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ggO The Saturday Analyst and Leader. [Oc...
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INDIAN FINANCE. A PARLIAMENTARY Return, ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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This L^Ianoipation Of The Ku.Ssian " -3j...
glaringly conflicting works , -which treat of the condition of the Muscovite Empire , or has perused the -writings of Russians themselves , : will be able to bear -witness to the correctness of this remark ... There are a hundred current opinions' on Russia which are received by the majority of peojole with implicit belief , but which have long : since been discovered as erroneous by those who have subjected them to the light of ccmscientioiis investtigaion . To remain within the limit of our subject , we will only allude to the prevailing opinion that latel 15
serfage was established in Muscovy only so y as 94 , by the usurper Czar Boris Godtj > -off . This is a statement to be met -with everywhere ; it is repeated even by Nicholas Tukgueneff , who -would lead us to believe that " under the Jtaxik dynasty the peasants were free ; " that-imdcr the rule of the . Golden Horde they were at least as free as the landed proprietors themselves ; and that " the decree which Boms published in the interest of his own illegitimate position as a ruler , is the sole and only foundation , on which serfage has been established . "
It would lead us too far to prove circumstantially that the enslavement of the agricultural population in Russia dates frqm a far moie distant period than is here supposed . We could cite historical facts and documents from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries , affording abundant evidence of the existence of serfage at that tirae . Wladimiu I . is reported to have arbitrarily transplanted the population of entire villages into distant and newly-colonised districts ; and Simeon' Ivanovitcii is related to have liberated , for certain political reasons of his own , a number of village mayors who had hitherto been serfs .
Certainly a sufficient proof that the peasantry were not free , and that serfdom must have been pretty prevalent , when we find that even village authorities were created from the bondsman class . It is true the generalisation of serfage in the empire dates from Czar Boris . That usurper having risen on the shoulders of the lesser nobility , sought to retain power by pandering to their interests ; and as he carefully abstained from granting them great political privileges , he strove to satisfy them for the deprivation , by harvding over to them the lives and property of the unfortunate peasantry . A decree , therefore , went forth , that on a certain dav . every labourer
found working on the soil of a landed proprietor , and every servant who had been at the time in the employ of a master for more than six months , should be henceforth considered a serf . It was a social covp d ' etat on a vast scale , —a lasso , as it were , suddenly thrown over the heads of an entire people . In this way , by a stroke of the pen , the remnant of the free peasants in the rural districts were incorporated in the class of
bondsmen . Catheuine II ., the philosopher Empress , completed the work , by introducing the curse of serfage into Little Russia , a province which at the time of Boms had not yet belonged to the -empire . Catherine employed the same trick as her predecessor , the usurper Gzar ; only her mode of procedure had an even greater treachery about it . Shortly before the appearance of the uknse which was to establish serfdom in Little Russia , some of her courtiers , whom she had let into the
frecret , allured to their estates as many labourers as they could inveigle ; and thus , when the fatbl dny arrived , reaped a good harvest of elares . It is reported , that Potbmkin in this way kidnapped for his serfs two grenadier regiments , which had been quartered in his possessions for that especial purpose , In order to add mockery and insult to the wrong already inflicted by her on humanity . Catherine subsequently asked the Imperial Academy to give its opinion on the righteousness of the measure ; and that body of learned sycophants thus delivered its opinion . " In favorem Ubartatis omnia jura clainaiit , sedcat modus in rebus / " This servile sentiment was of course , as it was intended to be , -highly gratifying to the Empress ; and the fate of the luckless millions was forthwith sealed .
Tlie first attempt at giving buck to the peasant population the human rights of which they had for centuries been deprived , was made during the reign of Alexandkr I . It was after the expedition of Napomson ' s Grande A rmde to Moscow , and the march of the united German and Russian armies to Paris . The contact with more civilized nations , which the Czab's troops had during- the & e events , and the consequent new
ideas of the dignity of humanity which these serfs in uniform thereby imbibed , had the effect of infusing into Russia an element of agitation after the Muscovite troops had returned to their native country . Among the officers especially , liberal sentiments had taken root . Tho Czau himself , just fresh from a struggle initiated by programmes , of freedom , could not escape the influence of more humanitarian views than had hitherto prevailed in his dominions , No wonder that the sub . ject of a full and , thorough emancipation of tho Mujiks came
to be at last mooted ; that commissions of inquiry were estab - lished , and speeches made from which the most inattentive had . nothing left them but to conclude the proximity of a better fate for the oppressed peasants . But the great promises of the reign of Alexander came to nothing . Seeing that the agitators of the emancipation project acted always collectively , the Czar , whose mind grew more morose year by year , came to entertain a suspicion of some aristocratic conspiracy which was to curtail the privileges
of the throne . He therefore suddenly dropped the whole project , and soon after died in a mysterious manner . His successor , Nicholas , ascended the throne over the corpses of insurgents that had risen in tlie name of a " constitution . " The impression which this sanguinary event left on his mind , indisposed'him to radical ' changes , and filled him with a dread of all agitation . Under his reign , consequently , this question was not approached , though from a wish now and then to intimidate the aristocracy the late Czar , on several occasions , showed himself inclined to look favourablv on the cause of the
peasants . . The Crimean war , which brought about the sudden decease of Nicholas , and the advent of a monarch of a milder disposition , carried in its train the resumption of the emancipation scheme . The reception this time given to it by the aristocracy , differed in the several parts of the empire . The landed proprietors ih the formerly Polish provinces showed decidedly the greatest willingness to co-operate with government in the work of manumission . On the other hand , in the old Muscovite provinces of the centre , there has been considerable show ofopposition ; and the nobility there , it -w ill be remembered , have been several times rebuked for it by the Czar in person . But besides this reactionary opposition , there is also one spivngmg from liberal motives . Of lute a tendency has arisen anionir
the nobles of Twer , and other provinces ia which the ideas cf representative government have , made-some . ' way , to use the project or serf emancipation as a lever for agitating the question of political reform . Provincial assemblies of nobles have refused to go any . further in their discussion of the governmental project unless a meeting of notables was convoked at St . Petersburg , with full powers to treat the subject in all its aspects . It is , probably , occurrences of that kind which have frightened the Czar and brought matters to a stand still . The Czar and the aristocracy are now eying each other with mutual distrust , sentiments of jealousy animating both , but neither possessing sufficient resolution to take a decisive step in advance . It is a situation lull of danger , and from which the llussian government will , perhaps , bo too glad to escape by anv means that foreign complications may otfer .
Ggo The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [Oc...
ggO The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Oct . 13 , I 860
Indian Finance. A Parliamentary Return, ...
INDIAN FINANCE . A PARLIAMENTARY Return , No . 831 ) , granted on the motion of Colonel Svkes , contains u variety of information respecting Indian Finance , and shows the Inrgu debt of public gratitude which is due to the late Mr . Jamks Wilson i ' or the zeal and energy with which he worked out tho first statement of the public incomes and . expenditure ot India that has ever yot been rendered with an approach 1 o intelligibility . Tho estimato is made for the year ending rOth . April , 18 ( 50 , as under : — INCOME . Ruvonw , Lund , fcJnyor , mid Abknrroo . CJl ' ' ' 'P *^!*!? OiiHtoms , oxcluaivo of Duly on Suit , i ,, » iHU , < u . » rialt—Bttli'K nnrl Excise , £ J ) , U , r 2 , ( i l !> [ Duty ou Salt : imported into Calcutta 7 . > 0 , <) 0 i ) . ii . 'I , lS ' J , Vli ) Opium 'J ' ' , -K 5 Mibcollunuous I , l /< V «>( Itccc'ipts from Railway Compnuie . ? , on nmnml . of Truffle in India ^ 'lU ! £ 38 , 0 . 1 ( 1 , 0 ( 11 ) ExccMsi * of Expenditure oyov Income ... ... ... ... I ! , 7 H . ' ) , IO !) . cTT ^ - ' " . " ' KXridNDITUni-J . CW of Collection of llovouuo , &«\ ^ " ^ T ' ? " ! - Intuvost of Debt in India U , O ) k » , o ()< Military Charges in India jgl 6 , l < jn , 2-H ) StoroH from Englantl 1 , 00-1 , ICJO ,,.,, „ Mfirino Oluirffos In Tnilln , Siti . fMA SHoi-oh from , England JOa . tKW Civil Charge in India 8 , fJl > 8 , HflO Stationery , Mint , and other Sloven from England 202 , 170 MQ MlHaollnni'ounChnvffPHlnltidlii ^ "Mt Intorontou Wall way Capital to l > o paid In India . __ , „ - ^ 11 , 820 , 018 It will bo o"bsorvo < l thnt tho excess of e . vpomlituvo during
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 13, 1860, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13101860/page/4/
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