New-York tribune., 1910-09-25


Bourbon, the oldest Of all dynasties, and the
consciousness that upheld him in the most hu-
initiating hours of his exile. but it shows also
the meanness and pettiness Of his character.
his cowardice. his incapacity his black ingrat-
tude toward those who had served him. A
felicitous phrase maker he was. but phrases did
not suffice One year was enough to show
France what she had lost and what had been
given her in return. Corruption. incompetence.
favoritisrn. persecution. fraud. peculatiOn and
open theft ran riot. Paris feasted reckesslg,
but, says the author:
As the months passed the nation turned more and
more markedly from the men and things that wers
G ~ 20 Ii i C6r 9 IT.. ~ iatin HTjttot sTs-
coming into contact with the people There was
there never had been, and there never would be
The BourbOnS though they came Of French STOCK,
grasp the changes that had taken place At
the beginning of 1915 the whole nation was infected
there were risings and riots when the revenue Off
GERS came to collect the DroIts IseunS is; dirF TS
The royal family were the objects OF con-
was repeated especially those of the Duchesse dan
gOuIeme. CCnSpiTacieS were set on foot Ly the ex-
was nothing less radical than the Kings deposition
and the exile Of the princes, or even their dsap-
peaTance ia riot
The book. as has already been said, is a mine
the doings and misdoings the mistakes and
crimes of commission and omission of the new
reign. the condition and opinions Of the people
and the plotting below the surface at the capi-
tai The returned emigres their ideas and
claims, have chapter to themselves and much
light is thrown on the attitude of the conquered
toward the foreign Hberators within their bor-
ders, from the Emperors and the King Of Prus-
sia, Schwarzenberg Wellington and Blucher
down to the Cossacks. The author is anecdOtal
with unfaIing illustrative effect In fact his
book is so good, so comprehensive. that one
may well express the wish that a work from his
pen the White Terror that followed after
Waterloo may be forthcoming. The transla-
ton is exceptionally well made
Mr.. Bain's life of stanislaus Poniatowski fits
well in this review. He deals with who
had 4 little of Louis XIV touch of Louis XVI
and some resemblance to Louis XVIL Per-
haps the virtues and the SHORTCOMINGS Of the
last King of Poland are best explained by the
statement that he typical Pole OF his day
and generation. His virtues as a ruler have
been too much neglected by historians; Mr.
Balm gives him proper credit for them without
for a moment doing violence TO his picture as a
whole Poniatowski had no principles no back
neither had the people he ruled, and it was
their crOwning misfortune too. After the first
partition of Poland he sought earnestly 10 anne
iOrate the condition of the country and its
people, financially and economically as well as
politically, but the Poles would not let him
carry out his plans He saw the vital imp0r-
tance OF close alliance with Russia. but PO-
toCn knew better. and started the prO-PruS-
sian intrigue Handsome, amiabIe cultured
pleasure loving weak. unstable as water, POni-
atowsh proved to be exactly the kind Of ruler
the great Catherine wished 10 reign at War
saw What chance did he really have between
her. his own unruly mobiles Frederick and the
ambitious Kaunitz?
The Poles perversely hastened the extinction
OF their own independence. This is the truth
Whlch Mr. Balm insists upon. and traces through
the brief history of the realm which INTRODUCES
his book Poland he says. lis the only ex-
ample In history of state which deliberately
committed political suicide for the sake of abso-
lutte individual liberty" He succeeds in giving
convincing psychological impression Of this
generous. emotional. liberty loving. utterly IN
practical nation. which by the end Of the
eighteenth century had become nuisance TO
its neighbors and an obstacle TO the develop
ment OF its own people"
The picture of the social moral intellectual
and economic condition OF the country at the
end of it's independent existence is drawn with