the country watch this movement with anxiety, and say that, unless promptly checked, it will lead to the downfall of the present Government, and renew again all the horrors of a civil

war.

"In the meantime, Congress, instead of enabling the Government to put down the frightful disorder which reigns throughout the length and breadth of the land, is occupied in disputing about vain theories of so-called government on ultra-liberal principles, whilst the respectable part of the population is delivered up defenceless to the attacks of robbers and assassins, who swarm on the highroads and in the streets of the capital. The Constitutional Government is unable to maintain its authority in the various States of the Federation, which are becoming de facto perfectly independent, so that the same causes which, under similar circumstances, broke up the Confederation of Central America into five separate Republics are now at work here, and will probably produce a like result.

The

This state of things renders one all but powerless to obtain redress from a Government which is solely occupied in maintaining its existence from day to day, and therefore unwilling to attend to other people's misfortunes before their own. only hope of improvement I can see is to be found in the small Moderate Party, who may step in perhaps before all is lost, to save their country from impending ruin. Patriotism, in the common acceptation of the term, appears to be unknown, and no one man of any note is to be

found in the ranks of either party. Contending factions struggle for the possession of power only to gratify either their cupidity or their revenge; and in the meantime the country sinks lower and lower, whilst its popu lation becomes brutalized and degraded to an extent frightful to contemplate.

"Such is the actual state of affairs in Mexico, and your Lordship will perceive therefore that there is little chance of justice or redress from such people, except by the employment of force to exact that which both persuasion and menaces have hitherto failed to obtain."

The Governments of France and Spain had also serious grounds of complaint against the Mexican authorities for wrongs and outrages inflicted on their subjects, and the result was that the three Powers-Great Britain, France, and Spain-agreed to combine in an expedition to enforce the respective claims of those countries against the Government of Mexico. On the 31st of October, a convention between Her Majesty, the Emperor of the French, and the Queen of Spain, was signed at London. It recited that "Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Her Majesty the Queen of Spain, and His Majesty the Emperor of the French, feeling themselves compelled, by the arbitrary and vexatious conduct of the authorities of the Republic of Mexico, to demand from those authorities more efficacious protection for the persons and properties of their subjects, as well as a fulfilment of the obligations contracted towards their Majesties by the Republic of

"Art. 1. Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Her Majesty the Queen of Spain, and His Majesty the Emperor of the French, engage to make, immediately after the signature of the present Convention, the necessary arrangements for dispatching to the coasts of Mexico, combined naval and military forces, the strength of which shall be determined by a further interchange of communications between their Governments, but of which the total shall be sufficient to seize and occupy the several fortresses and military positions on the Mexican coast.

"The Commanders of the allied forces shall be, moreover, authorized to execute the other operations which may be considered, on the spot, most suitable to effect the object specified in the preamble of the present Convention, and specifically to ensure the security of foreign residents.

right of the Mexican nation to choose and to constitute freely the form of its Government.

"Art. 3. A Commission composed of three Commissioners, one to be named by each of the Contracting Powers, shall be established, with full authority to determine all questions that may arise as to the application or distribution of the sums of money which may be recovered from Mexico, having regard to the respective rights of the three Contracting Parties.

"Art. 4. The High Contracting Parties desiring, moreover, that the measures which they intend to adopt should not bear an exclusive character, and being aware that the Government of the United States on its part has, like them, claims to enforce upon the Mexican Republic, agree that immediately after the signature of the present Convention a copy thereof shall be communicated to the Government of the United States; that that Government shall be invited to accede to it; and that in anticipation of that accession their respective Ministers at Washington shall be at once furnished with full powers for the purpose of concluding and signing, collectively or separately, with the Plenipotentiary designated by the President of the United States, a Convention identical, save the suppression of the present Article, with that which they sign this day. But as by delaying to put into execution Articles I. and II. of the present Convention, the High Contracting Parties would incur a risk of failing in the object which they desire to attain, they have agreed not to defer, with the view of obtaining the acces

the simplicity of morals diminished, as the diversity of the mutual relations became complicated, as the paternal character of the relations between the proprietors and the peasants became weakened, and, moreover, as the seigneurial authority fell sometimes into hands exclusively occupied with their personal interests, those bonds of mutual good-will slackened, and a wide opening was made for an arbitrary sway, which weighed upon the peasants, was unfavourable to their welfare, and made them indifferent to all progress under the conditions of their existence.

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These facts had already at tracted the notice of our predecessors of glorious memory, and they had taken measures for improving the conditions of the peasants; but among those measures some were not stringent enough, insomuch that they remained subordinate to the spontaneous initiative of such proprietors who showed themselves animated with liberal intentions; and others, called forth by peculiar circumstances, have been restricted to certain localities or simply adopted as an experiment. It was thus that Alexander I. published the regulation for the free cultivators, and that the late Emperor Nicholas, our beloved father, promulgated that one which concerns the peasants bound by contract. In the Western Governments regulations

called inventaires' had fixed the territorial allotments due to the peasants, as well as the amount of their rent dues; but all these reforms have only been applied in a very restricted manner.

"We thus came to the conviction that the work of a serious

improvement of the condition of the peasants was a sacred inheritance bequeathed to us by our ancestors, a mission which, in the course of events, Divine Providence called upon us to fulfil.

"We have commenced this work by an expression of our Imperial confidence towards the nobility of Russia, which has given us so many proofs of its devotion to the Throne, and of its constant readiness to make sacrifices for the welfare of the country.

"It is to the nobles themselves, conformable to their own wishes, that we have reserved the task of drawing up the propositions for the new organization of the peasants-propositions which make it incumbent upon them to limit their rights over the peasants, and to accept the onus of a reformi which could not be accomplished without some material losses. Our confidence has not been deceived. We have seen the nobles assembled in committees in the districts, through the medium of their confidential agents, making the voluntary sacrifice of their rights as regards the personal servitude of the peasants. These committees, after having collected the necessary data, have formulated their propositions concerning the new organization of the peasants attached to the soil in their relations with the proprietors.

"These propositions having been found very diverse, as was to be expected from the nature of the question, they have been compared, collated, and reduced to a regular system, then rectified and completed in the superior committee instituted for that pur

pose; and these new dispositions thus formulated relative to the peasants and domestics of the proprietors have been examined in the Council of the Empire. "Having invoked the Divine assistance, we have resolved to carry this work into execution.

"In virtue of the new dispositions above mentioned, the peasants attached to the soil will be invested within a term fixed by the law with all the rights of free cultivators.

"The proprietors retaining their rights of property on all the land belonging to them, grant to the peasants for a fixed regulated rental the full enjoyment of their close; and, moreover, to assure their livelihood and to guarantee the fulfilment of their obligations towards the Government, the quantity of arable land is fixed by the said dispositions, as well as other rural appur

tenances.

"But, in the enjoyment of these territorial allotments, the peasants are obliged, in return, to acquit the rentals fixed by the same dispositions to the profit of the proprietors. In this state, which must be a transitory one, the peasants shall be designated as 'temporarily bound.'

"At the same time, they are granted the right of purchasing their close, and, with the consent of the proprietors, they may acquire in full property the arable lands and other appurtenances which are allotted to them as a permanent holding. By the acquisition in full property of the quantity of land fixed, the peasants are free from their obligations towards the proprietors for land thus purchased, and they enter definitively into the con

VOL. CIII.

dition of free peasants-landholders.

By a special disposition concerning the domestics, a transitory state is fixed for them, adapted to their occupations and the exigencies of their position. On the expiration of a term of two years, dating from the day of the promulgation of these dispositions, they shall receive their full enfranchisement and some temporary immunities.

"It is according to these fundamental principles that the dispositions have been formulated which define the future organization of the peasants and of the domestics, which establish the order of the general administration of this class, and specify in all their details the rights given to the peasants and to the domestics, as well as the obligations imposed upon them towards the Government and towards the proprietors.

"Although these dispositions, general as well as local, and the special supplementary rules for some particular localities, for the lands of small proprietors, and for the peasants who work in the manufactories and establishments of the proprietors, have been, as far as was possible, adapted to economical necessities and local customs, nevertheless, to preserve the existing state where it presents reciprocal advantages, we leave it to the proprietors to come to amicable terms with the peasants, and to conclude transactions relative to the extent of the territorial allotment and to the amount of rental to be fixed in consequence, observing, at the same time, the established rules to guarantee the inviolability of such agreements. "As the new organization, in [P]

consequence of the inevitable complexity of the changes which it necessitates, cannot be immediately put into execution, as a lapse of time is necessary, which cannot be less than two years or thereabouts; to avoid all misunderstanding and to protect public and private interests during this interval, the system actually existing on the properties of landowners will be maintained up to the moment when a new system shall have been instituted by the completion of the required preparatory measures.

"For which end, we have deemed it advisable to ordain

"1. To establish in each district a special Court for the question of the peasants; it will have to investigate the affairs of the rural communes established on the land of the lords of the soil.

"2. To appoint in each district justices of the peace to investigate on the spot all misunderstandings and disputes which máy arise on the occasion of the introduction of the new regulation, and to form district assemblies with these justices of, the peace.

"3. To organize in the seigneurial properties communal administrations, and to this end to leave the rural communes in their actual composition, and to open in the large villages district administrations (provincial boards) by uniting the small communes under one of these district administrations.

"4. To formulate, verify, and confirm in each rural district or estate a charter of rules in which shall be enumerated, on the basis of the local Statute, the amount of land reserved to the peasants in permanent enjoyment, and the

5. To put these charters of rules into execution as they are gradually confirmed in each estate, and to introduce their definite execution within the term of two years, dating from the day of publication of the present manifesto.

"6. Up to the expiration of this term, the peasants and domestics are to remain in the same obedience towards their proprietors, and to fulfil their former obligations without scruple.

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7. The proprietors will continue to watch over the maintenance of order on their estates, with the right of jurisdiction and of police, until the organization of the districts and of the district tribunals has been effected.

"Aware of all the difficulties of the reform we have undertaken, we place above all things our confidence in the goodness of Divine Providence, who watches over the destinies of Russia.

"We also count upon the generous devotion of our faithful nobility, and we are happy to testify to that body the gratitude it has deserved from us, as well as from the country, for the disinterested support it has given to the accomplishment of our designs. Russia will not forget that the nobility, acting solely upon its respect for the dignity of man and its love for its neighbour, has spontaneously nounced rights given to it by serfdom actually abolished, and

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