cessors, the confidence and
affection of his people. All his labors since he ascended the throne
in February, 1855, have been directed to the emancipation of the serfs
and the general welfare of his country. No fault can be found with him
by the most ardent advocate of human liberty. His sympathies are--as
far as it is practicable for those of an autocrat, clothed with
absolute powers, to be--in favor of freedom. Toward the people and the
government of the United States he entertains the most kindly feeling,
and would doubtless sincerely regret the overthrow of our republican
system. He has, moreover, devoted himself with unceasing zeal to the
abolition of many onerous and unnecessary restrictions upon the
liberty of the press and the civil rights of his subjects; encouraged
institutions of learning; prohibited to a considerable extent cruelty
and oppression in the subordinate branches of the public service; and
in all respects has proved himself equal to the great duty imposed
upon him, and worthy the esteem and commendation of the civilized
world. Yet I can not see what there is in a despotic form of
government, under the very best circumstances, to enlist our
admiration or win our sympathies. We may respect and appreciate a good
ruler, but every autocrat is not good of his kind; nor is every
country in a happy condition because it may be exempt from the horrors
of commotion. But no sovereign power can ever attain a rank among the
civilized nations of the earth--beyond the respect to which its brute
force may entitle it--so long as the very germ of its existence is
founded in the suppression of civil and political liberty among its
subjects.

What, after all, does the emancipation of the serfs amount to? They
are only to be nominally free. The same power that accords them the
poor privilege of tilling the earth for their own subsistence may at
any time withdraw it. They are not to be owned by individual
proprietors, and bought and sold like cattle; but they possess none of
the privileges of freemen; have no voice in the laws that govern them;
must pay any taxes imposed upon them; may be ordered, at any time, to
abandon their homes and sacrifice their lives in foolish and
unnecessary wars in which they have no interest; in short, are just as
much slaves as they were before, with the exception that during the
pleasure of the emperor they can not be sold. But will every emperor
be equally humane? There is nothing to pre