EMANCIPATION OF RUSSIAN2i SERFS



King of Naples were conveyed to the Papal States on a
French man-of-war. One month later the citadel of Messina,
after a stubborn defence of half a year, capitulated. The
union of Italy, with the exception of Rome and Venice, was
now complete. By his steadfast adherence to the national
cause, Victor Emmanuel had secured the Italian throne for
the House of Savoy. Shortly after this crowning stroke of
his policy, Cavour, the greatest statesman of modern Italy,
passed away. As he lay on his deathbed, Cavour addressed
to the priest who had come to shrive him his last words,
which summed up the future policy of Italy in regard to
Rome: "A free Church in a free State."
   The greatest event of the year was the emancipation of
the Russian serfs, as announced on February 19 in an imperial
ukase by Czar Alexander II. The serf population of Rus-
sia at that time aggregated 47,100,000 individuals. The
Government was to organize a system of loans, which would
permit the peasants attached to the soil immediately to lib-
erate themselves from their lords, while remaining debtors to
the State. The domestic servants, who were not attached to
the soil, were only to receive their personal liberty on con-
dition of serving their masters for two years. This great
measure of emancipation, as Rambaud has said in his "His-
tory of Russia," was, in fact, a settlement of accounts as to
the ancient community existing between masters and peas-
ants. It imposed sacrifice on both parties. When this was
brought home to the peasants many believed they had been
duped. A strange ferment arose in many provinces; it was
necessary to call out the soldiery, and three times the troops
had to fire on the people. In the Government of Kazan
10,000 men rose at the call of the peasant Petrof, who an-
nounced to them "the true liberty." Hundreds perished, and
Petrof was taken and shot. A revolution in Warsaw was
suppressed by the presence of 80,000 Russian soldiers.
                          860



1861