ral Nazimof a detailed
account of this important episode, but my efforts were
unsuccessful.

This circular produced an immense sensation throughout the country. No
one could for a moment misunderstand the suggestion that the nobles of
other provinces MIGHT POSSIBLY express a desire to liberate their serfs.
Such vague words, when spoken by an autocrat, have a very definite and
unmistakable meaning, which prudent loyal subjects have no difficulty in
understanding. If any doubted, their doubts were soon dispelled, for
the Emperor, a few weeks later, publicly expressed a hope that, with
the help of God and the co-operation of the nobles, the work would be
successfully accomplished.

The die was cast, and the Government looked anxiously to see the result.

The periodical Press--which was at once the product and the fomenter
of the liberal aspirations--hailed the raising of the question with
boundless enthusiasm. The Emancipation, it was said, would certainly
open a new and glorious epoch in the national history. Serfage was
described as an ulcer that had long been poisoning the national blood;
as an enormous weight under which the whole nation groaned; as an
insurmountable obstacle, preventing all material and moral progress; as
a cumbrous load which rendered all free, vigorous action impossible,
and prevented Russia from rising to the level of the Western nations. If
Russia had succeeded in stemming the flood of adverse fortune in spite
of this millstone round her neck, what might she not accomplish when
free and untrammelled? All sections of the literary world had arguments
to offer in support of the foregone conclusion. The moralists declared
that all the prevailing vices were the product of serfage, and that
moral progress was impossible in an atmosphere of slavery; the lawyers
held that the arbitrary authority of the proprietors over the peasants
had no legal basis; the economists explained that free labour was an
indispensable condition of industrial and commercial prosperity; the
philosophical historians showed that the normal historical development
of the country demanded the immediate abolition of this superannuated
remnant of barbarism; and the writers of the sentimental, gushing type
poured forth endless effusions about brotherly love to the weak and
the oppressed. In a word, the Press was for the moment unanimous,
and displayed a feverish excitement which demanded a liberal use of
superlatives.

Th