The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-07-26

sued an encyctical brief, dated June 9th, 1881 /,
in which he summarily stigmatized the Polish
patriots as evil-minded" persons, enioined the
clergy zealously to preach and propagate
amongst the peoplethe principles of submission
and obedience to their lawful sovereign, closing
by holding out to them the prospect that they
would experience justice and mild treatment
from the hands of the Gar. This last sentence
was clothed in these very words: " Your mag.
unanimous Emperor will show you how mildly
disposed he is, and will listen to our represent
| atoms and requests, to the manifest advanta-
ges of our Catholic religion, which he has, at
| all times, promised to protect
! But subsequent events-of which we will
| speak further in their due place-proved, that
| the Pope had been most shamefully imposed
upon, as 1t cannot be supposed that he know
| ingiy had permitted himself to be used as the
| instrument of the Gar, in deceiving those
over whom he welded the spiritual sovereignty
| claimed by the Pontiffs of Rome over the
members of the Roman Catholic Church.
| About the time when the Polish revolution
broke out, the cholera, which not long before
| had made its first appearance in Russia, com
mitted so terrible ravages in st. Petersburgh
as TO inspire the populace with the courage OF
despair, and to make them for while forget
| their fear of the Gear, and to show manifest
| ".
| But the Emperor Nicholas possessed soul not
easily to be dismayed, and at this period he
displayed, indeed, great moral courage. A
| formidable revolution threatened to deprive
| him of Poland--several rebellious movements
not only in st. Petersburgh, but in many other
! places within the Russian Empire, had shaken
| a little the established order of things-and an
almost unknown and invisible plague, which
1 daily carried off thousands of victims, had
| added its terrors still, the Car did not for a
moment lose his tranquility of mind, but EN-
ployed with vigor all the vast means he pos
sessed, to meet all these collective dangers in
the most efficient way.
| By boldness and severity, mixed with season.
able signs of paternal affection and princely gen
crosby, he soon induced the Russians to brave
the cholera, and to view in himself something
more than a mortal man, over whom the dev.
astating plague had no power, because this
| the superstitious and ignorant multitude imag-
harmed, visiting daily the hospitals filed with
dying soldiers and other persons of the lower
! classes of Russian society.
Having restored tranquility within his CAPT
tai, and quenched the flames of rebellion with
in all Russia, the Gar fastened to- take the
most energetic measures for chastising the
| Polish Patriots, and to pour numerous troops
into devoted Poland, upon which he had sworn
/ to take most bloody vengeance, for preferring
independence to the tyranncal government OF
his capricious brother. To the able hands OF
Diebitsch, the celebrated conqueror of the
| Turks, he committed the task to reduce under
his sway the ungrateful Poles" as he pleased
to call that nation.
| But here is not the place to describe the pro-
/ digioas efforts of valor, by which the heroic
sons and noble daughters of Poland for some
. time sustained the unequal struggle against
the formidable number of disciplined troops
which the Gear had directed to consummate
their subsection. The glory which the Poles
acquired, in this sanguinary war for their ma
I ti0pai independency, will forever illuminate
with brilliant lustre the pages of Polish his
tory, and every noble heart will feel deep re-
greet that the result was so contrary to what
might be hoped from such glorious deeds in SO
| Just cause.
Diebitsch was, however, not destined to ac-
quire new trophy by the conquest of Poland
for, having sustained some reverses, he was
carried away by the cholera, as was also the
Grand Duke Constantine-the rumor of these
eminent personages being poisoned, in virtue
of the order of the Emperor Nicholas, being
both false and ridiculous.
Paskiewitch, who had gained some celebrity
I'M the war against Persia, was appointed sue
cessor of Diebitsch, as commander-inchief of
the invading force; and this able general sue
eeeded at last, partly by the irresolution on the
part of some of the Polish generals, and partly,
perhaps, by the treachery of one or two among
them, but chiefly by judiciously employing his
numerically superior army to defeat the Polish
corps which was destined to protect Warsaw,
which thus fell into his hands on the eth of Sep
| To-. r., IL Al.
session of the Russians again, the cause of
Poland appeared, in the eyes of even many of
its bravest defenders, as hopeless; hence, the
defeats of the remaining troops, in various
parts of the country, followed in rapid success
sion, and the moment did not tarry long ere
Paskiewitch could enjoy the proud satisfaction
OF informing his imperial master that all Po-
land was laid PROSTATE at his feet.
Many of the heroes of Polish freedom saved
themselves by voluntary expatriation, which
they had mostly under great difficulties to eff
feet But still there remained within Poland
enough of victims upon whom cruel vengeance
vas taken, in the various ways which Russian
iagenuity could invent, in furnishing heroic men
bSr no other crime than that of having attempt
I'd recovering their ancient national independ-
ence.
| But though the Emperor Nicholas and his
Satellites deserve the severest censure, on &C.
Count of the crueties to which they made the
conquered Poles subject, we must not imagine
that all of the latter were blameless, or ANNA
ted with love of genuine liberty.
| The Polish nobility numbered at that time
about two millions and half, constituting
about sixth part of the whole Polish popula-
ton, under the dominion of Russia, Austria,
and Prussia, espectively-Russia having taken
the lions share of the spoils. Many writer's
consider this numerous class as different
race, but this opinion appears to me very ques-
| tionable. Be this as it may, there is at least
nothing else that distinguishes the nobility
than their rank, and, in many cases, their su-
perior education and their wealth.
During the war now in question, the Polish
nobility displayed their wonted bravery, but
also on many occasions, their inherited hos
tility to genuine democratic principles great
many of them showing themselves, on the con-
tsary, as obstinate arstocrats, wishing for free
dom without restraint for themselves, and still
resolved to keep the majority of their country
men in bondage. 1t would therefore appear
that, as their motives were not the purest,
Providence did not deem them worthy of OBJ
tanning the aim for which they were striving
w5th such admirable valor. But the hardships
tctwkich. they have since been subject, and the
M IRE correct ideas of genuine liberty which
many of the numerous exiles have acquired,
mast necessarily have had the effect of render
Ing them more just, and consequently more
W, rthy of becoming the instruments OF intro
do cling general liberty into Poland, should it
pE ase Providence to offer them new oppor-
tu .ity of indicating their national independ
euce.
Berlin, Prussia,
How TO Cook PoTAroEs.-A Vermont NO.
man tells how to make old potatoes as good as
naw-drv mealy and fresh. This is the process