Bearing this in mind, let us see how it affected the Emancipation question.  The Proletariat—­described as a dangerous monster which was about to swallow up society in Western Europe, and which might at any moment cross the frontier unless kept out by vigorous measures—­took possession of the popular imagination, and aroused the fears of the reading public.  To many it seemed that the best means of preventing the formation of a Proletariat in Russia was the securing of land for the emancipated serfs and the careful preservation of the rural Commune.  “Now is the moment,” it was said, “for deciding the important question whether Russia is to fall a prey, like the Western nations, to this terrible evil, or whether she is to protect herself for ever against it.  In the decision of this question lies the future destiny of the country.  If the peasants be emancipated without land, or if those Communal institutions which give to every man a share of the soil and secure this inestimable boon for the generations still unborn be now abolished, a Proletariat will be rapidly formed, and the peasantry will become a disorganised mass of homeless wanderers like the English agricultural labourers.  If, on the contrary, a fair share of land be granted to them, and if the Commune be made proprietor of the land ceded, the danger of a Proletariat is for ever removed, and Russia will thereby set an example to the civilised world!  Never has a nation had such an opportunity of making an enormous leap forward on the road of progress, and never again will the opportunity occur.  The Western nations have discovered their error when it is too late—­when the peasantry have been already deprived of their land, and the labouring classes of the towns have already fallen a prey to the insatiable cupidity of the capitalists.  In vain their most eminent thinkers warn and exhort.  Ordinary remedies are no longer of any avail.  But Russia may avoid these dangers, if she but act wisely and prudently in this great matter.  The peasants are still in actual, if not legal, possession of the land, and there is as yet no Proletariat in the towns.  All that is necessary, therefore, is to abolish the arbitrary authority of the proprietors without expropriating the peasants, and without disturbing the existing Communal institutions, which form the best barrier against pauperism.”

These ideas were warmly espoused by many proprietors, and exercised a very great influence on the deliberations of the Provincial Committees.  In these committees there were generally two groups.  The majorities, whilst making large concessions to the claims of justice and expediency, endeavoured to defend, as far as possible, the interests of their class; the minorities, though by no means indifferent to the interests of the class to which they belonged, allowed the more abstract theoretical considerations to be predominant.  At first the majorities did all in their power to evade the fundamental principles laid down by the Government as much too