POLISH EXPERIENCES.

CHAPTER I.1

INTRODUCTORY.

In spite of the much talking and writing on the subject of Poland, during the past year, I have been convinced, since my return to England from that unfortunate country, that very vague ideas still prevail as to the real state of Poland and the Poles. The important thing for Englishmen to know is-first, to what extent Poland has already been Russianized or Germanized, and, secondly, to what extent Russians and Germans have it in their power to finish the work of denationalization. For it is not the having moral right on her side, or the requirements of divine justice, or anything so far off as that, which helps to keep Poland alive, but simply the inability of her enemies to kill her outright. Garbaloi may solemnly declare, and Mr. Hennessy may repeat after him, in the House of Commons, "Poland must not die," but Poland would have died long ago, but for the physical impossibility of killing her.

1 A portion of the present work has already apjomust be 99. H of the Daily News.

Happily for the Poles, Prussia, the Power with incomparably the most formidable appliances for working out the denationalization of Poland, has but a comparatively small slice of Polish territory in her hands in the Grand Duchy of Posen, and the part of the province of West Prussia in which Dantzic is situated.

In Galicia, Austria has a rich and extensive province, but of comparative insignificance by the side of the lion's share, which Russia obtained for herself by successful intrigues at the Treaty of Vienna.

It was a short-sighted policy on the part of the statesmen assembled at the congress of Vienna, who fondly imagined that they were finally settling with Poland, to hand over the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which formerly, including the territory of Bialystock-ceded by Napoleon to the Emperor Alexander-belonged to Prussia, to a Power with such a limited civilization, and consequently equally limited capacity of assimilating foreign territory, as Russia.1 It was not only short-sighted, but cruel to the last degree, for from the beginning it was certain that Russia, incapable of governing herself, would be unequal to the task of governing Poland, a country possessing a superior civilization to her own. Had Prussia been reinstated in her former Polish possessions, it is more than probable that she would have succeeded to as great an extent in denationalizing the kingdom of Poland as she has done the Grand Duchy of Posen. With a thriving industrial population, already owerflowing in the great towns, and now finding an outlet for its superfluous energies in America, Prussia would have had it in

1 Previously to the Treaty of Vienna, Russia possessed no part of the present kingdom of Poland.

her power to flood the kingdom of Poland with her industry and commerce. To have Germanized the towns would have been sufficient to prevent the possibility of anything like a successful Polish insurrection. Had Prussia enjoyed, if only for a quarter of a century, the opportunity which has been completely thrown away on Russia since the Treaty of Vienna, of denationalizing Warsaw-the head and heart of the Polish movementwe should in all likelihood have heard nothing of Polish insurrections. As it is, Russia, possessing so much of what formerly was, and still is, Poland minus Russian bayonets, that many persons forget that Prussia and Austria have to be taken into consideration at all, has been able to effect so little in altering the face of the country, that periodical insurrections with the view of shaking off the Russian yoke are inevitable. In their lust of aggrandisement, the last question Russian statesmen think of putting to themselves is, "Can we digest this morsel which we are about to swallow?"

While the main efforts of Prussia in the Grand Duchy of Posen have been aimed at Germanizing the towns, Russia, aware that such an attempt on her part would be hopeless, inasmuch as she has no town population to spare-town, i. e. permanent place for buying and selling as opposed to fair or temporary place being a thing of recent growth in Russia—has rather directed her energies country wards. But even here the means at her disposal are not only very limited, but she is kept within bounds in applying them, not by any sense of decency, but by the necessity of looking out for herself. For all communistic measures adopted by Russian statesmen in Poland are apt to spread like wildfire into Russia. Indeed,

supposing Russia not to be afraid of adopting wholesale measures of confiscation of Polish estates, what is she to do with them when confiscated? She has to choose between three courses-(1) keeping them in the hands of the State, (2) giving them away, (3) or selling them,

Now, fortunately for Poland, it is not in the power of Russian statesmen to follow any one of these three courses in such a manner as shall at all attain the end in view, namely, the denationalization of Poland, and chiefly for the following reasons. First, Russia is, in proportion to its extent, the most thinly populated country in Europe, and, consequently, has a very limited number of Russians at her disposal for colonizing purposes. Secondly, Russians manifest a decided unwillingness to leave home. Thirdly, the nature of the Russian administration is such, as to offer the smallest possible inducement to foreigners to immigrate.

Bearing these circumstances in mind, it is not surprising, that what formerly was Poland should have remained Poland, everywhere but in the geography books. To such an extent are Russians unwilling to leave Russia and settle in Poland, that in the whole extent of Russian Poland, including the so-called kingdom of Poland, Lithuania, and the Ruthenian provinces, Volhynia, Podolia, and the Ukraine-countries which for centuries formed as united a kingdom as England, Scotland, and Ireland at the present day-you might almost count the number of resident Russian proprietors on your fingers. If a Russian general acquires an estate in Poland as a reward for his services, he invariably contents himself with receiving the profits, and living himself at St. Petersburg or Moscow, leaving the