ustrate the Tsar's benevolent intentions, use violent
measures to get rid of the opposition. The idea of agrarian massacres
had already taken possession of many timid minds. Besides this, all
classes of the proprietors felt that if the work was to be done, it
should be done by the Noblesse and not by the bureaucracy. If it were
effected by the nobles the interests of the land-owners would be duly
considered, but if it were effected by the Administration without their
concurrence and co-operation their interests would be neglected, and
there would inevitably be an enormous amount of jobbery and corruption.
In accordance with this view, the Noblesse corporations of the various
provinces successively requested permission to form committees for the
consideration of the question, and during the year 1858 a committee was
opened in almost every province in which serfage existed.

In this way the question was apparently handed over for solution to the
nobles, but in reality the Noblesse was called upon merely to advise,
and not to legislate. The Government had not only laid down the
fundamental principles of the scheme; it continually supervised the work
of construction, and it reserved to itself the right of modifying or
rejecting the projects proposed by the committees.

According to these fundamental principles the serfs should be
emancipated gradually, so that for some time they would remain attached
to the glebe and subject to the authority of the proprietors. During
this transition period they should redeem by money payments or labour
their houses and gardens, and enjoy in usufruct a certain quantity of
land, sufficient to enable them to support themselves and to fulfil
their obligations to the State as well as to the proprietor. In return
for this land they should pay a yearly rent in money, produce or labour
over and above the yearly sum paid for the redemption of their
houses and gardens. As to what should be done after the expiry of the
transition period, the Government seems to have had no clearly conceived
intentions. Probably it hoped that by that time the proprietors and
their emancipated serfs would have invented some convenient modus
vivendi, and that nothing but a little legislative regulation would be
necessary. But radical legislation is like the letting-out of water.
These fundamental principles, adopted at first with a view to
mere immediate practical necessity, soon acquired a very different
significance.