114 The State of Europe. [August, 



principle was peace to all her neighbours, and justice to all men. Such 

 are the direct results of the Polish war, a most gallant, generous, and 

 justified effort of a manly people, to assert their national rights, and 

 recover the independence of which they had been deprived by the 

 most flagrant combination of political chicane and military ferocity in 

 the history of Europe. 



But there is a time for all things, and the time has now fully arrived, 

 Avhen it would be base in the independent nations of Europe to suffer 

 this trial of fortitude to go on any further. They should say to Russia, 

 you have had your full opportunity to discover whether the Polish war 

 has originated in the turbulence of a faction, or m the will of a people. 

 You have now fully ascertained the fact, that the resistance is national, 

 and before God and man alike no right can be founded on mere force. 

 You may desire to make the furious experiment for years together, 

 how far the patience of this unfortunate people may be proof against 

 your sanguinary perseverance, how far their cottages may be laid in 

 ashes without bringing the ruined tenants to your feet, how far the 

 naked breasts of the peasantry may prefer rushing on your bayonets, to 

 bearing your chains. But this must not be permitted any longer. The 

 firebrand of war cannot be long tossed, even over Poland, without com- 

 municating its flame to other countries, and the result of your attempt 

 to crush a brave people whom you could not subdue, might issue in an 

 universal war. The general hazard is too formidable to be lightly 

 encountered, and Russia, if she is cruel and criminal enough to resolve 

 on extinguishing Polish freedom in blood, must prepare for arguments 

 more direct than those that apply to her understanding. Russia must 

 not be suffered to ti'ample down Poland. 



Language of this nature is declared to be used by some of the leading 

 cabinets at the present moment to the Czar. France has certainly felt 

 no hesitation in making the most intelligible remonstrances. England 

 has ah-eady spoken in all the voices of her people, and it is said, that 

 her cabinet has adopted their language. Such remonstrances cannot 

 speak in vain. Even the Austrian cabinet, always tardy, and always 

 the abettor of a dictatorial and haughty spirit of privilege and posses- 

 sion, is beginning to display some human feeling towards the Poles. It 

 is even reported, however improbably, that the emperor Avould be 

 willing to give up Gallicia if Prussia would exhibit a similar self-denial. 

 But this may be but a finesse of the Austrian cabinet, from its know- 

 ledge that Prussia will hold possession of every acre that she has torn 

 from Poland with the grasp of a plunderer, determined to struggle to 

 the last against the resumption of his plunder. We look to the British 

 and French cabinets for the true interposition ; their efforts, if sincere, 

 must be successful, for the Czar is already weary of the war, the Russian 

 army is disgusted with its loss of glory, wearied with the incessant 

 fatigues of its campaigns, and seriously weakened by its losses in the 

 field. Still the Czar may find it necessary to his personal safety to push 

 the campaign, for even despotism has its masters, and the Russian 

 nobles have shewn, by many a fierce example, that they are the neigh- 

 bours of Asia, and that, if their monarch be but a sultan, they themselves 

 are not far removed from those Janizaries who, in the time of public 

 effervescence, knew no remedy more simple than their sultan's neck. 

 The Czar, pi'oposing peace to Poland, would probably be only plunging 

 himself into inextricable peril. But the Czar, acceding to the request 



