The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1855-08-02
For the National Il
For the National Era.
Sketch of the Political History of Europe,
THE CAPITULATI0N OF PARIS, IN 1914.
THE PRESENT TIME.
BY A FRIEND OF LIBERTY.

BY A FRIEND OF LIBERTY.
CHAPTER "
After the capture of Warsaw, and the occu-
patton of the remainder of Poland by the Rus
sian troops, more than 10000 Poles sought for
safety within the Austrian and Prussian terri
tories; but of this great number, only about
5000 succeeded in making their way westward,
the rest being-under various, mostly frivolous,
pretences-given up to the Russian authorities
by the Governments of Austria and Prussia,
which thus proved themselves the servile hand
maids of the mighty Gar. This was, indeed,
one Of the meanest and most un ustiiiable acts
recorded in history, deserving to be handed
down to posLerity mcmento of the unscru-
pulous and wicked principles which actuated
these Powers. 1t was most wanton act Of
inhumanity to deliver up more than sixty
thousand men, whose sole guilt was that of
having proved themselves good patriots and
valiant soldiers, to all the miseries revenge
full despotism could invent to increase the mis-
fortune and sulferings of its victims But,
while the chief odium Of this dastardly and
despicable conduct falls upon Austria and
Prussia, we cannot, however, acquit France
and England of all blame, because it had I'M
questionably behOoved these two mighty States,
conlessing to cherish the principles of freedom,
to have endeavored, by energetic protests-and
if these had been of no avail, even by force
to prevent the consummation of measure in
tended to consign so many innocent men and
heroic champions of liberty to death, or to in
describable suAerings for the rest of their lives
in the Siberian mines.
Not satisfied with having punished great
many thousand of the Poles, individually, the
Emperor Nicholas resolved, with violation OF
the treaty of Vienna, to chastise the whole ma
ton in one blow. On the 10Th February, 1892,
an imperial ukase appeared, which degraded
the constitutional kingdom of Poland into a
mere Russian province, annihilating thus the
shadow of independence which that unhappy
country had previously enjoyed.
But it appears still more unworthy of the
Emperor Nicholas, that he, as soon as his au-
thority had been re-established in Poland, did
not hesitate in violating the promises given to
Pope Gregory XVI, by setting on foot sys-
tenn of persecution against the Roman Catho-
lcs-who constituted the great majority of the
people-whch gradually increased in violence,
till, in 1899, it was executed on a scale of I'M
precedented magnitude and severity. Nicholas
had then taken the resolution forcibly to incor-
porate with the Russian Church the United
Greeks" or "Basilians "-as this religious sect
is also caled-composed of those Roman Catho-
lies to whom the Papal See had allowed the in
diligence of the marriage of the priesthood and
some other usages, as well as the ritual of the
Eastern Church, and numbering three millions
within the Russian Empire.
Colonel Szyrma, in his able exposition of the
persecutive policy of the Cabinet of ST. Peters
burgh, observes, ryjudiciously, that the weak
ening of the Papal power, by the Pope's own
act, on the minds of the Poles, could not fail to
prove highly injurious to his spiritual authority
in Poland it slackened the bonds of allegiance
to Rome amongst the clergy hitherto ortho-
amongst great number of them, especially
among those high prelates who had come in
contact with the Pope's new ally, the Gar"
At the very moment" says the author of
Eastern Europe, 4" that with fresh duplicity,
Nicholas, by the hands Of his son, the Caro-
witch, was presenting to the Pope letter where
in he assured him of his supreme protection Of
the Roman Catholics in the Russian empire, of
the regard he bore for their consciences, and of
his care for their welfare and security, he had
gained even their bishops to the dominant
church of Russia"
"They had finished" to use the words of
Colonel Szyrma, g by signing an act of union,
on the 18th of February, 1885, for themselves
and for the dioceses intrusted to their care. AT
once, $4,000 priests were forced to allure Ro-
man Catholicism, and conform to the new ritual
presented to them by their bishops. In most of
the parishes, a strong opposition was offered by
the clergy, but in vain. The resisting priests
were expelled from their parishes, and deprived
of their livings; many were sent to schismatic
monasteries, and there incarcerated, with no
food but water and bread some of them did
not even receive this scanty nourishment, but
remained in cold, damp dungeons, with starva-
ton and death staring in their faces. Through
the walls of their prisons they confessed to each
other, impaired religious comfort and blessings !;
| but when detected at this work of their faith,
they were severelypunished-c commonly fogged,
and pitiably lacerated In the midst of such
tortures, an aged abbot of eighty years expired;
and venerable dean, of seventy-two years of
age, died of sorrow and affection.
| Cup to the 9th of January, 1910, one hundred
and seventy of this clergy had fallen victims of
this cruel and inhuman treatment; the younger
priests, who would not become apostates, were
sent as recruits to the Caucasian army.
"Tuyrekowski, the celebrated preacher, lost
his senses in consequence of the atrocious
| treatment he experienced at the hands of the
Governor of Wilma" The friar Sierscinski, ex.
lied to Siberia because he would not initiate
the apostacy Of his bishops, was knouted to
death at Tobolsk, when detected in secretly ad.
ministering the sacrament to his fellow prison.
ers of his own creed.
"By an ukase of the I'd of January, 1889,
the Emperor Nicholas offered an absolute par
don to all Roman Catholics condemned for
murder or theft to capital punishment, THAT
| ia. to hard labor in Siberia for life,) on con-
dtion of embracing the Greek faith. The
| peasantry were promised freedom on the con.
dition of apostacy, and aPeriod OF famine was
taken advantage of to offer them flour, on the
condition of their making three crosses on a
register in order to acknowledge its receipt
This register, however, Contained a general re.
cantation, to which their mark was thus deceit
fully obtained; but as after this they were by
the terms of the ukase, considered as belong
ing to the Russo-Greek Church, from which
any departure is capitally punished, they were
thus utterly at the mercy of the authorities"
By these and other compulsory means, about
two millions of proselytes were unregistered as
having accepted the faith Of the Greek church.
Deprived of their own priests, and forced to at
tend the Greek service, these unfortunates met
by stealth in the woods and marshes. Whole
congregations, after receiving the communion
bread, which they dared not refuse, kept it in
their mouths without swallowing, to spit it out
afterwards with horror and regret.
When Nicholas had succeeded in producing
such results by his cruel measures against the
freedom of conscience, he caused medal to
be struck, recording, in a pathetic Inscription,
the incorporation of the Basilians with the or
thodox church of Russia, In words as follows |