What a
change! The same creatures, serfs yesterday, became men, conscious of
their human dignity; their aspect, their language, are those of free
men. In the mean while, in getting rid of their serfdom, they preserved
their usual good sense, wisdom, and _bonhomie_; no impertinence, no
arrogance whatever can be detected in them; they are full of
self-respect, yet polite. I saw them discussing with the authorities
some business of theirs. They maintained their new rights, and, when
wrong, never hesitated to acknowledge it.

Every district and every _chef-lieu_ had every year an assembly of
deputies who named a permanent committee for three years. This committee
was charged with the municipal administration, under the control of the
assembly. Everyone was called by law to the election of the deputies. It
happened in many places that the peasants were the more numerous and
could therefore dispose of all the places in the administrative
committee. They were so informed. "No," was their answer; "we want one
or two members of the committee taken from among ourselves; they will
watch over our interests. As for defending them, as for action, the
nobles we name will do it better than we, for they are more learned than
we are." In one of the assemblies the nobles, moved by the tact and
moderation of the peasants, insisted and almost forced a peasant to
become president of the administrative committee of the district. When
the salary of the members of the committee had to be decided, the
peasants usually considered it too high for them, and, letting the
nobles and the merchants have it, got it diminished by one-half for
themselves.

All the district assemblies, after voting for the formation of the
administrative committee, named the deputies for the larger assembly in
the chief town in the province, which in its turn chose among its own
members the members for the provincial administrative committee. The
central committee seemed to interest the peasants less than those of the
districts, and this too is owing to their modesty and moderation.

Another field was offered by the new law to the activity of the peasants
in the local or municipal tribunals. The law united several rural
communes in one canton _(volost)._ Each canton, each commune, chose an
_ancient_, assisted by a _conseil_ In every canton was a tribunal to
judge the peasants' affairs. Ancients and judges were elected by
peasants; noblemen were not submitted to these t