They revived Old World objections, which, to one acquainted with the
most every-day workings of serfage, were ridiculous. It was said that if
the serfs lost the protection of their owners they might fall a prey to
rapacious officials. As well might it have been argued that a mother
should never loose her son from her apron-strings. It was said that
"Serfism excludes pauperism"--that, if the serf owes work to his owner
in the prime of life, the owner owes support to his serf in the decline
of life. No lie could be more absurd to one who had seen Russian life.
We were first greeted, on entering Russia, by a beggar who knelt in the
mud; at Kovno eighteen beggars besieged the coach, and Kovno was hardly
worse than scores of other towns; within a day's ride from St.
Petersburg a woman begged piteously for means to keep soul and body
together, and finished the refutation of that sonorous English theory,
for she had been discharged from her master's service in the metropolis
as too feeble, and had been sent back to his domain, afar in the
country, on foot and without money.
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