Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-09-22
WORCEST TER;


ty years at Russlas crime against Poland.
The partition and humiliation of that distract
ed kingdom shocked the moralities, so
stunned and dazed the nations that we may
say that all the great sins, preceding this, were
forgotten, in comparison, and all that have
followed after it have been overlooked The
brilliant and fascinating Catherine II was used
to great sins; she was crowned magnificent
in iniquity,-this Cybele Of the north,-this
Messalna of the eighteenth century. The
long list of her favorites, who were like so
many kings while the day of their favor last
ed; her tyranny over the sovereigns of Eu
rope; her immense empire; her luxury the
barbaric pomp of her court; the glorious eX.
PLOTS of her armies; her towering ambition
fixed the eyes of the world upon her, in Won
der in awe, in horror, in admiration, in
establishments and when she put forth her
hand and siezed Poland broke its crown and
sceptre and throne, and quietly dropped it into
her rapacous pocket, the world uttered one
shrek of execration, and that little white
hand, made of ice and iron, was shaken def
antly in the worlds face, that smiling mouth
was firm with indomitable will, and the fiery
heart so drove the tide of hot passion
through that woman-frame that her glance
bewitched men, and what she grasped she
held, whether it were uncounted revenues,
or vast territories, or only foolish, loving
hearts.
Almost every American has famed indig-
nant, with Campbell, at the oppression of
''whskered Pandours and of fierce hussars"
who were always pouring to northern wars"
and has ''shrieked with Freedom" at the fall
of Kosciusko, and seen Hope bidding the
world farewell at his departure. Kos
ciusko was in very truth hero, every
freedom-Iovcr the world over honors
him; every American remembers with graft
tude the two brave P lies whose swords were
drawn in the cause of American liberty, and
fresh and sacred from that baptism in the
blood of oppressors, were devoted with their
own lives to their country's redemption. But
Pulaski and Kosciusko were not Poland.
That distractracted land, rent by faction, had
no unity in itself; a miserable, selfish aristoc-
racy tramplcd it under their feet, and fought
among themselves for its honors and its dig.
miles. There was no such thing as a people
in Poland; there was no such thing as law. The
strong hand was the only measure of right,
and as natural consequence the degraded,
enslaved people cringed and covered before
some ''licentous and corrupt magnate," or
bent in servile alteration to ''some contempt
Bile and rude nobleman,' for the poor boon of
quate, in their poverty and misery, against
outrage and abuse The whole trade of the
nation was in the hands of the Jews, and the
ditiOn of all classes in the country is sad in
deed. ''The mobiles consisted of some hun
dred thousand families, who were in part
miserably poor, in part dependent on a few
grandees; the latter, with the word freedom
necessarily on their lips, Boosting of freedom,
were naughty and imperious, and unworthy
of exercising the legislative functions which
they enjoyed. Supported by foreign aid and
foreign money, they were ready at any in
slant to draw their swords, and enter into the
most bloody and desperate feuds for the pos
session Of the highest places of honor and
distinction in the kingdom. These grandees
possessed lordships and municipalities, had
millions of revenue, and thousands of other
mobiles in their service under the most various
titles and pretences; were suffered to main
tain troops; and, in consequence, were for
the most part deeply involved in debt ;-men,
opinions, right and justice, all were openly
venal"
Such was the Poland on which the icy hand
of the North was laid, to cool its fever to put
an end to its corruption, to rest it from fac
ton, to overshadow it till its weeds we're killed
and the seeds of a diviner growth stirred in its
bosom. The power Of Russia, so overwhelm-
ingy despoic, has killed the more deadly des-
potlsm OF an Aristocracy. and given the Peo-
pie chance for growth and development.
The mobiles would have retained the serf-svs-
tem-the Cars swept it away. The mobiles
were like swarm Of locusts in Poland, him
derlng growth and devouring the people; and
Russia stretched forth her hand, and that
miserable aristocracy withered away, and
now the power that punished offers a free
constitution to people awakening to life.
The shallow sentimentalities, talked abont
oppressed Poland" have had their day. and
1t is seen that Gods hand was in the shadow.
and that in the night people has been born.
was the stern hand that brought that shadow
snfulF How then does God use it again "a n
medium of light? The aristocracv of Emo.
land hates Russia, there is an irrepressble
conflict between the Russian and the English
systems, The compact between England and
France is hollow, it cannot last, there is the
same fundamental and organic difference in
constitution Louis Napoleon legislates for
the people, looks at their physical well being
almost exclusively perhaps, but still overlooks
the rich and powerful for the sake of the work.
ing-man. His throne rests on the goodwill
OF the poor. After the coup d'etat the repub-
hcans met one another with blank hopeless
faces, and whispered, "The workmen will not
move" Who else could man barricades,
revolutonize Paris, and overthrow Napoleon
liz The sympathies of Napoleon flow natu-
rally toward Russia through this very legis-
ia'lhg Tor the people, through this very oppo-
sl''oh 10 the aristocratic element which SWANS
the other European nations