XLVI. 1845. clubs. The fate of Brosinwski was still more frightful. CHAP. They cut off his nose, tongue, and ears, scooped out his eyes, and cut off all his fingers, before he died. His wife was obliged to witness the atrocious spectacle. The house-steward had his head scalped, as by American savages, before death put a period to his sufferings. Fourteen persons perished in this manner at Zgorskha, twentythree at Zarnow. At Niedzwiadka a whole marriageparty, including the bride and bridegroom, were massacred together in the church where the ceremony was commencing; in the chateau of M. Bzoski, where a funeral-party was assembling, all the persons as they arrived were slain, and interred in the same grave with the original deceased. The peasants bore the heads of their victims about with them, and received ten florins (£1) for each from the local authorities. Such were the features which Socialism assumed at its first rise in the European family. To the disgrace of the Austrian Government, some of the leaders, stained with the worst of these atrocities, in particular 324; ReJacques Szela, were publicly rewarded for their conduct 84, 87, 91. in the insurrection after its suppression.1 1 Ann. Hist. 1846, 317, gnault, iii. ances at and its Austrians. During these horrors the effervescence in Cracow 23. reached its climax. That free town had long been the Disturbcentre in which a general Polish insurrection was organ- Cracow, ised, and from which the revolutionary emissaries were abandondespatched in every direction throughout Lithuania and ment by the Poland. The original movement, which terminated so disastrously in Gallicia, was concerted with the leaders of the committee there, who had been formally installed in power by the committees in all parts of Poland on the 24th January, and the insurrection was definitively fixed for the 24th February. These preparations, and the general effervescence which prevailed, did not escape the notice of the consuls of the three powers resident in Cracow, and so early as the 16th February they formally demanded Feb. 16. of the Senate whether they could guarantee the public tranquillity. They replied that they could do so from all XLVI. 1846. CHAP. internal dangers, but not from such as came from without; and that if danger threatened from that quarter, they abandoned themselves to the prudence of the three residents. Upon this a body of Austrian troops, under General Collin, marched towards the town, and entered it on the Feb. 18. 18th. The conspirators were surprised by this sudden inroad, which took place before the day fixed for the insurrection, and made very little resistance. Two days afterwards, however, a serious attack was made on the Feb. 20. Imperialists by a body of insurgents who came from without, in which the Poles were unsuccessful. But the accounts received next day of the progress of the insurrection in Gallicia, and its ramifications in every part of Poland, and the magnitude of the forces which were accumulating round Cracow, were so formidable that Collin deemed his position untenable, and two days afterwards evacuated the place, taking with him the officers 1 Ann. Hist. of Government, Senate, urban militia, and police, and 1846, 321, made a precipitate retreat towards Gallicia, abandoning the whole state of Cracow to the insurgents, by whom a provisional government was immediately appointed as Fevrier 22, for the whole of Poland.1* The first step of the new authorities was to publish a manifesto, in which, after stating that "all Poland was up in arms," it was declared Feb. 22. 329; Re gnault, iii. 92, 94; Procès Verbal, 1846; Ibid., iii. 450. "Procès-verbal rédigé le 22 Février à 8 heures du soir par les soussignés, pour l'établissement du Gouvernement National de la République Polonaise. “Quatorze années d'efforts des braves enfants de la Patrie, pour parvenir à lui rendre son existence nationale, ont créé dans toutes les parties de la Pologne opprimée de nombreuses Associations, dont les membres s'exposent aux plus terribles dangers. Mais malgré cela, on est parvenu à diriger tous les efforts vers le même but, celui de recouvrer une Patrie en rendant la libérté à toute la Nation Polonaise. Le 24 Janvier de cette année, des comités de toutes les associations de la Pologne remirent le Pouvoir gouvernemental entre les mains d'une autorité composée de cinq personnes, qui furent, avec adjonction d'un secrétaire, choisies dans le Grand-Duché de Posen, la ville libre de Cracovie et son territoire dans la Russie, et parmi l'Emigration, laquelle devait se compléter ensuite par l'élection de deux membres, l'un pour la Pologne réunie, l'autre pour la Lithuanie. Et tandis que nous admettons au sein du Gouvernement un citoyen de la Pologne réunie qui accepte les Pouvoirs à lui déférés, nous nous tendons mutuellement la main, et jurons à la face de Dieu et de la Nation Polonaise, que nous exercerons les pouvoirs Révolutionnaires jusqu'à ce que toute la Pologne soit affran that the order of nobility was abolished, all property was to be divided among the peasants occupying it, and the slightest resistance to the revolutionary authorities was punished with instant death. CHAP. XLVI. 1846. 24. of Cracow. Even if the insurrection had ever had any chances of success, they were utterly destroyed by this violent and Recapture ill-judged proclamation. Every one saw that a democratic despotism was about to arise, endangering life, destructive to property, and fatal to all the ends of the social union. The insurgents increased considerably in strength, and in a few days 2500 bold and ardent spirits were concentrated in Cracow, chiefly from the neighbouring provinces. But the end was approaching. The alarm had now spread to all the partitioning powers, and orders were given to the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian forces to advance against the city. All was soon accom- 2 and 3. plished. The Austrian general, Collin, stopped his re- Ann. Hist. treat, and retook Wieluzka and Podgorze, which he had 364; Reevacuated in the first alarm consequent on the insurrec- 92, 95; Protion, while large bodies of Prussian and Austrian troops du l'Emalso advanced against the insurgents. Resistance in such pereur circumstances was hopeless; and in the night of the 2d Nov. 13, of March the insurgents, still 2500 strong, evacuated the 456. town,' and the whole soon after capitulated to the Prus chie; que nous regardons comme un moyen propre à arriver à ce but un March 1846, 361, gnault, iii. clamation d'Autriche, 1846; Ibid., XLVI. CHAP. sians. Meanwhile a Russian battalion and some Cossacks penetrated into Cracow, which was immediately declared in a state of siege, and next day jointly occupied by the forces of the three partitioning powers. 1846. 25. This event led to an important change in the east of Reflections Europe, attended by lasting consequences on the balance nexation of of power and future destinies of the Sarmatian population. Cracow. After a long deliberation, it was resolved to repeal the on the an Nov. 16, 1846. treaties of 21st April 1815, which established the Republic of Cracow, and to restore it to the Austrian Government, from whose dominions it had been originally taken. This was accordingly done by the treaty 16th November 1846, which, after narrating the repeated conspiracies of which the republic of Cracow had been the theatre, and the open insurrection and attempt to revolutionise Poland which had just been organised in its bosom, declared the existence of the republic terminated, and itself, with its 16, 1846; whole territory, restored to Austria, as it stood before 1809. Thus was the last relic of Polish nationality finally extinguished.1 1 Ordonnance, Nov. Martin's Sup. These events, as might easily have been anticipated, produced a very great sensation over Europe. Ancient duced by feelings were revived; old wounds bled afresh. 26. Great sensation pro these events The in Europe. cause of Polish nationality had been so long associated in every part of Europe with generous sentiments and heroic efforts, that the last act of the mournful drama reawakened all the heart-rending emotions with which its progress had been attended. In Great Britain and France these feelings were in an especial manner warm and general; and the debates on the subject in the legislatures of both countries were warm and frequent, and such as revealed the extent to which the general mind had been stirred. It does not appear to be necessary, however, to give an abstract of these debates, because the question lies in a very narrow compass, and the official instruments published by the provisional govern XLVI. 1846. ment at Cracow, on the 22d February 1846, put the CHAP. case in the clearest point of view. It is there admitted that a general insurrection of all Poland, including Lithuania, had been organised in the different provinces, a provisional government appointed at Cracow to direct and superintend the movement, and that the outbreak was to take place on the 22d February. The Austrians received. intelligence of the design, and anticipated it by entering that city on the 20th, and permanently occupying it in conjunction with the Prussian and Russian forces on the 2d March. 27. tion of the which this insurgents These facts put an end to the case, and blew to the winds the whole eloquent declamation on the subject in Justificathe British House of Commons and French Chamber of annexation Deputies. It is clear the allies were throughout acting conduct of on the defensive: their occupation of Cracow was a mea- the Cracow sure dictated by the duty of self-preservation, and which afforded. no government similarly situated could, consistently with its obligations to its subjects, neglect. True, Cracow was an independent State; but it was a State which had permitted a vast conspiracy, having for its object the entire restoration of Poland, and its resumption from the present occupants, to be matured in its bosom; and the Austrian invasion of its territory did not take place till within two days of the time when the general insurrection was to have broken out. Having thus drawn the sword and thrown away the scabbard, the inhabitants had no reason to complain, if, being vanquished, they underwent the usual fate of war; and the entire tranquillity of Poland since the annexation of Cracow to the Austrian dominions, proves of how much importance it was to its material interests that the nursery of discontent and revolutionary propagandism which that little republic afforded, should be prevented from any longer disturbing the tranquillity of the east of Europe. The real reproach against the Austrian Government in this trans |