It was said that freed peasants would not work. But, despite volleys of
predictions that they would not work if freed, despite volleys of
assertions that they could not work if freed, the peasants when set
free, and not crushed by regulations, have sprung to their work with an
earnestness and continued it with a vigor at which the philosophers of
the old system stand aghast. The freed peasants of Wologda compare
favorably with any in Europe. And when the old tirades had grown stale,
English writers drew copiously from a new source--from _La Verite sur la
Russie_--pleasingly indifferent to the fact that the author's praise in
a previous work had notoriously been a thing of bargain and sale, and
that there was in full process of development a train of facts which led
the Parisian courts to find him guilty of demanding in one case a
blackmail of fifty thousand rubles.
All this argument outside the empire helped the foes of emancipation
inside the empire. But the Emperor met the whole body of his opponents
with an argument overwhelming.
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