serf-owning

It is often forgotten that many Tibetans, especially educated people in the larger towns, were so keen to modernize their society in the mid-20th century that they saw the Chinese communists as allies against rule by monks and serf-owning landlords.

Archive 2008-03-01 Stephen Retherford 2008

Not one traveller who does not know that the evils brought on that land by the despotism of the Autocrat are as nothing compared to that dark net-work of curses spread over it by a serf-owning aristocracy.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 Various

Alexander threw his heart into this scheme; in his kindliness he supposed that the pretended willingness of the nobles meant something; but the serf-owning caste, without openly opposing, twisted up bad consequences with good, braided impossibilities into possibilities: the whole plan became a tangle, and was thrown aside.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 Various

But this plan, also, the serf-owning caste entangled and thwarted.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 Various

On all those broad plains of Russia, on the daily life of that serf-owning aristocracy, on the whole class which is neither of serfs nor serf-owners, the curse of God is written in letters so big and so black that all mankind may read them.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 Various

A few patriotic nobles stood apart from their caste, and strengthened his hands, as Lafayette and Liancourt strengthened Louis XVI.; they even drew up a plan of voluntary emancipation, formed an association for the purpose, gained many signatures; but the great weight of that besotted serf-owning caste was thrown against them, and all came to nought.

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 61, November, 1862 Various

The serf-owning spirit was an iron wall between noble and not noble -- the only unyielding wall between

The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 John [Editor] Rudd 1885

Despite, then, the curb put upon many old pretensions of the nobles, the serf-owning spirit continued to spread a network of curses over every arm of the French government, over every acre of the French soil, and, worst of all, over the hearts and minds of the French people.

The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 John [Editor] Rudd 1885

The serf-owning spirit developed in the French aristocracy an instinct which led them in national troubles to guard the serf-owning class first and the nation afterward, and to acknowledge fealty to the serf-owning interest first and to the national interest afterward.

The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 John [Editor] Rudd 1885

But the serf-owning spirit begat another evil far more terrible: it begat a substitute for patriotism -- a substitute which crushed out patriotism just at the very emergencies when patriotism was most needed.

The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 John [Editor] Rudd 1885