RUSSIAN PROCLAMATIONS. 111 they began to take alarm at the slowness with which the organization of forces proceeded, and to suspect the Dictator of counter-revolutionary designs. The journalists of the capital, too, were preparing to direct the newspaper press against him, the moment that plausible grounds of complaint should arise. that Chlopicki's first care, on obtaining power, had been to despatch the Minister Lubecki and the Nuncio Jezierski to Saint Petersburg, as envoys to negociate in behalf of Poland. They were charged to demand that all Russian troops should be withdrawn from the Kingdom forever, the privileges of the Constitution should be again confirmed in their full extent, and that all the ancient Polish provinces incorporated with Russia should partake of the benefits of it, as Alexander had promised. In short, they demanded that the solemn pledges, which Russia had given to the Poles and to Europe, should be redeemed. They also invited Nicholas to open the Diet in person. All the preparations for war were paralysed in waiting the return of the deputation. In fact, Chlopicki had no certain knowledge of the views of the Emperor, until the public journals brought his proclamations of the 17th and 24th of December, addressed, the first to the Poles, and the second to the subjects of the Empire in general, which settled forever the question of peace and war. In these documents, nothing is more worthy to be remarked than the hypocritical spirit of pretended religious confidence, which is particularly offensive in that addressed to the Russians. Here was a half-Asiatic despotism, which had acquired possession of Poland by a series of abominable frauds and cruelties, the blackest on the page of European history. Alexander had given assumed the name and power of Dictator, to be exercised until the meeting of the Diet, which was summoned for the 18th of December, the insurrection having now proceeded so far as to possess the exterior form, as well as the substance, of a true revolution. When the Grand Duke departed for Volhynia, some Polish regiments, which had hitherto remained with him, also joined the cause of their country. On several following days, great numbers of soldiers and peasants continued to flock into the city from all sides, the peasants being armed with scythes aud axes in default of other weapons. Tables were spread with refreshments for them in the streets, while young and old, nobles and peasants, met and embraced as friends and equals. On Sunday the 6th, the churches of Warsaw were crowded with persons from the provinces; and in Praga, the religious services were performed in the open air, in the presence of more than 50,000 men, an altar having been constructed on the spot where the victims of Suwaroff's cruelty were buried. After the close of the services the most animating exhortations were addressed to the assembled multitude. Again, on the 6th,another public solemnity took place, which had the same tendency to rouse and inspirit the people,-Chlopicki being publicly installed as Dictator in the Champ de Mars, in presence of the army, the senators, all the prominent patriots, and more than a hundred thousand persons met to witness the spectacle, before whom he solemnly engaged to defend the rights and liberties of Poland. Poland being now, for the moment, free, it was natural, and in the ordinary course of things, that men should begin to group themselves in parties more or less tenaciously combined; for, in STATE OF PARTIES. 105 such a crisis, opinions, leading to a particular line of policy, develope themselves at once in party combinations. Hence the domestic history of revolutions, as of the working of free institutions in general, is in a great measure the history of parties. In the outset, indeed, there was but one party, one sentiment, directed to the enfranchisement of Poland from the tyranny of the Russians. The number of individuals, who from habit or interest were attached to the Muscovite domination, was too small to exercise any influence over the march of events. Of these, a part perished in the night of the 29th of November; others were thrown into the prisons, from which true Poles were at the same time discharged; some sought an asylum in the Russian camp or capital; and such as remained in Poland, and at large, lived only by virtue of their silence and obscurity. But the prominent and active patriots were not long in manifesting very different aims and opinions, upon the broad questions of public policy growing out of the actual condition of Poland. Count Soltyk furnishes very full explanations regarding the divisions under consideration.Three distinct parties, running into one another occasionally, and each subdivided into shades of opinion, might readily be discerned, namely, the conservative and the constitutional parties, and the party of movement. The conservative party had its friends in the highest classes of society, the great nobles, the higher dignitaries of the church and state, many officers of the army, and the capitalists who dreaded the consequences of uncertain and indefinable change. They discouraged agitations at home, and hoped to escape collisions abroad; and whilst all desirous of the emancipation of Poland, they Some of them doubted its present practicability. VOL. II. 10* would have been content with the Charter of Alexander faithfully and liberally administered, and applied, if it might be, to the whole of ancient Poland. Others would have preferred a new dynasty elected by the nation. Of the conservative party Prince Czartoryski might be considered the representative and chief. The constitutional party entertained more extensive views of political melioration, but were the slaves of constitutional forms, and were filled with perpetual apprehension of extra-legal changes, and whatever partook of, or was attained by, social convulsions. They rallied around Vincent Niemoiowski, the unshaken advocate of the national interests as a powerful writer and an eloquent orator in the Diet, and long the object, on that account, of Russian persecution. The movement party embraced the fiery and resolute spirits, who had planned, begun, and accomplished the Revolution, and who relied upon the energies of invincible will, and the patrioticenthusiasm of the nation, for the salvation of Poland. War, immediate, general, and popular, was the path to freedom they desired to tread: independence or death the alternative they stood prompt to try. And singular as it may seem, this party had for its leader Joachim Lelewel, a profound scholar, a man little used to the bustle of the world, but active, bold, and sagacious, and atoning for the want of that vigor of purpose common to military experience by the native vigor of indomitable spirit. From this brief delineation of parties, it is apparent that the conservative and movement parties constituted the extremes, between which the constitutional held the balance; and thus, in each particular crisis, while the moderate side were accused of inaction, want of energy, indecision, RETIREMENT OF CHLOPICKI. 115 excited multitudes, as if nothing had occurred to render him an object of distrust, although aware that he was loudly accused of treason. Thenceforth he appeared in the field of battle only as a simple volunteer, where he still rendered invaluble services to his country by his military talents, and his experience of war. For he did not disdain to serve without rank in that army, which he once commanded, and ought himself to have led to victory. But unfortunately he despaired of the cause of his country, at a season, when a straightforward, uncompromising appeal,- a summons of all Poland to arms, - a proclamation of liberty to the serf and of independence to the master, should have rung through Polish Russia. It was a time when moderation was madness, and madness was profound policy. On the 18th of January the Nuncio Jezierski returned from Saint Petersburg, bringing full confirmation of the tidings of Chlopicki's messenger. It now became a matter of the last necessity to place a competent person at the head of the army; for it was on the field of battle that Poland was to gain or lose her liberties. Unfortunately, there was no individual, who united all the qualities requisite for the emergency, except Chlopicki, who, if he had embarked cordially and unflinchingly in the cause of the Revolution, would have continued to carry with him the enthusiastic support of the Polish nation. Szembek, Krukowiecki, Pac, each was thought of, and the idea of each abandoned. In these circumstances two of the Nuncios, Morawski and Biernacki, applied to Chlopicki once more, urging him to take the command. They found him unshaken in his first purpose, but calm, and ready to act his part in the approaching struggle as a private citizen. They asked his advice on the subject of a commander |