If he is not merely a lover of abstractions and of
fine phrases, if that which interests him is men and not words, if
he is bent upon the effective enfranchisement of the cultivator of
the soil, he will not rest content with proclaiming a principle,
with permitting the redemption of rents, with fixing the rate of
redemption, and, in case of dispute, with sending parties before the
tribunals. He will reflect that the peasantry, jointly responsible
for the same debt will find difficulty in agreeing among themselves;
that they are afraid of litigation; that, being ignorant, they will
not know how to set about it; that, being poor, they will be unable
to pay; and that, under the weight of discord, distrust, indigence,
and inertia, the new law will remain a dead letter, and only
exasperate their cupidity or kindle their resentment. In
anticipation of this disorder the legislator will come to their
assistance ; he will interpose commissions of arbitration between
them and the lord of the manor; he will substitute a scale of
annuities for a full and immediate redemption; he will lend them the
capital which they cannot borrow elsewhere; he will establish a
bank, rights, and a mode of procedure, -- in short, as in Savoy in
1771, in England in 1845,[19] and in Russia in 1861, he will relieve
the poor without despoiling the rich; he will establish liberty
without violating the rights of property; he will conciliate
interests and classes; he will not let loose a brutal peasant revolt
(Jacquerie) to enforce unjust confiscation; and he will terminate
the social conflict not with strife but with peace.
Pages:
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377