Proclamations were secretly issued calling upon the peasantry to arise.

In spite of the vigilance of the police, similar invitations to all the Russian people were posted in conspicuous places--"We are tired of famine, tired of having our sons perish upon the gallows, in the mines, or in exile.

Russia demands liberty; and if she cannot have liberty--she will have vengeance!" Such was the tenor of the threats which made the life of Emperor Alexander a miserable one after 1870.

He had done what not one of his predecessors had been willing to do.

He had, in the face of the bitterest opposition, bestowed the gift of freedom upon 23,000,000 human beings.