my calculation, would have been sufficient for it.

Meanwhile I inherited a small landed property, inhabited by about four
hundred persons of both sexes. I hastened to put in practice my method.
I abandoned one-third of the land, including their houses, to the
peasants, and let them the two remaining thirds for a certain sum of
money. In my agreement with them it was settled that, if the
emancipation which the Government was preparing (1859) turned out more
advantageous to them, they were to accept it in preference to mine. It
is needless to add that, when the official emancipation was proclaimed,
the peasants and I found it more advantageous and adopted it. If I were
to compare the two methods, I should say that mine tended chiefly to the
liberty of the peasants' person and labor, and that of the Government to
give them a quantity of land sufficient for their subsistence.

The great inconvenience of this last method was that it obliged the
peasants to pay a heavy rent to redeem their land, and that during
forty-nine years! Nevertheless, their passion to possess land was so
strong that they cheerfully submitted to such hard conditions. The
redeeming rent _(rente de rachat_) was to be paid by the peasants,
either in money, according to an estimate fixed by law, or by work done
for the proprietor, _i.e.,_ by _corvies_. This last mode of payment,
sanctioned by law only for a short period, disappeared more and more
every day, so that the majority of the peasants no longer worked for the
proprietors, but paid their rent in money.

I can say more: About two millions of peasants were entirely liberated
with regard to the proprietors, thanks to an immediate payment of the
redeeming rent. In such cases their annual rent (_redevance_) was
capitalized, and the Government gave the proprietor an obligation for
the amount of the capital, which bore five per cent, interest, and was
to be redeemed in the course of forty-nine years by annual drawings
(_tirages_); the peasants then to pay their redeeming rent to
Government, and thus become free and independent proprietors. For some
time both peasants and proprietors seemed to find this proceeding the
most profitable, and agreements of this kind became more and more
frequent every day.

I can hardly say how happy I was when I saw for the first time my dear,
beloved, and deeply respected Russian peasants free at last, and
proprietors of the land they had till then cultivated as serfs!