THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS.
[FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Lemberg, June 22. SINCE the whole of the Russian Empire is at present in a state of fermentation consequent on the emancipation ukase, it will help us to take a wider view of the Polish insurrection if we endeavour to see a little way into the great question. To adopt a homely illus- tration, the Russian giant, having for centuries neglected the con- dition of his feet, is now undergoing the painful and expensive operation of having his corns cut.
If by chance the subject of the emancipation of the serfs comes up in the course of conversation at an English dinner-table, the credit of the measure is without further consideration scored to the account of the Emperor Alexander, whose well-known benevolence and mild disposition supply elderly ladies in and out of Parliament with an inexhaustible stock of observations. No sooner has the English mind grasped the idea of emancipation of the serfs than it starts in feverish pursuit of the party to whom credit is due, for, it argues, credit must be due to somebody.
At the risk of incurring general indignation, I shall endeavour to show that the emancipation of the serfs is a measure which brought itself about because the time was ripe for it, and that no particular credit is due to anybody. As all great inventions and discoveries are led up to gradually, and never spring suddenly into existence, so was it with the emancipation of the serfs. That the initiative came from Poland is only what might have been expected, as Western civilization has no other road into Ramie. As early as the middle of the last century, the Chan- cellor Zarnoyski was sufficiently ahead of the civilization of his age to foresee that the only means of raising the condition of the peasant was to render him absolute master of his own person. Accordingly, he carried out on his own estates a measure of emancipation, without, however, going the length of constituting the peasants proprietors. In the fourth, article of the celebrated constitution of May 3, 1791, the full liberty of the peasant is recognized. The article runs thus :—" Every individual, be he stranger or born in the land, shall be free from the moment of setting foot on Polish soil to turn his industry to the best account, without let or hindrance, in whatever manner and in whatever place may appear good to him ; he shall be at liberty to enter into whatever compacts he may think fit, and for what- ever length of time, and to pay rent in money or manual labour, according to the nature of the arrangement which he may be desirous of making ; he shall be at liberty to establish himself in town or country, as he may prefer ; and lastly, it shall be open to him to remain in Poland or to leave the country, as he may deem it best conducive to his interests, provided only he shall have first fulfilled all the agreements into which he shall have voluntarily entered."
This fourth article is a fair specimen of the enlightened spirit of freedom which pervades the whole constitution of May 3. But the Polish peasant was not at that time destined to enjoy the pri- vileges held out to him, and it was not till some eighteen years ago that the Lithuanian proprietors took the initiative in mooting the question of the emancipation of the serfs in Russia. The Emperor Nicholas would have nothing to say to the proposition, and the matter rested till the present Emperor ascended the throne. In 1857 the Lithuanian proprietors again applied for permission to emancipate their serfs, and received for answer that if they wished to do so, they must be prepared to constitute the peasants proprietors of the land of which they had hitherto enjoyed the usufruct merely. At the same time the Government, that it might not get abroad that the Russian nobility were behind the Polish proprietors in Lithuania in wishing to raise the condition of the peasant, instructed the marshals of the nobility throughout the empire to send in similar petitions. In consequence of the measures which had been successfully carried into effect in Posen, Galicia, and Hungary, by which the peasant had been constituted proprietor of his land, it was found no longer possible to hold the Russian serf in a state of bondage. The Government, therefore, cast about how the greatest amount of political capital was to be made out of the business, and hit on the following contrivance :- The emancipative decree of the 19th February, while it abolishes serfdom for ever, and declares the peasant free, yet leaves him temporarily obliged to continue task-work for his land, or money payments in lieu thereof. The Government insists on the pro- prietor selling, and the peasants purchasing, at least three &dada (nine acres) of land per head, professing to leave the parties to - make the best bargain they can between themselves. The cases, however, are very rare where a private arrangement has been completed between proprietor and peasant, and almost invariably the Government has advanced the purchase-money, on condition of the proprietor ceding the fifth part of the value of the land, and receiving Government paper, bearing five per cent, interest for the remainder, till the principal shall be discharged. The order in which the holders of this paper are to be paid off is to be deter- mined by lot. While the Government indemnifies the proprietors at the rate of five per cent. on four-fifths of the full value of the land ceded by them, it itself exacts six per cent. from the peasants. five per cent, interest, and one per cent. for the amortissement of the purchase-money advanced. This rate of payment is to continue for forty-nine years, so that the Government has left itself a good margin. At the end of forty-nine years the peasant will at last become unconditional proprietor of his land. It is confidently expected that the Government will meet with great difficulty in enforcing payment from the peasantry, who do not at all under- stand the nature of the arrangement, most of them imagining that their lands have been presented to them scot free. It is regretted that the outbreak of the insurrection in the Russian-Polish pro - vinces was not deferred till the peasantry had become alive tak
true nature of their bargain. AN ENGLIS
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