218 ESSAYS AND LETTERS
be carried into operation, as occurred thirty-three years ag-o* with the project for the emancipation of the serfs.
The need of altering the present system has been explained, and the possibility of the change has been shown (there may be alterations and amendments of the Single-Tax system, but its fundamental idea is practicable) ; and, therefore, it will be impossible for people not to do what their reason demands. It is only necessary that this thought should become public opinion ; and in order that it may become public opinion it must be spread abroad and explained — which is just what you are doing, and is a work with wliich I s}Tnpathize with my whole soul, and in which 1 wish you success.
[1897.]
- The Emancipation of the Serfs in Russia was decreed
in 1861, and was accomplished during the following few years.
