liberty would be a dangerous weapon in the hands of the serfs." The writer concludes, — "The Government, on the one hand, has not the courage to take a decisive measure, and, on the other, the serfs know not how to stipulate for their interests. The Emperor, yielding to foreign influences, would fain crown himself with an immortal laurel; but he knows not either how to avoid or to meet the dangers which emancipation presents. The half measures which Nicholas has hitherto taken are deficient in energy: it is therefore said that nothing great will be accomplished under this wretched system, and that the heir to the crown will inherit with it all the difficulties which his father was incapable of solving."[1]
Since the publication of the work from which the above extract is made, Alexander II. has succeeded to the throne, and, as is known, is already taking active measures for the emancipation of the serfs. The grand difficulty which attends emancipation in America — namely, the difference of race and color and the consequent impracticability of amalgamation — has no existence here. The nobles and the serfs are of the same nation and race: the distinction between them is purely artificial; and the law has consequently simply to remove that barrier, and the two classes will easily merge into one. Among the nobles, even now, there are instances of persons, who themselves or whose ancestors were once serfs. In fact, Russia, at the present time, is passing through a transition state similar to that which England and France passed through three or four centuries ago. At that period, as we know, the
- ↑ Russia under Nicholas, vol. ii., chap. i.
