tion was taken under the protection and patronage of government; the declining power of the Jesuits was crushed by the public arm; and their wealth, so unjustly obtained, was confiscated and appropriated for the support of public schools. The provisional schools throughout the several departments of the kingdom, were re-organized on a new and improved plan; and the university of Cracow was rescued from the destructive power of the Jesuits, and restored to its former rights. But the misfortune was, that, amid all these literary improvements for the benefit of the nobility, nothing was done for the education and improvement of the common people; a fatal mistake in the government of Poland, and all other states, who neglect the educational interests of the masses. time obtained a mere nominal recognition of their civil rights, as human beings, in 1807, on the organization of the duchy of Warsaw, under the reign of the king of Saxony. But even these small favors were never made available; though in justice to Stanislas Augustus, and some of his advisers, it should be stated, that they used their best endeavors in the cause of humanity, and did much for the promotion of literature, and the general interests of their country; without much benefit, however, to the lower classes.

The lower classes for the first

But the perishing condition of the country was past recovery. The unfortunate nation had now been the scene of violent political faction for more than a century, civil war followed, and foreign invasion succeeded; while the leaders of the several pugnacious parties descended to the lowest means, and most ruinous measures. Religion, literature, politics, and morals, all made

*The history and character of the Jesuits are contained in the chapter on Religion.

common cause of the work of extermination and death; and all mingled in the disgraceful melange of civil war and domestic carnage. The fanaticism of the bishops of Cracow and Warsaw refused the dissidents their natural, civil, and religious rights-a conflict which afforded Russia the first pretext for intermeddling with the Polish government, with the secret intention of dismembering the kingdom at no distant day; which nefarious purpose was executed on the first favorable opportunity. During this state of things, and after the lapse of a few years, Poland, as the natural consequence of her own ruinous policy, was shivered to atoms; while the artful Catharine II. interposed her dictation, as though she was dealing with a nation involved in such irrevocable ruin, that "one needed only to stoop in order to pick up something." During these last death-struggles of Poland, literature seemed to revive under the powerful effects of the mental anguish and excitement which betokened the speedy downfall of the nation. But like all death-scenes, a relapse soon followed; and after twenty years of mental, physical, and political agony, the country, with her literature and national institutions, for more than twelve years, sank into a state of lethargy and mental imbecility, the invariable consequences of such disastrous

causes.

From 1795 to 1807 the historian finds nothing in the literature of the country except squalid poverty and perverted taste. Translated literature made some progress, while philology suffered severely in its purity. The feeble government of the duchy of Warsaw, sensible of the literary wants of the country, adopted a wiser and more humane policy, and for the short period of five years, from 1807 to 1812, used her best endeavors to resuscitate their expiring literature. Under this government, the number of

schools was increased from one hundred and forty to six hundred and thirty-four; a royal commission issued for publishing new and appropriate school books in the Polish language; and other means were used for the promotion of science and literature. These laudable efforts were recognized and favored by the constitution of the new kingdom of Poland, in 1815. But the efforts of this limited government were inadequate to meet the wants of the once extensive, though now broken and ruined, kingdom of Poland. For it must be remembered that the new and modern Polish government embraced only about one sixth part of the extensive territory which composed the old Polish nation under the Jagellons. Previous to the cessions at Andrussov, in the year 1667, the former kingdom contained sixteen millions of inhabitants; while the census of the modern duchy, in 1818, numbered only 2,734,000; although in 1827 the population had increased to 3,505,000, under the Russian administration, in consequence of the encouragements to foreign colonists, the establishment of manufactures, which furnished means of subsistence to the lower classes and slaves, and other similar means resorted to by the Russian government.

But in Poland, as in all other nations where civil society exists only in the miserable antithesis of nobility and slavery, literature, true to its democratic and liberal spirit, began to change hands, by passing from the aristocracy to the democracy of the free citizens generally; and for a short time, by means of a partial emancipation, the schools were opened to the peasants under the more wise and humane administration of Alexander. And had his principles and promised reforms been carried out in good faith, under his liberal constitution which he gave the Poles, their sad condition would have been in a great measure amelio

rated. It is not to be denied, however, that the Poles, since 1800, have made more progress in social improvement than during their whole previous national existence. But this advancement is to be attributed rather to the increased efforts of the Poles themselves, than to any favorable influence arising from the conquest, or the unjust conquerors; and therefore furnishes no argument in justification of the dismemberment of the nation. For we have already seen that the Poles, sensible of their fatal policy, had adopted a new and improved constitution, and taken vigorous measures of reform, for the last ten years previous to the dissolution of the republic; and had the invading conqueror left them unmolested in their improvements, they might have been far in advance of their Russian, Austrian, and Prussian neighbors, notwithstanding the boasted supremacy of the victors.

One of the most humane laws of the duchy of Warsaw, as early as 1807, was the partial emancipation of the serfs, including the whole peasantry, which was confirmed in 1815, when the new kingdom of Poland was established. It is stated by some writers, that the Polish serfs were not regular slaves, because they could not be sold as mere goods and chattels, separate from the lands of their masters, which they occupied, and had no right to leave. Nor was it any material improvement in the condition of the Polish slaves, that by one of the statutes of Casimir the Great, promulgated in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, they were allowed to sell their little personal property and select new masters when they were ill-treated. These and other impracticable privileges, instead of affording them any permanent relief, left the peasantry the most miserable of human beings. The National Diet in this period was improved, by * Poland under the dominion of Russia, Boston, 1834.

*

admitting representations from the nobility, the government, the cities, and smaller communities; and all Christian denominations enjoyed equal political rights. The University of Warsaw was founded in 1818, in addition to that of Cracow, Wilna, and Lemberg. In the Lemberg University, all its professors are Germans; and the lectures and instructions are delivered in Latin or German. It is confined to the three faculties of philosophy, theology, and law. It has a preparatory school for medicine, which is finished at Vienna. In 1832 it had sixty-five medical students, forty of whom were Jews. In the same year, the whole number of students in the university was 1291. A previous preparation of two years in philosophical studies is required, before entering on the theological and judicial courses, which occupy each four years; making in all, a regular course of an Austrian student to embrace six years. It was attempted to Germanize the University of Cracow by the same measures, during the Austrian administration; but in 1815, when Cracow became a free city, it discharged all its German professors, and again became a Polish university.

In 1827 the kingdom of Poland, in each of its eight waywodeships, contained a palatine school, besides three other institutions for the higher branches of education; fourteen principal department-schools, and nine for sub-departments; several professional seminaries for miners, teachers, agriculturists, and others; a military academy, a school for cadets, besides several elementary schools, both private and public. But all these universities, seminaries, and schools, afford very limited advantages to the lower classes. Nor do the parish schools, and the village schools, on which they principally depend, meet their wants. The Russian-Polish provinces, including that part of Poland united to