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SECTION II.
SLAVERY IN RUSSIA.
Russia now remains, we believe, the only nation of Europe that still contains within its borders large numbers of hereditary bondmen. The people, from whom the term Slave was originally derived—the Slavonian or Slavonic race—is still the one, and the only remaining one in Europe, among whom exists the condition of slavery. The number of people there held in bondage is indeed immense and startling to hear. In Russia (including Poland) there are upwards of forty millions of Slaves,—more than ten times the number of those in the United States of America. It is common, indeed, to call these people serfs; but that is only a different term for the same thing—the word serf (from the Latin servus) signifying a slave. As the term serf, however, conveys no very distinct idea to the English mind, we prefer to use one that is clearly defined—viz, slaves; for they are truly slaves. "Slavery," as defined by Paley, "is the obligation to labor for the benefit of the master, without the contract or consent of the servant:" and such, certainly, is the condition of these 40,000,000 of persons. They
