highly honourable to the patriotism | honourable a stand for their national of the Poles, was inconsiderable when independence. compared with the vast armies which Russia and Prussia could bring up for their subjugation. Small as the army was, its maintenance was too great an effort for the resources of the kingdom, which, torn by intestine faction, without commerce, harbours, or manufactures, having no national credit, and no industrious class of citizens but the Jews, now felt the fatal effects of its long career of democratic anarchy. The population of the country, composed entirely of unruly gentlemen and ignorant serfs, was totally unable at that time to furnish those numerous supplies of intelligent officers which are requisite for the formation of an efficient military force; while the nobility, however formidable on horseback in the Hungarian or Turkish wars, were less to be relied on in a contest with regular forces, where infantry and artillery constituted the great strength of the army, and courage was unavailing without the aid of science and military discipline. 45. The central position of Poland, in the midst of its enemies, would have afforded great military advantages, had its inhabitants possessed a force capable of turning it to account-that is, if they had had, like Frederick the Great in the Seven Years War, a hundred and fifty thousand regular troops, which the population of the country could easily have maintained, and a few well-fortified towns, to arrest the enemy in one quarter, while the bulk of the national force was precipitated upon them in another. The glorious stand made by the nation in 1831, with only thirty thousand regular soldiers at the inmencement of the insurrection, ar no fortifications but those of Wars and Modlin, proves what immense advantages this central position affords, and what opportunities it offers to military genius like that of SKRYNECKI, to inflict the most severe wounds even on a superior and well-conducted antagonist. But all these advantages were wanting to Kosciusko; and it augments our admiration of his talents, and of the heroism of his countrymen, that, with such inconsiderable means, they made so 46. No sooner was the King of Prussia informed of the revolution at Warsaw, than he moved forward at the head of thirty thousand men to besiege that city; while Suwarroff, with forty thousand veterans, was preparing to enter the south-eastern parts of the kingdom. Aware of the necessity of striking a blow before the enemy's forces were united, Kosciusko advanced with twelve thousand men to attack the Russian general Denisoff; but, upon approaching his corps, he discovered that it had united to the army commanded by the king in person. Unable to face such superior forces, he immediately retired, but was attacked next morning at daybreak near Sekoczyre by the allies, and after a gallant resistance his army was routed, and Cracow fell into the hands of the conquerors. This check was the more severely felt, as, about the same time, General Zayonscheck was defeated at Chelne, and obliged to recross the Vistula, leaving the whole country on the right bank of that river in the hands of the Russians. These disasters produced a great impression at Warsaw: the people as usual ascribed them to treachery, and insisted that the leaders should be brought to punishment; and although the chiefs escaped, several persons in an inferior situation were arrested and thrown into prison. Apprehensive of some subterfuge, if the accused were regularly brought to trial, the burghers assembled in tumultuous bodies, forced the prisons, erected scaffolds in the streets, and, after the manner of the assassins of September 2d, put above twelve persons to death with their own hands. These excesses affected with the most profound grief the pure heart of Kosciusko; he flew to the capital, restored order, and delivered over to punishment the leaders of the revolt. But the resources of the country were evidently unequal to the struggle; the paper money, which had been issued in their extremity, was at a frightful discount; and the sacrifices required of the nation were the more severely felt, that hardly a hope of ultimate success remained. 47. The combined Russian and Prus- all his disposable forces to attack the sian armies, about thirty-five thousand Russian general, who was stationed at strong, now advanced against the capital, Maccowice; but fortune on this occawhere Kosciusko occupied an intrench- sion cruelly deceived the Poles. Arrived ed camp with twenty-five thousand men. in presence of Fersen, he found that During the whole of July and August, Poninsky had not yet arrived; and the the besiegers were engaged in fruitless Russian commander, overjoyed at this attempts to drive the Poles into the circumstance, resolved immediately to city; and at length a great convoy, with attack him. In vain Kosciusko desartillery and stores for a regular siege, patched courier after courier to Poninwhich was ascending the Vistula, hav- sky to advance to his relief. The first ing been captured by a gentleman named was intercepted by the Cossacks, and Minewsky, at the head of a body of pea- the second did not reach that leader in sants, the King of Prussia raised the time to enable him to take a decisive siege, leaving a portion of his sick and part in the approaching combat. Neverstores in the hands of the patriots. After theless the Polish commander, aware this success, the insurrection spread im- of the danger of retreating with inexmensely, and the Poles mustered nearly perienced troops in presence of a diseighty thousand men under arms. But ciplined and superior enemy, deterthey were scattered over too extensive mined to give battle on the following a line of country in order to make day, and drew up his little army with head against their numerous enemies as much skill as the circumstances a policy tempting by the prospect it would admit. The forces on the opholds forth of exciting an extensive in- posite sides in this action, which desurrection, but ruinous in the end, by cided the fate of Poland, were nearly exposing the patriotic forces to the risk equal in point of numbers; but the adof being beaten in detail. Scarcely had vantages of discipline and equipment the Poles recovered from their intoxica- were decisively on the side of the Rustion at the raising of the siege of War- sians. Kosciusko commanded about ten saw, when intelligence was received of thousand men, a great part of whom the defeat of Sizakowsky, who com- were recently raised, and imperfectly manded a corps of ten thousand men disciplined; while Fersen was at the beyond the Bug, by the Russian grand head of twelve thousand veterans, inarmy under SUWARROFF.* This cele- cluding a most formidable body of brated general, to whom the principal cavalry. Nevertheless, the Poles in the conduct of the war was now committed, centre and right wing made a glorious followed up his successes with the ut- defence; but the left, which Poninsky most vigour. The retreating column should have supported, having been was again assailed on the 19th by the overwhelmed by the cavalry under victorious Russians, and, after a glori- Denisoff, the whole army was, after a ous resistance, driven into the woods severe struggle, thrown into confusion. between Janoff and Biala, with the loss Kosciusko, Sizakowsky, and other galof four thousand men and twenty-eight lant chiefs, in vain made the most pieces of cannon. Scarcely three thou-heroic efforts to rally the broken troops. sand Poles, with Sizakowsky at their head, escaped into Siedlice. 48. Upon receiving the accounts of this disaster, Kosciusko resolved, by drawing together all his detachments, to fall upon Fersen before he joined Suwarroff, and the other corps which were advancing against the capital. With this view he ordered General Poninsky to join him, and marched with *See a Biography of SUWARROFF-Infra, chap. XXVII. § 55. They were wounded, struck down, and made prisoners by the Cossacks, who inundated the field of battle; while the remains of the army, now reduced to seven thousand five hundred men, fell back in confusion towards Warsaw. 49. After the fall of Kosciusko, who sustained in his single person the fortunes of the republic, nothing but a series of disasters overtook the Poles. The Austrians, taking advantage of the general confusion, entered Gallicia, and 51. Such was the termination of the oldest republic in existence such the first instance of the destruction of a member of the European family by its ambitious rivals. As such, it excited a profound sensation in Europe. The folly of preceding ages, the long period of wasting anarchy, the madness of democratic ambition, the irretrievable defects of the Sarmatian constitution, were forgotten. Poland was remembered only as the bulwark of Christendom against the Ottomans; she appeared only as the succouring angel under John Sobieski. To behold a people so ancient, so gallant, whose deeds were as occupied the palatinates of Lublin and | conquerors. Ten thousand soldiers fell Sandomir; while Suwarroff, pressing on the spot, nine thousand were made forward towards the capital, defeated prisoners, and above twelve thousand Mokronowsky, who, at the head of citizens, of every age and sex, were put twelve thousand men, strove to retard to the sword-a dreadful instance of the advance of that redoubtable com- carnage, which has left a lasting stain on mander. In vain the Poles made the the name of Suwarroff, and which Rusutmost efforts; they were routed with sia expiated in the conflagration of Mosthe loss of four thousand men ; and the cow. The tragedy was at an end. Warpatriots, though now despairing of suc- saw capitulated two days afterwards; cess, resolved to sell their lives dearly, the detached parties of the patriots and shut themselves up in Warsaw, to melted away, and Poland was no more. await the approach of the conqueror. On the 6th November, Suwarroff made Suwarroff was soon at the gates of Praga, his triumphant entry into the bloodthe eastern suburb of that capital, where stained capital. King Stanislaus was twenty-six thousand men, and one hun- sent into Russia, where he ended his dred pieces of cannon, defended the days in captivity, and the final partibridge of the Vistula and the approach tion of the monarchy was effected. to the capital. To assault such a position with forces hardly superior was evidently a hazardous enterprise; but, the approach of winter rendering it indispensable that if anything was done at all it should be immediately attempted, Suwarroff, who was habituated to successful assaults in the Turkish wars, resolved to storm the city. On the 2d November, the Russians made their appearance before the glacis of Praga, and Suwarroff, having in great haste completed three powerful batteries, and breached the defences with imposing celerity, made his dispositions for a general assault on the following day. 50. The conquerors of Ismail ad-sociated with such heart-stirring recolvanced to the attack in the same order which they had adopted on that memorable occasion. Seven columns at daybreak approached the ramparts, rapidly filled up the ditches with their fascines, broke down the defences, and, pouring into the intrenched camp, carried destruction into the ranks of the Poles. In vain the defenders did their utmost to resist the torrent. The wooden houses of Praga speedily took fire, and, amidst the shouts of the victors and the cries of the inhabitants, the Polish battalions were borne backward to the edge of the Vistula. The multitude of fugitives speedily broke down the bridges; and the citizens of Warsaw beheld, with unavailing anguish, their defenders on the other side perishing in the flames, or by the sword of the VOL. III. lections, fall a victim to Imperial ingratitude, Prussian cupidity, and Muscovite ambition, was a spectacle which naturally excited the utmost indignation. The bloody march of the French Revolution, the disasters consequent on domestic dissension, were forgotten, and the Christian world was penetrated with a grief akin to that felt by all civilised nations at the fall of Jerusalem. The poet has celebrated these events in the immortal lines "Oh! bloodiest picture in the book of time, Sarmatia fell, unwept, without a crime; Found not a generous friend, a pitying foe, strength in her arms, nor mercy in her woe! Dropp'd from her nerveless grasp the shat- career; Hope, for a season, bade the world farewell, N 52. But the truth of history must dis- | evil, among men in all ages and counpel the illusion, and unfold in the fall tries, that it may fairly be considered of Poland the natural consequence of as insurmountable; and therefore any its national delinquencies. Sarmatia society in which supreme power is really neither fell unwept nor without a crime; vested in the people, bears in itself the she fell the victim of her own dissen- seeds of early ruin. Democratic bodies sions-of the chimera of equality in- often exhibit extraordinary energy, if sanely pursued, and the rigour of aris- they can derive their resources from tocracy unceasingly maintained; of ex- foreign plunder or domestic confiscatravagant jealousy of every superior, tion; but they will never, except in and merciless oppression of every infe- the last extremity, burden themselves. rior rank. The eldest-born of the Eu- Real self-taxation is in truth a delusive ropean family was the first to perish, theory: where it is attempted to be put because she had thwarted all the ends in practice it invariably fails; what was of the social union; because she united so long mistaken for it was the taxing the turbulence of democratic to the ex- of one class by another class-of the clusiveness of aristocratic societies; be- many by the few. These are unpalatcause she exhibited the vacillation of a able truths, but they are not the less republic without its energy, and the truths; nor is it less on that account oppression of a monarchy without its the duty of the historian to state them. stability. Such a system neither could If any one doubts their accuracy, let nor ought to be maintained. The in- him contemplate the abandonment of ternal feuds of Poland were more fatal the Sinking Fund, in consequence of to human happiness than the despotism the enormous and uncalled-for reducof Russia, and the growth of improve- tion of indirect taxation since popular ment among its people was slower than influence began to predominate in Great among the ryots of Hindostan. Britain, and the recent repudiation of the States' debt by a large part of the American people. 53. To any one who has either studied in history or experienced in real life the practical working of the principle 54. In this respect the history of Musof self-government among mankind, in covy presents a striking and instructive situations where democratic equality is contrast to that of Poland. Commencing really established, the destruction of originally with a smaller territory, yet Poland will appear far from surprising. farther removed from the light of civilIn truth, the only wonderful thing is, isation-cut off in a manner from the that her people so long succeeded in intelligence of the globe, decidedly inmaintaining their independence. It is ferior to its heroic rival in its earlier the fretting against control, the "igno- contests-the growth of Russia has been rant impatience of taxation" in man- as steady as the decline of Poland. The kind, when practically intrusted with Polish republic fell at length beneath self-government, which was the real a power which it had repeatedly vancause of the calamity. No lessons of quished, whose capital it had conquerexperience however severe, no calls of ed; and its name was erased from the patriotism however urgent, no warn-list of nations at the very time that its ings of wisdom however emphatic, could induce its plebeian noblesse to submit to any present burden to avert future disaster. Like the Americans at this time, who refuse in many States, at all hazards to their public credit, to tax themselves to defray the interest of their State's debt, they preferred "any load of infamy however great, to any burden of taxation however light." So strong is this disinclination to submit to present burdens to prevent future despotic rival had attained the zenith of power and glory. These facts throw a great and important light on the causes of early civilisation, and the form of government adapted to a barbarous age. There cannot in such a state be so great a misfortune as a weak, there cannot be so great a blessing as a powerful government. No oppression is so severe as that which is there inflicted by the members of the same state on each other; no anarchy so irremediable as that which originates in the violence of their own passions. To restrain the fury and coerce the dissensions of its subjects is the first duty of government in such periods; in its inability to discharge this duty is to be found the real cause of the weakness of a democratic -in the rude but effective performance of it, the true secret of the strength of a despotic state. 55. Such, however, are the ennobling effects of the spirit of freedom, even in its wildest form, that the remnant of the Polish nation, albeit bereft of a country by their own insanity, have by their deeds commanded the respect, and by their sorrows obtained the sympathy of the world. The remains of Kosciusko's bands, disdaining to live under Muscovite oppression, sought and found an asylum in the armies of France; they served with distinction both in Italy and Spain, and awakened by their bravery that sympathy which, with other and more selfish motives, brought the conqueror of Europe to the walls of the Kremlin. Like the remains of a noble mind borne down by suffering, they have exhibited flashes of greatness even in the extremity of disaster; and while wandering without a home, from which their own madness or that of their fathers had banished them, obtained a respect to which their conquerors were often strangers at the summit of their glory. Such is the effect even of the misdirected spirit of freedom; it dignifies and hallows all that it inspires, and, even amidst the ruins which it has occasioned, exalts the human soul! 56. The history of England has illustrated the beneficial effects which have resulted to its character and institutions from the Norman Conquest. In the severe suffering which followed that great event, in the anguish of generations, in the forcible intermixture of the races of the victor and vanquished, were laid the deep and firm foundations of English freedom. In the checkered and disastrous history of Poland may be traced the consequences of an opposite, and, at first sight, more fortunate destiny-of national independence uninterruptedly maintained, and purity of race unceasingly preserved. The first, in the school of early adversity, were taught the habits and learned the wisdom necessary for the guidance of maturer years; the second, like the spoiled child whose wishes had never been coerced, nor its passions restrained, at last acquired on the brink of the grave, prematurely induced by excessive indulgence, that experience which should have been gained in earlier years. It is through this terrible but necessary ordeal that Poland is now passing; and the experience of ages would indeed be lost, if we did not discern in its present suffering the discipline necessary for future happiness, and, in the extremity of temporary disaster, the severe training for ultimate improvement. 57. The partition of Poland, and scandalous conduct of the states who reaped the fruit of injustice in its fall, has been the frequent subject of just indignation and eloquent complaint from the European historians; but the connection between that calamitous event and the subsequent disasters of the partitioning powers, has not hitherto met with due attention. Yet nothing can be clearer than that it was this iniquitous measure which brought all the misfortunes that followed upon the European monarchies-that it was it which opened the gates of Germany to French ambition, and brought Napoleon with his terrible legions to Vienna, Berlin, and the Kremlin. The more the campaigns of 1793 and 1794 are studied, the more clearly does it appear that it was the prospect of obtaining a share in the partition of Poland which paralysed the allied arms, which intercepted or turned aside the legions which might have overthrown the Jacobin rule, and created that jeakousy and division amongst their rulers, which, more even than the energy of the Republicans, contributed to the uniform and astonishing success of the latter. Had the redoubtable bands of Catherine been added to the armies of Prussia in the plains of Champagne in 1792, or to those of Austria and Great Britain in the fields of Flanders in 1793, not a doubt can remain that the revolutionary party would have been overcome, and a constitutional monarchy estab |