tions of his own personal policy he but half met the ardent expectations of the Poles. Instead of reestablishing the Kingdom of Poland, he merely formed the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, composed of provinces reclaimed from Prussia in 1807 and of others taken from Austria in 1809, and comprehending a population of 4,334,656 souls. Although the Poles were disappointed, and with just cause, at the want of generosity as well as good policy, displayed in these arrangements, yet they were thankful for the boon they received, and felt that their sufferings and sacrifices had not been in vain. They were once more a people, with a home and a name, and they were grateful for the blessing.*

Of course, the Poles did not fail to stand by Napoleon in his desperate conflict with Russia, and they were the joint victims of his defeat, as they would have been the participators in his success. When the Russians occupied the Duchy of Warsaw in 1813, they hastened to conclude with Prussia and Austria one more treaty of partition, by which the Czar was to have yet another share of Poland. But the farther events of the campaign prevented the execution of this treaty; and the fate of the Poles came up for consideration in the Congress of Vienna. The victorious Allies were assembled to dispose of the multitude of states, which they had torn from the authority or influence of Napoleon. More than thirty millions of human beings, inhabitants of Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, were to receive their doom from the hands of individuals, whose alliance and victories raised them above all considerations of responsibility, and made them totally independent of the feelings of

* See Chodzko's Tableau de la Pologne,' and Fayot's 'Histoire de Pologne.'

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so many unappropriated nations. Forgetting that they were in arms for the purpose of punishing usurpation and unjustified conquest, they proceeded to exercise like tyranny, in a manner still more flagrantly revolting to public justice. Their arbitrary appropriation of the Poles did not stand alone; but there are peculiar circumstances attending it, which aggravate the atrocity manifested by Russia from beginning to end towards this unfortunate people.

It was from the spoils of Prussia and Austria, as we have stated, that the Grand Duchy of Warsaw had been constructed. Had Alexander been true to his own principles, he would certainly have laid no claim to the territory, which had never belonged to his Empire, and which, if it was not to be rendered independent, should have been restored to its former possessors. Lord Castlereagh, in behalf of England, strenuously insisted that the Kingdom of Poland should be revived. He rightly represented it as the earnest desire of his country to see some independent power established in Poland, as a separation between the three great empires of Europe.' Talleyrand expressed the same wish in behalf of France, which he represented. He said that 'Of all questions to be discussed at this Congress, he considered the affairs of Poland as incomparably the most important to the interests of Europe, if there was any chance that this nation, so worthy of regard for its antiquity, its valor, its misfortunes, and the services which it has formerly rendered to Europe, might be restored to complete independence. The partition, which destroyed its existence, was the prelude, in some measure the cause, perhaps even to a certain extent the apology, for the subsequent commotions to which Europe has been exposed.' Metternich cordially entered into the

views of the English and French plenipotentiaries, and was willing even to surrender a portion of the Austrian territory, if requisite for the reestablishment of Poland as an independent king-. dom. These honorable and useful purposes of England, France and Austria, were defeated by the selfish rapacity of the Emperor of Russia.

Alexander had taken advantage of the single darling passion of the Poles, the desire of a separate national existence, to draw them by fair promises into the expression of good-will towards him, and thus rendered them accomplices in their own ruin. Meanwhile his troops now occupied the Grand Duchy, as they had continued to do ever since the expulsion of the French. Under these circumstances he insisted that Poland should be incorporated with the Russian Empire; and as the other powers could only prevent this by running the hazards of a new war, they reluctantly yielded to the iniquitous demands of Alexander. But they did not acquiesce, without a solemn protest in favor of the independence and civil rights of the Poles. Lord Castlereagh, especially, assumed a stand in regard to Great Britain, which amounted to an honorary engagement of his country to see that the Poles were fairly treated by Russia. He exacted of the sovereigns, by whom the various fragments of the Polish monarchy were now held, a pledge that the Poles in their respective dominions, under whatever form of government they might think proper to place them, should still be treated as Poles.' They each solemnly pledged themselves to this effect, as well to each other as to England, and embodied their engagements in the final act of the Congress.

6

Thus, of all the spoils of ancient Poland, Russia had truly acquired the lion's share. In order

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to appreciate the progress of its usurpations, and to understand the pretensions and hopes of the Poles in the recent Revolution, it is material to trace the disposition of the scattered members of this once powerful state. Poland, it is to be understood, formerly extended along the Baltic from Dantzig to Riga, and from the Baltic south to the Carpathian mountains and the Dniester, which separated it from Hungary and Moldavia; and its frontier on the side of Muscovy was beyond the Dwina and the Dnieper. Of the subdivisions of Poland, Austria retained, in 1815, the single province of Gallicia, and Prussia about the same extent of territory in Posen and the so called Polish Prussia; - but Russia had swallowed up the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, Courland, Podolia, the Ukraine, Wolhynia, and Lithuania, including Samogitia and White and Black Russia. So vast is the territory which the Czar had acquired from the Poles, that all France would not suffice to cover its superficial extent, and the very name of his Empire belongs to provinces of Poland. Well might the Russian statesman Novossilsoff aver, that to give complete independence to the Poles would be to drive back the Muscovite Empire into Asia.*

By the first article of the treaty of Vienna, then, the Grand Duchy of Warsaw was transferred, under the title of the Kingdom of Poland, to the Empire of Russia forever; it being stipulated at the same time that 'the Poles, the respective subjects of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, shall obtain a national representation and national institutions, framed according to the mode of political existence, which each of the governments, to which they belong, shall judge useful and proper to grant

* Journal of a Nobleman at the Congress of Vienna, ch. 8.

them.' Prussia and Austria have wholly disregarded this engagement; but Russia flattered the Poles with a constitution upon paper, only to await her own time to govern them as she pleased, without regard to the privileges of their Charter. During the progress of these negociations, Alexander was incessantly endeavoring to conciliate the Poles by professions of the greatest regard for their welfare as a nation, and by acts of courtesy and kindness towards prominent individuals. His Charter was promulgated in 1815, and contained provisions, which, if observed by him and by Nicholas, would have secured the fidelity and attachment of the Poles. It assured to them a governor, to be called Lieutenant of the Kingdom, who should be selected from among their own people. It promised them exemption from arbitrary arrest, guarantied the liberty of the press, and limited to the Poles all employments, civil and military, within their own country. To gratify the national feeling of the Poles, it was provided that the Polish army should preserve its colors, its uniform, and every thing belonging to its nationality.' To complete the system of government, the Poles were gratified with a Diet, whose deliberations were to be public, and which was to assemble every two years. It consisted of two chambers, namely, the senate, composed of nine bishops and of palatins and castellans nominated for life by the Emperor out of a double list presented to him by the senate itself,and a lower chamber, composed of seventy seven nuncios or representatives of the assemblies of nobility and fifty one deputies of commons. Such was the constitution of the new Kingdom, as provided by the Charter.

But with these ample nominal guaranties of their independence, which promised them all that