The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-29 00:00:00

INCE ADAM (ZARTORYSKI.

..e eminent foreigners who are in Lon_
the tsonient none is better entitled to respect than
A Cr .r: retki. Illustrious by birth as the descend-
the J dynasty, so deer to the memory of
• • nee las ad led to that aristocratic advantage
„ sent ut the patriotic and disinterested services
prosperity as in &flaunty, he his never e:aeed to
hi- Throughout his long and tan-
afel eater Cr ertory,ki has invariably sacrificed his
.y ingest to what he connived to be his duty, and
span his la'.gh station and opulent Leone- not in the
~A I ges t neti.ial only to iiitneelf, but in that of
sea p:v en to his couatry. His house is distinguished in
....ibi.tore tar deeds conceived in this spirit, arid no
nbt that owe late was regales upon the example cf
rg. f:too Toe tst:Ats of his f ',thee were confisca.td
A „eo• •
ay the Empress Cathterfae of Rn.sia, and restored at the
W111:111 t 0 • t Austria, 41{1 noel:ciao that he himself, sad
lee broth. r Constantine, shoMel enter the MlA:an service-
Aa :atone, sprang up at court between the prince and the
ji.,as taperer Alexander, who had received a liberal eds..
mei ar I treeted Polish patriotism with ream et in Gse
yercM loss Czartoryski thus early cherished the
hole of is Alexander the rrirenerator acd dell-
venr of Poland. 11c has been blamed for indulging in se
g,.ohiv.• • dream, but not until after the event. For many
s hog year Cautoryski's hopes wen kept up by very plan.
0;c sprarseees. There is much ground for believing
that liberal soil enlarged view; were really entertained by
Alnaneee towarita Poland, and that those views were 'ra-
dially abandoned, as the Czar acquit d greater experience
is the art of ruling is an autocrat, a species of craft capable
of corepting an angel.
Disc, olided in what he expected from Alexander,
Fr....e atoryski was not deceived iti what be feared frees
Nipuea. His immediate ancestors had acquired during
too? , lean, in this coantry sound practical notiuns of eon-
stioron it government from Murray, the future Lord
Hatfield. and from Mr. Jones, afterwards Sir William
Jai.., the great Oriental s.:holar and jorisconsult. Their
lessons, rhich he inherited by trodition from his family,
laid had of the Prince's mind, and received greater deve-
lopment doting his afait to England, where he poised
grab of his time in familiar intercourse with Pitt, Fon,
Sane, and Grey. 1 reed by the maxims of freedom
.0 vos 'witty, the splendour of Napoleon's military
tarter, which seduced ao many of his countrymen, inspired
him only with distrust. Driven to the necessity of choosing
between Rorie and France, he thought it safer for Pohlad to
rely open Alexander. Appointed minister for foreign
'Lein by that manareb, he eerdially concurred in the policy
ef this cot, airy, and adhered to the coalition which wan
dissolved by the Hinkle( Austerlitz. Czartoryslei then
withdrew from the prominent place which ho occupied in
the goveramen', and unpted Coe wore humble though
very useful and important office of directing the public in-
'Metier of the Polieh provinces lie now devoted him-
self with indefatigable ardour to the task of confirming his
countrymen in a dignified sense of their national identity
by promoting the study of the history and the literature of
Poland. Academic hos:ours and prize essays were in those
days patrioa victories. Akzander was privy to the de-
sign, and for a long time wu not alarmed by its progress,
bat, alter the events of 1013, Neseerailtzoff, his confidential
minister in Poland. awakened the jealousy of his distrustful
and vacileating stied. With the crafty penetration of his race,
Horowitz df fame+ the obetaeln which Czartora ski's
system et education would raise to the future assimilation
of l'oianil with Muscovy. A coroph to change we, made in
the organisation of the schools, and Coatoryski retired from
their supreme direction, tabounng under the imputation—
for which he was honoured by his countrymen—that he
had by his measures retarded for one century the conver-
lin of the Poles into real Russians, and abject lieges of the
Csu. Western Europe is scarcely yet aware of the import-
&ace of the service which l'rioce Czartoryski, es Minister of
ratel:c Instruction, has rendered to the independence of
aatsons &ad the general interests of civilisation. The diffi-
culty of converg the Poles into Russians is at this day
the chief obit tele to a confederation, for. aggressive pur-
pew., rt the Selavonic races. Eighty miilions of men,
of shorn the great majority are hall-civilised, fond of war,
sad led by nobles whim ambition is almost exclusively
emend to military fame and distinctions, constitute
a dam which is daily looming more distinctly
to oar view. The inwase of population and the
prozrecs of the arts and sciences materially add to that
easier. The Ramis* empire will in forty years hold a
whoa exceeding one hundred Millions, and 11M11 room fee'
the conit.rtable accommodation of as many more. Railroads,
in bozo constructed in many a direction. A telegraph
between ht. Petersburg and Constantinople will soon anni-
hilate space. Russian despotism is rapidly unitiog to the
weight of material bulk the energy and strength of c im-
pactions. A kindred despotism has arisen elsewhere, which
nrivrs the recollection of eastern and western empires,
mil of the negotiations of Tilsit. It behoves every states-
men, of whatever nation or creed, to ponder on t' ese as yet
milady apparitions. England, as long as the trident of
Neptune, ais justly called the sceptre of the world, is in
her hands, has the least to fear from the overgrowth of
say other power whatever. But wiU Germany be safe ?
Could Austria resist, or Turkey escape annexation, or Eng-
land herself ultimately maintain her dignity and protect her
ft irests ? Ever since the reign of Peter I. the Czars have
turned a longing eye towards India. From the field-mar-
dal to the sub-lieutenant, from the :corporal to the private,
there is not a Russian soldier whose imagination does net
revel in diamonds, and pearls, and rupees. In their hue
page the vary name of India is the symbol of wealth, miw
mecum, and luxury ; and the chief obstacle to the sego&
titan of so rich a prize is, in their opinion, interposed only
by distance.
Some time before his retirement from the ministry of
public instruction, and long before the general
Czartoryski had loat nearly all his political influence ion M
councils of the Emperor Alexander ; but as his patriotism
was the avowed reason of his keepiog aloof, the Engine
still professed to look upon him as his personal friend, apnea
fission which, at that time, chimed uo with theee liberal
views he wished the world to believe were natural to his
character That he had been, all his life, a hypocrite, is an re-
onion more easily made than proved. Even hypocrites
have been known to share is the feelings which they had
acquired the habit of inspiring in others; and until
Alexander adopted the mysticisms of Madame Krudner es
the groundwork of the Uoly Alliance, there is reason to
believe that he was sincerely desirous of acquiring the
eery of being the restorer of Polish nationality and free-
' dom. This belief was shared by Prince Czartoryski, at
the engem of Vienna, where, to some extent, it stood the
test of experience. He attended that congress in no special
capacity, but merely as the friend of the Czar, and in so far
as the Cur was the friend of his country. Eh influence
on thedeliberations of the congress was considerable, and
always exerted in favour of Poland. Abstract politicians
are ever ready to cry " naught " where some grand theory
of regeneration is not at once promulgated ; but practical
statesmen are less intent on expounding a system than on
working out what is fairly within their reach. The shreds
and patches of ancient Poland, which in 1813 took the dig-
nified same of a kingdom, received with gratitude at the
hands of the Emperor Alexander a reasonably liberal con-
stitution, which he promised to extend to the provinces of the
first partition, in so public and so earnest a manner, that
Czartoryski was not the ocly Pole who conceived hopes of
regeneration for his country,—hopes that were shortly to
red in disappointment and ultimately to provoke an appeal
ta arms.
That appeal was, perhaps rashly, made in 1831, and
seemed to be the unpremeditated outbreak of the youthful
blood of Poland, raised to fever heat by the maddening
oppression of the Grand Duke Constantine, and the recent
example of France. Czartoryaki's plans of regeneration
were not probably based on a conspiracy. Such mesas
may effect a revolution in a palace,—they have oftener be-
trayed the weakness of a cause than saved a nation. The
people were not yet prepared for a levy cat Matte, and
nothing short of that is likely to emancipate Poland. Hie-
giving% as to the ultimate result flashed across the steady
and sober mind of the Prince, as he unexpectedly heard of
the Insurrection, but the more imminent the danger and the
greater his personal stake, the less be could resist the call
of his country. The die was cut. It had been done with-
out him, but it had driven him to this dilemma, either to
seek a refuge in the camp of the foreign oppresson of his
country, or to join her cause. Ile followed without hesita-
tion, sad at all risks, what he considered a sacred duty.
Had he been certain that the contest would halts
entailed upon him all the misfortunes which
have since fallen to his personal lot, his conduct
voted hare been just the same. He fell a sacrifice
to the purity of his patriotism. Men who act from princi-
ple are above the frowns of fortune. Their glory is in
searing their misfortunes with dignified resignation, as free
from pride as it is free from dejection.
Placed at the head of the national government in 1831,
Prince Czartoryski soon found himself, as he expected, over-
whelmed with difficulties and dangers. A formidable
enemy Rood in front, and from within he felt perhaps the
not less formidable pressure of divided *pencils, Utopian
schemes, and theories; rash and reckless ambition. Never-
thileas, he undertook the task, at all times extremely
arduous, of promoting union among his countrymen. Ile
bade them look mainly to their own resources, and not trust
moth to foreign sympathies. His reliance upon their gal-
Many in the field was amply justified, but, in other res.
poets, he was grieved and disappointed to find that too many
roles sought in the madness of demagogues a moral sup-
pert against Russian bayonets, to which those demagogues
seldom offered their breasts. The thunder of an eloquent
speech is soon drowned in the roar of cannon. Anarchy
dtsgraced the latter end of a manly struggle, and, to fiy
from it, Czartoryski fought as a volunteer in the army
under Prince Radziwil. Warsaw fell, and the noblest
sons of Poland, with; Czartoryski at their head, preserved
their freedom, their flag, and their national rights, by
stekine refuge in foreign lands, where their presence is

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