recognizes the principle of constitutional representation, with the right of succession in a reigning family elected by the Nation as alone suited to the wants of Poland; and that, even during the present interregnum, it will not permit any person to infringe the forms of law and will itself observe them scrupulously. 2. Before the Nation, through the instrumentality of the Diet, shall make choice of a King, the oath of fidelity shall be taken by all Poles to the Diet which represents the Nation, and which only at this time possesses the attributes of sovereignty. This oath shall be taken by the ecclesiastics, the army, the civil employés, the villages and the towns, and in a word by all the inhabitants of the country, after the following formula, "I swear fidelity to my country and the Polish nation, represented by the Diet; I swear also to recognize no other functionaries but those instituted by the national representation, and moreover to support with all my power the cause of the national insurrection, in order to establish the liberty and existence of the Nation.' The death-grapple was now at hand. The Poles had flung themselves upon their national enthusiasm, their reminiscences of the past and their hopes of the future, to bear them successfully through the impending contest. They were as little content with passive submission to injury then, as their fathers were when the Prince de Ligne counselled them to be quiet and yet again quiet, for that insurrection was death. It behoves us now to consider, therefore, what preparations had been made for war, and the line of policy to be pursued with the best prospect of sucor should it rather be said? with the - cess, Chlopicki had relied upon negociations, -negociations with Russia, negociations with other powers of Europe. What was the result of the mission of Lubecki and Jeziezski we have seen. It is curious to examine the account given of * En attendant, je le répète : Soyez tranquille, et soyez tranquille; si vous remuez, vous êtez morts.' Oeuvres Choisies du Prince de Ligne tom .1 the other missions by the Poles themselves, and on the face of things sufficiently plausible. Agents were despatched to Vienna and Berlin, who, of course, accomplished nothing at the Austrian or Prussian courts, and could have entertained little hope of moving them in the cause of revolution. There was room, however, to hope for aid in London and Paris, where popular rights were somewhat more in vogue than at Vienna or Berlin. Wielopolski was sent to Great Britain, Wolycki to France. As to the general question, the views of Lord Palmerston and of Comte Sébastiäni, who at that time had the immediate direction of foreign affairs in their respective countries, were substantially similar, because they were suggested by all the circumstances of the case. The Poles, it will be recollected, and especially Chlopicki, began with demanding only the execution of the Constitution conceded by Alexander. They stood in the attitude of subjects pleading with their sovereign for the redress of alleged grievances. They had not, like Belgium, at once assumed the ground of national independence. Of course, the English and French Ministers dared not venture to volunteer effective aid in behalf of the Poles as insurgent subjects of powerful Russia. All they could do to encourage the Poles, in the existing state of things, was to claim of Nicholas the observance of the stipulations made by Russia at the Congress of Vienna, which, as parties thereto, they were entitled to demand. But this would be very different from giving independence to the present Kingdom of Poland, or breathing life anew into the dismembered limbs of ancient Poland. England, indeed, was more backward on the subject than France. The British Ministers were unsteadily seated in office, and occupied with the PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. 123 great question of parliamentary reform. Soltyk intimates that the case of Ireland too strongly resembled that of Poland, to permit Great Britain to act in the spirit of independence upon such a question; and there is manifest point in the remark. But although contests of party in France tended to embarrass the decisions of the French Ministers, still France held in forced subjection no conquered kingdom, eager to shake off her yoke. Her actual position gave her a strong impulse in favor of revolutionary principles. And the ties of ancient alliance, and of recent cooperation in a long career of victory, attached the French to Poland, as much as the recollection of Moscow, Leipsic, and Waterloo rendered the name of Russia odious. For these and other considerations, M. de Mortemart was commissioned to repair to Saint Petersburg, and intercede for the Poles. But it was on the footing of the treaty of Vienna that his instructions were given; and when he arrived at Berlin on his way to the North, he was met by intelligence of the proposed deposition of Nicholas, and other proceedings consequent thereon, which totally changed the state of the question, so far as regarded the policy of France. Hence, although Poland continued soliciting the good offices of other governments, and especially France, she saw that her only immediate measure was war, and war to the knife. The sentiments of the hour were aptly expressed by the soldiers of a regiment of the Line, who formed in hollow square, and made oath never to use their muskets but in charging the enemy at point of bayonet; and who, on overhearing some of their officers speak despondingly of the national prospects, exclaimed,- We can but die.' It was, indeed, in the exaltation of popular masses, that, under Providence, the sole hope of salvation for Polan lay. Early in the progress of the Revolution, the Dictator had appointed two Régimentaires so called, Comte Roman Soltyk for the four provinces on the right bank of the Vistula, and Count Malachowski for the four on the left: their duty being to raise levies, appoint their officers, and direct the arming and military organization of the people. Owing to the vacillating purposes of the Dictator, the Régimentaires did not accomplish their task so effectually as they otherwise would have done, yet they succeeded to impress upon the population the requisite impulse. It was the plan of Soltyk, who had charge of the provinces contiguous to Russia, to propagate a revolutionary spirit throughout the Empire; and if he had been authorized and permitted to undertake it, the issue of the contest might have been the triumph of Poland. He would have attempted, in the first place, to rouse the Russian nobility against the Asiatic despotism by which they were ruled. If he failed in this, he would have proclaimed freedom to the serf, and would have stimulated the city-population to join that of the fields in rending asunder the chains of imperial and aristocratic oppression at once. Had this plan been followed, who may venture to say what would have been its consequences in regard of Poland and of the Russian Empire? DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 117 '3. The Nation declares that all power emanates from the people, and that Poland, which has regained independence by the Revolution of the 29th of November, possesses also the unlimited right to regulate its own affairs, and to establish whatever government it pleases.' This proposition was received with profound silence, which sufficiently attested both its importance, and the indecision of mind in which it found the Diet. The members of the movement party, to which Soltyk belonged, had not been consulted by him, and were unprepared to act; the constitutional party thought ill of the measure; and the conservative party were vehemently opposed to each of the articles. The motion, however, was committed, and several days elapsed before it was again taken up. On the 24th, Lelewel presented a petition signed by several hundred Russo-Poles, residing at Warsaw, demanding the reunion of the dismembered provinces of ancient Poland. Meanwhile the circulation, by Marshal Diebitsch, of proclamations addressed by him to the Poles preparatory to invading the country with the Russian forces, had began to satisfy the Diet that no middle course remained to them; and the proceedings of the 25th of January settled the question conclusively. On that day the Ministers communicated to the Diet the two letters of Grabowski, and the report of the Nuncio Jezierski. It appeared that Jezierski had an interview with the Czar on the 10th of December, in which, of course, Nicholas adhered to the position assumed by him in his proclamation of the 17th of that month, refusing to go beyond the promises contained therein, or to reunite the Russian provinces of Poland. Jezierski submitted a written statement of the grievances of the Poles, which was afterwards returned to him with annotations written by the Czar's own hand, and was now submitted to the Diet. |