Year: 1862

task 1t had to perform, and he must see that
his operations, as far as they have yet gone,
have been productive Of very little success.


"By the decree of the 10Th Of February, 1861,
agreements we're to be drawn up between every
proprietor and his serf, by which it was to be
settled how much he was to receive in return
for their emancipation. 1t was hoped that they
would buy the land they required from him,
either giving the money at once to him or ar
ranging TO pay it by instalments. Even il they
did not feel inclined to buy he could compel
them to do so, but in that case he could only
ask for eighty per cent. of the price fixed upon.
But if he were unwilling to part with his land
they could not force him to sell. II the parties
had not come to an agreement at the end of
the year the government was to interfere and
settle the business. Unfortunately for the sue
cess of the scheme, it was discovered in Feb
ruary, 1862 that only fourteen thousand agree
ments had been drawn up out of one hundred
and forty thousand, so that tenth part only of
the task was done.


COMPLICATIONS.


sin some cases the proprietors refused to sell,
and in great many the peasants showed no
inclination to buy. The land, they said, already
belonged to the community, and they ought not
TO be called upon to purchase what was already
their own. Individually they could not claim
it, but collectively they had right to it, and
their proprietor ought not to expect them to
pay for what was his property. The new law
released them personally from his sway, and
therefore he had now no longer any power over
them or what they considered their fields. He
had better 60 away and live in the great cities,
where the Emperor would support him, and
recompense him for his losses and to, in
great number of cases, the serfs used to avail
themselves of the benefits offered them. In
others, the proprietors offered passive resis-
tance, declining to do anything themselves, and
leaving 1t to the government to make the neces-
sary arrangements. But the Minister of the
Interior found himself unable to cope with the
gigantic task of settling the details of some
hundred and twenty thousand complicated bar
gains, and the government was obliged to con-
fess that some new regulation must supersede
that which had resulted in failure Meanwhile
the peasants are growing impatient, and man
ilesting a very angry feeling towards the mobiles,
who are accused of preventing the Emperor
from bestowing on the people the benefits which
he wishes to give. The Russian nobility forms
apopulaton of about seven hundred and twenty
two thousand individuals, and there interests
are opposed to those of about sixty-four mil
lions in Russia alone. If the two classes are
brought into collision, terrible state of things
must ensue. The Russian peasant is cruel to
degree when his passions are fully reused and
if a servile insurrection broke out it might be
marked by series of atrocities like those COM
mitted by the Ruthenians in Gallicia when they
attacked the Polish nobility in 1913, and de-
stroyed three hundred families at blow. Such
an insurrecton would no doubt be suppressed
by the army, but the former state of affairs
could not be restored, and the result woull be
the establishment of military despotsm of
the sternest nature.