1H3J.J [ 195 ] 



NOTES OF THK MONTH ON AFFAIRS IN GENERAL. 



The Russian manifesto has at length 'been published, and it is as 

 ferocious a declaration as ever issued from the councils of a despot. 

 The Czar threatens vengeance of all kinds ; but there may be a long 

 interval between the threat and the power to execute it. His force is 

 immense, and probably the Poles will not be able to meet him in the 

 field; but an united people has been often shewn to be a hazardous 

 antagonist ; and if injuries could make a nation united, what people can 

 have a larger or gloomier retrospect than the unfortunate Poles ? There 

 have been no fewer than three partitions of Poland. The first was in 

 1772, when a small portion of her territory only was taken. The next 

 in 1793, and the final partition in 17^5, which was not, however, accom- 

 plished until after the infliction of the most inhuman atrocities on the 

 part of the Russian army, under Suwarrow. In 1815 the allies erected a 

 portion of the territory, of which Warsaw was made the capital, into a 

 nominal kingdom, under the sovereignty of Russia. The independence 

 thus pretended to be given was, in every sense, illusory. What could be 

 the independence of Poland, when it was merely a Russian viceroyalty, 

 a place where such a fellow as the Archduke Constantine was left to play 

 his furious vagaries ? We have lately seen an account of this Tartar's 

 ordering, at a moment's notice, every person newly arrived in Warsaw 

 to be summoned from his bed at four in the morning, in November, and, 

 no matter what their country or condition, their health or their merits 

 might be, all marched side by side, gentlemen and criminals, merchants 

 and deserters side by side through the streets in the depth of a Polish 

 winter ! to the antichamber of this man, there to be asked half a dozen 

 insolent questions, and then turned out ; some with ridicule, some with 

 orders to leave the realm within twenty-four hours, and some sent under 

 arrest. And who can wonder that any nation, with the hearts of men 

 in their bosoms, should be indignant at these furious caprices, and long 

 for security of person and property ? 



So far as public privileges are concerned, the Poles have been sub- 

 jected to the treatment of an enslaved people. The public voice has, 

 upon all occasions, been stifled in the senate, in the theatres, and at 

 every place of public congregation, this course has been pursued. From 

 Alexander they received a constitution, the provisions of which they 

 were not allowed, however, to put in force. Thus, dispossessed of the 

 substance of liberty, the shadow only remained, to perplex and embit- 

 ter the national feelings. As serfs and bond-slaves, they would have 

 been happier. 



Some of our contemporaries are predicting that France will subside 

 into quietness, and be a model of good government, and so forth. On 

 this point we are thoroughly sceptical. The matter may go on plausibly 

 for awhile ; but there are circumstances in the French position, which, 

 by the course of nature, must make France revolutionary in a few 

 years. 



In the first place, whatever religion the people had, is gone. Even 

 the feeble display of it that was to be found among the gewgaw-exhi- 

 bitions of popery, is gone. The religion of the state is abolished. The 

 government are no longer pledged to provide any worship for the people; 

 and now every man may worship any whim that comes into his head in 



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