ZAMOYSKI AND WIELOPOLSKI.
THE history of modern Poland is typified by two extra- ordinary men, the career of both of whom expresses the life of the last generation. In the height of the struggle of the great insurrection, on the 30th of April, 1831, the National Government of the kingdom issued a circular to all the European Powers requesting aid and sympathy. Some of the most distinguished men whom the country possessed were chosen to carry the document, and to assist by their personal efforts in its success. To Vienna were sent Count Andre Zamoyski ; to London, the Marquis Alexander Wielo- polski Myszkowski.
Count Andre, born April 2nd, 1800, one of the seven sons of the great patriot, Count Stanislas Zamoyski, who in the Napoleonic wars against Russia formed a regiment at his own cost, placing all his children on the lists, was already favour- ably known as statesman and diplomatist. Having studied at Paris, Geneva, and Edinburgh, ho entered the Polish civil service, and, in 1826, was placed at the head of the depart- ment of agriculture and industry. The National Government nominated him Minister of the Interior in 1831, which aid not prevent him from taking part in the sanguinary battle of Grochow, on the termination of which he set out on his mis- sion to the Court of Vienna. Stealing his way through a double line of Russian troops, and through a still more Argus- eyed Austrian sanitary guard, which was defending the empire against the dreaded approach of the Asiatic cholera ; wandering for whole days through swamps and morasses, without food or drink, and swimming in the dead of night across the swollen Vistula, with his papers tied in his hair, Count Andre at last reached Vienna, and at once made his way to Prince Metternich. The wily old premier was astounded on seeing the Polish envoy before him ; marvelling how he could have got thus far unknown to those master minds of Austria, the police. Respecting so much courage joined to so much patriotism, he received the young envoy with great kindness, though in the strictest secrecy. He even introduced him to the Russian Ambassador, Baron Tatistchef, trying to bring about an understanding between the young " rebel" and the ancient diplomatist. The military old Baron himself was led away by the marvellous eloquence and earnestness of purpose of Count Zamoyski, and when the news came that Marshal Paskiewitch was be- sieging Warsaw, committing unheard-of cruelties, he went so far as so write a letter to the commander-in-chief, entreat- ing him to suspend hostilities. Count Andre undertook to carry the letter ; but when he arrived at the Russian camp Warsaw had fallen. He was led before the marshal, who assailed him in his wonted brutal manner, threatening to have him shot. " You dare not do it," calmly answered Zamoyski. Paskiewitch looked in the young man's face, and said nothing more.
Meanwhile the Marquis Wielopolski had set out for and reached Great Britain. The Marquis, born March 15, 1803, was somewhat younger and not quite so well known as Count Zamoyski. His father died at an early age, leaving him nothing but the title of Marquis—the only one in Poland, bestowed by Pope Clement VIII. on a Myszkowski—and a large estate heavily encumbered by debts and chancery suits. To regain his patrimony from the clutches of the law and fraudulent guardians, his mother let him study jurisprudence at an early age. The education suited his stern nature, and when a boy of fifteen he pleaded his own cause at the tribunal of Warsaw, and at twenty was held to be one of the most accomplished lawyers of Poland. For more than ten years he lived in courts of justice, in the atmosphere,of attorneys, Jews, and swindlers, till he had defeated the whole of his opponents, and regained his paternal estates. He_ th9n devoted himself to politics, and, in 1831, accepted the mission to the Court of St. James, accompanied by Count Walewski. He arrived in London at the beginnuig of May, 1831, and at once sought, but did not obtain, an audience with the British Minister of Foreign Affairs. After immense difficulties, but aided by influential members of Parliament, Lord Palmerston at length consented to receive him as a private individual, with the strict under- standing that he was not to be recognized as the envoy of the National Government of Poland. The interview, however, bore no fruits; and to several petitions and memorials in favour of Poland the noble lord returned no reply. At last, on the 8th of August, Mr. Hunt presented a monster petition from the electors of Westminster, complaining of the silence of the Government, which complaint was echoed by Mr. Hume, Sir Francis Burdett, Colonel Evans, and Mr. O'Connell. Then Lord Palmerston, replying to the remarks about the Treaty of Vienna, turned round and said, "The existing treaties may give the British Government the right, but they do not confer the obligation to interfere." It is a singular in- stance of our great Foreign Minister's Conservative policy that he repeated nearly the same words, in a debate on the same subject, yesterday week, after an interval of thirty-two years. Returned from their missions to London and Vienna, both Wielopolski and Zamoyski settled down on their Polish estates, unmolested by the Russian Government, which had then victims enough not to yearn for superfluous martyrs. The past experience had taught a different lesson to each of the two patriots. Count Andre, seeing the hopelessness of Poland becoming politically free as long as there existed social bond- age, set to work on a grand course of industrial and agricul- tural improvement, neglecting apparently all other national aspirations. He shut himself up entirely within his own estates, devoting his whole time to what many of his former friends denominated "gross materialism." First of all, he emancipated his serfs, giving each family a suitable amount of land in return for a small annual rent. His next step was to build schools in every one of his 'villages, and when educa- tional ambition came to be spreading, reading-rooms, with teachers and lecturers, were added for the grown-up members of the community. Gradually the Count extended his opera- tions over a larger basis, establishing commercial and indus- trial societies, and launching a small fleet of steamers on the Vistula, to connect the populations of Poland, of the Grand Duchy of Posen, and of Galicia. For a few years some of these commercial undertakings were not remunerative, when Count Andre, not to discourage his associates, paid the dividends out of his own pocket, unknown to the other shareholders. In 1842, Count Zamoyski had ventured to establish a monthly periodical—the Agri- cultural Reporter. The Russian Government looked on sus- piciously, but found it impossible to interfere—the dreaded sheet of printed matter speaking of nothing but potatoes, pigs, turnips, and mangoldwurzel. However, before another ten years were past, an agricultural society had sprung out of the Agricultural Reporter: an association counting more than 5,000 members, with an annual revenue of 15,C00/. The Society held its regular sittings at Warsaw, under the presi- dency of Count Zamoyski ; and it was during one of these meet- ings that the short insurrection of February 25-27 took place. Prince Gortsehakoff lost his head; but the Agricultural Society, acting as Parliament of the nation, kept order at Warsaw, and, in recompense, was suppressed by Imperial ukase, on the 6th of April. Count Andre neither opposed nor protested against the suppression ; and when, on the 15th of October following, a large deputation of former members of the society waited upon him to ask his advice, his only words were, "Keep quiet." Neverthe- less, the Russian Government now began to be afraid of the Count, and he was summoned to St. Petersburg. What passed in the interview between the Czar and Count Zamoyski has never become known ; but it is said the latter handed His Majesty the sketch of a statue just erected by him in the church of the Holy Cross at Warsaw—a Christ bending under the cross, but lifting up His head in desperate effort, His right hand pointing to heaven, with the inscription beneath : "Sur- sum cor."
Great is the contrast between this Count Andre Zamoyski and his friend and colleague of 1831, the Marquis Alexander Wielopolski. When a mere boy at college the latter remarked to a schoolfellow who had to write an exercise upon pride, " I hope you will maintain that pride is a great virtue." This much worshipped pride constitutes the -very essence of Wielopolski's character. His mission to Great Bri- tain had shown him the indifference of the governing classes of Western Europe for the fate of Poland, and his mind revolted at the idea of remaining a humble supplicant at the feet of Powers possessing so little real love for his country. So lie threw himself into the arms of Russia. His train of reasoning was that it would be less humiliating to bear the yoke, however severe, of a kindred race, than to crouch before the self-sufficient nations of the Occident. The Marquis made no secret of his political creed, but unfolded it to his countrymen at once openly and without fear. His "Letter of a Polish gentleman to Prince Metternich," dis- tributed in tens of thousands of copies, contained the whole of his new political faith, while expressing boundless hatred of the non-Slavonic nations, above all the detested Teutonic race- With a strange and mournful eloquence he tried to persuade Poland to throw herself at the feet of the Czar, as the only helper in her sad condition, the only friend in need. But this he wished to be done openly and unconditionally, leaving aside all considerations of immediate gain or loss. "Conspiracy; false and secret, my soul abhorretb," he exclaimed, "for there has been no greater misfortune to Poland than the doings of these conspirators, the refuse of all classes: bad priests, bastard noblesse, fraudulent stewards, ruined proprietors, stupid officers, vain demagogues, bankrupt farmers, and a pack of footmen and communists." It was but natural that vitupe- ration of this sort should bring forth 'violent protests, and create the Marquis enemies without number, in the ranks of the aristocracy as well as among the lower classes. His invitation to become Muscovite did not find many admirers, in spite of the eloquent language of the " Letter to Prince Met- ternich." The Marquis exclaimed, "The Polish nobility will no doubt prefer to march, in concert with Russia, at the head of a young, bold, and vigorous Slavonic race, full of hope in the future, than accept the fate of being dragged like a thief,. hated, disliked, and despised, in the rear of your decrepid, captious, and presumptuous old Western civilization." The wounds inflicted by Russian despotism were too deep to allow much sympathy with these Panslavistic preachings, and the Marquis soon discovered that, with all his energy and enthu- siasm, he stood very nearly alone among his countrymen. But what seemed more strange was, that for a long while theRussiani Government mistrusted Wielopolski, no less than the Polish people. The advisers of the Czar had no faith in him, simply because they did not understand him. They took offence,. too, at several of his little acts, as his not addressing the-. Emperor otherwise than by the title of King; his refusal to accept orders from Russian generals, and his boundless pride- in all intercourse with the military rulers of Poland. This- pride rose into arrogance after Wielopolski's appointment to- the head of the civil administration of the kingdom, in June last year. One day, soon after his nomination, the Governor of the province of Lublin came to make his report to the Grand Duke Constantine, and His Highness being engaged, was directed to the Marquis. The latter listened quietly for half an hour to the speech of the Imperial dignitary, and then, said calmly, " I do not understand Russian." Such traits of the Marquis are numerous ; but they do not lessen the im- mense hatred with which the Poles regard him at the present hour. The hatred, indeed, is well deserved, if by nothing else, by the cruel deed of the late conscription, which originated almost entirely with him. His idea was to lay hold and get rid of "these conspirators, the refuse of all classes,' and he secretly hoped that this act would be the very force to stir the slumbering hatred of Russia into open insurrection. It is now left to the fate of arms to decide the position of the- two " representative men,"—whether Wielopolski shall re- main supreme in Warsaw, and Zamoyski continue an exile.
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