ke. We could fully prove the fact that the
greater part of the peasants are now forced by bayonets to work for the
exacted pay, and most of them venture to doubt entirely the propriety of
the pretended Russian gift. This one circumstance makes this gift in the
greater part of Poland and even, of Russia more burdensome than the old
state of regulated labor; for how is a peasant to procure money in
provinces distant from markets, rivers, and towns? Under what conditions
would it be possible to obtain it? And even in cases where the peasant
may be able to make a sale, the value received for eight bushels of
potatoes will not be sufficient to buy him a common axe. How many
calves, cows, sheep, horses, and hogs are brought back from market from
the impossibility of finding purchasers, even at the lowest prices? Now,
by the decree of January 22d, the Polish National Government gave
freedom, and land relieved from all claims, thus executing what was in
accordance with the spirit and wishes of the Poles, without losing sight
of the difficulties to be encountered. It was their imperative duty to
satisfy and adjust the exigencies of the national political economy.
Fortunately, it was found possible to harmonize the requirements of the
country with the personal interests of the proprietors. The amount of
land held by them was in general so large, that even after endowing the
peasant with the allotted portion, considerable would still remain in
their hands. Diminished in extent and value during the transitional
phase, the remaining land would necessarily rise rapidly in value,
because the emancipated peasant _would_ now _have_ the right to own and
buy land. The calculation might be sustained that it would quintuple in
value in the course of fifty years. Small farms from their possessions
would soon be in the market, farms within the range of small purses and
limited means, and the proprietors did not fail to see the advantage
which would accrue to them in the almost unlimited increase of
purchasers which would soon be found among the enfranchised laborers.
The peasants gained freedom, land, and many advantages, nor were the
proprietors ruined in their advancement. Hence the National Government
effected what the Rossian never intended to do or ever will achieve:
gain and loss were equalized in the national duty of sustaining the
country in its progressive course, stimulating all to labor
simultaneously to support its public burdens, t