It
cost the United States five years of fratricidal agony, a billion of
dollars, and about half a million of lives, to liberate five or six
millions of negroes; Russia, in one memorable day (February 19, 1861),
liberated nearly twenty-two millions of muzhiks (peasants), and gave
them full freedom, by a mere stroke of the pen of the "tsar
osvobodityel," the Liberator Czar, Alexander II (1856-1881).
Other innovations, of less magnitude but nevertheless of far-reaching
importance, were introduced later. Capital punishment, which still
disgraces human justice in more enlightened states, was unconditionally
abolished; the number of offences amenable to corporal punishment was
gradually reduced, until, on April 29, 1863, all the horrors of the
gauntlet, the spur, the lash, the cat, and the brand, were consigned to
eternal oblivion. The barbarous system of the judiciary was replaced by
one that could render justice "speedy, righteous, merciful, and
equitable." Railway communication, postal and telegraph service, police
protection, the improvement of the existing universities, the opening of
many new primary schools, and the introduction of compulsory school
attendance, told speedily on the intellectual development of the people.
Pages:
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230