eclared themselves ready to emancipate their serfs. The
czar gave his consent and the ukase containing it was sent to all the
governors and marshals of the nobility "for your information," and
also "for your instruction if the nobles under your administration
should express the same intention as those of the three Lithuanian
governments."

The press supported the czar, and for that reason was allowed an
unusual freedom of expression. The plan was formed to reconstruct (p. 222)
and strengthen the national mir. This was favored by a number of large
landowners who saw in this plan the beginning of constitutional
liberty. The czar directed that committees be appointed to examine the
scheme.

There were at this time 47,000,000 serfs, of whom 21,000,000 belonged
to private landowners, 1,400,000 were domestic servants, and the rest
Crown peasants who possessed greater privileges and enjoyed some
degree of self-government. Their local affairs were administered by
the mir and an elected council with an elder as executive. They were
judged by elected courts, that is juries, either in the mir court or
in that of the volost (district).

Forty-six committees composed of 1,336 land and serf-owners, assembled
to discuss the future of 22,500,000 serfs and of 120,000 owners. These
committees declared in favor of emancipation, but could not agree upon
the allowance of acreage or the indemnity to the owners. Another
committee of twelve was appointed, presided over by the czar, but
there Alexander met considerable passive opposition. The czar made a
journey through the provinces, where he appealed to the nobles,
warning them that "reforms came better from above than below." After
his return another committee superior in authority to the one existing
and composed of friends of emancipation was called. Its members,
inspired by the czar, drafted laws whereby emancipation was to proceed
at once, and stringent laws were made to prevent the free peasant from
again becoming a serf, and to make of him a proprietor upon payment of
an indemnity. On the 3d of March, 1861, the emancipation ukase was
published.

The scheme, as is evident, was fraught with difficulty. A stroke (p. 223)
of the pen by the hand of the czar could set free millions of serfs,
but all the czar's power stopped short of endowing the serf with the
dignity and responsibility, which are the freeman's birthright. For
more than a century and a half, the moujik had been a beas