In the concluding portion of the Manifesto, the Czar expresses his confidence in the nobility, and his belief that they will so labor as to perfect the great work upon which all parties in Russia are engaged; but there is something in the language he employs that sounds hollow, as if he were not altogether so certain of support as he claims to be.  He speaks less like a man stating a fact than like one appealing to the controllers of powerful interests.  He also warns those persons who have misunderstood the Imperial purpose, “individuals more intent upon liberty than mindful of the duties which it imposes,” and whose conduct was not beyond reproach when the first news of the great reform became diffused among the rural population.  The serfs are called upon, with much unction, to appreciate and recognize the considerable sacrifices which the nobility have made on their behalf.  They are expected to understand that the blessings of an existence supported upon the basis of guarantied property, as well as a greater liberty in the administration of their goods, entail upon them, with new duties toward society and themselves, the obligation of justifying the protecting designs of the law by a loyal and judicious use of the rights which are now accorded to them.  “For,” says the Autocrat, “if men do not labor themselves to insure their own well-being under the shield of the laws, the best of those laws cannot guaranty it to them.”  These are “noble sentiments”; but the shrewder portion of the serfs will probably attach more importance to the declaration, that, “to render the transactions between the proprietors and the peasants more easy, in virtue of which the latter may acquire in full property their homestead and the land they occupy, the Government will advance assistance, according to a special regulation, by means of loans, or a transfer of debts encumbering an estate.”

Such are the principal details of this great measure, the most important undertaking of modern days, whether we refer only to the measure itself, or take its probable consequences into consideration.  That forty-five millions of human beings should be lifted out of the slough of slavery, and placed in a condition to become men, would alone be a proceeding that ought to take first rank among the illustrations of this age.  But we cannot consider it solely by itself.  Every deed that is likely to influence the life of a nation that is endowed with great vitality and energy must be considered in connection with its probable consequences.  Russia stands in the fore-front rank of the leading nations of the world.  In the European Pentarchy, she is the superior of Austria, the controller of Prussia, and the equal of France and England.  The growth of the United States in political power having received a check through the occurrence of the Secession Rebellion, the relations of the great empires, which our advance had threatened to disturb in an essential manner, will probably remain