effect. Abolitionist
enthusiasm was rare among the great nobles, and those who really wished
to see serfage abolished considered the Imperial utterance too vague and
oracular to justify them in taking the initiative. As no further steps
were taken for some time, the excitement caused by the incident soon
subsided, and many people assumed that the consideration of the
problem had been indefinitely postponed. "The Government," it was
said, "evidently intended to raise the question, but on perceiving
the indifference or hostility of the landed proprietors, it became
frightened and drew back."

The Emperor was in reality disappointed. He had expected that his
"faithful Moscow Noblesse," of which he was wont to say he was himself a
member, would at once respond to his call, and that the ancient capital
would have the honour of beginning the work. And if the example were
thus given by Moscow, he had no doubt that it would soon be followed by
the other provinces. He now perceived that the fundamental principles
on which the Emancipation should be effected must be laid down by the
Government, and for this purpose he created a secret committee composed
of several great officers of State.

This "Chief Committee for Peasant Affairs," as it was afterwards called,
devoted six months to studying the history of the question. Emancipation
schemes were by no means a new phenomenon in Russia. Ever since the time
of Catherine II. the Government had thought of improving the condition
of the serfs, and on more than one occasion a general emancipation had
been contemplated. In this way the question had slowly ripened,
and certain fundamental principles had come to be pretty generally
recognised. Of these principles the most important was that the State
should not consent to any project which would uproot the peasant from
the soil and allow him to wander about at will; for such a measure would
render the collection of the taxes impossible, and in all probability
produce the most frightful agrarian disorders. And to this general
principle there was an important corollary: if severe restrictions were
to be placed on free migration, it would be necessary to provide the
peasantry with land in the immediate vicinity of the villages; otherwise
they must inevitably fall back under the power of the proprietors, and
a new and worse kind of serfage would thus be created. But in order to
give land to the peasantry it would be necessary to take it from