The honorable gentlemen
whom the Emperor intrusted with this important task, forming a committee
_ad hoc_, declared from the first as a principle that the emancipated
peasants must have land, about in the same quantity as they had hitherto
occupied, on condition of a pecuniary indemnity to be paid to the
proprietors. That principle prevailed, thanks to the Emperor's firmness.
During the discussion of that question in Russia, I published several
writings on the matter. My chief purpose and warmest desire being to
secure to the peasants as soon as possible their personal freedom and
complete liberty of labor, I proposed a method of emancipation, claiming
the entire property of their homes; that is to say, cottages and
orchards and a small quantity of arable land, and that without the
slightest indemnity from them to their masters, which was to be left to
the Government. A sum of about two hundred million dollars, according to
my calculation, would have been sufficient for it.
Meanwhile I inherited a small landed property, inhabited by about four
hundred persons of both sexes.
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