Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/185

Rh might be more oppressed under a cruel master, and more free under a kind one, than that of the serf of the Crown. This was what happened in many instances; and as the masters were more likely to be cruel than

kind, and their tendency was to make as much as possible out of their possessions, the Crown serf was generally better off than the private one.

"In the beginning the system was really the reform which was intended, but very soon it was subject to many abuses. Year by year things