condition and future prospects without a practical definition of their
rights and the substitution of some substantial benefits for the
withdrawal of responsibilities now borne by their owners, is an
anomalous movement attended by no ordinary difficulties. When we add
to this the adverse influences of the landed proprietors; their
determined hostility to the abrogation of rights and privileges which
they have so long enjoyed; their entire conviction that, without
direct powers of coercion, they can not depend upon the labor of the
peasantry; that the natural tendency of free labor is to elevate the
masses, and render them less subservient to the will of the
aristocracy, then, indeed, it may well be conceived that the natural
difficulties arising from the ignorance and improvident habits of the
class now held in bondage will be greatly augmented. Believing,
however, that all men have a right to their freedom; that such a
right is the gift of the Creator, which can only be wrongfully
withheld from them by any earthly power; that it is superior to any
casual influences or considerations of policy, we can not but admire
the moral courage of the movement, and the apparent zeal and constancy
with which the emperor has labored, in the face of every obstacle, to
carry it into effect. But the question now arises, is it to end before
it assumes a substantial form? Is it to be a mere chimera gotten up to
entertain and delude the world? If Alexander aspires to the approval
of all enlightened people beyond the limits of his own empire, he must
make good his claim to it by a determined policy, carrying in it the
germ of civil and political liberty. It will not do to "tickle the
ears of the groundlings" with high-sounding phrases of human progress,
while he fetters their limbs with manacles of iron. There can be no
such thing as a graduated despotism--a stringent form of controlling
the ignorant and a mild form of controlling the intelligent--under one
system of government. The ways to knowledge, to honorable distinction,
to wealth and happiness, must be open to all; justice must be
administered with impartiality, and wherever there is taxation there
must be representation. There can not be one kind of justice for the
rich and another for the weak; constitutions for some and despotisms
for others. The machine must be complete in all its parts, and work
with a common accord, or it will soon become deranged and break to
pieces.

Pete