I hastened to put in practice my method.
I abandoned one-third of the land, including their houses, to the
peasants, and let them the two remaining thirds for a certain sum of
money. In my agreement with them it was settled that, if the
emancipation which the Government was preparing (1859) turned out more
advantageous to them, they were to accept it in preference to mine. It
is needless to add that, when the official emancipation was proclaimed,
the peasants and I found it more advantageous and adopted it. If I were
to compare the two methods, I should say that mine tended chiefly to the
liberty of the peasants' person and labor, and that of the Government to
give them a quantity of land sufficient for their subsistence.
The great inconvenience of this last method was that it obliged the
peasants to pay a heavy rent to redeem their land, and that during
forty-nine years! Nevertheless, their passion to possess land was so
strong that they cheerfully submitted to such hard conditions.
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