Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

POLAND—THE FUTURE.21ò

a pretended Polish conspiracy, a conspiracy of youthful madmen, who would have been heroes had they succeeded ; and who, their attempt being desperate, only appear to ine the more generously devoted. My heart bleeds for the exiles, their families, and their country. What will be the resiút when the oppressors of this corner of the earth, where chivalry once flourished, shall have peopled Tartary with all that was most noble and courageous amongst the sons of ancient Europe? When they have thus crowned their icy policy, let them enjoy their success. Siberia will have become the kingdom and Poland the desert.

Ought not Ave to blush with shame to pronounce the name of liberalism, when we think that there exists in Europe a people who were independent, and who now know no other liberty but that of apostasy ? The Russians, when they turn against the west the arms which they employ successfully against Asia, forget that the same mode of action which aids their progress against the Calmues, becomes an outrage of humanity when directed against a people that have been long civilised.

The scenes on the Volga continue; and these horrors are attributed to instigations of Polish emissaries ; an imputation that reminds one of the justice of the wolf of La Fontaine. These cruelties and reciprocal iniquities are preludes to the convidsions of the coming result, and suffiee to apprise us of its character. But in a nation governed like this, passions boil a long time before they explode; the peril may be increasing, yet the crisis is still distant, and the evil meanwhile continues: perhaps our grandchildren will not see the explosion; which, notwithstanding,