The daily gazette. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1874-1883, 1881-03-15
SECOND EDITIO N
THE MURDERED CZAR.
HIS LIBERATION OF THE sERFa,

he had tostered this plan in his |
mind, and as soon as was practical |
after the Crimean war he put 1t in |
operation. There were then in
Russia 81 ,625 500 peasant serfs and !
domestics attached to the soil and
owing service to Its owners, who
might be of the enlightened or hum
ane type or might demand of them
a most inordinate amount of labor
and treat them in the most inhuman
fashion = fog them to death, murder
them in passion or cold blood or sell
them to the recruiting officers. In
March, 1856, the Gar declared to
the Marshals of the Noblesse at
Moscow that he had not then the in-
tention of annihilating serfage, but
that the existing manner of possess
ing serfs could not remain unchang-
ed. "It is BETTER" he added, to
abolish serfage from above than TO
await the time when it will begin to
abolish itself from below" The
Gar had hoped his words would be
responded to, but they were not, be-
ing too vague to encourage those
who favored abolition or to impress
those who opposed it. The Govern
ment therefore was compelled to de-
wise and carry out the work of emhn-
cipation, which was completed on
the 10Th of February, 1861, when
the law was signed liberating The
serfs already mentioned. The State
peasants, who swelled the total to
4O,000,000, had their curious inter
mediate position between serfage
and freedom amended by imperial
orders in September, 1859, and Oc-
tober, 1861, and finally in 1866 were
placed as regards administration on
level with the emancipated serfs
of the proprietors. BY the law then
signed the serfs received the civil
rights of the free and rural classes,
the Communes retained the land
they actually held, agreeing to pay
the proprietor an annual due in la
Dor or money, and the Government
agreed to help them to purchase |
these lands out-and- out. 1t was a |
great act, but at the time it pleased |
nobody. The mobiles complained |
that the question had been taken |
out Of their hands, and that after
being trapped into making a volun,
tary sacrifice of their rights they
had been pushed aside. The peasS
antry were disappointed. Sentimen~
tai considerations had no weight
with them; they could not under
stand why they were still to pay
dues for the communal land they
had always regarded as their own,
for their saying had always been to
the master, 1--WE e are yours, but the
land is ours" This gigantic exper-
iment in social science is still far
from being terminated, and agrarian
relations in Russia are still in cha
otic, transitory state, but the opin-
ion of Wallace, the closest and most
competent student of the subject, is
that there is good ground for hope.
And though he calls the work of
emancipation the work of the ma
ton, he justly says that "the chief
merit undoubtedly belongs to the
Emperor.
"Across the wide Atlantic" writes
Russian, "a poet of the great Western
Republic not yet cleansed from the stain
of slavery, hailed our Emperor as the
Seythian Car, 'who, with the pencil OF
| the Northern star, wrote freedom o'er
his land.' Even English Russophohes
c0ndescend TO admit the grandeur Of the
| spectacle. Imagine, then how ii Affect
| ed us, Russians, impresslonaJle and I'M
| pulsive as we are TO strike stroke Tor
| freedom and humanity of such moment.
Gus importance. Even now when tweE
ty years have gone by, Russian hearts
throb with patriotic pride when that day
| of emancipation is recalled to their mem
| ory. England is proud OF her Clarksdn
and WIlbeltorce, and have seen great
audiences thrill with enthusiasm az the
mere mention OF the names OF the heroes
of that struggle for liberty. But, after all
what was your slavery? A mere colonial
| question, affecting small number OF ne
groes in the West Indies. America is
| proud and justly proud OF Abraham Lib
coin; but what was his Emancipation
| Proclamatlonp A measure of war, wea-
pom whereby the free North sought 10
crush the slave-holding South. But with
| us serfdom was everywhere. Including
crown peasants, nearly half Our popula-
| tion were serfs. Yet without a sword
being uDsheathed the great work was
achieved, and by the simple mandate df
the Emperor serfdom to exist within the
limits of the Russian Empire. Tell mo
is there anything in English history
greater than that act OF him whom you
denounce as a despot, but whose name
| is cherish in Russian hearts as AleXan-
| der the EmauclpatoT?
alt is sometimes said by those who
disparage everything Russian, mt rely be-
cause it is Russian that the emancipation
made no differences. Possibly, If these
kind friends were reduced Tor year to
the state of the emancipated serf the eJ
peTience would be profitable. Before
1861 the serf belonged to his master. He
could be punished, sold, banished, sepa-
rated from his family, his money and Id,
Dor exacted. The law ihterfered in lheae
cases very seldom indeed. The serf
could not even marry without his
owners permission. He could not make
a will and bequeath his land to another
BY emancipation the seris acquired the
full legal rights of freemen' Surely do
not need 10 argue in England that the
change was an improyementlo