The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-02-11


model the world, are unfortunately disturbed
in their comprehensive task by couple Of
policemen, and, without n band raised in
their behalf, bundled off 10 living death in
the Siberian mines. As set forth in the
printed circulars and procamations found,
their modest object in the present instance
was to repeal matrimony, property, govern
ment, and the State generally. For the better
attainment of this end, those enoumbered
with worldly goods and cbattels were TO be
subjected to q summary process of expropria-
tion, while all superior officers must be
knocked on the head, and all literary men who
haye ever defended the existing state of
things effectually silenced by having their
tongues torn out. After this general delinea-
ton Of their humane designs, the cir
culars specially address the Poles to secure
their cooperation in the sacred work of the
worlds revival. The Poles, the circulars tell
us, must be highly praised for hating the
Russian Government; but their shortcoming
lies in that they aspire to the ere-establishment
OF an independent national republic; whereas
they should be content to recover freedom,
regardless of state, race, and government.
What intelligent being it is asked, can be
justified in aiming at setting up so antiquAted
and obsolete thing as state, a central au-
thority, and national policy? Is not the
commune, the free and unrestricted commune
"
rank, property, and privilege, the only worthy
goal Of liberal exertions? In additions to the
circulars intoxicating these insane doctrines,
others, seized, l believe, at st. Petersburg,
call upon the numerous Dissenters among
the peasantry to rise up against the wicked
Gar, and for Christ's sake to kill the despica-
BILE tools in his pay No Russian can plot
without the Dissenters being appealed to.
Because these folk write the name of Christ
flxy fsOx. he
cross themselves after a fashion of their
own, they are presumed to be ever
ready for revolt. But these differ
ences without distinction, which
in the darker ages made people tear each
other to pieces, are powerless nowadays.
Though they may fan the flames when there
is other fuel TO kindle fire, there is too little
comb mbustible element in them to awaken the
spark. A third category of circulars, likewise
brought to light, is peculiar to the present
intrigue, and, indeed, the only feature in it
worthy of special notice. The flying sheets
of this latter class touch serious point in
the social condition of the country To ex-
plain their purport it will be necessary to take
o slight retrospect. In the memorable statute
of February 10 March 3), 1861, which an
nounced the manumission of the serfs, it was
enacted that during period of nine years
after being set free the peasantry would not
be permitted TO leave the land purchased by
them with the aid of the Government. Being
aware that the Russian peasant, although
never anything above a ploughman, liked
nothing so little as his plough, Government
thought it necessary, after the constraint of
landlordism had ceased, to bind him to the
soil by general law. Agriculture in cold
land requires a steady, plodding provident
race; but the Russian moujik does
not excel in these qualities, being
desultory, clever, and versatile genius
an accomplished pedlar, but very
poor agriculturist. AS far back as he is
known to history, he has always confined his
rustic labors to the modicum enforced by
hunger or compulsion. Before he was serf
he used to wander about the vast plains of
his country, partly because he has natural
propensity for seeking the unknown, and
| hoping for the indefinite, rather than making
a modest but accurate calculation for the fu-
ture, and partly because he cultivated his
acres so negligently, and exhausted them 80
rapidly, that he was compelled ever to look
ont for fresh fields. So inveterate we're these
migratory habits in him that to check them it
became eventually necessary to make him
slave. As the nobility were presented with
hereditary estates by the Gar, their first en-
deavor was to keep the peasantry on their
property, which otherwise would have had no
value whatever. In point of fact, the Rus
sian word for ''serf" originally meant nothing
more terrible than a permanent resident; al
though in the course of time, when the pea
SAINT had once been chained to the clod
where he was born, and handed over
entirely to the tender mercies of his
master, it naturally came to include the
more abject Specification of slave. These
old stories were probably present to the mind
OF the Gar when he commanded that the
peasant for nine years after his liberation
should be prohibited from quitting his native
village and settling elsewhere. Though his
nomadic tendencies were supposed to have
been diminished by centuries of involuntary
sedentariness, it was still deemed advisable to
guard against any uutoward revival of the
old feeling that might be produced by the
first flush of recovered liberty But worse
was in store than could have been anticipated.
The nine probationary years will expire in a
few weeks, and it is certain they have not
been sufficient to work the desired result
Throughout the northern half of the realm.
in which agriculture cannot thrive except by
diligence and forethought, the peasant. in
the interval that has expired since his emanci-
patton, has not learnt to work or to relish the
work allotted to him in life Freed fro n the
daily supervision of his landlord, he has, on
the contrary, contracted such slovenly and
drunken habits that his fields never in very
prosperous condition, are now less SO than
ever. So low has he fallen as freeman that il
Will be hard to raise him up again. In the cold
climate and on the ungrateful soil of those
northern regions nature is slow to reward the
toll, but prompt to revenge the neglect of the
husbandman. A bad harvest caused bv slotb
necessitates the slaughter of part of the live
stock. A lack OF manure is the conse-
"A quence, and MAKES the next crop WELD still