... I know from a very trustworthy source of information that the Emperor wrote this document after he had read _Die Waffen nieder_. Consequently this fortunate event is to be ascribed wholly to your influence.[25] I learned quite incidentally, through the newspapers, of the rescript which has caused all the friends of peace so much delight, for I have, during the last few years, been very little in St. Petersburg. I take no part in political activities, as I have devoted myself to the interests of the zemstvo, which at the present time demand a great deal of labor and ever claim more and more the intellectual powers of the country. However, a few years ago I made the attempt to organize a Russian peace society. This attempt failed, either because a favorable soil for such a union had not been sufficiently prepared in advance or because I myself lacked the necessary qualifications for promoting it. As far as the public opinion of the province is concerned, I can from personal observation assert that the most progressive element of society regards the plan of the peace conference from the same standpoint as the leading article of the inclosed newspaper,—favorably and hopefully. As is always the case while public opinion is forming, this is divided into two extreme camps,—the Utopians and the skeptics; the latter, unfortunately, in a majority. I am nevertheless persuaded that our young monarch will draw from the bosom of Russian society the same strength which his grandfather Alexander II thirty-six years ago had to help him in the accomplishment of another solemn deed,—the enfranchisement of the peasants from serfdom,—although then, too, there were many skeptics and people who were even strongly opposed to the reform. The labor and active effort in the question that is interesting us fall, in the present hour, both in Europe and in America, on the parliamentary forces, whose duty it is now to compel their governments to express themselves sincerely and without reservation in regard to the conference proposed by Count Muravieff. By a strange irony of fate I learned of the imperial manifesto just as I was taking part in the maneuvers in my capacity as reserve officer. The officers regarded the matter without excitement, although the best among them could not help recognizing the correctness of the ideas embodied in the rescript. The others were of the opinion that all the peace projects concerned them very little, and that the military service to which they had been brought up would still for a long time fill their lives. Our society was deeply moved and grieved by the death of your Empress. What a sad madness speaks in such deeds, and how much to be pitied is mankind when, besides the battle against war, we must also in the midst of peace think of the pacification of the classes.