Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/199

Rh working with him, endeavor to accomplish this change of old established relationship, without political convulsion, or any injurious results, either to the owners of the serfs or to the serfs themselves. Of these latter there are not less than thirty millions. The emperor has demanded from the great landed proprietors, a statement of their several opinions and views regarding the accomplishment of this great work, and the grand-duchess, who is one of them, was now preparing her memorandum on the subject! Her remarks with reference to this important reform showed both a sense of equity and prudence. She wholly approved of the emperor's undertaking. She observed amongst other things, that although the condition of the serfs in Russia was a great deal better than people believed, yet still it was a state of injustice, which in itself was wrong. The laws did not permit a serf to make a complaint, nor yet to become a witness against his master. In this state of things, therefore, a great amount of injustice took place without being punished, or even made known. “In a Christian state,” she said, “the law ought to be alike for all!” I cannot say what good it did me to hear the noble princess speak thus simply, and as if from the deep conviction of her soul. I saw in spirit the light of a new dawn ascending from the east, and enfranchised Russia becoming a liberator of its multitudinous and yet enslaved people. This proceeding of the autocrat of Russia appears to me to be one of the greatest and most gladdening occurrences of the present century, and the Czar who accomplishes it to be a far greater man than Alexander the Great. Alexander II., of