subject of despotism owes to his
imperial master, and which the EN-
peror of Russia has not yet made up
his mind to dispense with.
Our object in referring to this sub
ject is to notice very ridiculous
statement which has been put in
circulation by ultraists in this coun-
try, and which, if we mistake not,
was once repeated by one of their
number on the floors of Congress.
that the Emperor of RUSSIA, in free
ing the white slaves, gave them also
q small homestead. and therefore that
Congress, to make the boon of
emancipation complete, and keep
pace with the philanthropy of the
age. ought to endow the freedmen
with portion of the land of the
whites No such preposterous and
unjust proceeding ever took place in
Russia. What the Emperor did, or
caused to be done, was simply to
restore to the peasants rights which
they had formerly held, and of which
the mobiles had unjustly deprived
them. For many centuries the Rus
sian peasants had the use of o certain
portion of land, for which they paid
nothing, land being more than suffi-
cient for the then sparsely populated
country, and paying only for their
houses, which was done in produce
and military service. After the juris-
diction of the peasants was granted
by the sovereign to their retainers,
upon pretty much the old feudal
condition of supporting the sovereign
with certain number of armed fol-
lowers in time of war, it was clearly
understood by both peasants and
proprietors that no title to the soil of
the land rested in the latter. It was
not till long afterwards, that the
land being better cultivated and be-
coming more valuable, q claim was
set up by the proprietors to the
soil OF the land, but from that time
to 1861, the peasants never failed to
assert that by prescriptions, custom
and law they were entitled to GER
tain portion of the land as q means
of subsistence for themselves and
their families. The imperial ordi-
nance of February, provided thut
the proprietors should give up to the
peasants certain land at fixed an
nual rental, out of which the peasant
had the right of purchasing the land
on which his house and out-houses
stood, comprising, perhaps, three
quarters of an acre. 1t is in these
scanty materials that the confscatino
philanthropists will find precedent
for measure of injustice and spolia-
ton that even Russian despotism
never dreamed OF. of.-BaNimore Snl.
4 nopty nf coll;a,,