customs, that the happiness of the Poles and the tranquility of this important part of Europe could be secured. Such a policy was only adapted to excite a sentiment of discontent and self degradation, to provoke troubles, and awaken the recollection of past misfortunes. He therefore earnestly pressed the sovereigns, to whom the destinies of the Polish nation were confided to engage to treat as Poles, under whatever form of political institution they might think proper to govern them, those portions of this nation placed under their respective sovereignties. The knowledge of such a determination would tend to conciliate the public sentiment in favour of government, would honour the sovereigns in the eyes of their Polish subjects, and would render them peaceable and contented. If this object were secured, the British government would no longer have to apprehend the dangers, which might result to the liberties of Europe from the union of Poland with the more powerful monarchy of Russia, a danger which would not prove imaginary, if the military forces of the two countries. should hereafter be directed by an ambitious and warlike prince.

These views were reciprocated by the Russian plenipotentiaries, Counts Nessebrode and Rasoumoffsky, in their answer to this note, stating that they were entirely in accordance with what the Emperor Alexander had proposed to his allies in order to improve the lot of the Poles, so far as the desire of protecting their nationality could be conciliated with a just balance among the European powers, which was to be re-established by a new division of their respective forces. The impossibility of restoring the ancient system of Europe, with the whole of its primitive combinations, of which the independence of Poland constituted a part, being manifest, the Emperor was compelled to limit his solicitude in favour of the Polish nation to the desire of procuring for the respective Polish subjects of the three powers a mode of existence which might satisfy their legitimate wishes, and secure to them all the advantages

compatible with the particular convenience of each state. under whose dominion they were placed.

Prince Hardenberg declared, in a note dated the 30th January, that the principles announced by Great Britain respecting the manner of administering the Polish provinces were entirely consistent with the views of his Prussian majesty, and that he would always endeavour to procure for his Polish subjects all those advantages they might reasonably desire, and which should be compatible with the relations of his monarchy, and the primary object of every state, that of forming a solid whole of the different parts of which it is composed.

The Austrian plenipotentiaries also communicated a declaration, that the Emperor Francis would have been entirely satisfied to have contributed, even by the greatest sacrifices, to the salutary reëstablishment of the ancient order of things connected with a kingdom of Poland restored to its national government. Austria had, at no time, seen in free and independent Poland a rival and hostile power; and the principles which had guided the august predecessors of the Emperor had only yielded, at the period of the partitions of 1773 and 1795, to a combination of imperious circumstances, independent of the will of the Austrian sovereigns. The Emperor, being again compelled to yield his views in favour of the independence of Poland to the overruling considerations, which had induced the great powers to consent to the annexation of the greater part of the grand duchy of Warsaw to the dominions of the Russian empire, fully participated in the liberal intentions of the Emperor Alexander in respect to the national institutions he intended to confer on the Polish people. The declaration concluded with expressing the entire concurrence of the Emperor of Austria, in the views expressed by the British government respecting the future lot of that people.c

• Klüber, Acten des Wiener Congresses, 9 B'd, §§ 40–51.

Such were the circumstances, and such the declarations, under which the partition of Poland was ultimately confirmed by the congress of Vienna, upon the conditions which are stipulated in the final act of the 9th June, 1915.d

In pursuance of these stipulations, the Emperor Alexander granted a constitutional charter to the kingdom of Poland on the 15th (27th) November, 1815. By the provisions of this charter, the kingdom of Poland was declared

a" Art. 1. Le Duché de Varsovie, à l'exception des provinces et districts dont il a été autrement disposés dans les articles suivans, est reuni à l'Empire de Russie. Il y sera lié irrevocablement par sa constitution, pour être possedé par sa Majesté l'Empereur de toutes les Russies, ses héritiers et ses successeurs à perpetuité. Sa Majesté Impériale se reserve de donner à cet état, jouissant d'une administration distincte, l'extension interieure qu'elle jugera convenable. Elle prendra, avec ses autres titres, celui de Czar, Roi de Pologne, conformément au protocole usité et consacré pour les titres attachés à ses autres possessions.

"Les Polonais sujets respectifs de la Russie, de l'Autriche, et de la Prusse, obtiendront une representation et des institutions nationales, réglées d'après le mode d'existence politique que chacun des gouvernemens auxquels ils appartiennent jugera convenable de leur accorder."

"Art. 6. La ville de Cracovie avec son territoire est déclarée à perpétuité cité libre, indépendante, et strictement neutre, sous la protection de la Russie, de l'Autriche et de la Prusse.

"Art. 9. Les cours de Russie, d'Autriche, et de la Prusse, s'engagent à respecter et à faire respecter, en tout temps, la neutralité de la ville liber de Cracovie et de son territoire; aucune force armée ne pourra jamais y être introduite sur quelque prétexte que ce soit.

"En revanche il est entendu et expressément stipulé, qu'il ne pourra être accordé dans la ville libre et sur le territoire de Cracovie aucun asyle ou protection à des transfuges, déserteurs, ou gens poursuivis par la loi, appartenant aux pays de l'une ou de l'autre des hautes Puissances susdites, et que sons la demande d'extradition qui pourra en étre faites par les autorités compétentes, de tels individus seront arrêtes et livrés, sans délai, sous bonne escorte, à la garde, qui sera chargée de les recevoir à la frontière.

"Art. 10. Les dispositions sur la constitution de la ville libre de Cracovie, sur l'Académie de cette ville, et sur l'Evêché et le Chapitre de Cracovie, telles qu'elles se trouvent énoncées dans les articles vii, XV, xvi, et xvii du traité additionnel relatif à Cracovie annexé au présent traité général, auront la même force et valeur que si elles étaient textuellement insérées dans cet acte."

to be united to the Russian empire by its constitution; the sovereign authority in Poland was to be exercised only in conformity therewith; the coronation of the king of Poland was to take place in the Polish capital, where he was bound to take an oath to observe the charter. The Polish nation was to have a perpetual representation, composed of the king and the two chambers forming the diet, in which body the legislative power was to be vested, including that of taxation. A distinct Polish national army, and coinage, and distinct military orders were to be preserved in the kingdom.

empire.

of

In consequence of the Polish revolution of 1830, and the Manifesto of the Emperor subsequent re-conquest of the kingdom, a manifesto was Nicholas issued by the Emperor Nicholas on the 14th (26th) Feb- 1832, annexing the kingruary 1832, establishing an organic statute for the kingdom dom of Poland of Poland, by which it was declared to be perpetually to the Russian united to the Russian empire, and to form an integral part thereof. The coronation of the Emperor of Russia and King of Poland hereafter to take place at Moscow. The Polish diet to be abolished, and the army of the Russian empire and that of the kingdom of Poland to form a single army, without distinction of Russian and Polish troops. Poland to be separately administered, by a governor general and council of administration appointed by the Emperor, with its distinct civil and criminal code, subject to alteration by laws and ordinances prepared in the Polish council of state, and subsequently examined and confirmed in the section of the council of state of the Russian empire called the section for the affairs of Poland. Consultative provincial states to be established, to deliberate upon such affairs concerning the general interests of the kingdom of Poland as shall be submitted to their consideration. Assemblies of nobles, communal assemblies, and councils of waivodies to be continued as formerly.e

• Annuaire Historique, 1832, Documens Historiques, p. 184

This measure of the Russian government became the object of severe animadversion in the British parliament and the French chambers. The cabinets of France and Great Britain protested against it, as an infraction of the spirit, if not the letter of the treaties of Vienna. Without deviating from the object of this work, which is historical and not polemic, it may be observed, that in the deliberations of the congress, as we have already seen, these two powers avowedly wished to restore the national existence of Poland, with the same extent of territory it possessed previous to the first partition of 1772; Austria professed herself not unwilling to sacrifice her share of the dismembered provinces, declaring that she had reluctantly received them as an equivalent for the inevitable aggrandizement of the other two partitioning powers, and in order to maintain the relative equilibrium between the three; and Prussia might, perhaps, have been induced to consent to a similar sacrifice for adequate equivalents, which would have rendered her disinterested in the question. On the other hand, Russia, far from being disposed to relinquish Lithuania and the other Polish provinces annexed to her empire at the first and second partitions, claimed the permanent possession of the duchy of Warsaw as acquired by right of conquest. Under these circumstances, France and Great Britain were induced to consent to relinquish the absolute restoration of ancient Poland, in return for the creation of the kingdom of that name, to be possessed by the sovereign of Russia under a title distinct from his imperial crown, to be connected with the Russian empire by its constitution, and governed by its separate laws and administration with the capacity of being extended internally (i. e. towards Russia proper,) by the addition of the other Polish provinces which had been previously incorporated into the empire; in return for the stipu lations in favour of those provinces, and of the Polish subjects of Austria and Prussia, granting to them a representation and distinct national institutions; in return for the acknowledgment of the independence of the free city of