k of conciliating and regulating became consequently more
difficult, but the great majority of the Arbiters showed themselves
equal to the task, and displayed an impartiality, tact and patience
beyond all praise. To them Russia is in great part indebted for the
peaceful character of the Emancipation. Had they sacrificed the general
good to the interests of their class, or had they habitually acted in
that stern, administrative, military spirit which caused the instances
of bloodshed above referred to, the prophecies of the alarmists would,
in all probability, have been realised, and the historian of the
Emancipation would have had a terrible list of judicial massacres to
record. Fortunately they played the part of mediators, as their name
signified, rather than that of administrators in the bureaucratic sense
of the term, and they were animated with a just and humane rather than a
merely legal spirit. Instead of simply laying down the law, and ordering
their decisions to be immediately executed, they were ever ready to
spend hours in trying to conquer, by patient and laborious reasoning,
the unjust claims of proprietors or the false conceptions and ignorant
obstinacy of the peasants. It was a new spectacle for Russia to see a
public function fulfilled by conscientious men who had their heart in
their work, who sought neither promotion nor decorations, and who paid
less attention to the punctilious observance of prescribed formalities
than to the real objects in view.

There were, it is true, a few men to whom this description does not
apply. Some of these were unduly under the influence of the feelings
and conceptions created by serfage. Some, on the contrary, erred on the
other side. Desirous of securing the future welfare of the peasantry and
of gaining for themselves a certain kind of popularity, and at the same
time animated with a violent spirit of pseudo-liberalism, these latter
occasionally forgot that their duty was to be, not generous, but just,
and that they had no right to practise generosity at other people's
expense. All this I am quite aware of--I could even name one or two
Arbiters who were guilty of positive dishonesty--but I hold that these
were rare exceptions. The great majority did their duty faithfully and
well.

The work of concluding contracts for the redemption of the dues, or, in
other words, for the purchase of the land ceded in perpetual usufruct,
proceeded slowly. The arrangement was as foll