as their countrymen and fellow Christians? have been apt to indemnify themselves for True, the Arabs had held Granada in undis- their public zeal by a very liberal view of turbed possession for close upon eight hun- their private duties. It is not necessary to dred years. It was an adverse possession believe that the present Emperor Napoleon far longer than that which the Poles could was actuated by the spirit of a Crusader, plead when Catherine resumed the sov- when he fought so fiercely for the rights of ereignty of Witebsk and Volhynia. Yet the Latin monks to a key of the church of the Ferdinand's conquest has never been re- Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem; or that his garded as the great crime of his age. Every strenuous defence of the Pope's indepencircumstance that, according to the popular "dence is the result of a passionate devotion. theory, should have protected the Poles But his right to appear upon those questions against Catherine, should have protected the is not the less admitted. In cases where a Moors against him-long possession, a sovereign claims to give effect to some regreat history, and the feebleness of im-ligious sentiment, he rests himself not upon minent decay. But historical politicians, his own convictions, but upon the convicthoroughly familiar with the struggle of tions of his subjects; and if their feelings which the seizure of Granada was but the upon the matter in hand are genuine and crowning act, refused to condemn a re- earnest, his title to appear as a religious conquest as if it was an aggression, or to champion is incontestable, whatever his own pass judgment upon the separate movements personal morality may be. There is nothing of which the secular struggle of two great incongruous in a vicious prince drawing his races was made up. If they had followed sword in a religious cause, because he is the long contest between Russian and Pole acting, not in his own behalf, but as the with the interest with which they watched representative of his subjects. Catherine the struggle of the Christian against the may not have been personally actuated by a Mussulman, they would not have passed so very warm zeal for the Greek faith, but she superficial a judgment upon the events of ruled over thousands of priests and millions 1773-95. War, in whatever form it comes, of people who were; and their feelings, on is a horrible and barbarous thing. It must a point that always moves masses of men so produce slaughter and rapine; it must energetically, it was her manifest interest to often reduce the free to dependence, and consult. And, as she had been raised to the the prosperous to ruin; it must frequently condemn proud and renowned nationalities to insignificance or to extinction. But its ethical character is not altered by the fact that it is long or short. It must be tried by the same rules and condemned or acquitted upon the same principles, whether it be a war of centuries or a war of years.

We have more than once alluded to the difference of religion between the Poles, and their subjects upon the east of the Nie men and the Bug, as constituting a material element in this case. It was strongly insisted on by Catherine herself; and the maltreatment which the Dissidents, as all nonCatholics were called, received from the dominant Catholicism, formed a frequent subject of complaint from Protestant Prùssia on one side, and orthodox Russia on the other. Writers on the Polish side have affected to treat this consideration with contempt on account of Catherine's notorious vices, which were inconsistent with the assumption of any zeal on behalf of any religion. But such reasoning is wholly beside the mark. The question of Catherine's domestic qualities has nothing whatever to do with these transactions, though it has obviously exercised a material influence upon the judgment that has been formed of them. Defenders of the faith, in all times and places,

throne in a great degree by the discontent of the priesthood at her husband's measures, she had every reason to know and to appreciate the value of their political adhesion.

Her interference, therefore, on behalf of the Polish Dissidents cannot be taxed with insincerity, unless it can be shown that there was no truth in their complaints of persecution. But this is precisely the weak point of the Polish case. In spite of the enthusiastic admiration with which the Liberals of Europe have regarded their institutions, they were the only nation who, in the full light of modern civilisation in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, renounced their former tolerance and betook themselves to persecution. The cause of this strange relapse into a vice from which most of the other nations of Europe were struggling to get free is somewhat obscure. Partly it appears to have been the irregular zeal of the Swedish Sigismund, partly the steady proselytism of the Jesuits, and partly the growing exasperation of faction, which was making the ideas of tolerance and forbearance every year more alien to the temper of the nobles. Whatever the cause, the effect was marked enough. In Poland proper, and the western provinces of the republic, the change of policy chiefly affected the Protestants. At the beginning of the

of Chmelnicki in the year 1658, the appeals which the leaders of it made to the Greek Christians to join them against their Catholic masters show that the wrongs of the Greek Church were still a powerful inflammatory topic. Although there is not, after

seventeenth century Sigismund commenced ficers were despatched with proportionate the practice of admitting no Dissidents to barbarity, and for the time order was reoffice or to the senate, which, in a country stored' in the Ukraine. For the rest of the where law was almost unknown, practically seventeenth century this ferocious evangeliimplied the withdrawal of all protection. zation was carried on without much abatePopular tumults were stirred up against ment. The complaints made by the Rusthem. Some sects were driven altogether sian populations, and even of the nobles from the country; others were forcibly amongst them, of the oppression to which ousted from their churches. Nor was the their faith was subjected were loud and conpersecution confined to the prohibition of stant. During the great Cossack rebellion their teaching. The practice of extirpating religious differences by the slaughter of the heterodox was carried far into the eighteenth century. In the year 1687 we still find a case of burning alive for religious error, and even so late as the year 1724 a magistrate at Thorn was executed for his Protestant this, recorded to have been any such open opinions. In the eastern portions of Poland and flagrant oppression as that which first it was the Greek Dissidents of Russian drove the Cossacks into rebellion, the Dissiblood who suffered. The animosity of the dents were still subjected to severe oppresPoles against the Greek faith was height- sion, and came to be treated after a time as ened, no doubt, by political causes. Their an anti-national party. The efforts of the war with Russia in 1610 was, in the main, Polish landowners to force their Russian a war of proselytism, and left behind it no serfs into Catholicism are frequently spoken friendly feeling towards the faith whose of in the century that preceded the partition, steadfastness the efforts of the Poles had not and must have arisen, like Catherine's deavailed to shake. A fierce persecution of fence of them, not from evangelical fervour, the Cossacks of the Ukraine was the result. but from a very natural political motive. The cruelties that were perpetrated in it The result was to add a very formidable were said-like those which will attach eter-element to the dissensions which hastened nal infamy to the name of the Marquis the fall of the republic. After two centuries Wielopolski-to have been planned for the of persecution, the loyalty of the Dissidents purpose of goading the people into open re- had become a very lukewarm quality. bellion before the disaffection had spread too They openly leaned upon Russia and Pruswidely to be easily crushed. A law was sia to obtain support against their Catholic passed, reducing at one blow the whole Cos- antagonists. When Catherine was enforcing sack population to serfdom. Priests who the election of Poniatowski, the last king, refused to submit to the Papacy were two confederations of Dissidents formed thrown into prison. Churches were taken themselves on her side. In the course of away from the schismatics' and handed his reign two separate risings of the peasantover to the Catholics. The schismatic dust ry of the Greek faith added to the other disof many generations of ancestors, which lay tractions of the republic, and were remark in the churchyards, was insultingly dug up able for this, that they were the only sign and cast out. The very tribunals were of thought or feeling that the peasantry gave brought under the all-pervading influence, while what is called their country was being and were administered, as the historian destroyed. When the partition ultimately phrases it, instinctu Reverendorum Patrum took place, not one of the unennobled inhabSocietatis Jesu.'* The plan succeeded to itants of the provinces that were to be anadmiration. Stung by this mixture of in- nexed to Russia could be found to take up sult and oppression, the Cossacks rose. For arms in defence of Poland. a time, under the leadership of the heroic Sulima, they maintained a gallant struggle with their oppressors, not unlike, in its utter desperation, to that which the Poles are now maintaining against an overwhelming force of Cossacks. But their undisciplined, illequipped valour was no match for the still unbroken prowess of the Poles. The rebellion was bloodily suppressed. Sulima was captured and impaled alive; his inferior of

* Grondski, p. 35, ap. Hermann.

So far as any conquests can be defended, the defence of Catherine appears to us to be complete. The plea of a common religion, which was held to justify conquests in old time; the plea of a common nationality, which in our own days has been esteemed an ample apology for the most lavish bloodshed and the most flagrant contempt of treaty; the plea of ancient possession, which has been allowed as at least a good excuse for war in every age; the exigencies of her frontier and the necessity of a counterpoise

to the growth of powerful neighbours, which | of nations, each State has a vested right in is a principle not wholly unknown to the the complete and real independence of its European diplomacy of the present genera neighbour. It is so vital to the interest of tion; all these pleas combine to justify the all the surrounding States, that they cannot annexation of the provinces which Catherine ignore any change of circumstances that may reconquered from her empire's hereditary have compromised its reality. If, from any foe. All that can be advanced to excuse the internal rottenness, that independence shall conquest of Granada by the Spaniards, of have become an absolute impossibility, they Calais by the French, of Bengal by the Eng- cannot affect a polite unconsciousness of the lish, of Lombardy by the Italians, and of fact. They must, for their own safety's Savoy by the present Emperor of the sake, take precautions to ensure that if it is French, may be justly pleaded on behalf of to be dependent upon any Power, it shall that which, by dint of constant repetition, be equally dependent upon all. They may Europe has learned to characterise as the effect this either by a tutelage of ambassa'great crime of modern times.' dors such as that which is established at Partly from the just horror excited by her Constantinople, or by a partition. Either personal history, partly in consequence of the proceeding is equally inconsistent with any cruelties which in later days Russian Czars true national life in the State that is to be have perpetrated upon the Poles, it has al-operated upon. It cannot be said that the ways been the fashion to concentrate upon Turkish arrangement has been eminently Catherine the indignation which the extinc- successful in averting war. And it is very tion of Poland has excited. We have stated doubtful whether it would, with all the our reasons for acquitting her we must de- humiliation that it involved, have been even vote a few words to her coadjutors. Their practicable with a people who were not giftdefence is not so easy. Von Sybel under-ed with an Oriental facility of submission. takes the advocacy of Prussia, and executes But as a matter of self-preservation, neighit with his customary clearness and force. bouring powers must exact one of these two But he can make no other case out for the securities from a State which has become Prussian Sovereigns than this:-He admits permanently anarchical and defenceless. that the partition of Poland was no part of That Poland was in that condition was Catherine's policy, and was pressed upon not a matter capable of dispute. Ever her reluctant acceptance by the Courts of since the death of Sigismund, a century and Vienna and Berlin. But, he urges, if the a half before, anarchy had been the normal German powers had not insisted upon a par- state of things. No part of the constitution tition, Catherine's supremacy over the Polish would work. All offices were put up for Government was such that for all purposes sale, and were made to pay their purchaseof foreign policy the frontier of Poland was money with abundant interest to those who really the frontier of Russia. Such a de- bought them. There was no powerful 'exfence assumes that it is lawful by armed ecutive to correct the anomaly, as it was coraggression to counteract foreign influence at rected in France, by a system of co-ordinate a neighbour's Court. It would be very dan- administrators directly dependent on the gerous to embody such a principle into in- crown. The army was placed under the ternational law. Yet it is impossible to command of generals whom it was not in deny that it has some validity, if the doc the king's power to dismiss. It was paid, trine of the balance of power is not a mere like ours, by annual vote of the Diet; but delusion. Influence, if it be excessive and the Diet could only transact business so constant, is veiled conquest. The intense long as the patriotism of all its members anxiety which the Great Powers have dis- was strong enough to prevent any one of played to warn each other's reigning fami- them from uttering the veto, which could at lies off such new thrones as those of Greece any moment bring their proceedings to an and Belgium arises from that unquestionable abrupt close. The deputy who ventured to fact. The remonstrances which the Western pronounce the fatal word frequently paid Powers thought themselves at liberty to ad- forfeit for it with his life, unless he was dress to Austria against the secret treaties clever enough to escape; but it was not the by which she retained the small Italian less effectual and irrevocable. As the anStates under her influence rest upon no other tagonism of factions increased, this senseless basis. It follows, therefore, that if conquest prerogative was exerted more and more may, be met by conquest, in order to pre-recklessly, and the army was often, in conserve the balance of power, influence, where sequence, left absolutely unpaid for years. it amounts to conquest, may be also met by The devices for securing the unanimity of conquest. The truth is, that in a carefully- the Diet were very various. Sometimes balanced structure like the European system the nobles assembled in great force round L-16

VOL. CXIII.

Warsaw to menace the recalcitrant; some-swept away. But their patriotism came too times the army itself encamped outside, and late. Century after century the Poles had the votes for its payment were carried under clung to their worst abuses, had rejected its own supervision. On one occasion the every suggestion of reform, and had wilfully king borrowed an idea from the English turned away from the warnings that were administration of the law, and shut the constantly addressed to them of the end to Diet up without food until it could agree. which their factions would lead. It was not In later times the duty of securing unanimi- till the last hour of their nation was at ty devolved upon the Russian ambassador, hand, and the blindest could foresee the dewho proceeded in extreme cases by threats, struction that was imminent, that they conbut in general by a lavish expenditure of sented to entertain a project of reform. bribes. All these arrangements were not The constitution of 1791, of whose merits calculated to secure a well-ordered State; much has been said, was open to a fatal but, of course, if there had been either patri- reproach, that it was a deathbed repentance. otism or sagacity in the nobles, such defects It availed as little to avert the retribution might easily have been amended. They which the turbulence of many centuries had were as nothing compared to the great richly earned as the concessions of Louis obstacle to all reform which lay in the XVI. to avert the Revolution, or the constisingular institution of 'Confederations.' tution which Francis II. hurriedly offered They have been aptly described as legalized sufficed to stay the progress of Garibaldi. rebellions. Whenever anything in the con- But even this constitution, specious as some duct of the Diet, or of the King, displeased of its provisions were, was in essence only a considerable number of persons, they another exhibition of dependence, another deemed themselves at liberty to combine provocative of intervention. It was the untogether in an armed league, and to enforce, happy destiny of Poland that even her betas far as they could, their own views upon ter impulses were the whispers of foreign their opponents at the sword's point. If intrigue. Upon paper, the constitution of they were strong enough, the obnoxious 1791 appears to be a patriotic effort to relaw, or election, was annulled; if they form notorious abuses; and, in the minds failed, they were not treated as traitors, or of many who supported it, it no doubt bore held to have done anything unpatriotic. that character. But, as a matter of fact, it Among an excitable race, little used to re- was originated by Austria, and was carried straint, such an abuse once allowed to take through by Austrian influence. It contains root, throve and multiplied. Confedera- many provisions interesting to the historian tions became the ordinary resource of the and philanthropist of the present day; but minority. At every critical point of Polish its most important provisions in the eyes history, one or more of these Confederations of contemporary diplomacy were those make their appearance. Any foreign power which made the Crown hereditary, strengththat desired it could generally procure the ened it with new powers, and conferred it formation of one. The merits of rival can- upon the Elector of Saxony, who was a Cadidates to the throne, the griefs of Dissidents tholic prince attached to the Austrian party against Catholics, the proposals of reform- in Germany, and bitterly hostile to Prussia. ers, or the complaints of reactionaries, were It was, in truth, only a masked attempt to decided, as a matter of course, not by any transfer the vassalage of Poland from St. legal vote, but by this systematised civil Petersburg to Vienna, and to obtain, at the war. It was a curious evidence of the un-cost of Prussia's future security, at once an practical character of Rousseau's mind that this was the institution above all others in the Polish system, that excited his admiration. It was the strongest negation of absolute power that it was possible for a political constitution to pronounce. Experience, however, proved what calmer reasoners had foreseen, that complete anarchy, and the dependence which necessarily follows in its train, were the only fruits that so irrȧtional a system could be expected to produce.

indemnity and a revenge to Austria for the losses she had sustained at Prussian hands. Prussia could hardly be blamed for refusing to see transferred to Austria a territory that cut her own monarchy in two. Russia and Prussia have been bitterly reproached for struggling against the reforming constitution of 1791, and for making its adoption the signal for new proposals of partition. The fact is unquestionable; but the motive has been missed. The Polish reforms did not fall upon ground so well adapted för It is undoubtedly true that a supreme such seed that the prospect of their salutary effort was made by a few who truly loved fruits need have been very alarming to the their country to amend their constitution ambition of Catherine and Frederick Wilin some points just before it was altogether liam. As far as their tendency was to re