I must not conceal the fact that
some of the statements are founded on inference rather than
on direct, unequivocal documentary evidence. The whole
question is one of great difficulty, and will in all
probability not be satisfactorily solved until a large
number of the old local Land-Registers (Pistsoviya Knigi)
have been published and carefully studied.

The indirect consequences of thus attaching the peasants to the soil did
not at once become apparent. The serf retained all the civil rights he
had hitherto enjoyed, except that of changing his domicile. He could
still appear before the courts of law as a free man, freely engage in
trade or industry, enter into all manner of contracts, and rent land for
cultivation.

But as time wore on, the change in the legal relation between the two
classes became apparent in real life. In attaching the peasantry to the
soil, the Government had been so thoroughly engrossed with the direct
financial aim that it entirely overlooked, or wilfully shut its eyes to,
the ulterior consequences which must necessarily flow from the policy it
adopted. It was evident that as soon as the relation between proprietor
and peasant was removed from the region of voluntary contract by being
rendered indissoluble, the weaker of the two parties legally tied
together must fall completely under the power of the stronger, unless
energetically protected by the law and the Administration. To this
inevitable consequence the Government paid no attention. So far from
endeavouring to protect the peasantry from the oppression of the
proprietors, it did not even determine by law the mutual obligations
which ought to exist between the two classes. Taking advantage of this
omission, the proprietors soon began to impose whatever obligations they
thought fit; and as they had no legal means of enforcing fulfilment,
they gradually introduced a patriarchal jurisdiction similar to
that which they exercised over their slaves, with fines and corporal
punishment as means of coercion. From this they ere long proceeded a
step further, and began to sell their peasants without the land on
which they were settled. At first this was merely a flagrant abuse
unsanctioned by law, for the peasant had never been declared the private
property of the landed proprietor; but the Government tacitly sanctioned
the practice, and even exacted dues on such sales, as on the sale of
slaves. Finally the right to se