manded a canal to be cut (which cost the nation several millions yearly), uniting the Vistula and Niemen, in order to convey the grain by water to Riga. Had this extravagant project been carried into effect, it would only have facilitated the transport of Russian armaments against Poland and the rest of Europe, for every enterprise undertaken by the Czars in Poland, is always with this twofold object. The kingdom thus isolated, the government was obliged to establish home manufactories, the monopoly of which fell exclusively into the hands of German colonists. Without competition in the markets, and aided by large sums advanced by government, articles of inferior quality were offered at an extravagant price, which the Poles were compelled to pay; and hence German artisans, who in their own country scarcely earned a subsistence by sixteen hours daily labour, with half the toil acquired riches in Poland, and soon flocked there, to the number of 30,000. The inevitable results were, that the Poles, instead of purchasing good articles at a low rate abroad, were obliged to buy the worst and dearest at home, and that the advantage which Germany ought to have derived from commercial intercourse with a neighbouring country, was transferred to the hands of a company of fortune hunters. The kingdom was thus deprived of the benefit of large capitals, which were invested elsewhere; and although Polish cloth was exported to Muscovy and China, it did not enrich the country. The establish

ment of manufactures in the kingdom, in its actual state, might be compared to constructing the roof of a house before its foundations should be laid. Only such hands should be there employed in them as are not required for agriculture, and even in former times, when the native population was more numerous, it was inadequate to the full cultivation of the soil, and, consequently, is still more so now that it has been diminished by so many wars. The constitutional kingdom, for instance, could support a population three times its actual number, and twice as many hands were requisite for its full cultivation. Nothing, therefore, could exceed the absurdity of making the Poles emulate manufactures already brought to a high degree of perfection in other countries, and at the same time neglect the agricultural pursuits in which they excelled all others. The sole effect of these manufactories was to ruin agriculture, of which Mr. Jacob, who was sent into Poland by the English government on an agricultural mission, has given a melancholy picture.

The country around Cracow may be compared to England; abounding in silver, copper, zinc, iron, and extensive coal and salt mines. Poland may still be called the granary of Europe. The timber, flax, and hemp of Lithuania, are the best and cheapest. Podolia and Ukraina abound in the finest cattle, and a magnificent breed of chargers. Numerous rivers, of the first, second, and third magnitudes, afford natural facilities of internal communication ;

and the Baltic and Black Seas enable her to trade with foreign countries. These natural communications are so interwoven with each other, that no province can be severed from ancient Poland without detriment to the remainder; and it might have been the knowledge of this fact that induced the Congress of Vienna to guarantee absolute freedom of commerce to all Poles. And now that all the provinces are separated by impassable barriers, what can be said of the physical well being of the country in general, and more particularly of that portion nicknamed the Constitutional Kingdom, isolated as it is from the adjacent countries, and especially from Dantzic. Unless Russia should succeed in converting this part of Poland wholly into a desert, she must either restore it (which she will never do but by compulsion), or take possession also of Dantzic and the Polo-Prussian provinces.

The Russians boast of having embellished Warsaw. It is certainly true that some public edifices have been constructed, under the immediate direction of government, though at the expense of the citizens exclusively; but the Asiatic Chinese style of these new buildings, is ill-assorted to the classic architecture of Warsaw. The Russians usually adorn the capital of the countries they subjugate, as if in token that they never mean to abandon their prey.

CHAPTER II.

National Conservatism-Secret Societies-National Education-Prince Adam Czartoryski.

THE destructive system, so universally pursued in the kingdom, by the erection of which the Congress of Vienna offended the interests of Russia, was essential to the conservation of the autocratic empire of the Czars. The existence of the constitutional kingdom in the vicinity of the sister countries, was an obstacle to their incorporation with the Russian dominions, and contributed to preserve the national character still more distinct, since every patriotic scene occurring on the Vistula found sympathy beyond the Bug, and each word whispered in Warsaw was heard at Vilno. The kingdom, forming an excrescence of the empire, was like a sponge, which absorbed everything from Western Europe, and then emptied it into the interior of the colossus. Poland of the Vistula therefore, the land lacerated by the bullets of so many insurrections, and surrounded by a revolutionary atmosphere, haunted the Czars like a spectre, threatening the dissolution of their empire. To such thoughts, influencing, though they could not justify their conduct, may be added

the jealousy of their native subjects, who regarded it as a personal affront that the less powerful Poles, after all their calamities, should enjoy rights and privileges withheld from themselves. Constantine's marriage, too, was another source of evil. Having renounced the greatest throne in the world for a Polish wife, he thought that he was, in consequence, entitled to exert absolute rule over fifteen millions of her countrymen. This abdication was acknowledged by Alexander to be essential to the existence of autocratism, and thenceforth the history of Russian Poland was only that of a cabal for reform in the imperial succession. On the other hand, had the constitution been observed, a liberal administration, a free press, and unintimidated Diets, could not have failed to awaken, in even a still shorter period than tyranny required to do it, the national desire of independence. So reasoned the cabinet of St. Petersburgh. But if, as Novosilzoff said, it was dangerous to grant the Poles a moment's breathing time in their sufferings, or leave them even a shadow of liberty, because they would avail themselves of it to regain their freedom, it was no less certain that every injury inflicted, every privilege torn away, would but excite them to more determined struggles against the stranger's yoke. Thus, after the partition of their country, liberty or oppression, a mild or tyrannic government must ever produce the same result, a contest for lost but still merited independence. Such is the unalterable