The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-07-29

powerful national movement, and pent up
in the old aristocratical traditions, the
Polish revolutions mostly take morbio,
fanatical course. Well aware OF lis Du-
merical weakness and of the indiffsrentlsm
| of the people, the party OF action has 10
| adopt some means Of intimidation Tor Sc
| cufin the means necessary for an lnsur-
| rection. And indeed the first thing
| rjond or secret revolutionary committee
| generally does is to issue decree threat
eniDg with instant death all persons WHO
refuse to pay the revolutionary taxes.
And this threat is not joke, ss many ex-
amplee during the last lnsurrection nave
| shown. Thus from the very outset OF the
| struggle the Polish revol utionists are com
| PEELED TO adopt such measures as extortion
| and assassination, which naturally alien.
| ate from their cause many eympathies and
en- bitter the hatred of all who are terror
lied into temporary obedience.
On the 9th er hand, the abject condition in
which the Polish nobility held their peas
ants clearly traced for the Russian Govern
ment the policy it had to follow to crush
the national aspirations of the mobiles by
raising the economical cordition of the
peasantry aud rendering it independent OF
its former masters in short, to rut into
practice the old maxim, OiCtde ct amper0
Accordingly, duripg the last insurrection
the peasants proved to be the most eff
cient allies of the Government troops.
AIm1 were given W tbcuA auU thCy hoo ~
entrsp and catch smsll bands of insurgeDts
dispersed in the woods. So great was their
zeal in accomplishing this duty that fre-
qaently soldiers had to be sent to prevent
their lynchiug the prisoners. After the in
surrection, DEGREES were issued by the Rus
sian Government giving the peasants in
Poland and in the western provinces ex-
ceptional rights aud privileges which
greatly exceed those awarded to the Rus
sian peasantry by the Emancipation law.
AS most of the land properties belonging
to Polish mobiles who had taken part in the
insurrection were confiscated by the Gov
erument, the lands were sold by lots to the
surrounding village communes at such low
prices aud with such facilities in the pay
ment thereof that the sale was in most
cases equal to q donation. A complete
self government by elected elders and
judges was awarded to the communes,
with far less admin istratiy control than in
Russia. Primary schools were opened by
the Government in SO great number that
the expense for entertaining them in these
provinces alone is equal to the cum e1-
pended by the state for the came purpose
| in all the other parts of Russia. All these
measures have entirely changed the char
actor of the brutaliEed, enslaved popula-
| ton, aud have naturally rendered it more
hostile than ever to the Polish national
cause, represented by the mobiles whom it
| bitterly hates.
| Thus, however great the admiration may
| be which is elected by the heroic and fan
atical attachment of the Polish nobility to
| it's country aud it's past traditions, one tact
nevertheless, cannot be concealed-that the
| cause it represents is no more a strictly
national one, the mass of the nation being
hostile or Indifferent to it.
As to the prosecutions Russia has Inflicted
on Poland, they were scarcely more or less
aeyere than those the Russian nation it
1 I'D 70 uffar from ita HaaNntic rRlArR
such as the Gear Nicholas J. Indeed in
many respects the Poles might have fared
| better than their fellow sofferePs if they had
not spoiled their own affairs by untsmedy
insuvrectioR and bv clinging to their sbso
lete religions aud political programme
which renders nn alliance between then
and the Pussian opposition parties alto
pether impossible. At the beginning o
our century Poland enjoyed complete
political autonomy and aD amount OF Io'
erty altogether unknown in Euss'a at th'
time 1t possessed IT'S National Assembly
its Ministry, its own army, and was Tulet
by the Vceroy Grand Duke Constantine
the brother of the Emperors Aiezap der l
and Nicholas, who greatly sympathlze'
with the Polish nation. All this state o
things WAS entirely changed BY the reVolu
tion of 1890. The autoaomy OF Polaua dis
appeared; it was subjected 30 the direc
ccrtrol of the central administration, an
a system of repressive measures was pu
into practice which was, after all, bDt on
, link in the great iron chain which fettere
|, all the members of the social body ot Sue
sia during the past reign.
! If scores of Polish youths were sent
Siberia for dreaming about the inaepeE
r dence Of their country, go we're ther RnS
> siau brethren who dared pronounce ia
words of liberty and political rights. Tn
4 saue aI bitrary rule which stitied the RNs
3 sian press and closed Russian universitie
t weighed heavily on the Polish intelliger
;. classes and embittered their tradition;
hatred for Russia. With the preser
V reign a new era seemed to open for Polan
{ rs we'll as for Russia. All the represslv
= measures were revoked, the Polish lar
J. guage reinstated In the schools and
seemed as if both countries were to entt
g together on q new path of liberty and pr
3 eress. The untimely outbreak of the il
y surrection in 1863, which by the Poi
@ themselves is generally considered poht
is cal mistake, once more checked the norm
3 development of the nation, aud by awaken
to ing the Chauvinistic passions lurking In
% certain portion of Russian society Prov
= ,o,ou~, parn;cinua for both CountrlE